Bill Frisell Honored As Guitarist Of The Year & Other Rosebud Artists Score In Downbeat's 57th Annual Critics Poll

Bill Frisell was just honored for the eighth time in twelve years as Guitarist of the Year in Downbeat magazine's 57th Annual Critics Poll (August 2009 issue). Bill is also named the #6 overall Jazz Artist of the Year, his collaborative album with Jim Hall, Hemispheres, is the #4 Jazz Album of the Year and his Trio is ranked among the top Jazz Groups of the Year. Several frequent/recent Frisell collaborators were also honored: Joe Lovano was ranked #1 for Tenor Sax; also placing high were Sam Yahel (Organ), Jim Hall (Guitar), Brian Blade (Drums), Paul Motian (Drums), Jenny Scheinman (Violin) and #1 for Violin - Rising Star, Eyvind Kang (Violin - Rising Star) and Lee Townsend (Producer - Rising Star), who is also Bill's manager.

Other Rosebud Artists also scored top ten rankings in the poll including Marcia Ball in the category of Blues Artist - Rising Star, Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews for Trombone - Rising Star, and Bettye LaVette as one of the top Blues Artists.

Congratulations to all!

Booker T. On World Café Live, Fuji Rock & Europe Fests

Booker T. recently recorded a session for World Café Live on NPR, featuring songs from his highly acclaimed new release, Potato Hole. Listen to the show here. Booker just returned from his debut performance at the Fuji Rock Festival in Niigata, Japan. In addition to playing his own set, he also was featured in a tribute to the recently deceased legendary Japanese rock musician Kiyoshiro Imawano before 35,000 fans. Known as "Japan's King of Rock," he collaborated with Booker T. & The M.G.'s on his 1992 album, Memphis. Approximately 42,000 fans had visited to pay their respects at his funeral on May 9, 2009. Booker's Fuji Rock appearance was sandwiched between twoseparate runs of festivals across Europe in support of his new CD. Catch Booker T. live on stage, please see Tour Dates >>

Charlie Musselwhite and Duke Robillard CDs Selected As Best Blues Albums Of 2009 (so far) By About.com:Blues

Charlie Musselwhite's Rough Dried: Live At The Triple Door and Duke Robillard's Stomp! The Blues Tonight have been chosen as the Best Blues Albums Of 2009 (so far) by About.com:Blues.  Of the ten CDs selected, Charlie's is listed #1, while Duke's is #3.  Charlie has recently been nominated for the upcoming Living Blues Awards as Most Outstanding Musician - Harmonica, a category he has won the past two years.  In addition to media acclaim for Duke's Stomp! The Blues Tonight, he has just released an instructional DVD, Guitar Method Volume 1, a master class in playing blues guitar, which includes lessons for choosing chord voicings, experimenting with boogie and other rhythms, using a variety of picking techniques, his favorite turnarounds for playing the blues, demonstrating sliding sixth chords, tips on playing rhythm guitar to back a blues solo and more.

Catch both Charlie and Duke live on stage:
Charlie Musselwhite Tour Dates, Duke Robillard Tour Dates

Bettye LaVette "No One More Soulful" per CNN

In a feature review of Bettye LaVette's A Change Is Gonna Come Sessions on CNN.com, Peter Grumbine (Current.com) praises Bettye, stating that of "living singers who are actively releasing music now, there is no one more soulful than Bettye LaVette." He continues, "Bettye actually makes great music because of her obstacles - she has a fire in her belly and a passion that was never squashed over the years... You hear it and feel it in everything she sings." Check out the clip here - at about the 6:00 minute mark for Bettye's portion.

Catch Bettye live on stage, please see tour dates >>

Loudon Wainwright III Featured In Disney's G-Force 3D

Loudon Wainwright III is the voice of Grandpa Goodman in the new Disney film, G-Force 3D, in theatres July 24, 2009. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, the animated movie revolves around a specially trained squad of guinea pigs dispatched to stop a diabolical billionaire from taking over the world. It also stars the voices of Nicholas Cage, Penelope Cruz, Tracy Morgan, Jon

Favreau, Steve Buscemi and Zach Galifianakis. The project adds to Loudon's past film credits including roles in Judd Apatow's Knocked Up and The 40 Year Old Virgin; Martin Scorsese's The Aviator; Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown; Tim Burton's Big Fish; Jacknife alongside Robert De Niro and Ed Harris; Neil Simon's The Slugger's Wife and a recurring role on M*A*S*H. Loudon Wainwright III's new CD, High Wide & Handsome - The Charlie Poole Project will be released on August 18, 2009 and the project will be showcased in a special performance on September 15, 2009 at the Highline Ballroom in NYC featuring Loudon and many of the album's special guests.

Catch Loudon live throughout the year and on the Loud & Rich Tour with Richard Thompson this fall, please see tour dates >>

Bill Frisell, Duke Robillard and Marcia Ball NPR Features

Bill Frisell, Duke Robillard and Marcia Ball are all featured on separate NPR programs in the coming weeks:

Bill Frisell's new album, Disfarmer, out July 21 on Nonesuch Records, was chosen as an Exclusive First Listen on NPR's website. Recently named Guitarist of the Year for the second year in a row by the Jazz Journalists Association, Bill's new CD showcases "evocative original themes and motifs here, surrounded by backgrounds sounding distant echoes of country, bluegrass and old-time mountain music" per NPR's Patrick Jarenwattananon. The Disfarmer project began as a touring multimedia work, with Bill scoring a slideshow of images from photographer Mike Disfarmer (1884-1959). Bill is joined on the CD by Greg Leisz (steel guitars, mandolin) Jenny Scheinman (violin) and Viktor Krauss (bass).

