Rio Semione in a photo from several years ago with her dog, Lila | facebook.com

It’s almost surreal to me, as Rio Semione has been a presence in my working life ever since I started covering music at the paper, and longer, in fact. The longtime artist relations representative at FloydFest died unexpectedly on Saturday at her home in Floyd County. Semione was 60, and had lived in Floyd for about 36 years.

I didn’t know Semione extremely well, as many did, but every time I ran across her — either in real time or online — she was interesting, with a lot of spirit and a legitimate point of view about music and culture. And let me tell you, to be an artist relations rep at a festival like FloydFest, a person needs to be firm but cool. She was both.

She had also been events planner at The Sun Music Hall and Cultural Arts Center and had booked and promoted shows at The Pine Tavern in those venues’ previous iterations. But she had been involved with FloydFest in one way or another since the first year, when she supervised hospitality for the musicians.

George Penn Jr., a drummer with several local acts, has been a stage host at several FloydFests and got to know her well. In response to an e-mail query, he wrote: “She was a positive force, an integral part of the Floyd community. I always enjoyed seeing her behind the scenes at FloydFest and other musical events in the area. We bonded over reggae music, especially Awareness Art Ensemble (1st popular reggae at in VA). Bless Rio’s sweet soul.”

She was an artist in her own right, as well. Among her other talents was pumpkin-carving, and not just gashing out some rough teeth and eyes. Check out this soundslide from 2006, with her describing her process and talking a bit about herself and life in her county. She taught pumpkin-carving, too, and I’d imagine her method was sound.

Ana Popovic was scheduled to play on Thursday at Growler’s American Grill, but her booking agent said that he had not received word until late Tuesday that the venue was closed. Venue owner Barry Caldwell said that he had attempted to reach out to the agency. | Photo courtesy Sjoerd de Wit

I just posted a story at roanoke.com about nationally touring bands whose Roanoke shows are in limbo after the sudden closing over the weekend of Growler’s American Grill and Venue, at Towers Shopping Center.

Barry Caldwell, who owned the restaurant and bar, said today that all tickets purchased through the website inticketing.com will be refunded in full if the shows don’t find a new venue. Caldwell’s Growler’s e-mail address has been deactivated, he said, but he is creating a new one for people who had bought advance tickets at the venue itself — barry.caldwell17@yahoo.com

“We’re definitely prepared to reimburse them,” he said.

Read the entire story, and feel free to leave your comments below.

Todd Cooper | facebook.com

When singer Jerry Wimmer of The Worx closed the Todd Cooper Benefit show at Growler’s on March 17, he said: “Don’t let this be the end. Keep it going!”

Several local acts have taken heed to help Cooper, drummer for The Worx and Mafia Track Suit. When news emerged that Cooper suffers tachycardia — a fast heart rhythm that could be life-threatening — folks were shocked. You know how people say something “couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy”? Well, this guy is too nice for such a thing to happen to him.

His mates in Mafia Track Suit have released their disc “Tiger Blood,” which you can find and download at http://mafiatracksuit.bandcamp.com. Buy it, and all the money goes to help out Cooper. Buy the band’s EP there while you’re at it. Both are good records, though “Tiger Blood” shows real growth, and Cooper’s playing is as rock solid and tasty as it always has been.

The Suit also has songs for sale for the Rock Band platform. Buy them at http://www.rockband.com/songs/artists/Mafia+Track+Suit, and that money goes to Cooper’s recovery fund, too. Chase wrote in an e-mail: “The Rock Band Network and Fairwood Studios (who authored the songs for gaming) both donated to Todd’s benefit show.” Cool.

Over at Schooners, a Roanoke epicenter of do-gooding, Eric Larsen has been hitting up that venue’s weekly open mic attendees, as well.

Holy Ghost Tent Revival | File photo

Holy Ghost Tent Revival, Sons of Bill, The Floorboards, Mad Iguanas and more are on the bill for Kirk Avenue Music Hall‘s newest Roanoke radio station 101.5 The Valley’s Music Place‘s outdoor production, Jam Fest Daleville Green.

The two day festival is set for July 12 and 13 at Daleville Town Center Music Pavilion, which features one of the nicest outdoor stages in this part of the state. And there’s plenty of room to move around, too.

The all-ages event  features free parking and allows for chairs, pop-up tents and blankets. Food and bevs (adult and non-adult) will be on site, too, so no coolers allowed – but bring cash. The town center is at 90 Daleville Center St.

Tickets are pretty cheap for this, too. Single-day tickets are $12 in advance and $15 at the gate. A two-day pass is $20. Get more info at kirkavenuemusic.com or call 540-589-0546.

