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The 26th Annual Mariachi Vargas Extravaganza Goes Virtual!

By The Mariachi Vargas Extravaganza

The 26th Annual Mariachi Vargas Extravaganza is the largest and longest-running mariachi music festival in the United States. Each year, more than 1,000 student mariachi musicians and vocalists convene in San Antonio from throughout the U.S. to participate in musical workshops, national competitions and grand performances. The event culminates with a concert featuring competition winners and Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán. Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, the Mariachi Vargas Extravaganza will go virtual this year with dozens of online educational initiatives and a fiercely competitive online vocal competition.

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Posted on November 30, 2020

The Ventures: Stars On Guitars

By Vision Films

Vision Films presents the definitive history of instrumental rock and roll, The Ventures: Stars on Guitars, from director Staci Layne Wilson.
The documentary will be available on DVD and VOD across cable and streaming platforms in the U.S. and Canada on December 8, 2020.
A true labor of love, Wilson, daughter of The Ventures’ founder Don Wilson, compiled over 35 interviews and assembled dozens of beloved and brand new music tracks to present the most comprehensive history of the band that still inspires generations of guitar players around the world.
Filled with fascinating facts, humorous stories and poignant memories, The Ventures: Stars on Guitars is told from the point of view of Don Wilson, the last original member of the band.

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Posted on November 23, 2020

No Border Blues

By The Chicago Blues Network

Delmark recording artist and Chicago Blues Network faculty member Johnny Burgin and executive producer Stephanie Tice have launched the new No Border Blues video podcast, featuring Blues artists from Bollywood to Britain and beyond.
Burgin and Tice, passionate about their mission to elevate recognition of international Blues, spotlight artists who discuss the Blues scenes in their home countries and present intimate musical performances in their native languages as well as in English.
The 30-minute No Border Blues episodes air the 15th and last days of each month on the Chicago Blues Network YouTube channel.

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Posted on November 11, 2020

Remembering King Von

Bigger Than The Chicago Drill

“In the early hours of the morning on Friday, November 6, Dayvon Daquan Bennett, better known as the rapper King Von, was one of three men shot and killed during an altercation in Atlanta outside of a local hookah lounge,” Vulture’s Paul Thompson writes in King Von Was Building Something Bigger Than Chicago Drill. He Deserved to See It Through.
“A Chicago native, Von had moved to the city to further his career – Atlanta being, in some ways, the new capital of the hip-hop industry – and to avoid the harassment he said he faced in his home city from the Chicago police department and from personal enemies he accumulated over the years. Von was exactly one week removed from the release of his third album – the tense, cinematic Welcome to O’Block, set to be his breakthrough – for which there had been an album-release party on the night of his death. He was 26 and the father of two young children.”

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Posted on November 9, 2020