The legendary bluegrass musician Arthel Lane “Doc” Watson passed away today at the age of 89. The Los Angeles Times has an obituary posted on Doc’s passing.

The video shows Doc and Mike Seeger performing the Bluegrass standard, “The Cuckoo.”

“Jazz is a lie. America is a lie … Playing Jazz is like running on a treadmill: you may break a sweat, but ultimately you ain’t going nowhere. I am Nicholas Payton and I don’t play ‘the j word.’ I play BAM (Black American Music).”

and not get called out on it immediately is rather sad. It’s also rather offensive, as Payton is trying to forcibly rip away the contributions of whites, latinos, Russians, Azeris, Norwegians, French, various African nationals, et cetera, of their roles in the development of the genre.

Read Victor Fiorillo’s article in full here, courtesy of the Philly Post.

Sad news to report. Larry “Rhino” Reinhardt, founder of Iron Butterfly and Captain Beyond, two of the coolest bands the late sixties and early seventies respectively, passed away Monday due to complications from a respiratory infections. Reinhardt was 63.

Billy Cox of the Herald Tribune wrote an obituary on the late guitarist, which can be read here.

The Daily Telegraph’s article on the subject can be reached here.

Billboard Magazine’s Ed Christman discusses the topic further here.

Nekesa Mumbi Moody of MyWay News discusses the release of John Lennon’s final interview, for Rolling Stone Magazine, 30 years after its completion.

In a case of absolute hypocrisy, Michael Robertson and MP3 Tunes makes the allegation that EMI, who breathe fire on upload services like Rapidshare, are using Rapidshare to to give away music themselves. Read the full article at P2P.net.