The 2009 Folk Alliance Conference starts tomorrow at 11 a.m.  If you’ve never attended the conference, which will be held at the Downtown Marriott Hotel, it’s well worth the $250 per day (or $750 for all 5 days) admission — hundreds of musicians, including John Sebastian, Rodney Crowell, Kathy Mattea, Charlie Louvin, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Albert Lee, Lucy Wainwright Roche, and Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey, are scheduled to play. 

Go here to read CA writer Bob Mehr’s interview with performer/keynote speaker Roger McGuinn — pictured above with his 1960s-era group the Byrds. And go here to read my interview with 17-year old Pennsylvanian Brittany Ann Tranbaugh, who will be traveling more than 1,000 miles to appear at the event.  

While this is an international conference, with musicians from all over the world networking and performing, there’s plenty of Memphis in the mix, including: 

1. Screenings of the Memphis jug band documentary Chasin’ Gus’ Ghost, slated for tomorrow at 3 p.m. and Thursday at 2 p.m. 

2. An open mic set hosted by the Memphis Songwriters Association.

3. The Kids Show, on Thursday at 11:30 a.m., with Memphis host Darin Hillis and a performance from Valerie June and Jason Freeman.

4. An interview with legendary musician — and former Memphian — Charlie Louvin on Thursday afternoon.   

5. An interview with onetime Elvis sideman, guitarist James Burton, on Friday afternoon. 

Also: panel discussions with the likes of new Memphis Music Commission head Johnnie Walker; Memphis International record label owners David Less and Bob Merlis; producers Jim Dickinson,  Jeff Powell, and Scott Bomar; Oxford attorney Tom Freeland,  and performances from Valencia Robinson, Nancy Apple, Valerie June, Jimmy Davis, Blair Combest, Jed Zimmerman, Deering and Down, Holly Cole, Caleb Sweazy, William Lee Ellis, Cory Branan, Susan Marshall, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Dan Montgomery, Andy Cohen, and more. 

In conjunction with the conference, The Folk Alliance will also present a number of concerts and events that will be open to the public at various venues around town.

The Center for Southern Folklore will host a free performance by Stacey Earle & Mark Stuart with special guests Act of Congress and Deering & Down on Feb. 20. On Feb. 21, the Center will welcome The Ebony Hillbillies along with Valerie June and Andy Cohen. Both shows start at 8 p.m. 

The Hi-Tone Café offers a pair of shows starting with a Feb. 20 bill featuring the Duhks, Hoots and Hellmouth and 2 Mule Plow. The following evening, Small Faces legend Ian McLagan brings his Bump Band in for a concert. The bill will also include a performance by Jack Oblivian & the Tearjerkers. 

On Feb. 21 at 3 p.m., Ardent Studios will host a creativity workshop featuring banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck and drummer Amir “?uestlove” Thompson of hip-hop band The Roots. The event is free. For more information, call 725-0855.

They’re from Ohio, but Heartless Bastards are actually signed to Oxford, MS-based Fat Possum Records. Last month, they rolled into the Young Ave Deli for a show — go here to read Mark Jordan’s interview with frontwoman Erika Wennerstrom, published in the CA. And tonight, Heartless Bastards are making their network TV debut, via a performance on The Late Show with David Letterman. Tune into WREG channel 3 at about 11:30 p.m. to watch.

Last week, several of Memphis’ finest garage rockers loaded up their van and headed for points west — Portland, Oregon, to be exact, where they performed at the Slabtown Bender.

According to this article, published in the Portland Mercury daily newspaper, the festival marked the 3rd anniversary of Slabtown, a local bar, and featured more than 36 bands, including a reunion from NW rockers Mudhoney.

Portland musician Matto Howe told Mecury reporter Ned Lannamann that the festival was modeled on Memphis’ own Gonerfest. Said Howe: “I went two years ago and had a fantastic time, and saw a lot of great bands, so at the pre-planning meetings for last year’s Bender, we kind of used the Gonerfest template as far as program design, general structure, and such.”

Lannamann described Bobo as “a man shrouded in mystery, often quite literally.”

“His recent Christmas show in Memphis is already the stuff of legend, complete with costumes, props, outrageous sets, and a script that was apparently dictated to Bobo by Martians. Bobo’s plainspoken songs are entirely more down to earth, and his everyman croon is equal parts Ray Davies, Beck, and Leonard Cohen.”

