Tim O’Brien is hitting the radio tour this week, promoting his new CD, Chameleon, just out on the Proper American label.

He appeared this past Monday on The Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour (video available online) and will be the guest on today’s (3/29) edition of Blue Plate Special on WDVX-FM in Knoxville, TN.

The new CD has Tim on his own in the studio, accompanying himself on a variety of stringed instruments (banjo, bouzouki, fiddle, guitar, mandolin) on 16 of his new compositions. Audio samples are available on Tim’s web site.

If you would like to catch Tim’s show on WDVX later today, tune in to 89.9 FM in and around Knoxville, or listen live online at WDVX.com at 1:00 p.m. (EDT).

Music Of Coal – Various Artists (Lonesome Records & Publishing CD 071); two CDs with 70 page book, released in 2007

The work of coal miners has long been commemorated in song, disasters have led to contemporaneous ballad type songs and personal acquaintance with victims of the industry has led to intense, heart-rending insights into the side-effects of working below ground. Many songs have been found during song-catcher expeditions – some of those recording are found here, others have been written by those with a social conscience as a form of protest at times of strife. As well as embracing the social ramifications, political, historic and economic aspects of life in coal mining communities.

The industry ‘captured’ labour at a very young age and the picture of a disheveled youngster on the cover is a evidence of that. It’s a refection of the level of poverty for the often big families that boys had to go to work in the mines to help boost their father’s income. There has seemingly been very little scope for avoiding the pits. Not many people have been able to follow Ron Short’s advice in Set Yourself Free.

The collection is sub-titled Mining Songs From The Appalachian Coalfields and, in fact, the music chosen is pared down to music from southern Appalachia and to that by local talent. There is a mixture of styles – big band, jazz, old-time (in its various sub-sets, including string band), traditional country, bluegrass, folk, blues, boogie-woogie and choral.

Also, the performances are by people from a variety of classes; miners, labour organisers, activists, religious leaders and professional musicians. The quality of these vary, just as the sound quality of the recordings themselves vary, but some tracks do feature well known pickers; Mike Seeger, Jimmy Gaudreau, Jim Watson, Wayne Benson, Robert Bowlin, Glen Duncan, Mike Bubb, Jamie Johnson and Jimmy Mattingly included.

The recordings themselves span a century, beginning with the opening song on the first disc – Down In A Coal Mine an excerpt from The Edison Concert Band and made in 1908. Other recordings from the early part of the last century include Mining Camp Blues by Trixie Smith (1925); He’s Only A Miner Killed In The Ground -Ted Chestnut (1928); Coal Miner’s Blues – The Carter Family (1938) and Sprinkle Coal Dust On My Grave – Orville Jenks (1940), sung to the same melody as Sunny Side Of The Mountain. (more…)

The tech and finance sites are abuzz with news/discussion about Warner Music Group’s having hired industry consultant Jim Griffin to promote his plan to force internet service providers to charge a fee to all internet users for music rights. The idea is to assess a $5 monthly fee on all internet access accounts which would go into a fund for distribution to license holders. Those paying the fee would have access to a database of all digital music online, at no additional charge.

Some call it a music tax, others a piracy surcharge, and battle lines are being clearly drawn. In an interview with Conde Nast’s Portfolio.com, Griffin shares the label’s perspective.

“Today, it has become purely voluntary to pay for music,” Griffin told Portfolio.com in an exclusive sit-down this week. “If I tell you to go listen to this band, you could pay, or you might not. It’s pretty much up to you. So the music business has become a big tip jar.”

Nothing provokes sheer terror in the recording industry more than the rise of peer-to-peer file-sharing networks. For years, digital-music seers have argued the rise of such networks has made copyright law obsolete and free music distribution universal.

Bronfman has asked Griffin, formerly Geffen Music’s digital chief, to develop a model that would create a pool of money from user fees to be distributed to artists and copyright holders. Warner has given Griffin a three-year contract to form a new organization to spearhead the plan.

On the other side, TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington calls it The Music Industry’s New Extortion Scheme:

Asking the government to prop up a dying industry is always (always) a bad idea. In this case, it is a monumentally stupid, dangerous, and bad idea.

If this happens, it will put an end to the endless creative/destructive energy that is reshaping the music industry today. Good musicians will always find a way to make money. Others may have to follow their passion as a hobby and (shudder) get a day job to pay the bills. But if a music tax is put in place, that innovation will die, and with guaranteed revenues and profits, the need to innovate, market and compete will also die. A music tax is a sure fire way to destroy an industry that is just beginning to really blossom.

Yes, blossom. As terrifying as these days must be for music industry players, it’s clear that a golden age of creativity and innovation is ahead of us, all led by the Internet as a nearly perfect distribution mechanism for their product. Music labels must die. Hopefully, before they do any more damage.

Before bluegrass/folk/acoustic songwriters and artists get excited about this proposal, keep in mind the way that blanket royalty fees have been distributed in the past. A club that featured bluegrass music exclusively would pay fees to the publishers’ unions, none of which ever made its way to bluegrass writers or performers.

Read more on Portfolio.com, TechCrunch or Wired.com.