Duke Robillard's performance at the Mountain Stage radio show in Charleston, WV is scheduled to be broadcast beginning the weekend of July 24-26. It will also be archived in it's entirety. For a complete list of stations that carry Mountain Stage please click here. Duke, four-time Best Blues Guitarist winner at the Blues Music Awards, recently released Stomp! The Blues Tonight, which he describes as "Blues / classic-rhythm-and-blues, basically where I started in my Roomful of Blues days."

Marcia Ball will appear live on Mountain Stage on August 9, 2009 at the Clay Center in Charleston, WV. For detailed information, please click here. Also on the bill are Hill Country Revue, Cracker, Other Lives and Maia Sharp. Marcia, a four-time Grammy nominee, won her fourth Pinetop Perkins Best Piano Player Award in the past five years at the Blues Music Awards. Marcia was also recently nominated for Most Outstanding Musician, Keyboard in the upcoming Living Blues Awards, a category she has won the last two years.

Catch all three artists live, please see their tour dates at: Bill Frisell Tour Dates, Duke Robillard Tour Dates, Marcia Ball Tour Dates

Loudon Wainwright III's High Wide & Handsome - The Charlie Poole Project - Out August 18, 2009

Loudon Wainwright III's High Wide & Handsome - The Charlie Poole Project will be released on August 18, 2009. Produced by Dick Connette, the double CD revisits the life, times, and recorded legacy of legendary singer and banjo picker, Charlie Poole (1892-1931). Poole was a bootlegger, banjo picker, amateur baseball player, drinker, rambler, gambler, and textile mill worker - and one of the most popular musicians of his day, recording over 110 tracks. Connette and Loudon wrote new songs inspired by the life and times of the country music pioneer inaddition to recording new renditions of classic songs previously recorded by Poole. Guests on thealbum includeRufus and Martha Wainwright, Maggie, Terre and Suzzy Roche, Lucy Wainwright Roche, Sloan Wainwright, David Mansfield, Chaim Tannenbaum, Erik Friedlander, Chris Thile and many more. For more information on the project, please visit TheCharliePooleProject.com. The project will be showcased in a special performance on September 15, 2009 at the Highline Ballroom in NYC featuring Loudon and many of the album's special guests.

Catch Loudon live throughout the year and on the Loud & Rich Tour with Richard Thompson this fall, please see tour dates >>

Duke Robillard Featured On House of Blues Radio Hour, Ruthie Foster Featured On Mountain Stage, Carrie Rodriguez Repeats on Austin City Limits

Duke Robillard's new CD, Stomp! The Blues Tonight, will be featured on the House of Blues Radio Hour, beginning the weekend of July 18-19. The radio show currently has a limited number of autographed copies of the CD available for purchase. Duke describes the new disc as "Blues / classic-rhythm-and-blues, basically where I started in my Roomful of Blues days." Duke has

recorded with and / or produced Bob Dylan, Maria Muldaur, Dr. John, John Hammond, Jay McShann, Ruth Brown, Jimmy Witherspoon, Rosco Gordon and Long John Baldry. The W.C. Handy Awards (recently renamed the Blues Music Awards) have named Duke "Best Blues Guitarist" four times and his production work was honored by The Blues Music Foundation in 2004 when he won the Keeping The Blues Alive Award for Best Producer.

Ruthie Foster returned to the Mountain Stage radio program on NPR (listen online), airing the weekend of July 10-12. Of her latest album, The Truth According to Ruthie Foster, The New York Times wrote, "She sounds long-suffering, forthright, resilient and thoroughly at home," while Paste magazine declared "There's no denying the power of Foster's monstrous voice..."

Carrie Rodriguez's Austin City Limits appearance with Jakob Dylan to re-air the week of July 11th. You can also see clips from that show here "Absence"and "50's French Movie".

Catch Ruthie, Carrie and Duke on tour throughout the summer and beyond. Please see tour dates:
Ruthie Foster Tour Dates, Duke Robillard Tour Dates, Carrie Rodriguez tour dates

Tommy Castro's Hard Believer Out August 11, 2009

Tommy Castro's new CD, Hard Believer, will be released on August 11, 2009. Produced by John Porter (Los Lonely Boys, Santana, Buddy Guy, Elvis Costello), the record includes 6 originals by Tommy and interpretations of Wilson Pickett's "99 1/2 (Won't Do)" and Bob Dylan's "Gotta Serve Somebody." Carlos Santana said about Tommy, "This is the person who has the voice, the sound, and the intentions to touch everybody's heart" Tommy won awards as both the B.B. King Entertainer Of The Year and for BestContemporary Blues CD awards at the 2008 Blues Music Awards. Blues Wax magazine annually polls their readers to determine Best Blues Artist and Album of the Year and Tommy has won four of these awards in recent years. In 2002 & 2006 he was named Blues Artist of the Year and in 2003 & 2007 he won Album of the Year. He is on tour both with his own band and leading The Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue - please see tour dates >>