Latest news with #Hurrah
Calgary Herald
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Calgary Herald
'I was always a searcher': Jackson and the Janks to bring New Orleans inspired 'garage gospel' to Calgary
Article content In his early 20s, Jackson Lynch decided he needed to live in New Orleans if he wanted to make a go of a music career. Article content It wasn't as if he was living in the boonies before that. He was a New Yorker who would attend all-ages, hardcore punk shows in the underground clubs of the Lower East Side. But on his frequent trips to the Big Easy, he felt a new world opening up musically. It had the same fierce DIY spirit as hardcore, even if it didn't much sound like it. Article content Article content 'I was in my early 20s and was like, 'Damn, if I'm going to take music seriously for my life, this is where I gotta be,' ' he says. 'So I picked it all up and went down there and was there for many years. It was the brokest I've ever been in my life, but I was the richest I've ever been in my life creatively.' Article content Article content Initially, he would busk every day in the French Quarter. It put him in touch with fellow musicians. That included future Grammy winner and 2025 Calgary Folk Music Festival headliner Sierra Ferrell. He met up with ragtime band Tuba Skinny and the members of Hurrah for the Riff Raff. Article content 'I would bring my fiddle out every day,' he says. 'I was so broke, man. I would go out at 9 a.m. every day, and I would play the fiddle in front of this cafe. I would make like $40. And I was like, 'Hell, yeah! I'm good for the day.' Later in the day, he would jam with jazz bands on Royal Street. Article content 'I really cut my teeth,' says Lynch, whose band Jackson and the Janks will be making its Canadian debut on Saturday as part of East Town Get Down in Calgary. Article content Lynch is back in Brooklyn these days, but New Orleans is where Jackson and the Janks were born. Lynch eventually picked up an electric guitar and began creating a distinct 'garage gospel' sound that brought in various musical threads from New Orleans. The band's self-titled debut was recorded over several years in New Orleans and released in 2023. It has three originals by Lynch, but most of the material is old gospel standards and obscurities that the Janks re-envisioned in the studio. Article content That includes a Kinks-like run through Give an Account, which Lynch first heard as an old field recording by sisters Dorothy Lee, Norma Jean and Shirley Marie Johnson. Sleep On, Mother, a song that originated with an a cappella group called the Silver Leaf Quartette of Norfolk that performed spiritual music in the 1920s and 1930s.
Yahoo
17-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
DOGE puts DEI on chopping block with termination of over $370M in education department grants
In just 48 hours, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) slashed a whopping $370 million in taxpayer dollars being spent on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at the Department of Education. DOGE, the newly formed department led by Elon Musk to purge spending by the federal government, revealed in a post on X that they terminated 70 DEI training grants within the department. According to DOGE, the grants totaled $373 million. One grant was reportedly funding training for teachers to "engage in ongoing learning and self-reflection to confront their own biases and racism, and develop asset-based anti-racist mindsets," the cost-cutting department said. Doge Slashes Over $100M In Dei Funding At Education Department: 'Win For Every Student' Over the past several weeks, DOGE has announced the canceling of various streams of funding to DEI in education, including $9.7 million for UC Berkeley to develop "a cohort of Cambodian youth with enterprise driven skills." Read On The Fox News App Department Of Education Warns That Public Schools Must Remove Dei Policies Or Lose Federal Funding The latest spending sweep comes just days after DOGE announced the termination of another 89 DOE contracts totaling $881 million, which included more than $100 million in DEI grants. "Hurrah" Heather Higgins, CEO of Independent Women's Voice, wrote in a post on X in response to the latest DOGE cuts. The Education Department has been cracking down on DEI practices in education, ordering all 50 state education departments last week to remove DEI policies within 14 days or risk losing federal funding. The letter said the "overt and covert racial discrimination that has become widespread in this nation's educational institutions" will no longer be tolerated. Fox News' Landon Mion contributed to this article source: DOGE puts DEI on chopping block with termination of over $370M in education department grants
