2004

Gregg Allman will return to the Telluride Blues & Brews Festival this year as Gov’t Mule’s Special Guest, Saturday, September 18, 2004. Regarding the addition of Allman to the line-up, Steve Gumble, Festival Director, says, “Gregg Allman has been one of my musical heroes for many years. He is truly a part of rock and roll’s living history and Telluride is once again part of that history. To have him grace our stage with Gov’t Mule is more than just an honor, it is a privilege.”

This year’s diverse array of world class musicians also includes B.B. King headlining Sunday, Jonny Lang headlining Friday as well as the Neville Brothers, Dr. John, Stockholm Syndrome featuring Dave Schools and Jerry Joseph, Edgar Winter, Shemekia Copeland, Elvin Bishop, Lonnie Brooks, Indigenous, Anders Osborne and Friends, Papa Grows Funk, Bonerama, Richard Johnston with Papa Mali, Gospel Hummingbirds, Hazel Miller, Mofro, Tommy Elskes and Friends.

To order tickets, check availability, and/or make camping reservations, call 866-515-6166 (toll free) or log on to tellurideblues.com. Three day passes are $125.00, Friday passes are $44.00 and Saturday and Sunday passes are $49.00 each. Juke Joint passes are $17.00 each per night. Tickets are also available locally at Telluride Music at 201 East Colorado Avenue.

Vision International is proud to announce AmsterJam, the first ever multi-bill event for American bands in Amsterdam, Holland. There will be limited capacity to catch four of today’s hottest acts for three nights only, March 20-22, 2005. Confirmed acts are:

Keller Williams, The Disco Biscuits, Umphrey’s McGee and Particle

Each act will play a long two-hour set each night of AmsterJam, in one of the two venues. There will be overlap, so that we can accommodate all attendees within the two rooms. Even though the total capacity is 1750, we only plan to sell 1500 tickets, so as to keep it very comfortable for all. With normal ebb and flow of the crowd, it should be no problem seeing your favorite group, up close and personal, without being elbowed or jostled.

The General Public onsale will begin next Friday August 6th at noon at amsterjam.net.

Also, at that time, travel packages will be available from Madison House Travel. Due to the nature of the show, there will not be a ‘one size fits all’ package, but will include deals on airfares, hotels, and offer travel insurance. Show passes will also be included, but not discounted.

Updating a story first posted here yesterday (Aug. 3), artists such as Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen, R.E.M., the Dixie Chicks and the Dave Matthews Band have teamed up for the Vote for Change tour, which will visit 28 cities in nine presidential election battleground states.

The tour will kick off Oct. 1 with a concerted effort in Pennsylvania, where Springsteen & the E Street Band will play Philadelphia with R.E.M., John Fogerty and Bright Eyes, while Pearl Jam will play Reading, Pa., with Death Cab For Cutie.

State College, Pa. will get the Dave Matthews Band, Jurassic 5 and My Morning Jacket on that date and the Dixie Chicks will team up with James Taylor to play Pittsburgh. John Mellencamp and Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds will perform together in Williamsport, Pa., and Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and Keb’ Mo’ will stir things up in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Other states that will see some or all of the shows are Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri, Minnesota, North Carolina and Florida.

Vote for Change is presented by MoveOn.Org’s political action committee MoveOn PAC and America Coming Together (ACT), an organization advocating change in government.

The full lineup is still coming together but early details are available via MoveOn’s Web site.

“There isn’t going to be any illusion in the audience about why we’re there,” Matthews said on NBC’s “The Today Show” this morning. Adds R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills, “This unprecedented coming together of musicians underscores the depth of the desire for change in our country’s direction, and it feels right to use some of the freedoms granted to us in a democracy to try and effect that change.”

“This is the fourth presidential election which Pearl Jam has engaged in as a band, and we feel it’s the most important one of our lifetime,” Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder says in a statement. “We believe in the power of the first amendment, and have always exercised our right to free speech in every aspect of our lives and music. This year there is no more powerful way for all Americans to exercise that right than by voting.

Badly Drawn Boy will launch a North American tour Oct. 5 in Vancouver. Heading out in support of his just released fourth album, “One Plus One Is One” (Astralwerks), the U.K.-based singer/songwriter has dates scheduled through an Oct. 26 show in Houston.

