May 19, 2008

Greetings SNWMF Family:

With our festival being less than five weeks away, things are really taking shape for the 15th Annual Sierra Nevada World Music Festival.   

In This Newsletter:
• Additional Artists Added to Lineup
• Lineup of Artists by Day
• Single-Day Tickets now Available
• Lisa Monet to Perform at SNWMF 2008
• Spotlight on Taj Weekes & Adowa 

Additional Artists Announced – With over 35 artists now confirmed to perform at the 15th annual summer solstice and world peace celebration, SNWMF's lineup is just about complete and has something to offer for everyone attending our festival:

Additional Artists Announced:
Morgan Heritage
Antidoping
The Expanders
Aza
Chris Murray Combo
Elhadji
Youssoupha Sidibe

Check out our Artists Page for additional information regarding the performers that will be appearing at this year’s festival, and, as always, please note that our lineup is subject to change.

Lineup of Artists to Perform by Day – Here is a breakdown of the artists performing at SNWMF 2008 by day:

Friday, June 20, 2008
Michael Franti & Spearhead • Maldita Vecindad • SOJA •
Rootz Underground • Wisdom • Rebelution
In The Dancehall: David Rodigan

Saturday, June 21, 2008
Buju Banton • Morgan Heritage • Midnite • The Wailing Souls •
The Mighty Diamonds • Sister Carol • Yami Bolo • Panjea •
Markus James • Extra Golden • Aza • Asheba •
Rootz Underground • Taj Weekes & Adowa
In The Dancehall: Stone Love

Sunday, June 22, 2008
The English Beat • Tosh Meets Marley • U Roy • Cornel Campbell • Roy Shirley • Stranger Cole • Pat Kelly • The Expanders • Antidoping • Prezident Brown • Chris Murray Combo • Alika • Quinto Sol • Youssoupha Sidibe • Elhadji • Lisa Monet

The lineup by day with approximate starting times will be announced around June 10th, and make sure to check the Web Site for up-to-date information. 

Single-Day Tickets Now Available Online – SNWMF is please to announced that a limited number of single-day tickets are now available for purchase online, and will be available at our Mendocino, Sonoma and Marin County independent outlets later this week.  The advance purchase price for advance tickets are: $55 for Friday, $65 for Saturday, and $55 for Sunday. 

Lisa Monet to Perform at SNWMF 2008 - Lisa Monet, Parents' Choice Gold Award recipient, has received national recognition as a best-selling recording artist of children's music from schools, libraries, and homes.  She is named one of the five "Leading Ladies of Children's Music" by Billboard Magazine, and is a long-time Best-Selling Artist for Music for Little People. Ms. Monet celebrates diversity through her bilingual concerts in Spanish and English. 

The release "Tingaleyo", her first bilingual album of songs in Spanish and English, from around the world has just been given the Parents' Choice Spring 2008 Award.  In a seamless blend of Spanish and English her presentation "Todo el Mundo Canta/The Whole World Sings" celebrates community. Listeners of all ages are drawn into the rhythms, rhymes, patterns, and storytelling of Lisa Monet's polished art form.

Spotlight on Taj Weekes & Adowa - Taj Weekes’ music is more than just entertainment. The roots reggae artist’s music stirs thought, provokes discussion and inspires people to think for themselves, free from the constraints of the corporate media. On his beautiful new album DEIDEM, released on his own independent label, Jatta Records, Weekes sings assuredly and soulfully for the voiceless and the oppressed, taking his music to a new level of commitment and universal appeal.

Born and raised on the island of St. Lucia, Weekes grew up the youngest of ten children in a family where music was always present. The radio was a source of untold treasures, playing everything from rock, country, R&B, soul, jazz and more, and Weekes grew up blissfully unaware of category or genre - to him, great music was (and is) great music no matter what the style. By age five, Taj was singing in church and by eleven he was composing his own calypso music. His older brother’s immersion in Rastafari provided Taj with a spiritual awakening and a context for his burgeoning world view.

Following on the heels of their critically acclaimed debut release, Hope & Doubt, Taj Weekes and his band, Adowa introduce audiences to DEIDEM - a classic roots reggae album filled with melodies that are deliberate and focused. Taj's songwriting is stellar and in the words of veteran reggae music journalist Dermott Hussey of XM Satellite Radio, “raises the level of songwriting within the idiom of reggae music.”   DEIDEM discusses global and humanitarian issues such as global warming, the effects of Hurricane Katrina, and the crisis in Darfur. Though the topics are insightful and serious, the grooves, melodies and rhythms are the familiar backbeats that reggae fans know and love. Tracks like “Orphans Cry,” with its lilting and classic reggae feel, depicts the suffering and isolation of lost children, making it vivid and real, no longer an abstraction on the television set or newspaper.  “Since Cain,” with its Biblical reference to the first act of violence, laments the endless cycle of brutality while asking what it will take for it to end. The timely track, “Dark Clouds” warns of the cost of the degradation of the environment.  The music matches the lyrics in intensity, painting an aural portrait of a world that is burning.  Finding truth among the lies that we are fed by the media is the driving force behind the track, Propaganda War, and in the final track, Louisiana, Taj’s haunting falsetto accompanied by a lamenting piano encompasses the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina and its equally tragic aftermath of neglect and complete indifference.

Taj Weekes & Adowa will support the release of DEIDEM with the launch of a multi-city national tour in June which includes major festivals such as the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival in California, Taos Solar Music festival in New Mexico, Musikfest in Pennsylvania and the South Bend Reggae Festival in Indiana.  The band will also perform at major club venues such as Wild Hare in Chicago, Ashkenaz in Berkeley, CA and venues in Los Angeles, Seattle, Boise, St. Louis, Kansas City and New York to name a few.   We are pleased to present the innovative sounds of Taj Weekes and Adowa as part of our 15th anniversary celebration.