It’s part of a busy summer that Kirk Ave the radio station has planned for the pavilion. [Full disclosure: This reporter does a weekly, hour-long show at the station.]

Here are the daily lineups, in reverse order of appearance:

FRIDAY

Sons Of Bill – 9:15 p.m.
The Floorboards – 7:30 p.m.
Stadanko – 6:30 p.m.
Riverbank Ramblers – 5:30 p.m.

SATURDAY

Holy Ghost Tent Revival – 9:15 p.m.
Mad Iguana’s – 7:30 p.m.
Elroy Jenkins – 6 p.m.
KGB – 4:30 p.m.
Groova Scape – 3 p.m.
Broke Down James 1:30 p.m.

The Bastards of Fate | File Photo

Roanoke’s own The Bastards of Fate are taking their sound — described by British online mag Clash as “like rock music as understood by alien visitors who have no familiarity with the genre, it’s a bracing, intoxicating listen” — overseas.

The band is in Austria, playing Donaufestival today, then moving to several gigs in the UK before heading back here.

April 25 – Donaufestival – Krems, AT
April 27 – The Green Door Store – Brighton, UK
April 28 – The Undertone – Cardiff, Wales
April 29 – The Mello Mello – Liverpool, UK
May 1 – Wharf Chambers – Leeds, UK
May 2 – The Chameleon -Nottingham, UK
May 3 – The Buffalo – London, UK

Click here to see the video, and be sure to catch this band when it returns home. They’ll be part of the big Blowfly bill at Martin’s on June 9. These Bastards deserve your love.

Tammy Peck (right), who hosts fundraising concerts every Sunday at her restaurant, Schooners, won the Dream Maker Award for Support of Music, Musicians and Events at Wednesday night’s Newton Awards. Here she is with Mac McCadden at a recent fundraider for McAdden. | facebook.com

Even before Down by Downtown got started a few years back, the “Gathering of the Tribes” at Kirk Avenue Music Hall had been a thing. It has since morphed into the Newton Awards, a lighthearted yet serious recognition for the people in Roanoke who make the music scene the cool thing that it is continuing to become.

I missed the event last night, as I had my own gig, but Cyrus Pace was kind enough to send me the list of winners. Congratulations to all of them.

• Dream Maker Award for Support of Music, Musicians, and Events — Tammy Peck at Schooners
• George Martin Award for Excellence in Sound — Darrin Snyder, Stage Sound
• Jefferson Center Award for Support of the Music Lab — Mark Baldwin, Blue Ridge Catering
• Melody Haven Award for Music Educator of the Year — VH1 Save the Music
• Breakout Award — Adam Rutledge
• Student Award — Isaac Anderson and Levi Fulton
• Music Venue — Floyd County Store
• James Brown Award for the Hardest Working Man in Music — Todd Cooper
• Balls of Steel Award — Kandinsky Trio 25 Years
• Dickens Award for Music Person of the Year — Jason Martin at Martin’s.

Members of the Virginia Highlands Pipes and Drums march last year iin the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade Saturday. | The Roanoke Times | File 2012 March 17, 2012

Downtown Roanoke Inc. and Corned Beef & Co.’s owner have confirmed that a second Celtic music festival has been scheduled for the city on March 16, the day of Roanoke’s traditional St. Patrick’s Day Parade and festival.

DRI, in its first year running what it is calling the Shamrock Festival, has taken heat in recent days for booking mainstream rock acts to play the event, which also will feature at least two Celtic bands. Read more about that at roanoke.com. Roger Neel, owner of Corned Beef & Co. and other city restaurants, said today that he is hosting an all-Celtic event near the restaurant.

DRI spokesman Matthew Klepeisz said that not only will DRI’s Shamrock Festival continue as planned, but DRI will provide support to the new event.

“We’re excited about the opportunity to work with that group to really bring the Celtic music that I think originally was questioned,” Klepeisz said.

Neel said that he was going to a 1 p.m. meeting to work out details and could not elaborate on the new event’s name, schedule or acts on the bill until afterward.

Klepeisz said that DRI doesn’t think that the all-Celtic event will have a negative effect on the Shamrock Festival.

“I think that this just continues to expand the appeal,” he said. “For us to be able to have multiple offerings, multiple stages, that really puts us on a different level with this event than I think we’ve seen in the past.

“Clearly, the footprint of this event is expanding, and I think that’s in direct reaction to the amount of people that are interested in this event, that are going to be coming down for it. I think it’s great, absolutely.”

We’ll post more information as we gather it.

