For 18 years now, at least part of the last week in April has marked for me a Great Unplugging. I set aside work and much of my “real” life to head to the foothills of North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains for MerleFest. For four days, I’m just another hippie in a field, listening to music, dancing to some of it, and shirking all responsibility. Work falls away, all the clutter in my home ceases to crowd me, and even the family routines that come with raising a 7-year-old fly out the window in favor of ice cream before lunch and bedtime whenever. I also set aside my “news junkie” cravings and shrug off government shutdown threats, nuclear tweets, outraged punditry, and, frankly, giving a shit. But come post-MerleFest Monday, reality can no longer be dodged, and as I catch up with the email that has flooded my inbox, I also catch up on the headlines. Sigh. Luckily, some of those headlines have to do with music, and those are a welcome read — and I always look forward to sharing them with you. So here goes:
All festivals — my beloved MerleFest included, as you can read here – have their little hiccups and problems. But none of those rise to the level of fail presented by the now-infamous Fyre Festival, right? By now you’ve probably heard about what happened in the Bahamas — the disaster tents, the cheese sandwiches, the distinct unglamour of it all. But if you like a good horror story, this is a good one, complete with the full class-action lawsuit asking for $100,000,000 in damages. [NPR]
In a story that will go down in rock-and-roll history, Southern rock and jamband legend Col. Bruce Hampton died onstage Monday at the end of a show in Atlanta honoring his 70th birthday, which was the day before. [CNN, Variety]
Another sad, shocking departure made news just as I was typing this roundup: longtime Grandaddy bass player Kevin Garcia died Tuesday after suffering a stroke Monday. [NPR]
A look at all-girl bands, and why there aren’t more of them. [Huffington Post]
This is maybe putting a little more (something close to) science than is necessary to an artistic decision, but it IS interesting to think about how artists decide who much new material vs. well-worn “hits” to play at a concert. [Consequence of Sound]
This video is from a few weeks ago, but I only became aware of it recently, when it was mentioned with reverence on the No Depression staff Slack account. Because it makes my heart happy, I share it with you. Here’s hoping Jason Isbell brings these sweet dance moves to his Nashville Sound tour. [Facebook]
