Tag: Myspace

The Farewell Drifters – Sweet Summer Breeze

One of the bands I did not get to catch at IBMA was The Farewell Drifters. I did, however, just receive a copy of their debut CD, Sweet Summer Breeze, and am now doubly sorry that I didn’t get to see them perform live.

This self-produced project features 12 new songs written within the band among the 14 tracks, primarily written by guitarist Zach Bevill and mandolinist Joshua Britt. One of the two covers, Wheels, comes from Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons, and it fits perfectly among the band originals which share much of the melodic and lyrical sensibility.

It is always a good thing to welcome new songwriters into bluegrass music, and Bevill and Britt are fine examples of why we can confidently place this music into the hands of a new generation of artists.

A fact that seems to be lost sometimes on both new and established artists is that no amount of technical proficiency and studio tanning can compensate for weak material – and that, by extension, really great material elevates any project beyond the performance itself. The Drifters’ originals are catchy and memorable, and as likely to be appropriate before a folk, bluegrass or jamgrass audience.

Making up The Farewell Drifters are Clayton Britt on lead guitar, Trevor Brandt on banjo, and Ryan Pennington on bass along with Zach Bevill and Joshua Britt.

You can hear several tracks from Sweet Summer Breeze on the band’s MySpace page, and audio samples and download purchases are enabled on their Speakerheart page.

It seems fair to expect that these talented young men will only reach higher and achieve at a loftier level given the chance to continue performing and recording together. Kudos, fellas… this is a good’n.

New John Cowan tracks on MySpace

The John Cowan Band has posted some new audio tracks on their MySpace page, designed to showcase the newly revamped band sound. These recordings are otherwise unreleased and showcase John’s more scaled down, acoustic approach since bringing new members into the band.

He’s currently touring with a smaller, four-piece outfit, featuring Tony Wray on banjo, Shad Cobb on fiddle, Jeff Autry on guitar, and John on bass and lead vocals.

A number of other unreleased demo tracks will be rotated onto their MySpace page over the next few months, so keep an eye (and ear) out for those – and find out when you can catch them live in your part of the world.

IBMA on MySpace

The International Bluegrass Music Association has recently created a page on MySpace to help spread the word about the organization and its mission.

At this time of year, that mission is largely centered on the 2007 World of Bluegrass convention and Fan Fest, occurring October 1-7 in Nashville. You can find details about this year’s events on their MySpace page, with links to get further details.

You also find audio podcasts with Doyle Lawson, Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas.

Their MySpace URL is www.myspace.com/internationalbluegrassmusicassociation.

Infamous Stringdusters to offer live tracks

The Infamous Stringdusters will soon start offering live show audio downloads from their MySpace page, and are asking fans to help them decide which tracks to include.

You can post a comment on their MySpace blog to suggest a song, which bass man Travis Book says will be showing up any day now.

Travis says that they will pick the top 2 or 3 songs based on fan input, which will only be available as downloads for a few days after being posted. Keep an eye on www.myspace.com/stringdusters for their appearance.

GrassSpace launches new online community

A new online entry in the social networking world has been launched. GRASSspace.com, as the name suggests, seeks to provide the connectivity and ease of use of MySpace to fans of bluegrass music.

Site developer and manager Skip Ogden said that his goal was to allow fans and artists to stay in touch with a network dedicated specifically to promote and nurture bluegrass music – and in a manner more in keeping with the expectations of bluegrass fans.

“We will not allow the sort of racy content that can be found on MySpace, so our users can be sure that they won’t encounter anything objectionable at GRASSspace.”

The network is configured to combine many of the features common to closed online communities, such as bulletin board discussions, polls, and the ability for users to post music and video clips, and communicate easily with other users. Bands and artists will be able to post the performance dates and communicate with fans in much the same manner they do at MySpace.

There is no charge to sign up as a user at GRASSspace.com, and new users are being welcomed now.

King Wilkie previews Low Country Suite tracks

King Wilkie, the Charlottesville, VA-based string based whose multiple personality shifts defy description, have announced June 26 as the release date for their upcoming CD, Low Country Suite, their first for Rounder imprint, Zoe Records.

The band got its start in traditional bluegrass, combining a love for the old sound with youth and a fashionista flair. They released a single CD for Rebel Records in 2004, Broke, which featured a stark, “neo-primitive” bluegrass sound. With six members still in the twenties, King Wilkie was a hit at bluegrass festivals and in clubs, and were selected as emerging artist of the year by the IBMA that same year.

