2005

Mavis Staples and Charlie Musselwhite led the field with three trophies each at the 26th W.C. Handy Awards, held last night (May 5) in Memphis. Staples won best album and best soul album for “Have a Little Faith,” and was also named top female soul artist.

Musselwhite’s latest release, “Sanctuary,” won best contemporary album. He was also named best contemporary artist and best blues harmonica player.

B.B. King earned his seventh consecutive entertainer of the year trophy, while the Holmes Brothers were named best blues band and John Lee Hooker Jr. won best new artist debut for “Blues With a Vengeance.”

Here are the W.C. Handy Awards winners:

Acoustic blues album: Double Take Kenny Neal and Billy Branch
Acoustic blues artist: David “Honeyboy” Edwards
New artist debut: “Blues With a Vengeance,” John Lee Hooker Jr.
Blues album: “Have a Little Faith,” Mavis Staples
Blues band: the Holmes Brothers
Blues bass: Willie Kent
Blues drums: Willie “Big Eyes” Smith
Blues entertainer: B.B. King
Blues guitar: Bob Margolin
Blues harmonica: Charlie Musselwhite
Blues horns: Roomful Of Blues Horns
Blues instrumentalist: Robert Randolph
Blues keyboards: Marcia Ball
Blues song: “Have a Little Faith,” Jim Tullio and Jim Weider
Comeback blues album: “Back in 20,” Gary U.S. Bonds
Contemporary blues album: “Sanctuary,” Charlie Musselwhite
Contemporary blues artist: Charlie Musselwhite
Contemporary blues artist: Shemekia Copeland
Historical blues album: “Release the Hound,” Hound Dog Taylor
Soul blues album: “Have a Little Faith,” Mavis Staples
Soul blues artist: Mavis Staples
Soul blues artist: Bobby Rush
Traditional blues album: “Ladies Man,” Pinetop Perkins
Traditional blues artist: Koko Taylor
Traditional blues artist: Pinetop Perkins

Source billboard.com.

Widespread Panic, The Black Crowes, The Allman Brothers Band, Wilco, Gov’t Mule, Mike Gordon & Leo Kottke, The Black Keys and Robert Randolph & The Family Band are among the artists scheduled to perform at the 2005 Austin City Limits Music Festival. Now in its fourth year, the ACL Festival has emerged as Texas

Guitarist John Scofield salutes the music of the late Ray Charles on his new album, “That’s What I Say.” The 13-track set is due June 7 via Verve and was produced by Steve Jordan, a veteran of sessions with everyone from the Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen to jazz legend Sonny Rollins and B.B. King.

“That’s What I Say” marks the first time Scofield has worked with guest vocalists, of which there are several high-profile names here. The track “What’d I Say” boasts appearances by John Mayer, Warren Haynes, Aaron Neville, Dr. John and Mavis Staples, as well as Charles saxophonist David “Fathead” Newman.

Haynes adds bottleneck guitar to “Night Time Is the Right Time,” while Mayer does the same on “I Don’t Need No Doctor.” Neville reappears on vocals on “You Don’t Know Me,” while Dr. John and Staples team on “Talkin’ Bout You/I Got a Woman.”

Scofield will be on tour throughout the rest of the year, and at deadline is scheduled to play several fall shows featuring Charles’ music, including a Sept. 17 appearance at the Monterey (Calif.) Jazz Fest.

Here is the track list for “That’s What I Say”:

“Busted”
“What’d I Say”
“Sticks and Stones”
“I Don’t Need No Doctor”
“Cryin’ Time”
“I Can’t Stop Loving You”
“Hit the Road Jack”
“Talkin’ Bout You”/”I Got a Woman”
“Unchain My Heart (Part 1)”
“Let’s Go Get Stoned”
“Night Time Is the Right Time”
“You Don’t Know Me”
“Georgia on My Mind”

Source billboard.com.

Napster creator Shawn Fanning has made a deal with music giant EMI for use of his Snocap music tracking system. Snocap allows internet users to trade music legitimately over peer-to-peer networks as every song is given a unique fingerprint.

Early file-sharing system Napster was shut down in 2001 after US judges said it was breaking copyright law but it has re-launched as a legal service.

Snocap has already signed deals with Sony BMG and Universal. Terms of Snocap’s EMI deal were not disclosed when the agreement was announced on Thursday.

Source: BBC

Production of the popular Comedy Central series “Chappelle’s Show” has been suspended and its third season’s premiere indefinitely delayed. Comedy Central issued a statement Wednesday, saying: “All parties are optimistic that production will resume in the near future.”

The season will not start May 31 as originally scheduled, the statement added.

cnn.com

“Episode III — Revenge of the Sith” is the first “Star Wars” tale to receive a PG-13 rating. The movie was screened for reporters Tuesday night at Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch, and the PG-13 rating — “for sci-fi violence and some intense images” — is well-deserved.

The action is relentless and includes sequences more dark and disturbing than anything previously seen in the tragic Skywalker soap opera.

Source: cnn

Newport, Wales, hip-hop pranksters Goldie Lookin Chain have confirmed a small series of dates to support their debut CD “Straight Outta Newport.” Record Collection will be releasing the CD on May 10. The band will be kicking off their Stateside dates with a their American network debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live on May 25th.

The band, already massive in Great Britain, is starting to make inroads stateside. In March they became the talk of the SXSW convention playing three packed shows in two days. Entertainment Weekly said the record is full of “strangely irresistible rhymes and dirt-cheap samples.” Blender gave “Straight Outta Newport” three stars saying ” Time magazine put their song “Self Suicide” in their list of “Top 10 songs worth at least 99 cents.”

The dates for the tour are as follows:

5/25 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Troubadour
5/26 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
5/29 – Chicago, IL @ The Abbey
5/30 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom