For those who noticed the change in the title of this section during June, you may have wondered what was going on. For those who are looking for the Country page for July, you may have to stand by. After last month's article, I've decided to change the focus of my topic to the Americana style of the greater Country and Western genre. This means we'll be looking at Bluegrass and Western styles of music. I'm hoping that Suite 101 will find someone, maybe a with a younger point-of-view, to bring back a "New Country" topic. Over the next month, I'll be changing the links to reflect the new topic. Let's look at two sites for this new topic.
Fields of Grass
Bluegrass Radio Network features a weekly hour-long radio program called "Into The Blue." The show is available in both MP3 and RealAudio formats and can be streamed for both 56 kbps and cable modem speeds. Radio stations take note: the show is available free ("on a barter basis") to both commercial and non-commercial stations.
You can also catch some of the past shows in the archive. There are currently (as of July 1) five shows in the archive (shows 120 through 124). Each show has a separate page where you can see the playlist for the show. There are also four different special event shows to which you can listen. These include the 11th annual International Bluegrass Music Association Awards show that was recorded live on October 19, 2000 in Louisville, Kentucky. Also available is a show featuring John Hartford that was recorded live at the Station Inn on Saturday, December 11, 1999. Sadly, John passed away last month.
If you're looking for a bluegrass listening opportunity with a reasonable length, this is a show you'll want to visit on a regular basis. My only complaint is that you don't know what songs are playing. Either the show's host needs to do more announcing or a playlist for the current show neds to be available. This site definitely gets a Bookmark rating.
In the Western CorralMootown Music
On this site, you're greeted each month with a featured artist of Western music. This month we get a peek at Lorraine Rawls. Clicking on the length gets you a bio, show itinerary and discography. Lorraine's new CD, "Through Her Eyes", is available through the site (more on that later); I could not find it at eaither CDNow or Amazon.com. There are a few sound clips for this album, which sounds pretty good.
Go To Page: 1 2
