MEMBER NEWS:
If you are an Active member and do not have a SAMF membership card, please email me at samusicfoundation@gmail.com. If you are unsure if you’re an Active member, please don’t hesitate to ask.
NOTE: To receive discounts, you must show your membership card. To enter to win tickets, you must be an Active member. And as always, please don’t hesitate to contact me at the email address above.
DISCOUNTS FOR MEMBERS: The discounts we’ve arranged at this time are:
- Sportsmen’s Tavern – The first Tuesday of every month, starting on April 5th, all members who show their card at the door will get free admission to The Twang Gang. Please see Chairman’s note below.
- Buffalo Ironworks – 10% off all food items
- Record Theatre – 10% off all regular priced items
- The Tralf – Buy 3 tickets for a show and get the 4th free with a reserved table
- Allentown Music – 10% off all regular items
- Smolen/Bonghi CPA – 10% off all tax preparation and accounting services
- Korona Jewelry – 2 discounts
- Watch batteriers installed for $5 instead of $7.
- 25% off the regular price off anything in stock.
SEE THE BELOW NOTE FOR FOUNDATION NIGHT AT THE SPORTSMEN’S TAVERN.
Thanks!
Angela Hastings
Note from the Chairman of the Board:
FOUNDATION NIGHTS AT THE SPORTSMEN’S TAVERN
By now, most of you should have your SAM Foundation membership card. Listed in this, and previous editions of the newsletter, are discounts being offered by various businesses when you show them your SAMF card. That list will continue to grow in the coming months.
The Sportsmen’s Tavern is joining that list with our announcement of FOUNDATION NIGHT at the TAVERN. The first Tuesday of every month, starting on April 5th, all members who show their card at the door will get free admission to The Twang Gang. We’ll also be including the most current information of SAMF events, upcoming concerts and Foundation activities. You can get your SAMF merchandise and speak with Board members to share your ideas and provide your feedback.
Thanks to all of you for your membership. We’re doing great things together for the music and arts scene in Buffalo and WNY.
Dwane Hall
Chairman of the Board
SAM Foundation
Americana Airplay Top 10:
- TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND Let Me Get By
- LUCINDA WILLIAMS The Ghosts Of Highway 20
- BONNIE RAITT Dig In Deep
- CARRIE RODRIGUEZ Lola
- CACTUS BLOSSOMS You’re Dreaming
- DYLAN LEBLANC Cautionary Tale
- LORETTA LYNN Full Circle
- WYNONNA & THE BIG NOISE Wynonna & The Big Noise
- INFAMOUS STRINGDUSTERS Ladies & Gentlemen
- AUBRIE SELLERS New City Blues
List taken from March 2016 Americana Music Association http://americanamusic.org/
Buffalo Bob Sez:
Fortunately it never ends, it hardly even slows down. There is so much great music in WNY. In the past month alone, my highlights were SzelestFest, honoring the life of Stan Szelest, at the Sportsmen’s Tavern, Los Lobos at UB, the Tom Waits Tribute night at The Sportsmen’s, with Ten Cent Howl, Joelle Labert, Shaky Stage and many more, the Ring of Fire production at MusicalFare Theatre and Peter Case at The Sportsmen’s with Jim Whitford, Mark Winsick and Rob Lynch. And the best of them all was Dave and Phil Alvin with the Guilty Ones in a sold-out show at The Sportsmen’s.
If you’re reading this as soon as we email it to you, I hope you get out this weekend and see some live Irish music. Among many other choices, SAMF members McCarthyizm will be appearing at Live at O’Larkin on Friday the 18th.
Let’s get to the free tickets. Last month, Christine Whitman and Dave Oestreicher won for Dan Baird and Leroy Townes at 189 Public House, Joy McCarville won for Los Lobos at UB Center for the Arts, Theresa Habberfield won Peter Case tickets, Susan Lewis won for Dave and Phil Alvin, and Corey McLennan won tickets to see Kurt Vile and The Violators at Babeville.
It’s great that we have so many other venues willing to collaborate with us. There are a couple more not listed above that have also joined us in the past. Additionally, we will be working with MusicalFare Theatre at Daemen College for future productions and there are some other ideas in the works as well. The whole point of this, of course, is that our goal is to be a full Western New York music foundation. Your membership card is already good for a variety of discounts at multiple venues and that will be added to as time goes on.
The American Repertory Theatre is up and running at the 330 Studio next door to The Sportsmen’s Tavern. Vice President Don Nelson has arranged great educational efforts at The Valley Community Center including guitar lessons for kids; we’re working with the Buffalo String Works, and the TV show, “Live From Black Rock” is extremely close to finished and will be rolling out very soon. Our next big event is The 1st Annual Tom Hambridge Americana Music Festival on June 25th at Riverside Park.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day, Happy Easter and Dyngus Day; support live music and stay tuned.
Bob McLennan, President
Sportsmen’s Americana Music Foundation
Kenny’s Korner
I just happened to stumble on the NGDB show on our local NPR station. In addition to John McEuen, another Sportsmen’s alum, Rodney Crowell performed.
Take a look @ how the Black Lillies are doing these days after their van & trailer full of gear was stolen.
