FEATURES

Cruisin’
Recorded music sales have shrunk and touring’s tiring. Enter the multi-day festival, and its most artist-and-fan-friendly incarnation, the music cruise. Lee Zimmerman sets sail for fun

Lights! Costumes! Dance!
After their initial rise, show bands fade, falter and, now, finally, flourish once again

DEPARTMENTS

Goodbye… Fellow songwriter and banjoist John McEuen remembers Pete Seeger

Opening Act: Snippets, fun, interviews, reviews. Go meet Elmore at shows and compare notes!

Kickin’ in Your Stall: Carl Gustafson on songwriting as a day job

Influences: Three men who tickle, play and pound the ivories: Allen Toussaint, John Mayall and J. Roddy Walston

On The Record: The Boss and optimism have always been on good terms; his latest High Hopes comes true. Other artists move on land or water: Roseanne Cash/The River & the Thread; Emily Barker/Dear River; Eric Bibb/Jericho Road; David Grisman/Muddy Roads; Jim Lauderdale/Blue Moon Junction, while Dave Keyes opts for Right Here, Right Now

Re.Issues: Paul Aaronson weighs in on the whitest of bluesmen, Johnny Winter, and the new box set celebrating Winter’s career. Groups from the Small Faces to the Velvet Underground resurface; Dionne Warwick and James Taylor merit career-spanning retrospectives

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning: Sharon Jones has perfected the practice of bootstrapping, and pulls all of us up

What’d I Say: If you want a job done right, do it yourself: five singer/songwriters release albums

The Good Seats: The Grand Ole Opry moved to a mall, leaving the “Grand” vibe back at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium

Also Appearing: Patti Smith doesn’t play her show like anybody’s grandma. Bobby Womack’s New York residency, the Carolina Chocolate Drops in (North) Carolina, plus books and DVDs for these long late winter nights

Listen Up: You have to eat, but pick your companions carefully. Arnie Goodman’s wish-list for dinner guests

Get to Know: 20 Seafaring Songs You Should Know

This Month’s Trivia