23
Jul
2008
It
has been a furious two days, as late this Monday we confirmed what is
just one of a number of flood-benefit shows that we're looking at
staging here in the Quad Cities over the next month. We've been
talking with some great bands about coming in here and donating their
talents to help out those who lost a lot in the recent floods here in
Iowa. All door proceeds for the show will go to local flood victims.
The Ani DiFranco appearing at the Capitol Theatre on Saturday might not be the same Ani DiFranco who became something of a legend over the past two decades.
We're
busy as always this week, bringing in a number of bands that will be
playing this week's Pitchfork Festival in Chicago. The sessions
that we'll be recording here in Rock Island include visits by
Candle, Bear Country, The New Year, The Icy Demons, Jennifer
O'Connor, Secret Machines, The Dutchess & the Duke, the Prairie
Spies, Ani DiFranco, and Supergrass.
Natalia Zukerman might as well have been born on the road. She is the child of two classical musicians who traveled a lot. (Her father is violinist, violist, and conductor Pinchas Zukerman.) She said last week that she got on a plane for the first time when she was six weeks old, and "I've learned to pack and unpack since I was a little kid.
It's
a relatively calm week at Daytrotter headquarters this week, but the
few things that are happening are exciting.
Three
years ago, the Black Banjo Gathering was held in North Carolina to
celebrate "the African American heritage of the banjo, which has
not only a historic past, but also a resurgent present, and a great
future," according to the event's Web site
(
The blues musicians of the Kinsey Report - composed of Kinsey brothers Donald on guitar, Kenneth on bass, and Ralph on percussion - haven't released a new CD since 1998's Smoke & Steel, and during a recent phone interview, Ralph states that "we don't tour as much as we want. One reason is because the venues aren't there anymore, and another reason is because we've been working on a new record for some time now, and we want to come out with something fresh."
Elvin
Bishop, who lived outside the small town of Elliott, Iowa, as a
child, attributes his connection with the blues community to his
rural upbringing. "The reason I fell in so easy with the old blues
guys," he said, "is because I knew the feeling of being out in
the country and not much going on. ... You grew up with kerosene
lamps and wood-burning stoves and shit like that."
