The Americana Music Association are auctioning significant memorabilia items and ticket offers. All proceeds will support the not for profit association’s annual Americana Music Festival & Conference, which takes place in Nashville from September 16th – 19th, 2009. Some of the things up for sales are a Jason & The Scorchers 20 Year Birthday Celebration Autographed Hatch show print and tickets to Lyle Lovett & John Hiatt in the city of your choice.
South Florida’s Metromix recounts Alejandro Escovedo’s 30-plus years long career and his brush with death in 2003 as a result of contacting hepatitis C. Escovedo also discusses how living in Aaustin helps shape his eclectic musical style: “The bulk of my material is influenced by living in the Southwest,” he says. “There are spaces here I love very much. It’s a wonderful place to meditate on all sorts of subjects and things. And music from Texas always influenced me: Joe Ely, Ornette Coleman, Junior Walker, Arnett Cobb, Lightnin’ Hopkins. And then, you’ve got people like Roky Erickson and the Butthole Surfers. It’s an amazing place musically. It lends itself to imagination. You can get lost in the dreamlike quality of it.”Escovedo is currently on tour.
The Los Angeles Chronicle has a nice post on country music legend Kitty Wells‘ influence on women’s careers in country music, her singles and career as a refection of women in domestic relationships of post-WWII America and how Roy Acuff believed how having a woman headline a live showcase was “financial suicide. ” Wells is currently enjoying a retrospective at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum entitled “Kitty Wells: Queen of Country Music, Presented by Great American Country Television Network,” which remains open until June 14, 2009