Down On The Corner
• The Kentucky Opera's "Lunch and Listen" Previews will be at Vencenzo's Restaurant on May 19, 20 & 21 at noon each day. For $10, you get lunch and a preview of the upcoming season. Call the Opera at 584-4500.
• For all you real high rollers, how does $100 to a '98 Porsche sound? That's the deal the Kentucky Opera is offering again this year. There will be only 2,500 tickets sold for this raffle (at $100 each), so the odds are way2 better than the lottery that you could drive away in a red Boxter. The drawing will be at Churchill Downs on May 16, following the simulcast of the Preakness and the winner need not be present to win. If you get second place, you're flown to Frankfurt, Deutschland for a tour of the Porsche factory. Third place is dinner for two at the Gasthaus. Call the opera at 584-4500 or 800-690-9236 for details.
• The Louisville Male High School Concert and Symphonic Bands will perform their Spring Concert at the Sallie P. Durrett Auditorium on the Male High campus at 4409 Preston Highway May 19. This is a free event.
The Louisville Male High School Percussion Concert will be in May 21 at 7:30 p.m. in the Durrett Auditorium.
• Over at Coyote's, they've added yet another "club" to their current four: this one is called the Coy-O-Kee Saloon and features - drum roll here - karaoke. Got those Garth lyrics nailed down? Here's yer chance.
• Scott Furlong phoned to say that he was working on a new CD and that Alan Rhody has agreed to produce it. Furlong is currently living in Richmond, Ky but plays in Louisville occasionally.
• Hedy Hilburn, songwriter and former member of the LASC, has embarked on a six-month stint as a writing intern for the United Auto Workers magazine Solidarity.
• Up in Paoli, a music store owner has cooked up a new idea for presenting live music: at the drive-in. Jim Emmons, owner of the Music Broker in Orleans, Indiana has leased the old Paoli Drive-in and plans to stage some thirty-two shows this summer, featuring a variety of music styles. He's looking for performers and invites all bands, duos and singles who would be interested in playing at the Concert Park to send their resumes to: The Music Broker, 166 S. Maple St., Orleans, IN 47452.
• Dan Gediman is a finalist in the 1998 Kerrville New Folk Contest. Thirty-two finalists do two songs and six are chosen to return the following week to do a full set. He'll play the two tunes on May 23. We wish him the best of luck.
• The Appalachian Folk Week will be held at the Hindman Settlement School in Hindman on June 7-13. Go to learn Appalachian arts and crafts, including dancing and music making. For information, call 606-785-5475.
• The 12th Annual Seedtime on the Cumberland Festival will be held at the Appalshop Center in Whitesburg on May 28-31. Featured musicians include Guy and Candie Carawan and Sparky Rucker, plus a number of old-time mountain musicians. For information, call 606-633-0108 or log onto their website at www.uky.edu/Project/Appal.
• Songwriters and recording artists, take note that once again there is an effort underway in Congress to pass the Fairness in Licensing Act. The Performing Rights Organizations assert that the "Fairness" act will severely reduce royalties to writers and performers and urge all songwriters and artists to contact their respective Congressional Representatives and Senators.
• Crescent Hill Baptist Church's Youth Choir will resent a Spring Concert on May 17 at 6:30. The event will feature graduating seniors.
• The 1st Blue Rock Grill in New Albany has added live acoustic music on Fridays and Saturdays. The 1st Blue Rock Grill is at 2405 State St. Call them at 944-9999.
• Mia Frederick has opened The Mercury Paw at 117 W. Main. Frederick also has an interest in the Sugar Doe Cafe in Butchertown. Local rock acts will be thrilled, as Miss Mia books 'em.
• Cleo C. Hogan, 73, died in Glasgow, KY on April 24. Hogan was Lonzo of the country music comedy team of "Lonzo and Oscar."
• Robert M. Lawrence, 59, died on April 8. Lawrence was a band director for the Jefferson County School System, a musician with the Louisville Orchestra and a member of American Federation of Musicians Local 11-637.
• Holdine Ella Sykes, 78, died on April 7. She was a retired music teacher and a member of Louisville Singers.
• Ivan Tcherepnin, 55, died on April 11 in Boston, Mass. He was a composer who won the $150,000 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition in 1996.
• Alice Conn Watkins, 96, died March 29, 1998. She was a professional vocal soloist.
• Wendy O. Williams, 48, died April 6 in Storrs, Conn. of a self-inflicted gunshot. Williams was the leader of the Eighties punk band the Plasmatics.