this one
Paul Moffett

Down On The Corner
By Paul Moffett

Becoming “Real” – Louisville Music on Television. As this issue is going to press, plans have been made to kick off not one but two Louisville music television programs on WYCS, Ch. 24, a Louisville-based broadcast and cable station.

On Thursday, September 21, 8 – 9 p.m., the first airing of an all-new “Live At Mom’s” will kick off that program’s season. On Thursday, September 28, 8-9 p.m., “Mid City Mix” will premiere its season. The two shows will alternate weekly throughout the season, presenting a large variety of Louisville music in all styles. The audio from “Live at Mom’s,” taped in Mom’s theater in Jeffersonville, will also find broadcast on radio. Details on that have not yet been completely worked on.

“Mid City Mix” will be just that – a mix of live performances, interviews, videos old and new and feature pieces about Louisville folks in the music industry.

Watch for these programs in your daily Courier-Journal listings and tune in to see your fave Louisville performer.

• The Louisville Chapter of the American Federation of Musicians, Local 11-637, which has been being operated by trustees from the National office, has elected new officers and will be transitioning back to a locally run organization shortly. The local was put into trusteeship following the tumult associated with the Louisville Orchestra’s financial difficulties of a few years back. Chris Durham is the current Trustee.

Perhaps by way of suggesting that the organization has undergone change, Jeanette Kays, vocalist for Walker and Kays, has been elected President. She was also elected Secretary-Treasurer.

Joe Spain was elected as Vice President. Newly elected members of the Executive Committee include Steve Causey, Paul Whiteley and Tim Zavadil. Alternate delegates to Conferences and Conventions are Greg Walker and Paul Whiteley.

• Calling all Beatles fans! The Speed Art Museum’s exhibition of Linda McCartney’s Sixties: Portrait of An Era   is scheduled for September 19 – November 12. As the first staff photographer for Rolling Stone, McCartney took photos of just about everybody who was anybody in the music business in the Sixties and this exhibition, organized by the Estate of Linda McCartney in cooperation with the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Conn., is the first comprehensive showing of her photos.

In addition to the McCartney photos, the Speed also will exhibit “Dancing on the Edge – Psychedelic Rock Concert Graphics from the Paul Prince Collection,” a collection of fifty posters and twenty-two album sleeves. The source of the posters was the two major rock venues in the San Francisco area, the Avalon Ballroom and the Fillmore.

The Speed will also offer films, lectures and adult classes in conjunction with the exhibits.

For more information and ticket prices, contact the Speed toll-free at 1-877-JBSPEED.

The Kentucky Opera will present “Puccini and Pasta” again this year, offering previews of the Puccini operas on the schedule. The presentation will be held on September 12 at Hunting Creek Country Club and again on September 13 and 14 at the Camberly Brown Hotel in the Garden Terrace.

Also on the schedule is “Verdi on Vine,” a preview of upcoming Verdi operas in Lexington, scheduled for September 17 at the Radisson Hotel on Vine Street.

For tickets and information, contact the Opera at 584-4500.

• One of the musicians who is actually making money making music is Ray Yates of Flying Hands Music. His company specializes in copyright-free music for production use in commercials or other audio and video formats. He sent a note recently to brag a bit, as the business has topped $525,000 in sales since starting in 1995, shipping over 38,000 CDs. Not too shabby for a mail order company selling instrumental music.

Yates also is interested in listening to instrumental music from Louisville area musician for possible inclusion on one of the company’s CD. This is what you might call a “secondary” market – but one that actually pays money. What a radical idea. If you are interested, e-mail Ray at music@flyinghands.com.

• The Louisville Urban Entertainment Foundation will presents its First Annual Louisville Music Industry Meet & Greet Showcase, September 22, 2000 At Mom's Music, 1710 E. 10th Street, Jeffersonville, IN from 8 p.m. to midnight.

A live showcase featuring fifteen acts will begin at 8:30 p.m. Nikki Love,  on-air personality at Hot 104.3, will emcee the showcase in the auditorium. Simultaneously, Gerald Harrison, on-air personality on B96.5, will provide the entertainment for the meet and greet. Admission is free for LUEF members and $5 for non-members.

