Tapestry

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May 21, 2009...

• Steve Masterson and The Acoustic Cafe
• John Cowan and the new grass revival
• Theatre Downtown: Essential Self-Defense
• Alabama Shakespeare Festival: Othello
• Meet some of Birmingham's best know bloggers

With a population between five and six hundred, you might not think there's much going on in Hayden, Alabama. But for the past 12 years, every Memorial Day Weekend, Steve Masterson has run a small music festival right in his own front yard; featuring some of the best live music around. It's called The Acoustic Cafe...

Listen to the audio postcard...

Bluegrass music was long associated with Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs and other old timers. But that changed in the early '70s when some young guys with long hair decided to reinvent the music to suit their tastes. The New Grass Revival turned the acoustic music world on its ear. And for 14 years, singer, song-writer, bass player John Cowan toured the world with NGR. When they disbanded, he joined the Doobie Brothers for a couple of years before forming his own band. His powerful singing voice has appeared on CDs of artists as divergent as Hootie and the Blowfish and Roseanne Cash and this weekend, the John Cowan Band makes its debut at the Acoustic Cafe. Cowan says The New Grass Revival was about breaking new ground which was not exactly the road to riches.

Interview with John Cowan..

The John Cowan Band appears Saturday night at the Acoustic Cafe in Hayden, Alabama.

Are you feeling a little out of the loop? Do you see the world through ebony-colored glasses, perhaps? Do you fear consumerism? Welcome to the world of Yul Caroll, the central character in Adam Rapp's play, Essential Self-Defense. Theatre Downtown is the first Alabama theatre company to produce the play, which explores what its like to be on the outside looking in. Reporter Nat Bonner has more.

Essential Self-Defense...

Theatre Downtown presents Essential Self-Defense at Birmingham AIDS Outreach now through May 3rd.

Another theatrical character with an outsider's perspective is William Shakespeare's Othello. The Moor commands respect as a general in the Venetian Army, and he has a beautiful wife. But others -- especially his servant Iago, are jealous of Othello. And that sets the stage for one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies. A production of Othello is on stage right now at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. WBHM's Bradley George talked with director Geoffrey Sherman and actor Esau Pritchett.

Othello...

Othello is at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery now through June 7th

Do you have a blog? Or maybe you're thinking of starting one? Perhaps - you're an unemployed journalist, with visions of making money by blogging? There's plenty of competition. The blog search engine Technorati says it's now tracking more than three million blogs... with somewhere around 10,000 new blogs created every single day. How do you distinguish yourself and maybe make some bucks? WBHM's Tanya Ott gets the scoop from three Birmingham bloggers...

Interview with local bloggers...

If you've got a blog you think we'd like, drop us an email and tell us about it.

Wade Kwon's Birmingham Blogging Academy.

Tapestry is produced by Bradley George and Michael Krall, with help this week from Tanya Ott and Nat Bonner. I'm Greg Bass, and we'll see you next week.