Tierra Del Fuego was their next project, a limited-release CD with 8 new tracks. Here, they began to show a move away from bluegrass to a sound more reminiscent of the early country rock days of The Byrds and The Flying Burrito in the 1970s.

On Low Country Suite, King Wilkie has chosen the latter path, with a more sophisticated sound, assisted by noted producer Jim Scott. The move away from traditional string music now seems complete, though the influences that informed their journey are still apparent.

Four tracks from the new CD are previewed on their MySpace page if you would like to sample the band’s latest persona.

McCoury Music previews new Sparks CD

McCoury Music has four tracks from the upcoming Larry Sparks CD, The Last Suit You Wear, available for online listening on their MySpace page. The CD is due for release shortly on the McCoury label, produced by Don Rigsby and Larry Sparks.

The tracks available online are The Last Suit You Wear, For Your Love, Goodbye Little Darlin’ and Casualty Of War. There is one additional track from the Sparks CD on Del’s MySpace page, Those Blue Eyes Don’t Sparkle Anymore, which features Del singing tenor with Larry.

Be Del’s friend and win!

As The Del McCoury Band sets their sights on their 10,000th MySpace Friend, they have decided to mark the milestone with a special prize for the Friend who sets the mark.

The 10,000th Friend will receive a copy of the official Del McCoury Grand Ole Opry Induction poster, autographed by Del. Only 100 were printed, and this is the last one from that single run. They will also receive several live recordings of the band.

To join Del’s MySpace Army, visit his MySpace page.

MySpace faces legal battle over copyright issues

This post is quite long. I’ve made an effort to present the facts of the legal battle. At the end of the post I leave you with my opinion on the situation and some links for further reading, including the full text of the filed lawsuit.

In an effort to protect copyright holders, MySpace recently announced a partnership with Gracenote to set in place a system to filter unauthorized, copyrighted, works from being uploaded by users. But Universal Music Group says it’s not enough. UMG filed suit friday, Nov 17, 2006, against MySpace for copyright infringement. It really comes as no surprise considering the critical comments label chairman Doug Morris was making last week concerning MySpace.

In the filing UMG states that MySpace “harbors no illusions” that their online community site contains infringing content. They also claim that MySpace

knowingly and intentionally operated it’s business on the fiction that it has obtained the licenses it needs to exist

this in reference to users claiming ownership of content while UMG insists MySpace

well knows are not the true copyright holders

UMG went on to state that MySpace

encourages, facilitates and participates in the unauthorized reproduction, adaptation, distribution and public performance

of works owned by UMG. The label is requesting damages of $150,000 per track regardless of form (audio or video). A spokesperson for UMG issued a statement about why the suit was filed.

Businesses that seek to trade off on our content, and the hard work of our artists and songwriters, shouldn’t be free to do so without permission and without fairly compensating the content creators. Our music and videos play a key role in building the communities that have created hundreds of millions of dollars of value for the owners of MySpace. Our goal is not to inhibit the creation of these communities, but to ensure that our rights and those of our artists are recognized.

MySpace has responded publicly to the suit, saying it is “unnecessary and meritless.”

MySpace provides an extraordinary promotion platform for artists ‚Äì from major labels to independent acts ‚Äì while respecting their copyrights…

We are in full compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and have no doubt we will prevail in court…

Moreover, we proactively take steps to filter unauthorized music sound recordings and have implemented audio fingerprinting technology.

Moreover, the very day the suit was filed MySpace began bragging on the efficiency of their new partnership with Gracenote as well as a new tool allowing copyright owners to flag unauthorized uses of their content.

The new tool will allow copyright holders to digitally flag any user-posted video containing content that they own and allege is unauthorized…

With the new tool, MySpace will make it even easier for copyright holders to identify and take down user-posted videos containing unauthorized content.

I understand the difficulties MySpace faces in policing such a large user contributed online portal. The Gracenote partnership and the ability to flag content as unauthorized seems very reasonable to me. This whole online environment is new territory for all parties involved. The copyrights do need to be honored, and yes MySpace should have implemented such measures from the beginning, but none the less, a lawsuit seems rash at this point. The two companies tried to come to a licensing agreement but those talks fell through when MySpace refused to pay retroactively for content that has previously been on the site. Come on UMG, work with us here.

Further reading:

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