0 Comments Recent Developments in Folk Music (Recap)

I’d like to mention just a few events in folk music over the past year. These items will be old news to many of you, but I thought it would be helpful to start off this way and then go on to recent and upcoming events.

On a local scale, some of us witnessed changes in music venues, such as the the closing of Middle Earth Music Hall in Bradford, Vermont last May:

http://www.memh.com/index.php

http://www.middle-earth-music.com/

Happily, you can find their live music videos on:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Folkhero01

On the national front, we mourned the passing of folk music legend Odetta (December 2, 2008):

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1863667,00.html

Last month we saw Grammy awards granted to Pete Seeger (best traditional folk album), The Blind Boys of Alabama (best traditional gospel album), Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder (best bluegrass album), B. B. King (best traditional blues album), Ladysmith Black Mambazo (best traditional world music album) and Robert Plant and Alison Krauss (best contemporary folk/Americana album, country and pop awards for individual songs, and album of the year). The Blind Boys of Alabama and Tom Paxton were given lifetime achievement awards.

Independent Music Awards winners, also in January, included Tony Trischka for best Americana album and The Paschall Brothers for best gospel album.

http://www.independentmusicawards.com/ima_new/jukebox2009.asp

http://www.folkways.si.edu/about_folkways/news.aspx

And Rolling Stone, the chronicle of rock, honored folk music artists Joan Baez and Pete Seeger in their February 19 issue:

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/02/02/inside-rolling-stones-afternoon-with-folk-icons-pete-seeger-and-joan-baez/

Feel free to comment on the folk music events that were memorable for you.