Written on July 25, 2011 by Dylan Ferguson
If the phenomenon of “The Next Big Thing” remained in our age of Internet ephemera, Dawes would be the most likely candidate.
Acknowledged as the forerunners of “The Laurel Canyon Sound,” based on their debut album, North Hills, released in 2009, the buzz began to rise in 2011 when the former guitarist and songwriter for The Band, Robbie Robertson, tapped the quartet to act as his backing band for solo appearances.
Following on the heels of that ‘break,’ Dawes actually found themselves playing at Big Pink, the house in Woodstock New York where Bob Dylan and The Band held their famous get-togethers in 1967. Soon after, Read full post…
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Written on July 25, 2011 by Koby Jeffery
The folk music band The David Wax Museum entered a contest last year _ along with 150 other bands _ for a chance to play the Newport Folk Festival. As unbelievable at it was to members of the Boston-based band, they won.
And then they rocked. The performance kick-started a wild year that saw the band tour the country and win praise from NPR and Time magazine. This weekend, the band heads back to the Newport Folk Festival _ this time for the main stage.
“Because of Newport, we were able to find a receptive audience,” David Wax said. Wax, along with fiddle- and jawbone-playing Suz Slezak, is the core of the band, which fuses Mexican and American folk traditions. “Nobody had heard of us. There were no expectations.
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Written on July 24, 2011 by Koby Jeffery
Singer was a founding member of ’70s soft-rock chart-toppers
Dan Peek, a founding member of the chart-topping ’70s soft-rock act America, died of unknown causes July 24. He was 60.
A post on Peek’s official Web site acknowledged his passing, but offered no details.
Born in Panama City, FL, Peek co-founded America in 1970 with Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell; the three musicians met at the U.S. Air Force base in West Ruislip, London, where their fathers were all stationed.
The trio favored the close-harmony vocal style that had launched Crosby, Stills & Nash as the top pop act of the day. Signed to Warner Bros. in the U.K., the act’s debut LP went nowhere until a new track, “A Horse With No Name,” became a No. 1 international hit in 1972.
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Written on July 24, 2011 by Dylan Ferguson
While crews work to erect tents and stages for the upcoming Newport jazz and folk festivals, the festivals’ creator and guardian angel continues to build something else: a legacy that he hopes will continue long after he’s gone.
New York jazz impresario George Wein, who started the festivals more than 50 years ago, took them nonprofit earlier this year to shield them from the financial ups and downs of corporate funding.
“I’m trying to project 20 years ahead,” Wein, 85, told The Associated Press in a phone interview from his New York home. “I won’t be here in 20 years. The only way I can see to perpetuate the festivals was to go nonprofit. We can’t quit now. I say never quit.
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Written on July 24, 2011 by Lucy Coughlan
Amy Winehouse in publicity photo for Back to Black, 2006 album.
2005: Amy Winehouse at a charity auction & party held at Tantra Club London, England.
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