Amy Black and the Red Clay Rascals (GTSB sister band) will be performing at Caffe Paradiso, 45 Palmer Street in Lowell on March 13th as a part of hometown legend Jack Kerouac’s birthday celebration.

For more information visit the event Web site at http://www.cometolowell.com/

The Boston Swing Dance

When – Saturday, March 13th

Admission – $15, which includes a beginners’ lesson.

Student Discount – $10 (Show your current student ID to get $5 off the admission price.)

Beginners’ Lesson – starts at 8:00 pm. The one hour lesson includes beginning swing dance, Two-Step, and ends with one intermediate swing dance move.

The band – plays from 9:00 to midnight.

Get ready for a night of Western Swing! Not to be confused with the dance “West Coast Swing”, Western Swing can be described as country jazz, popularized during the Big Band era by Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. Asleep at the Wheel is a group playing it today. This music really swings.

The Doughboys, known as “The Best Two-Step Band in the Land”, is also great to swing dance to. Joined by Joyce Andersen, the evening will offer plenty of swinging, Two-Stepping and good times. Oh, and feel free to wear your cowboy duds. If you want to check out some Western Swing music, listen to Asleep at the Wheel here, or check out the music clip of The Dixie Doughboys below.

The lesson will be taught by Susan Huppe and Roger Weiss and will include the usual Swing and Two-Step, as well as the 10-step Polka (taught after the first set).

Click here to hear them do “There’s an Old Watermill” (3Mb mp3 file)

Check them out on Youtube:  Honey Don’t Sugar Moon Right or Wrong

The BBU is pleased to welcome Blue Highway on Saturday, March 20th for a concert at the National Heritage Museum in Lexington , MA . We last presented the band in 2009 at Joe Val, but this time they’ll have the evening all to themselves for a big evening to celebrate the band’s 15th anniversary.

It is rare for a band to last for 15 years in any genre, even if it goes through various lineup changes. It is astonishing to keep the same five members throughout a career that has produced numerous awards. Blue Highway is the very paradigm of a modern bluegrass band: a truly self-contained ensemble that excels on every level.

Instrumentally, their sound is defined by the intricate interplay of eleven-time International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Dobro Player of the Year Rob Ickes, hard-driving banjo player Jason Burleson, and the rippling mandolin and fiddle of Shawn Lane . Vocally, bassist Wayne Taylor has one of the most soulful and identifiable voices in the music, which blends seamlessly with Lane’s pure tenor. Guitarist and vocalist Tim Stafford remains one of the most respected and admired flat pickers on the scene, contributing propulsive rhythm and nimble lead playing in addition to stirring lead and harmony vocals.

It is as songwriters, however, that Blue Highway have truly enlivened and extended bluegrass. All members contribute, from Burleson and Ickes’s jaw dropping instrumentals to the nuanced, poetic songs of Taylor , Lane, and Stafford . Of their last album of new material, 2008’s all-original Through the Windows of a Train, NPR’s Folk Alley said, “Through the Window of a Train covers such topics as war, the homeless and mortality – not typical fodder for bluegrass bands. Familiar topics also surface (trains, lost love, wanderlust), but they’re presented with new perspectives.”

To mark the band’s 15th anniversary, they have recently released Some Day, an anthology featuring previously released and new material, on Rounder Records. As their innumerable awards (including multiple IBMA awards, Grammy nominations, and a Dove award) attest, Blue Highway represent the pinnacle of expression in bluegrass, echoing back the timeless roots of the music while continuing to find new musical and lyrical contexts to explore.

Help Blue Highway celebrate fifteen years by visiting http://www.bluehighwayband.com/Pages/15Years.html

Blue Highway video from the 2009 Joe Val Bluegrass Festival – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdxiKChcrTo

March Mandolin Festival 2010 Concert
Saturday, March 6th at 7:30 pm
Concord Community Music School
23 Wall St., Concord, NH 03301

Featuring: Mike Compton, Will Patton, Glen Loper, and David Surette with special guest Susie Burke

Call (603) 228-1196 for more information and tickets

Sunday, March 7, 2010
@ Jackson Homestead
527 Washington Street, Newton, MA
Doors 5pm, Concert 5:15pm

(arrive early, the museum is open free of charge to Newton residents noon-5pm)

Minimum suggested donation $15, 25% less for museum members.
All donations go to the museum and artist.

Reservations recommended – notlobreservations @ gmail.com

Making records since she was 19, Claire Lynch has long been recognized as a creative force in bluegrass music and at the forefront of women who have expanded the genre. She has received 2 Grammy nominations, countless specialized awards and other nominations – along with reverent standing ovations for her shows at prestigious music festivals and theaters for the past 2-3 decades. Her latest album Whatcha Gonna Do was released in September on Rounder Records. A new Claire Lynch album does more than herald the arrival of a new collection of stellar vocals and tight, tasteful arrangements – each album also showcases Lynch’s remarkable taste in songs.

Over the past two decades, Lynch has crafted one of the most instantly-identifiable sounds in acoustic music. Delicate and lilting, yet uplifting and rhythmically spry, Lynch’s style encompasses classic bluegrass and thoughtful infusions of contemporary folk, country, rock, and swing. As a songwriter, Lynch’s songs have been recorded by Kathy Mattea, Patty Loveless, and others, and she has performed as a backing/harmony vocalist with Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Patty Loveless, Pam Tillis, just to name a few.

And The Claire Lynch Band is a tight meld of some of the best in the business – Mark Schatz, Jason Thomas, and Matt Wingate award-winning bluegrass and acoustic stars in their own right.