[FA Worldmusic] For immediate release

[Stephanie P Ledgin]

Stephanie P. Ledgin to receive international award
for long career in country music journalism

	In recognition of her more than thirty-year career,
writer-photographer Stephanie P. Ledgin will receive the 2007 Charlie Lamb
Award for Excellence in Country Music Journalism at the upcoming 24th Annual
International Country Music Conference in Nashville. Presentation of the
award, given in cooperation with Mr. Gary and Ms. Peggy Walker of The Great
Escape, will be made Friday, May 25, at Belmont University, a co-sponsor of
the event. The prestigious award is named for Music Citys entertainment
industry pioneer who, among numerous innovations, founded two key early
country music publications, The Music Reporter and The Sound Format.
	Since 1975 when hired as an editor of the seminal bluegrass magazine
Pickin, Ledgin has focused primarily on bluegrass and folk music, her work
circling the globe in magazines, books, recordings and museums. She is the
author of two books, the first of which, Homegrown Music: Discovering
Bluegrass (Praeger, cloth; University of Illinois Press, paper), brought her
honors as the 2005 International Bluegrass Music Print Media Person of the
Year. Her second, From Every Stage: Images of Americas Roots Music
(University Press of Mississippi), continues to make the rounds with
selections from it in a traveling photo exhibition which debuted at the
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, was then expanded and continued at
Lincoln Centers New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and which
will open in June for a year-long run at the International Bluegrass Music
Museum in Owensboro, Kentucky.
	In addition to serving as director of the New Jersey Folk Festival
at Rutgers University for ten years (1994-2003), Ledgin was one of the
original hosts of CityFolk on New York Public Radios WFUV 90.7 FM. She
currently sits on the Board of Directors of the International Bluegrass
Music Association, is a founding member of the North American Folk Music and
Dance Alliance and is a member of the European Bluegrass Music Association.
Ledgin is developing a special interview series for electronic broadcast
while she continues to work on her next book, Discovering Folk Music
(Praeger), anticipated for release in 2008.
 	Previous Lamb Award honorees for their lengthy careers have been
Jack Hurst, Ed Morris, Chrissie Dickinson, Bob Howe of Australia, Tony
Russell of the U.K. and Chet Flippo. A second award is given annually to a
younger, contemporary country music journalist. Country music, according to
the Charlie Lamb criteria, is broadly defined to include journalism about
styles ranging from Old Time Country, Cajun, Cowboy, Western Swing, and the
Nashville Sound to Bluegrass, Honky Tonk, Classic Country, Country Rock, New
Traditionalist, Hot New Country, Americana, and Alternative Country.
 	For more information or to register for this years International
Country Music Conference, to be held May 24-26 at Belmont University in
Nashville, please contact James Akenson by phone (931) 372-3066 or by email,
jakenson at tntech.edu. For a look at Ledgins long career, visit her Web site,
http://fiddlingwithwords.com.
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