Tangleweed’s own Ryan Fisher was recently featured in a documentary about the proposed Promoter Ordinance in Chicago. You can check out his segment below, and also view the entire documentary here. The documentary was produced by JaGoFF, presented in conjunction with TheRecordIndustry.com.

Since its proposal, the ordinance has been tabled thanks to the large outcry by Chicago’s independent music community. This means the issue can still become active at any point, so it’s important for everyone to stay vigilant. We’ll keep you updated on the TweedBlog if any new information becomes available. Also, here’s a good resource with links related to the issue:
http://therecordindustry.com/chicago-promoters-ordinance.htm

Related Posts:

Promoter Ordinance update

Oppose Promoter Ordinance! (please?)

You could get yourself a ticket trying for a new land speed record on some godforsaken corn-lined back country road. Or you could get a bus ticket to Newark, New Jersey. Or maybe a parking ticket to help our cash-strapped metropolis cling to fiscal solvency.

But we’ve got tickets that are much better than that. They’re advance tickets to our record release show at The Hideout, and they’re on sale now at Ticket Web. Everyone at the show gets a copy of the new CD, Most Folk Heroes Started Out As Criminals, plus sets from Tangleweed and Shotgun Party.

How much would this magical evening of entertainment set a person back? Five hundred dollars? A thousand dollars? Seven hundred billion dollars? Nope. Eight bucks. A measley eight bucks guarantees that you get you in the door and a copy of the new CD. Get `em while they last.

Well, we have some good news and some bad news. First, the bad:

Tangleweed did not make the Top 5 vote getters in the CBGB Fest contest. We were overtaken at the 11th hour by the Off The Wagon Bluegrass Band from Nashville. And the judges chose Donny Biggins from Chicago as the winner, so he’ll be playing the opening slot for the festival – Congrats to Donny!! And HUGE thanks to all of you who voted for us.

Now, the good news:

TANGLEWEED IS PLAYING AT THE FESTIVAL ANYWAY!

The festival organizers just offered us and The Giving Tree Band (#7 in the votes, and also from Chicago) the chance to play POP-UP sets from the balcony between mainstage sets. It’ll be an old-school single-mic/single-spotlight setup, allowing us to keep the hot tuneage flowing for the audience while the mainstage sets get turned over. This should result in four or five short sets from each band throughout the entire day’s festivities.

We are extremely happy with this arrangement, and would like to send our most sincere thanks to Michael Raspatello and the gang at CBGB Fest for giving us this opportunity.

We’ll get good and warmed up with three full sets at our monthly Charleston gig the night before, and we’ll hit the ground running when we get the call on Saturday!

Thanks again to all of you who pulled for us in the contest – your efforts did not go unpunished, and we can’t thank you enough for all the support!!

We’ll see you on 11/22 at The Congress Theatre!

Billy, Kip, Paul, Ryan and Scott
Tangleweed

Related show

• Artist: Tangleweed
• Date: 11/22/08
• Time: 12:00pm
• City: Tangleweed in Chicago, IL
• Venue: Chicago Bluegrass and Blues Festival
• Address: 2135 N. Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL
• Country: US
• Admission: $31
• Age restrictions: All Ages
• Notes: Tangleweed will play POP-UP sets from the balcony throughout the day between mainstage acts. We will share these duties with The Giving Tree Band, also from Chicago.
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Tangleweed will be on the road for the evening, but folks in Chicago should head on over to the Old Town School of Folk Music to check out the Ebony Hillbillies.

Our pal (and sometime sub) Steve Rosen will be opening. There will also be an old-time jam with the band, starting at 4pm at the school. Bring an instrument if you feel like picking.

The Embarrassment, sometimes called the ‘greatest band you’ve never heard of’, have scheduled a reunion show August 30th, at Barleycorn’s in Wichita, Kansas. Also cause for celebration: their career-spanning collection Heyday is back in print.

I’ve been hosting a bluegrass jam every other Sunday at the Wild Rover Pub (6001 N. Paulina) on Chicago’s northside. We just had our second session over Memorial Day weekend and it was a blast. We’re including a pot luck dinner as part of the fun. It makes the event kind of like a church picnic where everyone is drunk. This week Tiffany (bartender and hostess) made her special vegetarian sloppy joes and Matt Reese (banjo and co-host) showed up with some oven baked chicken wings. I took a crack at making some chocolate chip cookies with walnuts and they turned out surprisingly well.

The highlight of the evening was when two brothers visiting from Dublin started requesting Irish songs. I drew upon Tangleweed’s limited repertoire and soon the bar was filled with shouts of choruses from “Wild Rover” and “Whiskey in the Jar.” One of the brothers, Craig, had a great voice and belted out the verses. “Wild Rover,” being the namesake of the establishment, was such a hit we decided to play it twice that evening.

The next session will be held on Sunday, June 8 from 4-8 pm. Come bring your instruments, voice and a dish to pass if you feel so inclined. It’s been a great time so far, and there’s free parking across the street at the European Auto Body Shop!

This just in from the Chicago Music Commission, the group of activists spearheading the resistance to the Promoter Ordinance.

Hello fellow musicians/music lovers,

The “promoters ordinance” was postponed, but it is not over yet. A committee is working on a revised ordinance that will probably come up again for a vote in 1 month. The Chicago Music Commission is asking people to fill out a survey about the promoter’s ordinance that they’ll present to Daley and City Council. The last day to complete the survey is this Friday. Here’s a link:
http://chicago-music.org/promoters-comments.php

Please take the time (15-20 minutes) to click on the link below, read the ordinance, and fill out the Chicago Music Commission’s survey by Friday. All of us will be negatively affected by this ordinance if the language is not revised. It seems like the city is open to revising the language, but there must be a large outcry in order to make it happen.

Pass this along to every musician/music lover you know!

Related posts:
Promoter Ordinance update
Oppose Promoter Ordinance! (please?)

Good news – thanks to the large public outcry against the Promoter Ordinance, the proposal has been pulled from tomorrow’s City Council meeting. There will be further review and undoubtedly this is not the end of the issue, so hopefully everyone will stay informed. We’ll try to keep you updated on the Tangleweed blog. In the meantime, contact your alderman and let him/her know how important the independent music scene is to Chicago, and why an ordinance like this is a bad idea.

For this of you (like me) who are just finding out about this issue, Jim DeRogatis of the Sun-Times has written an excellent blog detailing the ordinance, its history, and public reaction to it:

http://blogs.suntimes.com/derogatis/

Here’s another blog that was also responsible for raising public awareness.  They collected almost 6,000 signatures for their online petition opposing the ordinance:

http://savechicagoculture.org/

Power to the people!