this one
Paul Moffett

Down On The Corner
By Paul Moffett

Do you remember the Renfro Valley Barn Dance on the radio? Now you can see it, as Kentucky Educational Television will tape "An Evening at Renfro Valley" on March 6 before a live audience. For information, call 606-256-2664.

The show will be broadcast on KET on March 13, at 8 p.m.

Rob Magallon of Studio 2002 has acquired a Marantz CDR recorder with built sample rate conversion, which will 'burn' a CD from a master DAT. Cost to make a CD varies from $35 to $50 depending on length, from a properly sequenced tape.

Louisville songwriter Tanya Savory's debut CD, Better Shade of Green, is climbing the Gavin Americana Chart, reaching #10 after five weeks of reporting. Savory also has a website: http://www.sorealrecords.com.

Diane Williams is now a group. No, really, it's now officially the Diane Williams Group, with the addition of Richard Hammond, Steve Walsh, and Steve Hass. The DWG has been racking up successes in various contests and whatnot, including winning the 7-Up New Music Cyber Battle, which earns them a $15,000 production deal with TVT Records, label for Nine Inch Nails and Gravity Kills.

DWG is also a finalist in the Grammy Showcase Competition, as well picking up as a showcase spot at the 1997 South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Conference in Austin, Texas.

Oh, yes, DWG also won the Rock Category at the Miller Lite Video Awards at Coyote's on February 9.

Rusty Bladen dropped a note from up Madison way to say he was starting work on his third CD.

Metro Blues All-Stars' Rodney Hatfield picked up a commission to paint a large mural on a sound screen to be installed on the stage of the Bomhard Theater (KCA), thanks to KCA Program Director Richard Van Kleeck. Hatfield calls his painter persona "Art Snake."

Westinghouse Electric Corp. has agreed to buy The Nashville Network and Country Music Television of $1.55 billion. Westinghouse owns the CBS network.

Blues musician and aficionado Pen Bogert has been getting a bit of ink of late, having his picture in the Courier-Jourier twice in February. The stories highlighted Bogert's efforts to research African American musicians in and around the Louisville area. The "Louisville Blues Legacy Project," an oral history which involves taping Louisville musicians and relatives of musicians, will be availabe in the summer of 1997 at the University of Louisville library archives.

Indiana University (Bloomington) is having a Computer Music Seminar. Details from their press release:

Exploration Of Computer Music from its beginning to the cutting edge is the focus of a two-day seminar sponsored by the IU Department of Computer Science and the IU School of Music. The event is Saturday and Sunday, March 8-9, in the Simon Recital Center on the Bloomington campus. A wide variety of musicians and computer scientists will discuss issues from sound production (based on either natural or synthetic sources) to participation in composition, notation and live performance, using simple aleatoric techniques or sophisticated music programming languages, embodied in commercial synthesizers, high-end music work stations, real-time electronic accompanists, and avante-garde hybrid instruments. Web surfers can check out http://www.cs.indiana.edu/horizon/970308 (Erik Novak, 812-855-0089, enovak@indiana.edu)." Got it? Good.

The Women in Music Business Association has announced a name change to MusicWomen International, effective March 1, 1997. The group has established a chapter in Toronto.

Are you a Jean Ritchie fan? She'll be in town at the Hawley-Cooke store on Shelbyville Road, signing her new book, Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians as sung by Jean Ritchie on Sunday, March 16, 3:30-5:00 p.m. She will also do a 'mini-performance," of course. The event is free and open to the public.

How about some FREE guitar instruction? Head over to Jimmy Steilberg's shop on Sunday, March 9, for an acoustic guitar workshop by Hudson River Records artist Christopher Shaw, presented by Steilberg and Taylor Guitars. Jimmy recommends reservations. Call 491-2337 for more information.

Songwriter Items

Do you have a song that mentions Tulsa in the lyric? Then enter that puppy in the Tulsa Songwriters Association's song contest, being held in conjunction with Tulsa's 100th birthday. First prize is $1,000, 2nd, $500, 3rd, $250, 4th-10th,$100. For more info and forms, write: T.S.A. Box 254, Tulsa, Ok 74101-0254.

No Tulsa songs? How about the Music City Talent Search? Win this talend contest and they'll fly you to Nashville, give you recording time in a reputable studio (very important) with session players and run you around the city's sights. For entry forms, write: Music City Talent Search, 3941 East Chandler Blvd, Ste. 106-109, Phoenix, AZ 85044-8332. Deadline is April 1, 1997

Codas

Charles Edward Barret Jr., 87, died February 9. Barrett was a former music professor for the University of Louisville and had taught music for Jefferson County Schools. He was also a former and choral and music director WHAS.

Jerry Hack, 56, died on February 9. Hack was a bluegrass banjo and guitar picker and a member of Kentucky Thumb Pickers.

Xavier J. Jackson, 30, died on February 14. Jackson was a singer with Amazing Tones of Joy of West Kentucky University.

Sister Ann Monica Pierce, 79, died on February 3 in Colorado Springs, Co. Sister Pierce was a music teacher in Loretto, KY for forty-two years.