“One Plus One Is One” is the follow-up to 2002’s “Have You Fed the Fish?” That set bowed at No. 1 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart and No. 135 on The Billboard 200.

Here are Badly Drawn Boy’s tour dates:

Oct. 5: Vancouver (Commodore)
Oct. 6: Walla Walla, Wash. (Whitman College)
Oct. 7: Portland, Ore. (Aladdin Theatre)
Oct. 8: Seattle (Showbox)
Oct. 10: San Francisco (Fillmore)
Oct. 12: Los Angeles (Avalon)
Oct. 13: San Diego (Cane’s)
Oct. 14: Phoenix (Marquee Theatre)
Oct. 16: Salt Lake City (In the Venue)
Oct. 17: Boulder (Fox Theatre)
Oct. 18: Lawrence, Kan. (Liberty Hall)
Oct. 20: Minneapolis (Pantages Theatre)
Oct. 21: Chicago (Vic Theatre)
Oct. 22: St. Louis (Pageant)
Oct. 24: Dallas (Gypsy Tea Room)
Oct. 25: Austin, Texas (La Zona Rosa)
Oct. 26: Houston (Meridien)

Source billboard.com.

Comedian Chris Rock will release a new album, “Never Scared,” Aug. 31 via Geffen. The set culls material from his HBO special of the same name in addition to a handful of music parodies and new comedy sketches. The first single, “Crackers,” is a parody of OutKast’s No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hit “Hey Ya.” The album will also include a bonus DVD with behind-the-scenes footage from the HBO special.

“Never Scared” is Rock’s first CD release since 1999’s “Bigger and Blacker,” which peaked at No. 44 on The Billboard 200 and has sold more than 404,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

After a two-year hiatus from films, Rock will be heard in the 2005 animated feature “Madagascar” and seen in the remake of the football-themed “The Longest Yard,” also starring Adam Sandler and rapper Nelly.

Source billboard.com.

The three members of the renowned underground rock band Dispatch, Chad Urmston, Pete Francis and Brad Corrigan wouldn

The reunion tour of seminal U.K. rock act Traffic has been cancelled due to illness suffered by founding member Jim Capaldi. The drummer was diagnosed last week with a severe gastric ulcer that will require treatment. The group’s first trek since 1994 was due to begin Oct. 1 in San Francisco and visit North American theaters.

Capaldi and frontman Steve Winwood were due to be backed on the road by such sidemen as Rosko Gee, Randall Bramblett and Walfredo Reyes. Tour rehearsals were slated to begin next month in London.

Traffic initially reunited this spring to perform at its induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — minus original member Dave Mason, who played only at the show-closing jam. Winwood and Capaldi embarked on a 1994 reunion trek that found them performing at the Woodstock 25th anniversary concert and opening a host of shows for the Grateful Dead; Mason was working with Fleetwood Mac at the time.

Winwood just completed a run of European dates in support of his latest solo studio album, “About Time” (Wincraft Music/Sci Fidelity). His fall plans were unknown at deadline.

Source billboard.com.

An announcement is expected tomorrow (Aug. 4) with details of the upcoming Vote for Change tour, presented by MoveOn.Org’s political action committee MoveOn PAC and America Coming Together (ACT), an organization advocating change in government. The series is set to begin Oct. 1 in Pennsylvania and will include in the neighborhood of 40 shows in such presidential election “battleground” states as Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Missouri and Florida.

Sources say the format will be several concerts in different cities in one state on a given night; shows include R.E.M. with Bruce Springsteen, Dixie Chicks with James Taylor and Jackson Browne with Bonnie Raitt, along with performances by such acts as Jimmy Buffett, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews Band. A host of additional acts are expected to participate.

Tentative plans call for a major concert featuring several acts on Oct. 10 in Miami. Among those spearheading the effort are Springsteen’s manager Jon Landau and R.E.M. manager Bertis Downs.

A number of artists will be hitting the airwaves tomorrow to discuss the tour; Matthews will appear in the morning on NBC’s “The Today Show,” while R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills will be interviewed by Al Franken at 1:30 p.m ET on the Air America Radio Network.

Source billboard.com.