New England is blessed with a wonderfully wide range of summer music festivala. Some of them focus on a single musical genera. The Mystic Seaport’s annual Sea Music Festival is really kind of self explanatory. The Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, as well as many others in the region, focus on this most American of musical styles. Fans of contemporary folk singer/songwriters flock to the Falcon Ridge Festival year after year. Looking for more traditional styles, look no further than the Old Songs festival just over the border in New York State.

The Lowell Folk Festival and the American Folk Festival in Bangor, Maine, both offshoots of the National Folk Festival, feature a panoply of the music of our countries immigrant cultures. Some festival, however, are rather more eclectic in nature.

The New Bedford Folk Festival (formerly Summerfest) covers the waterfront, so to speak. From very traditional and Celtic to blues, bluegrass, guitar virtuosos, and many well known performing songwriters as well. For a preview of this year’s New Bedford festival, tune to Acoustic Sunrise on Sunday Morning, June 23rd when Alan and Helene Korolenko, Artistic Directors of the festival will be my guests. We’ll be previewing the festival with music by as many of the artists as we can fit in. And don’t forget to look for the WUMB table at the festival, plus, I’ll be the large guy with the white beard hosting the Whaling Museum stage this year.

You can also look for WUMB at the venerable Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island. It is one of the most prestigious festivals of any kind in the country and we are pleased to be associated with it again this year.

While it’s is not exactly a music festival you’ll also see WUMB at selected performance in the Lowell Summer Music series. And you can expect to find information on the free music series we are doing during the month of August in conjunction with the Berklee College of Music here on the website shortly.

All and all, it looks to be a great summer of music, I hope you get out and enjoy some.

-We are looking for volunteers to help out at the New Bedford Summerfest, and the Lowell Summer Music Series.  If you are interested, call 617-287-6900 or email wumb@umb.edu

-For you SAMW’rs , Week 1 has sold out!   It’s not too late to register for Week 2, and spaces are filling fast!  To register give us a call at 617-287-6900 or visit http://wumb.org/samw

June 6-10 &  the 28th,     July 5 & 7 & 18,      August 3, 10, 17 , 24, 23, 30
-SAMW is filling up fast!  If you haven’t registed yet, today is the perfect time!  Give us a call at 617-287-6900 or visit http://wumb.org/samw/home/ for details and registration.

Now in it’s 18th year, the Summer Acoustic Music Week (SAMW) offers participants the chance to work with some of the best folk and acoustic musicians  and teachers in the country.

This years instructors include: Pete and Maura Kennedy, Brooks Williams, Penny Nichols and many more!

SAMW is sponsored by WUMB Radio and each exuberant week is filled with intensive instruction, jamming, workshops, concerts, open mics and musical collaborations attuned to the needs of each student.   No matter what your musical skill or experience, you can enjoy your week at SAMW!

For more information, please visit www.wumb.org/samw

The time blocks we will need volunteers are as follows:

Friday 3/15 between 11am-7pm

Sat. 3/16 *Highway 61 Revisted 8am-Noon
and between Noon -10pm

Sun. 3/17 *between 8am-2pm and between 2pm-11pm

Tues. 3/19 between 11am-10pm

Wed. 3/20 between 11am-3pm

Thurs. 3/21 between 3pm-10pm

Friday 3/22 between 11am-10pm

Sat. 3/23 *Highway 61 Revisited 8am-Noon and between Noon-8pm

Sun. 3/24 *between 8am-midnight

Mon. 3/25 between 11am-7pm

If you are interested, please give us call at 617-287-6900 or email me, amber.young@umb.edu,  with your availability! Feel free to forward this information on to a friend or family member.

*Weekends are high priority to fill.

We look forward to seeing you!!

-Amber Young   WUMB Office Coordinator

…that Marilyn and Perry met a few months before Perry came to WUMB in a recording studio at The Perkins School for the Blind?  It’s a very special recording studio familiar to both Marilyn, Perry and to many of our listeners who are blind.  Both Marilyn and Perry are volunteer narrators who regularly record talking books and other materials for the Perkin’s Library. (Marilyn Rea-Beyer)

…that New Orleans-born blues musician Frankie Lee Sims, (who recorded for Specialty Records in the 1950′s), used baling wire for guitar strings? (Brendan Hogan)

George Knight here.  I host the late night show on WUMB, and you can join me Monday through Thursday, 10pm-Midnight.  I’ve been really digging deep into the new Jerry Douglas album Traveler, which I’ve been enjoying because it happents to have great songs on it & an eclectic cast of guest artists ranging from Paul Simon and Eric Clapton, to Keb Mo and Mumford & Sons.  It really has some lovely vocal work on it, along with wonderful Dobro guitar playing-which is Jerry Douglas’s specialty.  As I’ve been enjoying the music, the mind has wandered (or is that wobbled) and I started thinking about what a cool instrument the Dobro is.  Then I think a bit deeper about the fact that “Dobro” is used as a generic term for a resonator guitar, much as we use “Kleenex” or “Coke” when we mean tissue or cola.  I call it that mainly because that’s what my Dad called it, but if you want to get technical, Dobro is a brand name (at last check owned by Gibson), but there are other companies that have made resonator guitars under other names.  I realize this isn’t information that will right all the wrongs of the world, but for a guitar geek like myself, it’s fun to think about.

So what is a resonator guitar?  It’s basically a guitar that uses a metal cone to amplify the sounds of the strings rather than a traditional wooden soundboard like on a standard acoustic guitar.  The design came about from a need for the guitar to be loud enough to compete with other instruments in dance bands, and has stayed around because – for lack of a deeper explanation –  it’s got a cool sound that’s different from your run of the mill acoustic guitar.  It’s typically played like a lap steel guitar (with a slide), although there have also been designs that were played in a “traditional” stance.  I strongly recommend you check out the new Jerry Douglas album Traveler, and in the meantime I’ll be thinking of more geeky tidbits of musical instrument information to pass along.

-George

Don’t forget!  If you are planning on shopping online for the holidays, visit wumb.org and use the Amazon.com link to start your shopping!  A portion of all sales made through that link go to support WUMB Radio.