Following in the footsteps of the Limes, Richard James & the Special Riders are in the middle of a month-long Monday night residency at the Hi-Tone Cafe. Admission is free, and drinks are discounted! Plus, Monsieur Jeffrey Evans and Ross Johnson are also performing tonight. Above photo by the fabulous Don Perry.

Yesterday afternoon, I hoped the folks on the Goner Records message board were wrong. Unfortunately, it’s true — Lux Interior, frontman for the Cramps, died in a Glendale, CA hospital due to complications from a pre-existing heart condition. He was in his early 60s.

Lux and his romantic/musical partner Poison Ivy (born Kristy Wallace) formed the Cramps in the early 1970s, based on a love of horror films, surf rock, and rockabilly music. According to this timeline, they met Alex Chilton in Sept. 1977, less than a year after they debuted onstage at CBGBs. By Oct., they were walking the streets of Memphis, recording sessions at Ardent and Sam Phillips Recording Studio. The Cramps returned here the next summer, to record their first full-length album, Songs the Lord Taught Us, with Chilton at the helm, and, in ‘84, they teamed up with Jim Dickinson to cut a version of Sonny Burgess’ “Red Headed Woman.” According to my friend Bobby, however, Lux came to Memphis much earlier than that — as U.S. Navy enlistee Erick Lee Purkhiser, he lived and worked on the base in Millington back in the 1960s.

Okay, enough background info — the way the Cramps made me feel when I was a bored-out-of-my-skull kid looking for, as Lux put it, “some new kind of kick,” and I dropped the needle on one of their records, was nearly indescribable. Fortunately, I got to see the Cramps perform live several times, most notably at the New Daisy in the early ’90s. I also got to meet Lux and Ivy in person, when they came into Shangri-la Records that day. The store was packed with Cramps fans in town for the concert, but Lux and Ivy graciously signed autographs as they made their way through the bins, picking up a few hundred dollars worth of records. Of course, I totally geeked out when the CD player stopped, and inadvertently played a Cramps tribute disc that just happened to be laying on the top of the stack…

Back on the Goner Board, Cheater Slicks guitarist Tom Shannon said it best: “Back in the early 80’s when there wasn’t much rock n roll, those records (Gravest Hits, Songs the Lord Taught Us, Psychedelic Jungle, Peppermint Lounge, Date with Elvis) were beacons to a hidden future. I tried to analyse them: what were the secret codes? What did Lux Mean? What am I supposed to know? It was strange how much that band affected me. I would have fought someone to the death if they had badmouthed the Cramps. I certainly could not respect someone’s taste if they did not worship the Cramps. They were the glue that bound us together. The truest element. The electricity.”

Tonight: Start the weekend off with Girls of the Gravitron’s free show at Shangri-la Records. Also: AC/DC’s “Black Ice” tour at the FedEx Forum; Colourmusic and Good Luck Dark Star at the Hi-Tone Cafe; Van Duren at Central BBQ East; the Heartless Bastards at the Young Ave Deli (go herefor CA music critic Bob Mehr’s interview with frontwoman Erika Wennerstrom); Memphis rapper RI’m Skeem at the Crystal Palace (go here for my interview with the rising star); Thrush, Silent Haze, Distilled Blood, and more, at the New Daisy; Will Graves at Cafe Soul; Or, head down to Tunica for a country music two-fer — the legendary George Jones is at Sam’s Town, while Gary Allan is at Horseshoe.

Saturday: Get your indie rock fix from Snowglobe at the Hi-Tone Cafe, with the Bulletproof Vests opening. Also: 34-year old composer Jonathan Leshnoff will debut a composition with the IRIS Orchestra at GPAC. Violinist Augustin Hadelich, winner of the 2006 International Violin Competition, is also on the bill, performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and Brahms’ Serenade No. 1. Classical pianist Terry McRoberts is at the University of Memphis’ Harris Concert Hall; Uncle Jungle is at the New Daisy; Down in Tunica, George Jones and Gary Allan wrap up their respective 2-night stands.