St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Shamrock Festival

> Parade begins at 11 a.m. at Jefferson Street and Albemarle Avenue, with featured marchers WARPIPE, Jamestown Pipes and Drums, the Shenandoah Valley Pipe Band, Virginia Highlands Pipes and Drums

> Festival begins at 10 a.m. at Market Street and Salem Avenue, with Beggar’s Circus, Superhold, Madrone, and WARPIPE. downtownroanoke.org

Celtic Ceilidh

> 10 a.m. Jefferson Street, between Campbell Avenue and Salem Avenue

> With Second Wynde, Beggar’s Circus, WARPIPE, Traditional Irish Session Roanoke, dancers and more

Celtic Crossroads

> 8 p.m. March 15. Jefferson Center. celticcrossroads.ie, jeffcenter.org

Lalah Hathaway | Courtesy Jefferson Center

Jefferson Center is back in cahoots with Snarky Puppy — the  Brooklyn, N.Y., via Denton, Texas jazz/funk/world band of musical monsters.

Snarky Puppy and musical guests including R&B/soul singer Lalah Hathaway (daughter of Donny Hathaway) will record live in front of audiences during two days at the Jeff’s Shaftman Performance Hall. The March 8-9 performances will benefit the Music Lab at Jefferson Center‘s education programs. And when the Snarks’ release the CD/DVD set on their  groundUP Music/Ropedope label, a portion of the sales will go to the music lab, as well.

The recording project was inspired by Snarky Puppy’s Family Dinner, a series of shows the band has played at New York City’s Rockwood Music Hall, according to a Jefferson Center news release. Those sessions, recorded live, feature the band backing up a variety of performers doing original music.

Also performing at the Roanoke sessions will be N’Dambi, Malika Tirolien, Lucy Woodward, Chantae Cann, Shayna Steele, Tony Scherr and Magda Giannikou. See more info about them, courtesy Jefferson Center, by hitting the jump link below.

Here’s the show and ticket info, courtesy Jeff Center.

Snarky Puppy

Two VIP On Stage Opportunities:
Friday, March 8th at 7:00pm & 9:00pm VIP Live On Stage Audience – $60 per person
*Limited seating available on Shaftman Performance Hall stage.
You will be seated on stage, right in the middle of the band as part of the live CD/DVD recording.

General Admission Orchestra:
Saturday, March 9 at 8:00pm G.A. Shaftman Performance Hall Audience – $34
*This is the live concert portion of the Family Dinner CD/DVD recording sessions.
You will be seated inside Shaftman Performance Hall’s orchestra section.

And here is some video of Snarky Puppy, which has pretty  much mastered this live recording art thing.

Read more »

facebook.com/janakramermusic

Just a few months after resigning as executive director of EventZone, Larry Landolt is right back into bringing up-and-coming country performers to Roanoke.

Jana Kramer, whose song “Why You Wanna” was a big country chart smash, comes to Roanoke’s new country-themed bar, Sidewinders Steakhouse & Saloon, for a Feb. 13 show. Kramer’s appearance was billed as the debut of the Blue Ridge Country — Concert Series. It is the only show listed for the series so far, but given Landolt’s experience with Festival in the Park, it’s safe to expect more of the acts that will be major players in years to come.

During Landolt’s time runing festival, The Band Perry, Chris Young, Little Big Town, Miranda Lambert, Jason Aldean and others played the event well before they hit superstar status. Hunter Hayes, who is on the ascent, played last year’s event.

His new venture is Touch The Sky Productions.

Kramer has been best known as an actress on the TV show “One Tree Hill.” Her latest single, “Whiskey,” is at No. 41 on the Billboard country singles chart after three weeks. Her self-titled debut album is No. 28, after peaking at No. 5 on the country albums chart. It has been in the chart for 33 weeks.

UPDATE 1:53 p.m. 1.25.13: Advance tickets are $13. Call 800-838-3006. http://blueridgecountrymusic.bpt.me/

Cheryl Wheeler | Courtesy cherylwheeler.com

So first off, Kirk Avenue Music Hall finally has booze back in the house, via Blue Ridge Catering. The venue had to deal with some paperwork, and went dry for a while there, but the  music kept coming. And the folks did, too. Now they can enjoy adult libations again as they listen to the acts that come through.

Now, for this weekend’s acts. Somehow, both of these escaped my radar. But I’ve written about them both before, they’ve played here plenty and people like them, so I’m sure my miss won’t kill the turnouts. Still, here is the info:

TONIGHT

Cheryl Wheeler. 7:30 p.m. $22; $22 to students.

SUNDAY

John Gorka. 7:30 p.m. $20.

For more info, call 540-589-0546 or go to kirkavenuemusic.com

Here is a little video of Gorka, playing “Love Is Our Cross To Bear.”