this one
Paul Moffett

Down On The Corner
By Paul Moffett

• The Musicians Emergency Relief Fund has been rather quiet of late, a consequence of the tendency of MERF volunteers to burn out. Now, however, former MERF President Wayne Young has taken it upon himself to ratchet the organization back up and put it to work helping musicians. To that end, he has called for an election of members to the board, set for July 13 at 3 p.m. at the Mom's Music Jeffersonville Store. Anyone interested in getting involved (including serving on the board) should show up and vote.

• On the organization front, note that the Blue Sky Kentucky Festival has been scrubbed for this year. The 501 (c) 3 organization has been undergoing a bit of serious soul-searching, as last year's festival didn't really match expectations. The Board of BlueSky is considering some fund-raising events over the next few months. Stay tuned.

My Morning Jacket has gotten a cut on the most recent Oxford American Music Issue #6. This is a fairly big deal, since the Oxford American Series focuses on Southern culture, with a particular focus on Delta blues.

• Our ever-diligent publicist friend Leslie Stewart sent last-minute news that at the Best Of Louisville Awards, announced on July 24, WFPK on-air personality Laura Shine came in third behind Terry Meiners and Wayne Perkey for Best Radio Personality. The winner of best record/CD store was - ta-da, drum roll - ear X-tacy. Duh.

Ms. Stewart also sent word that danny flanigan's performance on WFPK's "Live Lunch" will be released on a CD as Live Lunch on August 12 by the Indianapolis indie label Flat Earth. Flat Earth has also released the Greathouse CD. Flanigan will have a CD release party at Headliners on August 16.

• Downtown Recording's Nick Stevens called to tell LMN that the studio has added Brett Stuart from Orlando, Florida to the engineering staff, beginning on June 30. Stuart's creds include mixing the Backstreet Boys' "Quit Playing Games With My Heart"; mixing the tag team single version of "Whomp, There It Is"; and tracking the Matchbox 20
single "3am." He's also a Pro Tools expert, so he can run the newly installed ProTools v. 6.0.1 at Downtown Recording.

Stevens also passed along that ASCAP's Ralph Murphy stopped by on Saturday, June 21, for a day of songwriting discussion. Louisville songwriters might remember Murphy, whose songwriting credits are lengthy, served on several panels during the Louisville Area Songwriters Cooperative's Songwriting Seminars held in the early Nineties.

• Songwriters, take note: The 20th Annual Mid-Atlantic Song Contest is now accepting entries. The Grand Prize is $1000 plus some lesser perks; the Second Place Overall is $500, plus various prizes for winning the individual categories. Interested? Log onto their website at

www.saw,org

for information and, presumably, an entry form. The deadline for the contest is August 11, 2003.

What Wears Seven League Boots? Distillery Sound's Jonathan

Hay

was declared to have a deal to manage Wu-Tang Clan in the online publication Foxxy's Weekly Hip-Hop Report. However, the Clan says no such deal has happened, as did Hay. Check it out for yourself at

http://www.wutangworld.com/main.html

.

Auditions

• The Louisville Youth Orchestra will hold auditions for young musicians who play an orchestral instrument through age 21 for the 2003-2004 season on August 23-24 and again on September 6-7, 2003. Experience can range from none to pre-professional. Contact Melody Welsh-Buchholz at 502-584-0135.

Workshops

• The Louisville Youth Orchestra will sponsor two orchestra camps this summer. Camp I will be held July 7-11 at the Louisville Central Area Community Center, 1300 W. Muhammad Ali Blvd. Camp II will be held on the same dates at North Oldham Middle School in Oldham County. For more information, contact Melody Welsh-Buchholz at 584-0135.

Codas

Michael Rengers, 43, died in Louisville last month. Rengers was a dobro player and member of Bluegrass Anonymous.