FESTIVAL FARE: The third annual AMERICANA MUSIC ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE takes place September 12-14 in Nashville, Tennessee. Artists scheduled to appear at evening showcases in a handful of nightclubs include Billy Joe Shaver, Kelly Willis, Chris Hillman & Herb Pedersen, Jason Ringenberg, Jim Lauderdale, Tim O’Brien, Bobby Bare Jr., the Gourds, Tift Merritt, Heather Myles, Be Good Tanyas, John Cowan, Mike Ireland & Holler, Duane Jarvis, Stacey Earle & Mark Stuart, Leslie Satcher, Precious Bryant, Dallas Wayne, Joy Lynn White, Last Train Home, Roger Wallace, Two Dollar Pistols, and Grey De Lisle. The highlight of daytime activities (open to conference registrants only) is a Friday afternoon performance by the Flatlanders. For further details, check out www.americanamusic.org….
The fifteenth annual FARM AID concert will take place on September 21 outside of Pittsburgh at the Post-Gazette Pavilion in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania. Farm Aid co-founders John Mellencamp, Willie Nelson and Neil Young will perform with a bevy of guests. The concert will be broadcast live on CMT. More information is at www.farmaid.com….
New on the festival circuit this year is the AUSTIN CITY LIMITS FESTIVAL, sponsored by the long-running live-music PBS show of the same name. It’s scheduled for September28-29 at Austin’s Zilker Park. Among the artists performing are Emmylou Harris, Wilco, the Jayhawks, Gillian Welch, Ryan Adams, Caitlin Cary, Nickel Creek, Blind Boys Of Alabama, Kelly Willis, Allison Moorer, the Derailers, Patty Griffin, Asleep At The Wheel, the Gourds, Jon Dee Graham, Shawn Colvin, Abra Moore, Jimmie Vaughn, James McMurtry, David Lindley & John Hammond, Robert Randolph & the Family Band, and David Garza. More information is available at www.aclfestival.com.
O T BONE: The next movie soundtrack project for T Bone Burnett, following the massive success of O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the more recent Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood, is the film version of Charles Frazier’s best-selling novel Cold Mountain. Like the Ya-Ya Sisterhood disc, the Cold Mountain soundtrack will be on DMZ Records, the label recently launched by Burnett and the Coen Brothers. The film, which has not yet been made, is expected to be in theaters in late 2003.
TEXAS VS. OKLAHOMA: The Texas Music Hall of Fame recently opened a new facility in Carthage. Inducted into the hall on August 17 were Gene Watson, Tanya Tucker and the late Nat Stuckey….
On October 8, Hank Thompson will be inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in Muskogee. Other inductees are Joe Diffie, Kay Starr and the late Charlie Christian….
The Roger Miller Museum Foundation has been formed in Erick, Oklahoma, to begin building a museum for the town’s famous son. Miller was born in Fort Worth, Texas, but raised in Erick. He died from throat cancer in 1992.
ODDS ‘N’ ENDS: Woodland Studios, a Nashville facility where many hit albums were cut, has been purchased by GILLIAN WELCH & DAVID RAWLINGS. The duo will use the 11,000-square-foot studio to record projects for their label, Acony Records….
Trade publication Billboard began publishing a bluegrass album chart in July. It lists the 15 best-selling bluegrass albums in the nation based on SoundScan sales data….
STEVE EARLE is the subject of a forthcoming biography written by Lauren St. John. Hardcore Troubadour: The Life And Near Death Of Steve Earle will be published in Britain this fall and in North America in January….
Acuff-Rose Publishing was sold recently from Gaylord Entertainment to Sony/ATV Music Publishing for $157 million. Founded by Roy Acuff and Fred Rose in 1942, the music publishing firm’s catalog contains 55,000 titles, including the oeuvre of Hank Williams Sr….
Ernest Duane West, who sang baritone with the Jordanaires from 1982 through 1999, died on June 23. West appeared on albums by dozens of artists, including Steve Forbert, k.d. lang, Loretta Lynn and Mickey Newbury. He was 61.
CLARIFICATION: The title of a Ryan Adams song on Beth Orton’s new album Daybreaker was changed to “This One’s Gonna Bruise” shortly before final versions of the disc were pressed. An article on Orton in ND #40 (July-Aug. 2002) referred to the song as “OK”, because that was the title listed on advance copies of the record.
