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.

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.

Spectacular news: The 21st annual International Folk Alliance Conference is already slated for the downtown Marriott February 18-22, and 2009 is gonna be a doozy! The organization has already tapped Byrds legend Roger McGuinn (front and center in the granny glasses, above) as the keynote speaker, and Charlie Louvin and John Sebastian are gonna be in town, too. Showcase artists scheduled to attend include NC bluegrass group Chatham County Line, Nashville-based cowpunk-turned-kid-friendly musician “Farmer” Jason Ringenberg, former Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan and the Bump Band, Susan Cowsill, and Lucy Wainwright Roche. Oh, and a New Jersey-based singer named Amy Speace who fronts a band called the Tearjerkers.

Musicians — be sure to go down to the Music Resource Center next Wednesday between 8AM and 9PM to get half-price band registration for the 2009 International Folk Alliance Conference, slated for the downtown Marriot Feb. 18-22.

Tonight, former Memphian Hope Partlow and her Atlanta-based musical partner Ryan Wilson roll into Newby’s as pop duo the Love Willows (you’ve heard ‘em on steady rotation on MTV “reality” dramas The Real World and The Hills), who recently inked a recording contract with Universal-affiliated Decca Records. It’s the second major label deal for Partlow — she signed a contract for a solo deal with Virgin when she was just 16. Doors open at 8PM.

Before that, get yourself downtown to the Memphis Music Resource Center (431 S. Main Street, Suite 201) for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn more about copyrights from Wyatt, Tarrant and Combs attorney Tonya Butler, who is also an assistant professor at the University of Memphis’s Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music. The FREE workshop kicks off at 5:30PM. Attendees can also get a flu shot for $5.

Also tonight: Quintron and Golden Triangle at the Hi-Tone; Banjo Jack and the Whistle Pigs at the Buccaneer Lounge; DJs Descend and Funke at Nocturnal; DJ Steve Ann at Dish; Brandon McGovern, Jeremy Stanfill, Grace Askew, and Nick Redmond at Neil’s; Star & Micey and the Adversaries at Murphy’s; Gary Johns at Salsa; and the Dempseys at Blues City Cafe.

If you fancy a road trip, the mighty Vic Chesnutt is playing Proud Larry’s in Oxford, with fellow Athens, GA musicians Elf Power.

John Hiatt (pictured) and Lyle Lovett are at the Orpheum. CA music critic Bob Mehr sat down with Hiatt for this interview, published in last week’s edition of Go Memphis.

Of a solo act-eclipsing songwriting career that includes tunes for Three Dog Night (“Sure As I’m Sitting Here”), Bonnie Raitt (“Thing Called Love”) and Bon Jovi (“Have A Little Faith In Me”), Hiatt said, “Having that success with other people covering my stuff was always sort of an accident. I’ve always just written the stuff for my own projects. The fact that I got covered was just a happy, lucky addition to the career.”

Also tonight: Widespread Panic at Mud Island. FreeWorld plays a Star 98 FM pre-concert (also at Mud Island) at 5 p.m., followed by a post-Widespread Panic show at the Flying Saucer Downtown. Tomorrow, FreeWorld will be on the Thacker Mountain Radio Show, broadcast from Off Square Books down in Oxford.

Devil Train is at the Hi-Tone Cafe. And Spokenherd, poetry and rhythms hosted by Tonya Dyson, goes down at Safari at 414 S. Main.

According to music blog Idolator, bluegrass giant Ralph Stanley has joined the Boss, Jay-Z and more in the Barack Obama camp. Stanley’s brand new radio ad opens, “Howdy friends, this is Ralph Stanley!” and closes, “Barack Obama is the change we need.” Go here to listen.

The Indie Memphis film festival — which is right around the corner — will host regional premieres of the documentary Johnny Cash’s America and the drama Gospel Hill.

Johnny Cash’s America is a collaboration between Morgan Neville and Memphis’ own Robert Gordon, the team behind Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story, Shakespeare Was A George Jones Fan, and Muddy Waters: Can’t Be Satisfied. It screens at Studio on the Square on Wednesday, Oct. 15 at 7PM.

Gospel Hill was scored by Memphis musician Scott Bomar, who also scored Hustle & Flow and Black Snake Moan. It screens at Studio on the Square on Sunday, Oct. 12 at 6PM.

Also on the program schedule for Indie Memphis: music-related documentaries including Song Sung Blue, about Lightning & Thunder, a pair of Milwaukee-based Neil Diamond tribute artists; Full Moon Lightnin, about Mississippi-born bluesman Floyd Lee; Throw Down Your Heart, a look at banjoist Bela Fleck to Africa; and Hi My Name Is Ryan.

Also on tap for Indie Memphis: Live From Memphis’ 2008 Music Video Showcase.

And, as the CA’s John Beifuss reports, cult filmmaker/local musician John Michael McCarthy is back behind the camera working on his latest epic, which is called Cigarette Girl.

Tonight: the Silent Parade’s CD release party for The Safest Boy at the Hi-Tone Cafe; Trampled Under Foot at the Levitt Shell; the Derailers at Automatic Slims; Joan Red at the New Daisy; the Originals, the Infidelles, and Cheyenne Marrs at Neil’s; Jimbo Mathus at Ground Zero; Josephus and the George Jones Massacre at the Buccaneer Lounge; Grace Askew at the Cove; Toni Green at Blues City Cafe; and BJ Thomas at the Mid-South Fair.

Saturday: Start off the day by attending the free Bullfrogs and Bluegrass Festival in Horn Lake, drop into Midtown for the Clanjamfry Faire, then take the family to Overton Park for another free concert, Sara Hickman and Grupo Fantasma at the Levitt Shell.

Also on Saturday: Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and the Memphis Symphony Orchestra with conductor David Loebel at the Cannon Center; City Champs and the Charlie Wood Trio at the Bucc; Chasing Squirrels and Twin Pilot at Murphy’s; Daddy Mack Blues Band at the Center for Southern Folklore; Fingers Like Saturn and Amy and the Tramps at the P+H Cafe; True Sons of Thunder and Pontiak at Odessa; Surrender the Fall and Cornerstone at Newby’s; Ryan Peel at Otherlands; Toni Green at Blues City Cafe; Rusty Lemon at the Red Rooster; Neal McCoy at Gold Strike Casino; and Bobby Rush, Shirley Brown, J. Blackfoot, and the Stax Music Academy students at the Mid-South Fair. Or, shake a tailfeather at Soul Night at the Hi-Tone, with DJs Buck Wilders, the Hook Up, Chase One and Red Eye Jedi.

Sunday: Corey Osborn at the Old Millington Winery; the Afro-funk By All Means Band at the Levitt Shell; FreeWorld at Blues City Cafe; Big Don Valentine at the View; the Dempseys at Hueys on Poplar Ave; Ruby Dee and the Snake Handlers plus Hillbilly Casino at the Hi-Tone Cafe; the Atlanta Rhythm Section and the Georgia Satellites at the Mid-South Fair.

Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby at the Hi-Tone. Former Miles Davis collaborator Bill Evans, fronting his group Soulgrass, at the Levitt Shell. Boston blues-rockers the Scissormen, doing a free show at Shangri-la Records at 6PM, followed by a late-nite concert at the Buccaneer Lounge. And Darius Rucker at Y’allapalooza at Snowden Grove Park.