In Words and Pictures: 10th Annual Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival- John Penney [ 12/8/2008 - 22:19 ] #
 Over the past decade the AMRF’s annual Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival has presented 59 artists (not counting supporting players) in 14 concerts and produced four nationally distributed public television programs. Three more programs will be on the air soon and four more are in production.
Our live audiences each night are treated to three or four hours of incredible performances by both legendary artists and those deserving wider recognition. Audiences are aware that we are filming for television – it’s hard to miss the looming 26ft. boom of the jib camera as it swoops in and away from the stage – but that’s about as far as it goes.
Each television program presents an hour of the best performances viewed from the best seats in the house, enhanced by interviews that bring viewers closer to the artists and their music. The DVDs contain about an hour of “extras,” including additional performances and extended interviews with the artists. 
That’s a total of six hours of entertainment from each concert, 12 hours per year since the Festival expanded to two nights in 2005. Producing those 12 hours requires hundreds of hours of work by dozens of people. Planning for the next festival begins shortly after the last one ends.
We have written thousands of words about what we do and why we do it and could write a few thousand more about how our 10th Annual Festival was one of the most challenging but ultimately gratifying and important we have ever produced. But the cliché is that pictures are worth thousands of words and we have an unsurpassed collection of thousands of photographs documenting all of our festivals, including a few hundred from this one.
The photographer is John Collier, our long time friend who won many awards for his work at the Detroit Free Press. The slide show/photo essay linked below takes you behind the scenes with us during the final, frantic four days of this year’s production. We hope that the artistry of the photographs and the events they capture bring you as much joy as they have brought us.
Happy Holidays from all of us at the American Music Research Foundation.
THE 10TH ANNUAL MOTOR CITY BLUES AND BOOGIE WOOGIE FESTIVAL IN WORDS AND PICTURES. 
THE AMRF IS A REGISTERED 501(C)(3) DEDICATED TO THE PROMOTION, PRESERVATION, AND DOCUMENTATION OF AMERICAN MUSIC SO THAT CURRENT AND FUTURE GENERATIONS MIGHT UNDERSTAND AND NOT FORGET WHERE THEIR MUSICAL AND CULTURAL HERITAGE COMES FROM. FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO MAKE A DONATION CONTACT BRANDI STRIBBELL AT BRANDIS@AMRF.NET OR TOLL FREE 866-270-5141
About the American Music Research Foundation AMRF Festivals and Concerts AMRF General News AMRF ON TV
|  | | 10 Years Young!- John Penney [ 9/26/2008 - 00:21 ] #  The Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival has always been about more than just presenting a great annual concert or two. From the beginning it was conceived as a vehicle that would bring great artists together so that their performances and stories could be captured on videotape.The goal is to document and preserve our musical and cultural heritage so that future generations will have an opportunity to understand it. This is the mission of the American Music Research Foundation.
As we celebrate our 10th anniversary we can look back with satisfaction on the history we have preserved and even some history we have made. We have documented the music and stories of over 59 artists, including such seminal figures as Koko Taylor, Johnnie Johnson, and Jay McShann. (For a complete list visit the artists page of our website.)
In 2004 Maria Muldaur recreated the sound and look of the Classic Blues singers of the 20's with James Dapogny's Chicago Jazz Band, a performance that inspired the best selling album, "Naughty, Bawdy & Blue," and the title of our TV show and DVD, "Boogie & the Blues Diva."In 2006 we presented 22 artists on stage for a night of Big Band Boogie Woogie, including performances in which world renowned solo pianist Bob Seeley played with a big band for the first time. In 2007 we reintroduced Frank "Sugarchild" Robinson, who disappeared from the scene after having been one of the biggest stars of the day as a child in the 50's.
We have produced four public television programs that have aired over 600 times on close to 200 stations across the country. Five additional hours of programming are in production, and this year's Festival will result in at least two more.
Throughout our 10 years, our good friend John Collier has documented our festivals with his brilliant photography.
VIEW A PHOTOGRAPHIC RETROSPECIVE OF THE MOTOR CITY BLUES &BOOGIE WOOGIE FESTIVAL.
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| | | discussion
- Beautiful slideshow. I can't wait for the show this weekend!
- [ryan] read more (1 total) |
| About the AMRF- Ryan Hertz [ 7/28/2005 - 15:18 ] #
The AMRF is a federally registered 501(c)(3) non-profit arts and cultural organization dedicated to the advancement and promotion of all American musical forms. This site is by no means an exhaustive resource on American music, but is designed to give the visitor an introduction to the work of the AMRF and hopefully provide a vehicle for the study and enjoyment of the various forms of music that are collectively thought of as American.
The opinions expressed within this site are those of the contributors and may contain inaccurate information. In addition, much of what is known and communicated about music is by its very nature anecdotal.
Music can be thought of in many interesting ways. Music is art, math, language, mythology, and culture. While the music itself is scientific in its most elemental form, the human culture that creates and surrounds it is quite subjective.
The development and evolution of music in its many forms is arguable which only adds to the mystique surrounding many forms of music, most notably, those that are considered "folk" forms of music.
***OFFICERS***
President and Founder: Ron Harwood
Vice President: Shelly Harwood
Secretary/Treasurer: Keith Irtenkauf
OUR MISSION: The American Music Research Foundation will collect, film, record, archive, restore, master, edit and distribute material relating to American music--particularly the blues--including, but not limited to, interviews and performances recorded on video, film and audio tape, sheet music, letters and other documents, player piano rolls, 78-, 45-, and 33-rpm records, books, aural histories, photographs and other artifacts; provide funding for the promotion and production of concerts to educate and increase awareness of various musical forms and their historical significance; and collect and disburse funds to provide assistance to elderly and indigent performers with medical and financial emergencies.
If you are interested in becoming a contributor to the website, please contact Ryan Hertz at sentimentalshark@yahoo.com.
About the American Music Research Foundation
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