Lou’s In the Sky with Diamonds

Roll Over Beethoven
It really doesn’t matter what sort of music you listen to. From classical to whatever-the-heck the latest sound is, Louisville gets to be center stage to just about all of it.

Day Tripper
Abbey Road on the River | May 27–31
This holiday weekend over 30,000 music fans will be descending on the Belvedere to pay homage to the Beatles in the biggest event of its kind in America. With an average of over 60 bands annually, the festival features different types of bands . . . from acts that look, sound, and behave like the Beatles to others that just play the music of Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison without trying to reproduce the sound. Click here for more information.

Do You Want to Know a Secret?
Show up on Monday, tell ‘em you’re a Friend of Lou, and you can go to the festival for free. For nothing. Gratis. Want to stay longer? The Galt House is offering a special $99 rate. Same deal — just tell them who sent you.

Money (That’s What I Want)
University of Louisville Guitar Festival and Competition | May 28–31
The University of Louisville School of Music inaugural Guitar Festival and Competition assembles an international roster of top-rate guitarists, including Jason Vieaux, the Tantalus Quartet, William Yelverton, Dieter Hennings, David Walker, and others. The festival also features a competition . . . presumably for the highly strung . . . that comes with a fat $1,000 first-place award and concert. Click here for more information.

Got To Get You Into My Life
Forecastle Festival | Friday July 9–11
If you prefer your rock to look forward than backward, Forecastle’s for you. Founded right here in Possibility City, the event is equal parts music, art, and activism. Connecting the progressive Midwest, Forecastle has grown from 700 people in 2002 in Tyler Park to over 12,000 people at the Belvedere. Spin magazine named it one of the top “101 Things to Do in America.” The festival’s growing so much that its moving to Waterfront Park this year. Click here for more information.

P.S. I Love You
You know us — the very souls of philanthropy. EMAIL US the best concert or band you ever saw perform in Louisville, and the story that impresses us the most will get two tickets to Forecastle — plus we’ll share it in our next email, ensuring you not only of great wealth but immediate fame.

I Want to Tell You
HullabaLOU | July 23–25
Since we’re on the topic of music and festivals, let’s not forget the newest addition to Louisville’s music lineup — HullabaLOU. Sure, it has a cool name, but it also has three days of music, five stages set in one of America’s most legendary venues (Churchill Downs), and more than 65 artists ranging from Al Green to the Zac Brown Band. Click here for more information.

Louisville: City of Scandal

Joan Baez, Freddie Mercury, William Shakespeare, Elmo, and a drag queen all in the same place. It’s possible here.
Dear Friend: We can’t share the shocking images with you here. But if you CLICK THIS LINK you can be among the few in-the-know people to see hitherto-unreleased pictures of some of Louisville’s most incendiary moments since Donnie Wahlberg set fire to the carpet in the Galt House.

Now, if you’re a Friend of Lou, you already know why Louisville’s known as Possibility City: the oddest and downright-darndest things just keep happening here.

So it’s no surprise our nationally acclaimed Kentucky Center for the Arts has an almost-impossible series of events lined up for March. It’s called Arts Madness. From Blues and Rock to Folk and Jazz; from film to dance and world music, family programming, and drag — the Center’s bringing it all together in one place for one month.

Intrigued?
For more mind-boggling details about Arts Madness, CLICK HERE.

Outraged (but strangely attracted)?
EMAIL US to tell us the most shocking thing you’ve ever seen (or heard) happen in Louisville. For your troubles, assuming we’re adequately shocked, we’re giving away four pairs of tickets to One Night of Queen (March 31).

Louisville Renounces Bluegrass Status

From Bluegrass to Newgrass
Some fine cities kick up their heels to Country and Western. Some places happily embrace Grunge (at least we think they’re happy). While other cities are the cool, laid-back-chilled-out cradles of Blues, Jazz, and Soul.

And although Possibility City certainly celebrates its fair share of all these awesome music styles, did you know we’re actually home to our very own, unique genre?

Yes, my friend, Louisville was the birthplace of Newgrass, a form of music that mixes traditional Bill Monroe-styled Bluegrass with a progressive fusion of Rock, Blues, and Jazz.

And next week, two of Bluegrass’s most innovative and influential bands return to Louisville to take part in the Bluegrass Hotel and Concert Festival. On March 20, to co-publicize a major project (“The Bluegrass Hotel”), the Galt House Hotel is throwing an all-star fundraising concert for the American Cancer Society.

Show up and you’ll be treated to jam sessions, booths, exhibits, and of course a kick-ass Newgrass concert featuring some of the greatest names in the game, including Sam Bush and other original members of the New Grass Revival and The Bluegrass Alliance bands.

The New Grass Revival and its predecessor, The Bluegrass Alliance, were the bands that created and defined Newgrass. And central to the Bluegrass scene in the halcyon days of the ’70s was an old Victorian mansion on Cherokee Road, the Bluegrass Hotel, which counts among its denizens and past-residents famous artists such as Sam Bush (credited as the father of Newgrass), Dan Crary, Tony Rice, Vince Gill, John Cowan, Curtis Burch, J.D. Crowe, Jerry Douglas, and Ricky Skaggs.

To get a taste of what we are talking about, check out a couple of clips we found:

Sam Bush “Eight More Miles to Louisville”
Dan Crary Flatpicking Medley

Slip Me Some Skin, Jack
Help kick off WFPK’s Fundraiser. WFPK’s Live Lunch will be at the Bluegrass Hotel and Concert Festival on Friday March 20, and the first 25 people to show up and say they’re Friends of Lou will get reserved seats to watch Ben Sollee and Arnett Hollow jam with some of the New Grass Revival and The Bluegrass Alliance members. These things are usually packed, so either show up early or . . .

Tell us why Newgrass could only have happened in Possibility City, and we’ll break it down Louisville-style. We’ll select the ten most smokin’ answers and frisk the writers’ whiskers with reserve tickets to the the Live Lunch. E-mail us by CLICKING HERE, man . . .