Sunday: At 3 p.m., the Germantown Symphony Orchestra makes its 2009 debut at Hutchison School’s Wiener Theater, at the same time that the Ceruti String Quartet and pianist Marsha Evans perform “Conversations Among Friends,” at the Memphis Chamber Music Society. Later, Rob Jungklas and Deering & Down (who have been laying down tracks at Poppa Willie Mitchell’s Royal Recording Studio this month) are at Otherlands. RI’m Skeem is back at the Crystal Palace, with Atlanta MC Yung LA.

The lovable Girls of the Gravitron, fresh off their first tour, will be playing a free happy hour set at Shangri-la Records, 1916 Madison Ave., beginning at 6 p.m.

If you’re broke, like me, this is a great way to get out and have some fun! See you there…

This just in: Monsieur Jeffrey Evans will be spinning the wheels of steel over the airwaves tonight, filling in on community station WEVL 89.9 during the Rock House slot, from 7-9 p.m. Pompadour optional!

Photo, above, by Don Perry.

Tonight: Down in Clarksdale, Miss., the Oxford American magazine celebrates the release of its 10th annual music issue by hosting one heckuva throwdown with Dale “Suzie Q” Hawkins, R.L. Boyce, and Wiley and the Checkmates. It’s all happening at the original Ground Zero Blues Club in downtown Clarksdale. Admission is $15, and showtime is 7 p.m. Go here for more info.

Closer to home: First, kick off the week with a free show from Jump Back Jake at Shangri-la Records. The Ardent recording artist will begin performing at 6 p.m. Later: The New Mary Jane and Vending Machine at the Buccaneer Lounge; Westbound at the Hi-Tone Cafe; Soul Enforcers at the Full Moon Club; One Hour Thursday, Facecast, Chocking On Clarity, Third Gear Pinned, and Searching 4 A Signal at the New Daisy; Preston Shannon at Ground Zero; NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” host Neal Conan, hosting “A Universe of Dreams,” at GPAC; and DJ Steve Ann at Dish.

Saturday: Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha, performed by Opera Memphis, and the Carolina Chocolate Drops at the Orpheum Theatre. Also: Rap showcase at Club Unbreakables with 40Kel, JDogg & T-Won, and more; gospel artist Marvin Sapp at the Cannon Center; Sore Eyes head up a bevy of bands, including Goodbye Monroe and A Study in Scarlet for their CD release party at the New Daisy; Charlie Mars at the Hi-Tone.

Sunday: The Mersey-minded Jeffrey and the Pacemakers play a free show at the Buccaneer, beginning at 5 p.m. Later: New Jersey’s Titus Andronicus and Welsh indie rockers Los Campesinos! are at the Hi-Tone, and FreeWorld play Blues City Cafe.

Got a job, a hobby, a skill? Help out Anna Ives, the 4-year old daughter of Final Solutions frontman and Goner Records co-owner Zac Ives.

As CA writer Bob Mehr reported yesterday, the Ives family — Zac, his wife, Amy, and baby son, Aron — decamped to Boston to allow Anna to get a specialized radiation treatment at the Francis H. Burr Proton Therapy Center at Massachusetts General Hospital last weekend.

Writes Mehr: “It’s just the latest chapter in a two-year roller-coaster fight Anna has waged against cancer. In February 2007, then-2-year-old Anna was diagnosed with a brain tumor on her frontal lobe, close to a major vein. The tumor, 3 centimeters in diameter, was a meningioma, which is generally a benign tumor found in women ages 40 to 70.”

The situation isn’t just emotionally draining — it’s a huge financial burden for a small business owner with 2 kids who will miss 8 weeks of work.

So, on Jan. 29, Harlan T. Bobo, the Tearjerkers, and the One, Four, Fives will hold a benefit concert for the Ives family at the Hi-Tone Cafe.

And beginning this Monday, Goner Records will host a special online charity auction to help defray some of the costs of the family’s Boston stay and medical expenses.

“They have enough to worry about with just the physical well-being of Anna, so if we can help out financially so that’s less of a concern, we wanted to,” Eric Friedl, the concert’s organizer and Ives’ Goner Records partner, told Mehr.

How can you help?

First off, don’t miss the show at the Hi-Tone.

Second, contact Friedl at 722-0095 or go to this website if you have goods or services to donate to the auction. And be sure to bid on other folks’ items once the auction goes live on Monday.

Third, if you’ve got cash to spare, go here to make a direct donation.

Fourth, help spread the word via Facebook.