NITTY GRITTY DIRT BAND REIGNITES FAN BASE WITH PBS STAR-STUDDED SPECIAL
Iconic Group Among Amazon Best-Sellers, Continues Non-Stop 50th Anniversary Tour
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (March 15, 2016) – The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (Jeff Hanna, Jimmie Fadden, Bob Carpenter and John McEuen) continues to bring their boundless energy and decades of hits to homes across the country with their star-studded televised PBS Pledge Special, which airs tonight at 7pm CST on WNPT in Nashville. Click here to find dates and times for when the PBS Pledge Special airs in your market.
The PBS Pledge Special special has reinvigorated the iconic group’s legion of fans. Currently Will the Circle Be Unbroken (30th Anniversary Edition) is one of the best sellers in the classic country and bluegrass charts.
The PBS Pledge special, made possible with support from the Tennessee Department of Tourism, also features guest artists, including John Prine, Sam Bush, Vince Gill, Jerry Jeff Walker, Alison Krauss, Rodney Crowell, Byron House, and Jerry Douglas as well as former members, Jimmy Ibbotson (long-time member for decades) and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and early NGDB member Jackson Browne.
There will be an accompanying CD and DVD that include extra songs and performances as well as concert tickets and meet and greets in select markets available exclusively through PBS member stations.
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has a full slate of dates to commemorate their Golden 50th anniversary planned to run through the end of 2017, with many additional dates to be announced. Plans are to be extensive with select shows featuring special guests in select markets as well as many new exciting show elements.
Black Lillies
Quick update – we’ve been busy gathering new instruments, a new trailer, GPS tracking devices, tools .. you name it, it feels like we have researched it, borrowed it or bought it lately! After years of playing a Nord keyboard, Cruz finally bought the Korg he’s been lusting after for quite some time – and it’s like no other keyboard I’ve seen before! I call it his vampire keyboard because the keys are black and red. It actually looks pretty cool and sounds amazing … and there’s no doubt it’s a little more rock & roll than the old one.
Bowman decided to buy a new drum kit, rather than seeking out another vintage kit. After consulting with the band, he went with a Ludwig “galaxy sparkle” kit, which is black with a swirl of silver, gold, and purple sparkles all over it. Also looking and sounding great!
Jonathan is still in search of a pedal steel and we’ve still not determined what to do about new acoustic guitars or a mandolin yet. I think Cruz is still hoping that Ruby will show up, but in the meantime we’re keeping an eye out for other options.
We just received a new batch of t-shirts so that our merch table can be fully stocked. Still waiting on some new CDs and hats to come in, but we’re getting there on the merch front.
We bought a new trailer and it feels like an upgrade – it has it’s own brake system, which we didn’t have before – plus double axles instead of single. While playing in New York and Philadelphia last week, we encountered plenty of toll booths and realized exactly what a difference double axles make … those tolls were far more expensive than we remembered! But, the weight is more evenly distributed and we think it will end up being more reliable and safe in the long run.
We did have a slight setback when a reckless driver drifted into Cruz’s lane the other night (Cruz and his son were driving home) and caused a third driver to swerve and hit the trailer. The axle was bent and it and the entire wheelbase have to be replaced. But everyone is safe, no instruments were in the trailer at the time, and we now have an insurance policy on the trailer so everything is going to be ok. The scarcity of replacement parts caused a momentary headache when we were first told the trailer wouldn’t be repaired in time for the band to leave on tour this week, but we managed to find someone who was willing to drive almost eight hours each way to pick up the part so that we can get on the road on time (thanks, Joe!).
One interesting note, and something I’m not sure I mentioned previously – the insurance claims adjuster came back and they actually determined that the replacement value of our instruments was actually HIGHER than the amount we claimed. We thought the instruments totaled somewhere around $72,000. Our policy was for $39,000. And then the insurance company came back and told us that they were actually worth almost $99,000! (They still only paid out $39,000, so it’s just going to cost us $99k to replace the instruments.) I don’t think I’ve ever heard of an insurance agency telling you that you lost more than you thought you did. We did bump up the value on our instrument policy and we also got better coverage for the van and trailer.
We head back to Texas this week. Fingers crossed that it’s only good experiences there from here on out!
SPONSOR OF THE MONTH: HYDRAULIC HEARTH
The Hydraulic Hearth Restaurant and Brewery, located in the historic Larkin District, is a happy hour, dinner, and brunch destination. Our menu is focused on brick oven pizzas and shareable starters, complimented by great cocktails, and beers brewed in house by Community Beer Works.
716 Swan Street
Buffalo, NY 14210
Hours
Kitchen: Tues- Sat 4:00-10:00
Bar open till Midnight Fri & Sat
Bagels & Brooze Brunch every Saturday 10:30am- 2:30pm
Parking is always free and convenient at Hydraulic Hearth
Special Events
- Hydraulic Funk feat. The Acid Funk Duo, every Saturday night 9:30-11:30
- Third Thursdays: every third Thursday of the month we’ll release a specialty brew, plus other stuff (live music, etc.), plus our neighboring businesses will have something going on as well. A great excuse to come explore Larkinville!
