Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Carter Family reaches Alaska!



Jamie Smith reads his copy of "Carter Family: Don't Forget This Song" at The Comic Shop of Fairbanks, AK.  Thanks to The Comics Shop for making sure the book is available in Alaska, and thanks to Jamie, who is a cartoonist himself, for purchasing a copy (and providing this photo)!

On a related note: If your local shop is having trouble ordering "Carter Family", I am told that Tony Shenton is a distributor who can get Abrams ComicsArts books to stores without a problem...
http://shenton4sales.tumblr.com/Abrams


Thursday, August 7, 2014

A great new home for the Birthplace of Country Music Museum


I visited Bristol (on the VA/TN border) back in 2003, because I wanted to see where the Carter Family made their first recordings. A highlight of my visit was the Birthplace of Country Music Museum. But the museum was located NOT on historic State Street, where the Bristol Sessions happened in 1927, but outside of town, inside a shopping mall.  Though the location was disappointing, the museum was rewarding.

I was so happy to hear the news that the museum has opened in a new location, just off State Street, and its appearance has the blend of charm and authority that a visitor to the site of the "Big Bang of Country Music" would hope for. 


(photo borrowed from NPR's site)


This is the musuem's website:
http://www.birthplaceofcountrymusic.org/

For added details, check out this NPR report...
http://www.npr.org/2014/08/02/336550368/at-the-cradle-of-country-music-a-monument-you-can-hear-as-well-as-see

Congratulations to "Winding Stream"!


Congratulations to Beth Harrington and crew on the success of "The Winding Stream", the definitive documentary of the Carter and Cash families.  The film had its New York debut to a packed house at Lincoln Center on Monday. It has won four festival awards (so far). And was written about by Rolling Stone: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/9-things-we-learned-from-the-new-carter-family-documentary-20140806

I'm still waiting for it to come to Seattle...  Can't wait to see it!