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.

Guerilla-style, right behind Paris Hilton — gotta love it!

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 fabulously soulful Cee-lo Green, best known for fronting Gnarls Barkley, his collaboration with Danger Mouse, covers Elvis Presley’s “Stranger in the Crowd” (off the 1970 album That’s the Way It Is) for this brand-new Coca-Cola commercial, which is slated to debut during the Super Bowl. Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal, you can watch — and listen — here first!

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.

Remember when, back on Nov. 3, I reported that Joaquin Phoenix, who portrayed Johnny Cash in Walk the Line, was giving up his acting career to focus on music?

This weekend, Phoenix made his debut — as a rapper — onstage at a Las Vegas club.

Apparently it was a small stage, because he fell off it. Footage below:

I know I’m not the only Memphian who has been on pins and needles, waiting for this day to come. Now I’m watching the pre-inauguration coverage (Cheney in a wheelchair! and the horrible obligatory mention of Lincoln’s assassination), anxiously awaiting Barack Obama’s first speech as President of the United States of America. I’ve gotten emails from some of my compatriots at MOJO Magazine in London — they’re as thrilled as I am that enough Americans finally managed to pull together and vote for real change. Memphis-born Aretha Franklin did her soundcheck yesterday; she’ll perform at the inauguration today. And after the swearing-in ceremony, Jackson, Miss. native David Banner will be performing at the Urban Inauguration Ball, co-hosted by Dionne Warwick and Ludacris. See ya’ll on the other side…

Tonight: Kick off the weekend with a free performance from Good Luck Dark Star at Shangri-la Records at 6 p.m. Afterwards, have dinner with Bobby Rush at the Center for Southern Folklore. Later, head to the Hi-Tone Cafe for some fabulous local power pop, served up by the Everyday Parade and Van Duren. Also: Free Sol and Haymaker Project are at Quetzal, Will Graves is at Cafe Soul, and Shortwave Dahlia is at the Full Moon Club.

Saturday:Get up early and take the kids to the “Peanut Butter and Jam Session” at GPAC, with Wild Willy and the Memphis Jam Band. Shows are at 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. My pick of the night is a triple bill — J.D. Reager and the Cold-Blooded Three, plus Billy Worley and the Candy Company and Dragoon — at Nocturnal. There’s also Pavement Band and Tyler Keith at the Hi-Tone; the Elvis Birthday Pops Concert at the Cannon Center; the Grascals at the Lucy Opry at BPACC (go here for Mark Jordan’s profile in this week’s CA); Facedive, Painbreak, Dark Embrace, and more at the New Daisy; a Mozart concert at St. Benedict; a performance of the Eroica Ensemble at First Congregational Church in Midtown; Reba Russell at Neil’s; a MAMA concert with Dan Montgomery at Otherlands; and Duke Hex and the Firm Foundation Riddim Squad at the P+H Cafe.

Sunday:Chris Chew’s last free Sunday afternoon show starts at the Hi-Tone at 4 p.m., and later, blues guitarist Scott Holt plays at the East Memphis Huey’s.

I just got an email from the folks behind the SXSW 2009 Music and Media Conference (which is slated for Austin, Texas on March 18-22), announcing the first round of scheduled performers. On the list: Memphis’ own Al Kapone, the Bar-Kays, Free Sol, and 8Ball & MJG, pictured above.

If it weren’t so serious, this would be like the plot of Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe…

In late December, a few weeks after guitarist Corey Osborne was killed in a 1-car crash, DJ Squeeky was injured in a car wreck.

On New Year’s Day, singer Ruby Wilson suffered a mild stroke.

And on Tuesday, Elvis co-hort — and former “Talent Party” host — George Klein got banged up when his car hydroplaned on this way to Tunica.

Be careful out there, folks. The world can be a dangerous place.