Down in flames...

One of the first - among many - to go was Resonance, a highly-esteemed quarterly print music magazine I interned for. Then No Depression, another well-respected Seattle rag went from print to online to - as of February - a user forum only, signaling no real journalism or paid writers. Now, say good bye to Blender. This news comes in the wake of the passing of the Seattle Post Intelligencer, a daily that had been a Northwest publishing establishment since 1864.

Kyla Fairchild, co-publisher of No Depression (who I was seated two rows behind on the plane back from Austin) posted a very thorough explanation of what's happening in the print world right now called "The Cold Hard Facts." It's worth reading if any of this snowballing and troubling news is of interest to you.

February 9th's episode of Jon Stewart's Daily Show touches on these issues also. Walter Issacson wrote an article for Time Magazine called, "How to Save Your Newspaper," and in his interview with Stewart he says, "[We] have to get away from the notion that good reporting has to be given away for free on the internet...we have to get to some system where some journalists are getting paid."

Something like this needs to happen, and happen soon if we are to be become informed exclusively through the internet. The old business model - provide a service, then get paid for it - has changed entirely because of the internet, and we've gotten used to getting everything free. But there's truly a hidden cost to "free" online stuff, and we have to restructure the way we think about online content. Free equals free. As it has been for ages, you have to pay for quality. As newspapers dwindle and magazines go under, this will undoubtedly only become more and more obvious.

To see the interview with Walter Issacson, go here.

Wintergrass

Wintergrass, Tacoma's annual bluegrass festival, starts this Thursday the 19th and will run through the 22nd.

Kim Ruehl, writer for Americana rag No Depression and Roots correspondent for Sound writes: "Wintergrass takes place in downtown Tacoma, WA. The performances are spread over a couple of hotels and a nearby church. Friday and Saturday mornings are workshops galore on everything from overcoming stage fright to mastering Old Time fiddle. The hotel lobbies are replete with impromptu jams.

This is a Bluegrass music festival, but there is a lot of appreciation for Old Time Music. A lot of the jam sessions include people playing Old Time tunes. Many of the performers are old school bluegrass, though there are occasionally some Old Time bands and some contemporary country/folk singer/songwriters. Performers include well-known legends as well as local and regional newcomers."

One group performing this year is "old time string band" The Tallboys. They're well-practiced musicians, a fun band to see live and really bring an "old-timey" feeling to their set. If you've heard of them, you know they're kind of a fixture on the NW folk circuit: they're the house band for the Tractor's bi-monthly square dancing night (highly recommended, every other Monday), and vocalist Charmaine Slaven is an organizer of - and performs at - NW Folklife.

Charmaine has the unique ability to buck dance (a kind of folk clogging/tap dance) and play guitar at the same time. It's really interesting to watch. She teaches clogging workshops pretty regularly, and will be offering one this year at Wintergrass on Saturday at Collings Church at 11:15am.