Some wonderful men and women in the Northwest have posted an entire album of original worship music which you can download. The words are God-honoring and meaty. Not only are MP3’s available, there are PowerPoints and chords and other aids. One of the artists is Michael Card.
See The By/For Project.
John Dowland’s lute music is amazing. Dowland, a contemporary of Shakespeare, wrote music that exactly captures the spirit of that Renaissance time period for me. Watch Nigel North play Dowland on YouTube. Then buy the two CDs from Naxos (part of a 4 CD projected series, I am told). Lute Music vol 1 Lute Music vol 2
This weekend something will happen that I’ve never seen before as a dad. Two of my children will be starring opposite each other in the musical Annie. E#4 will be playing Daddy Warbucks while E#5 will be playing Annie. It will be a big surprise to see how it turns out, since I’ve never attended one of the rehearsals.
The Quo Vadis Educators of Garland, who have put on high quality productions many years in the past, are the drama group. This is our first year to be part of their program. You can find more information about the production this weekend on their website.
After 17 years, the excellent classic country music show The Eddie Stubbs Show has ceased broadcasting on WAMU-FM and on www.bluegrasscountry.org. Eddie knows more about the history of country music than just about anybody. All of us who love traditional music owe Eddie a debt of gratitude for keeping this old music alive. (Not to mention that he was the fiddler for the Johnson Mountain Boys for years.)
Fortunately for the country music industry, Eddie still stays active in Nashville with his WSM and Grand Ole Opry work.
It’s another chapter in the sad history of WAMU. A once fine radio station that catered to the offbeat folks that originally started public radio, has gradually become a clone of all the other NPR affiliated stations around the country. I salute them for still keeping bluegrasscountry.org in business, but in the meantime, Internet Radio generally seems to be about to die. Who knows what the future holds, but it looks like a whole lot of traditional streaming may be ready to bite the dust, based on the new copyright royalties that are being imposed. So if you enjoy radio over the internet, it might be nice to enjoy it extra hard for the next few weeks.
Well, what a Friday and Saturday we had in Argyle, Texas at the Argyle Bluegrass Festival. This festival has brought bluegrass to new heights in North Texas, heights that have never been seen before. Sure, we’ve had our Ricky Skaggs at Bass Hall, Alison Krauss at Bass Hall, and there was that time when the Down From the Mountain tour came to Fair Park, etc. But for consistent, yearly bluegrass with top national bands, nobody does it like the 4 year old Argyle Bluegrass Festival. For the price of one ticket at Bass Hall, you get two days of the very best bluegrass anywhere. Plus, the organizers are heavy on the traditional: no Telluride flavor here. This is straight up bluegrass. The most progressive they get is when they invite Claire Lynch, which they’ve done two years in a row, and bless them, they can just invite her every year as far as I’m concerned.
Anyway, the headline band to close out the show this year was Hot Rize. That’s right, a band that hasn’t existed for 15 years was on stage. It’s kind of like getting to see a Beatles reunion. Three out of four of them are still alive - Charles Sawtelle being the tragic missing figure, having died young - but they brought Bryan Sutton with them on guitar, and the legendary Bobby Hicks even stepped on stage for a few numbers.
It just doesn’t get any better than this for family entertainment, folks. Come one, come all, to Argyle next year on March 7th & 8th, 2008.