By Landmarks Illinois

Landmarks Illinois has awarded the first grant through its new Timuel D. Black, Jr. Grant Fund for Chicago’s South Side to the Muddy Waters Original Jam Out (MOJO) Museum, a nonprofit working to preserve blues legend Muddy Waters’ former home in North Kenwood and convert it into a museum and cultural center.
The MOJO Museum has received a $2,500 matching grant from Landmarks Illinois Timuel D. Black, Jr. Grant Fund for Chicago’s South Side. Landmarks Illinois launched the new grant fund in May 2020 in celebration of the life and work of acclaimed civil rights leader Timuel D. Black, Jr.

Read More

Posted on September 22, 2020

By Forrester

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Michael McDonald, an enduring force in popular music, will headline three Forrester virtual events: Security & Risk Global 2020; Data Strategy & Insights North America 2020; and Technology & Innovation Global 2020, the company announced Thursday.
In 2020, McDonald was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Doobie Brothers. In celebration of the group’s 50th anniversary, McDonald will tour with the band for the first time in nearly 25 years. Wide Open, McDonald’s first full-length record of all-new music in nearly a decade, came out in 2017 and received extensive critical acclaim.

Read More

Posted on September 10, 2020

By Farm Aid

Farm Aid announced this week that the organization will mark its 35th anniversary with a virtual at-home festival experience.
Farm Aid 2020 On the Road, scheduled for Saturday, September 26, from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. EDT, will include performances from more than 20 artists. The 3-hour event will be streamed at FarmAid.org, on Farm Aid’s YouTube channel, AXS TV and Fans.com.

Read More

Posted on September 5, 2020

The Life And Times

“Justin Townes Earle may have had a top-notch pedigree, but his music connected with people precisely because he came across as one of them. The son of one alt-country trailblazer (Steve Earle) and the namesake of another (Townes Van Zandt), he imbued his artful narratives with humility and deep empathy. While his well-crafted songs are inseparable from his own story, what mattered most was that his characters’ desolation felt real,” Marc Hogan writes for Pitchfork.
“Ranging freely across country, folk, Americana, Western swing, Memphis soul, and more, he built up a prolific discography as a rootsy, down-to-earth songwriter’s songwriter. He sang with a gentle rasp that made commanding a stage seem as no-big-deal as bumming a cigarette outside the venue. Upon the heartbreaking news of Earle’s passing, here are five songs that can serve as an introduction to his humble gravitas.”
Click through to get started.

Read More

Posted on August 27, 2020

Better Than Lightfoot

“The mother of Carlton Weekly, better known by his stage name FBG Duck, called for peace after her son was shot and killed in the Gold Coast neighborhood,” the Crusader reports.
“The call comes after comments by Mayor Lori Lightfoot that labeled the rapper as a member of a gang who ‘fancies himself a rapper,’ a description the family refutes.”
Well, you fancy yourself a mayor so I suppose anyone can fancy anything they want about themselves, but Weekly was better at his job than you are at yours.

Read More

Posted on August 19, 2020

By Rory Mir/The Electronic Frontier Foundation

In 2012, Ubisoft launched an educational video game called Rocksmith. The idea was simple: why get good at playing a toy guitar, as in games like Guitar Hero, when you can use – and learn to play – the real thing? Their game helps beginner musicians identify the skills they need to work on, and then helps them improve those skills by providing gradually more complex songs and exercises.
These steps will sound familiar to anyone who has tried to learn an instrument. A teacher offers exercises, evaluates your performance, and adjusts the difficulty of the lesson to match your ability – keeping you from being bored or overwhelmed. This cycle of feedback is an example of a well-established teaching technique that many educational programs use to help users hone other skills, from language fluency to typing proficiency. Educational games, like Mario Teaches Typing (1992), have been using many of these techniques for several decades. Is adding a guitar to the picture really that innovative?

Read More

Posted on August 14, 2020

By At Home Chicago Blues

At Home Chicago Blues ‘Trading 4s’ is a new pay-what-you-can Blues concert & conversation series hosted by acclaimed guitarist, Delmark recording artist and bandleader Dave Specter and streaming live on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of every month.
This week’s A-list session will feature sets and behind-the-scenes storytelling by Alligator Records’ electric blues guitarist Toronzo Cannon, plus acoustic slide guitarist Donna Herula, vocalist Katherine Davis and Delmark’s electric bassist Harlan Terson.

Read More

Posted on August 4, 2020

By David Rutter

Editor’s Note: Our very own David Rutter not only writes for the Beachwood but plays third chair trombone in the Big Band Sound of Deerfield.
For reasons no one but musicians know, Fletcher Henderson was the most influential man in modern music – before the Beatles.
The jazz great of the 1920s was a pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer, who handed his musical arrangements to clarinetist Benny Goodman.
Though he bridged Dixieland into Big Band music on stage and recordings, Henderson could never break through the racial divide of pop music success, though his writing, arranging, and performances were incendiary.
So he became Goodman’s musical muse.
Here, Benny, your band should play these.

Read More

Posted on July 31, 2020

By The Artist Rights Alliance

July 28, 2020
Dear Campaign Committees:
As artists, activists, and citizens, we ask you to pledge that all candidates you support will seek consent from featured recording artists and songwriters before using their music in campaign and political settings. This is the only way to effectively protect your candidates from legal risk, unnecessary public controversy, and the moral quagmire that comes from falsely claiming or implying an artist’s support or distorting an artists’ expression in such a high stakes public way.

Read More

Posted on July 29, 2020

F to the R to the E to the E to the C to the R to the E-D-I-T, RE to the PORT to the DOT to the COM . . .

Now instead of looking fly and rolling phat, my legs are sticking to the vinyl and my posse’s getting laughed at.

Read More

Posted on July 18, 2020