Down On The Corner

By Paul Moffett

• Public Radio Partnership will host the 6^th Annual AAA NON-COMMvention on May 18-20. This is a gathering of radio stations, mostly public radio, that play AAA or Americana music. Needless to say, there'll be a whole bunch of AAA players in town, so keep you eyes open - never know who you'll see. Log onto http://www.triplearadio.com/noncomm/ for lots more details, including who is scheduled to play.

• Bill and Phyllis Duke have closed the Junction Jamboree outside Lebanon Junction, after only a short time running the club. They had previously owned and operated the Scottsburg (Ind.) Jamboree.

• The Louisville Jazz Society is offering two tuition scholarships, worth $395, for the Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshops, to be held at the University of Louisville July 2 - 7 and July 9 - 14, 2006. The second scholarship is for the two-day bass/drum primer, worth $95, preceding either of the two full week sessions.

For more information and an application form, log onto www.louisvillejazz.org. The deadline for submission is May 31.

• Never to Late: Butch Williams, 57, is recording a collection of jazz, blues, and R&B originals and covers with help from Todd Hildreth, Bennett Higgins, Roger Dane and some members of the Louisville Orchestra. The disc will be titled Introducing Butch Williams.

• Five.Bolt.Main, Flaw vocalist Chris Volz's new band, will kick off a coast-to-coast tour with The Accident Experiment on May 6 in Longview, Texas (near my old stomping ground). They'll swing back through Louisville on May 27 then tour the Midwest and East Coast, ending on June 10, in Manchester, NH.

• Fans of the old Fire Dept. band (and former Toy Tiger regulars) can catch the reunion of the group at the Phoenix Hill Tavern on Derby Eve, May 5. While you're there, you can also catch Eleven50seven, a band fronted by the Fire Dept.'s Perry Scroggin's daughter Lacee. Scroggin, who was also the longtime manager of the Tiger, admits that the show was a double: he had too much fun at the reunion show in October, plus it gave him a way to promote his daughter's band. Can you have too much fun? At Perry's age, probably....

• Looking ahead: mark your calendars for the Jugband Festival, scheduled for October 21 & 22 in Louisville. A number of noted jugbands have been scheduled, including Louisville's Juggernaut Jug Band and Cincinnati's Dancing Pigs. Watch this space for more details about this new festival in Louisville.

CODAS

Guenther, Ann Kinslow "Cousin Annie Belle," 86, died on in Louisville on Friday, April 14. "Cousin Annie Belle" was an entertainer and producer of "The Cousin Annie Belle Show" on Insight Cable TV. She also appeared at The Shepherdsville Country Music Show, The Golden Corral, The Crusade for Children, Jerry Lewis's Telethon, The Kentucky Colonels and many other shows. She was a member of the Musicians Union.

• Lunsford, Mike L., 55, of Guymon, Oklahoma, died on Monday, April 17, 2006, at his home in Guymon Lunsford was a Nashville-based country music artist who recorded on the Gusto record label. In all, he released 47 single titles and had two top 10 albums. His single "Honey Hungry" reached #16 on the Country Charts. He lived in Clarksville, Indiana for some years before returning to Guymon.

• McBane, Norman, "Mac," 86, died in Louisville on April 12. He was a longtime bluegrass musician and a member of the Hoosier Hills Bluegrass Music Association

• Troup, Rennie, 42, died in Atlanta on March 24. He was a bassist who formerly played with Herlon Robinson and Something Special.