The Black Women in Jazz & the Arts Awards Association announced today its 2016 Lady Jazz Master Award recipient, Melba Joyce. 
 

Acclaimed New Orleans-based vibraphonist and percussionist Mike Dillon is working on a new album of Elliott Smith songs entitled Functioning Broke. The collection is planned for release in Spring 2016. The first single "Half Right" is available today for download and streaming.

London, 12th November 2015: Steel Pulse, director Yoni Gal and the Oscar-nominated producer Mike Lerner (The Square), today launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise completion funds for their feature documentary, Dreadtown, due for release end of 2016. http://www.dreadtown.com

Emmylou Harris & John Paul White have released "Kyrie," the second single from the upcoming Mercyland: Hymns For The Rest Of Us, Volume II compilation. "Kyrie" is available today as a single for purchase and streaming at all digital outlets. The full Mercyland compilation will be released on January 15, 2016 on Mercyland Records. 

Today, Electric Forest (EF) announced the return of the 6th annual music and camping festival to the legendary Double JJ Ranch in Rothbury, Michigan on June 23-26, 2016.  In conjunction with the announcement, EF released the first video of a brand new four part series titled, Once Upon The Forest: Awakening. This beautiful video series will in culminate December, when fans will give fans the first chance to purchase tickets to EF16.

A rather literal translation of the phrase “break a leg” befell singer Sheena Rattai of Canadian roots trio Red Moon Road in 2012, forcing a tour cancellation and months of bedside songwriting. Though an unlucky break from a Frisbee-catch-gone-horribly-wrong, it brought their new album Sorrows and Glories to its explosive fruition.

Bell’s Brewery in Kalamazoo, MI received a heavy dusting of bluegrass last Saturday, November 7 courtesy The Infamous Stringdusters of Nashville, TN.

It’s November — time to clean out the camper and snap up early-bird special rates for the 29th Annual Old Settler’s Music Festival. The lineup already boasts a fantastic mix of bluegrass greats, from Jerry Douglas presents The Earls of Leicester, the Del McCoury Band and the Lonesome River Band to Della Mae and the HillBenders (performing their astounding rendition of “The Who’s Tommy: A Bluegrass Opry”).

MerleFest, presented by Window World and slated for April 28-May 1, 2016, is proud to announce the music festival’s initial lineup. The four-day event, an annual homecoming of musicians and music fans, will once again take place on the campus of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, North Carolina.

With Dead & Company getting rave reviews across the Northeast, Bob Weir continued a relatively-new tradition of playing a signed guitar on stage to help boost a charity auction. 

Last night at the DCU Center in Worcester, MA, Weir played “Peggy-O” with a D’Angelico guitar signed by all the members of Dead & Company. The one-of-a-kind EX-SS guitar, which also features the Dead & Company logo on its pick guard, is being auctioned on the tour to benefit more than a half-dozen charities. Currently, the high bid sits at $11,500.