South by Southwest Conference Is Launching Pad for Latest Mobile and Social Media Applications

We’ve reported before on this conference that happens every spring in Austin, TX but only as it has pertained to the bluegrass community. 

True, the SXSW annual music, film, and interactive conference and festival is much more than just one genre or even artistic discipline but their success is undeniable.  With that thought, we attempt here to venture beyond our usual bluegrass boundaries in hopes that our favorite music style can learn and grow from the best practices of another conference with similar goals.

Below is a  very detailed graphic of some of the most popular apps that have sprung from SXSW including the ever popular Twitter who began there in 2007.   The graphic is courtesy of Matt Anderson and his team at

PromotionalCodes.net     @PromoCodesNet

Please use the comment section below to give us your thoughts about how the bluegrass community could approach our industry  and annual conference using same or similar ideas.   Whether you may be for or against such attempts, please let us hear your views.    Thank You!

Bluegrass at SXSW

CMT News alerts us to some interesting Bluegrass that will be happening at the South By South West festival this week.

Click Photos to Hear Music Samples

In an article by Craig Shelburne, 10  Lone-Star artists are showcasing and Shelburne notes that four of the ten are bluegrass acts.

The Carper Family are quite intriguing, although its members aren't actually related. These three gals mix old country, old-time, bluegrass and swing tunes into their original catalog. Their harmonious blend recalls a simpler time, yet one of their numbers is titled "Who R U Textin 2nite."    This particular collaboration has blended stunning three part harmonies into the finest old country, old-time, bluegrass, and swing tunes.   Get dialed into their sound on Saturday at 11 p.m. at Stephen F's.

 

Old-Timey, Heirloom, Bluegrass? Whatever You Call It, Call It Good Music!

The Wronglers w/ Jimmie Dale
Gilmore and their CD "Heirloom Music" 

WRONGLER'S HEIRLOOM MUSIC DUE NEXT MONTH

San Francisco billionaire Warren Hellman knows the ins and outs about putting on a music festival. For the last 10 years he’s been the driving force and sole financial backer for San Francisco’s free Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival - a gift from Hellman to the city of San Francisco.

Hellman sometimes steps out from behind the scenes into a different role, playing banjo as a featured performer with his band The Wronglers a play on Wrangler jeans, since Levi Strauss is San Francisco-based.

The Wronglers
(Warren Hellman, Nate Levine, B Martin,
K Martin, Colleen Browne and Chris Hellman) 

This year, the Wronglers have teamed up with folk/country Texas singer-songwriter Jimmie Dale Gilmore to release the aptly named album Heirloom Music, a beautiful collection of classic songs from the '30s and '40s in a genre they call "oldtime".  The CD is due out next month or early May.

Gilmore writes songs that would be described as alternative country. But for his forthcoming album, Heirloom Music with The Wronglers — he says he was thinking more in terms of bluegrass music — although that's not an exact description.

"We were calling it old-timey music, but that still wasn't quite accurate," he says. "But [bluegrass musician and investor] Warren Hellman had said that someone had referred to this sort of music as 'heirloom music,' and I loved that phrase. There's something dismissive about [the term 'old-timey'] and our point is that this music is old, but it's really good and really still pertinent."

Jimmy Dale Gilmore on NPR's "Fresh Air"

Listen here or download

The high-lonesome, warbling tenor sound of Gilmore’s expressive voice is a perfect fit for the “old time” music of the Wronglers. Sailing through harmonious renditions of songs like “Time Changes Everything,” “In the Pines” and “Deep Ellum Blues,” the band delighted an overflow crowd yesterday at the SXSW music and film conference in Austin, TX. 

Hellman, on banjo, was dapper in a sequin-spangled jacket and a tie once owned by banjo virtuoso Earl Scruggs (a gift from Scruggs’ son).

At the end of their SXSW set, Hellman and Gilmore traded lead vocals on a cheerful “Big Rock Candy Mountain," in which Hellman’s voice was oddly reminiscent of the original version performed by the song’s composer, Harry McClintock.