In case you haven’t already seen it, there is a series in progress over at the Open Salon site about Bob Dylan and the musicians who influenced him. Three posts so far, all thought-provoking for anyone interested in early folk music and blues. The author plans to take this through ten posts in all over a period of several months. If you start with the introductory post it contains links to the others.

Music historian Alan Lomax recorded folk musicians not only throughout the southeastern United States but also in various other countries. During the mid-1930s he made extensive recordings of musical performances in Haiti. The recordings….

The Larry Stephenson Band recently released a 20th Anniversary CD commemorating the band’s twenty years in business. Stephenson, a mandolinist and award-winning vocalist, has been a professional musician for over thirty years but his current band was formed in 1989. The numerous guest performers on the album include country artists Connie Smith, Marty Stuart and Ricky Skaggs and bluegrass musicians Del McCoury and Kristin Scott Benson.

Listening to sound clips, I immediately begin to imagine an old cabin floor with all the chairs pushed back, dancers twirling each other around and lots of laughter going on….

The White House hosted two special events Tuesday in honor of Black History Month: a high school workshop in the afternoon and a concert Tuesday evening. Both featured performances by noted folklorist and musician Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon. Concert artists included, among others, Yolanda Adams, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Smokey Robinson, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. An article in The Root has a thoughtful analysis of Dylan’s role in the civil rights movement.

PBS will broadcast the concert at 8:00 p.m. EST Wednesday, February 11. Beginning Thursday, February 12, the performance will be available online.

Todd B. loves his ukulele. Or make that ukuleles. He has gone so far as to write a song about his collection, which you can see in this video. Todd, an enterprising musical moonlighter nicknamed “Brother Sonny” who does not disclose his last name on his web site, has written several original contemporary folk songs and has performed the work of various folk artists including Burl Ives and Bascom Lamar Lunsford.

In case you missed it, last Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle carried an article by Joel Selvin on his recent interview with Pete Seeger, giving some personal insight into the everyday life of the man behind the legend. Seeger was in town for an appearance with the Guthrie Family Tour.

Well, I have to tell you, the latest web buzz (as far as folk music goes) is all about Bob Dylan’s Christmas album. First Rolling Stone reported late yesterday afternoon that sound clips were available on Amazon.uk. Then last night, people realized that the clips weren’t there any more. (I was looking for them myself with no luck while I was waiting for the AMA awards to be announced.) Then New York Magazine reported this afternoon that someone had uploaded all the clips to YouTube in the meantime. NYM has the clips embedded in their site also.

I’m seeing mixed reviews and I’m not going to attempt to judge this album based on these samples. So if you want an idea of what Christmas in the Heart is going to sound like I’d suggest you move quickly to one of the sources mentioned above. Feel free to comment here. I’ll be interested to see what you think! Or you may want to reserve judgment for the CD’s release on October 13. Proceeds benefit Feeding America in the U.S. and other charities internationally.

Thursday’s issue of The Chicago Tribune has a great column by Eric Zorn listing the BBC series American Folk History, with some of the videos and links to the rest, as shown on YouTube. From The Carter Family through Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, The Weavers, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan to The Byrds, in a dozen episodes. Watch one or two now, check out the others later.

In a previous post, Ken described the release of a 1999 Folkways series in podcast form. The web site location for that series has changed, so I just wanted to provide the new link. The series includes interviews and sound recordings from many of those involved in creating, finding and/or preserving what we know as American folk music.

From mvyradio.com ….

Merlefest 2007 begins this Thursday, April 26th, on the campus of Wilkes Community College in North Carolina. It’s one of the largest Americana music festivals in the country. This year, Main Stage performers include Doc Watson, Alison Krauss, Pam Tillis, The Waybacks, Sam Bush, Earl Scruggs, The Duhks and more.

The Wilkes Community College campus radio station, WSIF, has carried a feed from the Watson Stage, on its broadcast for many years. This year, for the first time ever, WSIF will be streaming their radio signal, so fans around the world can listen in. At showtime, go to www.radiofreemerlefest.org to hear the free live feed.

Again this year, www.mvyradio.com will be at Merlefest, recording, archiving and rebroadcasting performances from the stages of Merlefest. You can hear selected sets during regular broadcasting hours on the station’s stream. Performances from participating artists will be posted on mvy’s Merlefest page, http://mvyradio.com/musicinfo/merlefest2007.php. There will also be tons of pictures, interviews and a Merlefest journal on that page.

Hear a Merlefest preview show from April 11th, hosted by WSIF’s Al DeLaChica, at http://www.mvyradio.com/archives/index.php?browse=hot_seat.

Red Truck Radio is a monthly streaming radio show which bills its self as “Real Music from Real Places”.

I’ve posted before about Pete Seegers short lived PBS show ‘Rainbow Quest’. PCL LinkDump has compiled a list of dozens of Rainbow Quest clips available on YouTube. Included are Jean Ritchie, Elizabeth Cotton, Mississippi John Hurt, Reverend Gary Davis, Mimi and Richard Farina, Buffy St. Marie and Judy Collins to name just a few. via