Following a well-received Bonnaroo set, HT faves Dawes headed to the Melting Point in Athens, Georgia on Sunday along with opening act Sara Watkins. Dawes is in the midst of a brief tour with Watkins and her brother Sean, 2/3rds of disbanded folk act Nickel Creek. The connection comes from Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith, who appears on Watkins’ new album Sun Midnight Sun.
At recent shows both Watkins siblings and Dawes have teamed up to cover In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel and in our opinion they do a fantastic job with it…
Earlier this week, organizers of the famed Newport Jazz and Folk festivals announced that they would be returning to their roots to once again become non-profit events. The granddaddy of all music festivals, which began in 1954 and 1959 respectively, have created the Newport Festivals Foundation, Inc., who in addition to producing the festivals, will also establish partnerships with local schools, colleges and universities to develop programs to help educate young people about jazz and folk music.
The 2011 Newport Folk Festival will take place on July 29 – 31, while the Newport Jazz Festival will run from August 5 – 7. Artists and ticket on-sale dates will be announced in the spring.
Finally, we’ve got some news to share on The Decemberists, who made our recent list of acts we’re excited about in 2011. Yesterday, it was revealed that the thesaurus rock-acthad claimed the number one spot on Billboard’s Top 200 chart, selling 93,567 of their highly recommended new studio effort The King Is Dead. In addition to their highest charting album ever, Colin Meloy & Co. have invited Nickel Creek’s Sara Watkins to join them for their entire 2011 tour, where she will bring her vocal and fiddle prowess to the band’s new Americana-tinged material.
had claimed the number one spot on Billboard’s Top 200 chart, selling 93,567 of their highly recommended new studio effort 
