Sights and Sounds: Ringo Starr, Richard Thompson, Sena Ehrhardt

Happy Friday everybody! Hope you all had a great 4th of July and you have an equally fine weekend! Here are a few media releases and announcements worth sharing...

RINGO INVITES EVERYONE EVERYWHERE TO JOIN HIM ON HIS BIRTHDAY TO CELEBRATE WITH A MOMENT OF  PEACE & LOVE ON JULY 7, 2013 AT NOON, YOUR TIME 

July 7 is Ringo Starr's birthday and since 2008 the world has been celebrating with him by sharing a moment of "Peace & Love" at Noon.

When Ringo is on tour during the summer we join forces with the Hard Rock International who have generously hosted many of his birthdays.

This time Ringo is taking the summer off and will be in England at home with family and friends, so he sent this video message for his fans to let them know even though he is at home he will still be celebrating with a Peace & Love moment and invites everyone everywhere to join him at Noon their time to do the same.

Ringo's video message:

URL FOR SHARING: http://bit.ly/11etPk5

RICHARD THOMPSON AND HIS ELECTRIC TRIO JOINS AMERICANARAMA FEST WITH BOB DYLAN, WILCO AND MY MORNING JACKET    LISTEN: "GOOD THINGS HAPPEN TO BAD PEOPLE"

LOS ANGELES, CA, July 3, 2013 - Grammy-nominated folk-rock pioneer and guitar virtuoso Richard Thompson has been on a seemingly never ending tour since the release of his highly acclaimed studio album, Electric (February 5 on New West Records) and as of this week has joined the AmericanramA Festival, featuring heavyweights Bob Dylan, Wilco and My Morning Jacket. The Richard Thompson Electric Trio, featuring Thompson on guitar and vocals, Taras Prodaniuk on bass and Michael Jerome on drums, kicked off their two-week  run of the tour last night in Memphis and will hit the Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Chicago and Detroit areas before wrapping up in Toronto.Thompson and band will then jump across the pond for shows in the UK and Europe and then return to the U.S. for the Philadelphia Folk Festival and a couple dates in California where Thompson will perform with Peter Frampton as part of his Guitar Circus. More dates to be announced soon, including an east coast run. Since his early beginnings playing with the groundbreaking British folk-rock group Fairport Convention at just 19 years old to his storied and passionate output asRichard and Linda Thompson to his eclectic solo material, Thompson has had an extraordinary and wildly prolific career stretching more than 45 years. All the while he's been expanding his roster of accomplishments into theater with his multi-media extravaganza Cabaret of Souls, scoring the gripping Werner Herzog documentary"Grizzly Man" and curating London's prestigious Meltdown Festival. His latest album, Electric, produced by Buddy Miller and released on New West Records, has garnered some of the best reviews of his career and is his best selling album in more than a decade, with sales already surpassing his last album, 2010'sDream Attic. Q called the record "a first-class showcase for Thompson's spine-tingling solos" while Mojo said "it's up there with his best" and the Huffington Post hailed it as his "best studio work since Mock Tudor." Rolling Stone declared: "The excellence is undeniable." One of the many standout tracks from Electric, "Good Things Happen To Bad People," a song that encapsulates Thompson's wry sense of humor and guitar heroics, has been nominated as "Song of the Year" by the Americana Music Associationand Thompson himself is nominated for "Artist Of The Year" alongside Buddy Miller, Dwight Yoakam and Emmylou Harris. Last year, the Americana Association honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting. Named one of the "20 Greatest Guitarists" by Rolling Stone and declared "one of this world's most gifted songwriters" by American Songwriter, Thompson is a recipient ofBBC's Lifetime Achievement Award, Mojo's Les Paul Award, the Orville Gibson Guitar Award and the Ivor Novello Award for songwriting. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen of England's 2011 New Year Honours List, was awarded an honorary doctorateby Aberdeen University in his ancestral Scotland and Grammy-nominated forDream Attic. Thompson's songs have been recorded by Robert Plant, REM, Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt and many others. RICHARD THOMPSON ELECTRIC TRIO ON AMERICANARAMA July 5 - Noblesville, IN @ Klipsch Music Center July 6 - Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center July 7 - Kent, OH - Kent Stage * July 9 - Duluth, MN @ Bayfront Festival Park July 10 - St. Paul, MN @ Midway Stadium July 11 - Peoria, IL @ Dozer Park July 12 - Chicago, IL @ Toyota Park July 14 - Clarkston, MI @ DTE Energy Music Theatre July 15 - Toronto, ON @ Molson Canadian Amphitheatre * Headline show not part of AmericanaramA ADDITIONAL TOUR DATES: August 16 - Philadelphia, PA @ Philadelphia Folk Festival August 30 - Lincoln, CA @ Thunder Valley Casino ** August 31 - Paso Robles, CA @ Vina Robles Amphitheatre ** ** Peter Frampton's Guitar Circus NEW VIDEO OF SENA EHRHARDT Acoustic Performance of "Dreamin' or Dyin'" Blind Pig Records has just released a new video from Sena Ehrhardt.  It features Sena and her father (and guitarist in her band) Ed Ehrhardt performing an acoustic version of "Dreamin' or Dyin"  on TV station KSMQ in Minneapolis. Written by the daughter-father songwriting team, the track appears (with full band accompaniment) on Sena's new Blind Pig release entitled All In.  The composition was just announced as a nominee for the "Song of the Year" Blues Blast Music Award (for which voting by the public opens July 15th). In its review of the CD, Elmore magazine says of the tune: "'Dreamin' or Dyin',' an aching tale of unrequited love, is one of the album's strongest tracks.  Ehrhardt's vocal range on this tender soul ballad is amazing - her voice goes from a mournful whisper to a ringing trumpet in the space of a measure." To watch the video of "Dreamin' or Dyin'" please click HERE.