Deadline for submission of demo packages (1-song CD, bio and photo) is September 15, 2000. Mail to:  LUEF, 1023 S. Jackson Street, Suite 3, Louisville, KY 40203. 

For more information, call 502-649-8069 or log onto luefoundation@aol.com.

The Oldham County Singers is holding a recruiting meeting on September 18 at 7 p.m. at the Pewee Valley Presbyterian Church, 119 N. Central Ave. The group is under the direction of Angela Fitzpatrick and their regular rehearsal/meeting is on Mondays at 7 p.m. in the same church. They present two formal concerts a year, at Christmas and in the spring, so if you like to sing, join up – there isn’t even an audition!

• Down in Elizabethtown, Jeff at Heartland Music has invented a really nifty positive-lock guitar strap which he calls the Strap Trap™. An elegantly simple design, the patented Strap Trap uses a spring steel tongue to lock onto the knob on a guitar and, once snapped on, is not coming off by accident, unless the accident involves a couple of semis or an axe. Removal by the artist is a one-handed task, however, that’s  doable in the dark. An attempt to force the strap off by pulling up results in the compression of the steel tongue along its length. I’d have to say that you could probably swing the guitar around by the strap without fear of losing it. (I didn’t try that.) The only downside is if you happened to get really drunk and forgot how to remove it, you might find up sorta frustrated with trying to take it off, so if you’re spatially challenged, it’s not for you.

For more info, call Jeff at 270-737-7999. Tell him you read about it LMN. You can also log onto: www.straptrap.com

• There have been several hotshot acoustic guitar players through town lately; now you can add one more to your list: Windham Hill’s Danny Doyles, who is also an endorsing artist for Taylor Guitars. Writing about tremendous pickers is ultimately boring: facts speak clearly. In the case of Doyles, Chet Atkins was so impressed with him that he gave him a signed guitar. Doyle’s the hottest picker at the Grand Old Opry and so on and on. Check him out yourself at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, September 19, Steilberg’s String Instruments, 4029 Old Bardstown Rd., when he gives an acoustic guitar workshop and mini-concert. It’s free but reservations are suggested. Call Steilberg’s at 491-2337.

The E. P. Christy Award For Songwriter Exploitation Dept. In the unrelenting drive by the political right in America to eliminate, de-fund, hamstring or otherwise render inoperative as many agencies of the Federal Government as possible, the U. S. Copyright Office has come under attack. The Congress has cut the Copyright Office funding by five million dollars, out of a requested budget of twelve million dollars, a 42 % cut.

Guess where operating funds for the Copyright office will come from – registration fees. In case you haven’t registered a song lately, the registration fee, which was increased by 50% last year, is now $30.

Needless to say, it’s time for the musicians and songwriters of America to engage in a little political action – by contacting your Senators. Here in Kentucky, that means we’re likely SOL – both of our Senators are hard-nosed Republicans, Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning. Nevertheless, they do count phone calls and e-mail messages, so if enough constituents write, they might actually reconsider. (In McConnell’s case, send him money with the message, which appears to be what he understands best). Call McConnell at 202-224-2541 or fax at 202-224-2499 or e-mail him at: senator@mcconnell.sentate.gov. Bunning can be reached at 202-224-4343 or fax at 202-228-1373 or by e-mail at jim_bunning@bunning.senate.gov.

• Songwriting Contests Dept. The John Lennon Songwriting Contest is open and accepting entries. This contest has developed into one of the biggest, with a $20,000 Grand Prize and lots and lots of other prizes in the dozen categories. There’s too much to go into here, so log onto www.jlsc.com or fax inquiries to 212-579-4320. The deadline is September 29, 2000.

• For those of you who belong to the category of “Performing Arts Presenter” (that includes artists), the Southern Arts Exchange is presenting the Performing Arts Booking Conference & Training Institute in Atlanta on October 3 – 8. The programs are many and the topics large but relevant to musicians. For more information, contact the Southern Arts Federation, 1401 Peachtree St. NE, #460, Atlanta, GA 30309 or call 404-874-7244 or log onto www.southarts.org.

• For all you talent buyers, there’s now online assistant in the form of two websites, one at www.eventbooking.com and the other at www.celebrityaccess.com.

Codas

Dorothy “Pat” Sauer, 78, died in Louisville on August 21. She was a founder and longtime member of the Louisville Dulcimer Society.