It’s time to start planing on this Summer’s musical festivals and this strikes me as two of the more interesting ones.

The 2nd annual Deep Blues Musicland Film Festival seems to do for blues what alt.country did for country music. Taking place July 18-20, 2008 and offering bands from 18 states, Italy, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom – the festival will take place on the East side of Minneapolis/St Paul to the Washington County Fairgrounds by Lake Elmo, MN. The lineup offers 45 band including Richard Johnston, Th’ Legendary Shack*Shakers, T-Model Ford, Scissormen, Black-Eyed Snakes, Black Diamond Heavies, Bob Log III, Scott H. Biram, Left Lane Cruiser, Hillstomp and Charlie Parr.

The Deep Blues Festival prides itself in being a”fan friendly” event. Free parking, affordable ticket prices and concessions, no ticket services fees, and plenty of room for the fans are guaranteed. A film festival will feature dozens of music related films and will be free and open to the public at the fairgrounds throughout the weekend.

A limited quantity of discount advance three day passes for this 21+ show are available at the two festival websites deepbluesfestival.com and myspace.com/deepbluesfestival for $45. Daily tickets will be available at the event for $30. Under 21 are free, but must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. Gates open at 10:00am, rain or shine.

BamaJam Music & Arts Festival is a three-day event in Enterprise, AL. – June 5-7 – and offers a nice lineup of country, Southern rock, folk and bluegrass acts. The fest will present 30 acts on three stages, including Hank Williams Jr., Trace Adkins, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Nanci Griffith, Ralph Stanley, ZZ Top, Randy Owen, Ricky Skaggs, Little Big Town, Miranda Lambert, Del McCoury Band, Tracy Lawrence, Darryl Worley, the Duhks, Dan Tyminski, Eric Church, Claire Lynch and Railroad Earth.

Ticket prices range from $39.50 to $99.50 for general admission, $149.50 to $309.50 for VIP.

The New York Times has a nice piece on something I’ve seen first hand. the rising popularity of Roots Music here in New York. The city that gave you the smoky Greenwich Village folk clubs from the 60’s seems posed to offer the same proving ground for roots and Americana music.

From the article: “There’s another generation of people who want to hear music that’s accessible, that’s not a prefab product, that’s lyric based but not preachy,” said Adam Levy, a guitarist and singer-songwriter who has played on all of Ms. (Norah) Jones’s albums. “If there’s a roots movement in New York now, I think of it in those terms.”

Johnny Cash – Folsom Prison Blues – Town Hall Party, Los Angeles, California 1959

from CMT.com – Two former members of the Jayhawks have collaborated on a new album for the first time since 1995. Gary Louris and Mark Olson completed Ready for the Flood last year and expect to release it this summer or fall. The duo hired Black Crowes singer Chris Robinson as producer. No distribution plans have been announced. Olson initially left the pioneering alt-country band following the tour for 1995’s Tomorrow the Green Grass album, and the band called it quits in 2005. However, Louris and Olson have toured together over the last few years. Louris released Vagabonds, a solo album also produced by Robinson, on Feb. 19.

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum will present an intimate, behind-the-scenes portrait of a great American musical dynasty in Family Tradition: The Williams Family Legacy, Co-Presented by SunTrust and Ford Motor Company, a more than 5,000-square-foot exhibition opening on Friday, March 28, 2008, and closing on December 31, 2009.

“The Williams family story may seem familiar,” said Museum Director Kyle Young. “However, this exhibit will take the visitor inside the family to revisit the life and impact of Hank Williams, examine the struggles and musical successes of his only son, Randall Hank Williams, and study the direct descendants, who are now striving within a new generation of artists, all measuring themselves by the example of Hank Williams.”

The exhibition has benefited enormously from the blessing and cooperation of the family, including Randall Hank Williams, now known as singer-songwriter Hank Williams Jr.; Lycrecia Williams Hoover, Hank Jr.’s older sister and the only member of the family with clear personal memories of Hank Williams; and singer-songwriter Jett Williams, who discovered her Williams parentage in the 1980s. Lending their own stories and family mementoes are Hank Jr.’s eldest children, singer-songwriters Shelton Williams, now Hank III, and Hilary and Holly Williams.

So I blogged on the CMT reality Program Gone Country hosted by John Rich (of Big & Rich fame)  without seeing one episode and trashed it (see Gone Stupid.)  Well I sat down this weekend and watched three epoides in a row and have to say, It’s not as bad as I suspected it might be.

The participants, Carnie Wilson, Maureen “Marcia Brady” McCormick, Twisted Sister front man Dee Snider , Sisqo of “Thong Song” fame, Julio Iglesias Jr., “American Idol” runner-up Diana DeGarmo and Boston bad boy Bobby Brown, seem genuinely sincere in wanting to succeed in writing a decent country song and living a country lifestyle.  That is if living includes wearing high-dollar be-spangled Manual suits, wearing huge fur coats (as John Rich does) and living in a swanky “rustic” Nashville nation. The other thing I was struck by is the absence of viciousness that runs through most reality programs, Except for Bobby Browns hygiene the show plays it pretty clean.

I still think John Rich is a tool that writes schlock meanwhile laughing all the way to the bank., but the man understands the mechanics of Nashville like few do and he seems to be the right PT Barnum for this circus.

I  just can’t wait for Dee Snider to kick all their butts with a gem of a tune.

It’s finally time ladies and gentlemen. The man, Dale Watson, has made good on his rescheduled dates and will be at the Rodeo Bar tomorrow night (2/23) at 11pm and at Hill Country Barbecue the next night, Sunday (2/24)

Right after appearing live an MTV’S 24 hour Jackass Takeover that is.

Due to financial and music industry self-inflicted mortal wounds No Depression Magazine will cease publication after 13 bi-monthly years of bringing it’s readers to best of “Alternative Country (Whatever that is)” From the March-April issue publishers Grant Alden, Peter Blackstock and Kyla Fairchild as its Page 2 “Hello Stranger” column and from their site -

Barring the intercession of unknown angels, you hold in your hands the next-to-the-last edition of No Depression we will publish. It is difficult even to type those words, so please know that we have not come lightly to this decision.

It’s no understatement to say that the humble blog you are currently reading and others like it would not exist if not for No Depression. ND showed that country and roots music and mutated into many interesting and thrilling varieties. You could enjoy your Grandfather’s music in a new and souped up form and there was music out there that still had the heart and soul of Cash and Haggard and might be doing it with a arm full of tattoos and a energy of any punk or metal band. Many of the bands and artists I could not live with today, the Drive By Truckers, Hank III, Meat Purveyors, Scott H. Biram…the list goes on and on.

The gaping cultural void left by ND’s sad demise will be felt directly and indirectly by fans and bands struggling against an American idolized world. ND was the place to look for inspiration and the place to hope to be featured when you had “made it” If you were featured or reviewed in ND you had cred! Fans and bands that otherwise thought they were pissing in the wind and making and enjoying music brazenly against the formulaic bile reflected everyday on the charts found a home in the pages of ND.

The passing of ND is a blow but their very existence in was a blessing. Now the Americana roots music goes back underground where it will mutate, rage and burst out once again like some dreaded cultural beast.

Adios amigos. Thanks for showing me the way.

Hopefully you already bought your ticket for The Johnny Cash 76th Birthday Bash (Feb 23) at Brooklyn’s Southpaw – 125 5th Ave. (@ St. John’s Place) Brooklyn, NY – because the event is SOLD OUT.

The show will feature Alex Battles’ Whisky Rebellion performing a full rendition of “At Folsom Prison” in celebration of the albums 40th anniversary.