City Beat: Help pick best rock festival moments

USA Today is running a poll asking people to vote on the Top 10 Greatest Festival Moments in Rock and Roll History. You can go online and see USA Today's Top 20 and choose from those.

Each will be showcased in a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame exhibit called "Common Ground: The Music Festival Experience," opening April 25.

The list is topped by Bob Dylan's famous, or infamous to hard-core folk music fans, unplugged Newport Folk Festival performance in 1965.

It might be hard to imagine today, but it really turned the music world upside down when Dylan plugged in an electric guitar and cranked up the volume.

There are several Woodstock, Glastonbury, Coachella and Live Aid performances that make the list, but apparently the one show to have attended was the 1967 Monterey International Pop Music Festival. Shows by Big Brother and the Holding Company, Jimi Hendrix and Otis Redding all make the list.

The one show from Bonnaroo that gets a mention is the 2009 collaboration between Phish and Bruce Springsteen.

¦ If you like old-timey music, Spring Fed Records in Woodbury, Tenn., has digitized 10 previously unavailable records and made them available for free streaming and digital download for $9.99.

The records include such artists as J.T. Perkins, W.L. Gregory & Clyde Davenport, The Perry County Music Makers, Sam McGee & Bill Lowery, The North Fork Rounders, Clayton McMichen, Frazier Moss, Fiddlin' Doc Roberts, Norman Edwards, Vernon Solomon, The Missouri Corn Dodgers and a compilation of Tennessee Valley fiddlers.

¦ Ron "Red Zone Ron" Hall, who does play-by-play for UTC Mocs football games will be handling the public address duties for the Chattanooga Lookouts at AT&T Field this coming spring and summer.

Next Friday, March 21, however, Hall will be at the Rossville Athletic Center for the Amy Brown Benefit Show featuring the professional wrestling debut of Gunner Miller, the former East Ridge and UTC football star.

Presented by Empire Wrestling Entertainment, the event is a fundraiser for Hall's daughter, Amy, who is battling severe Type 1 diabetes.

This has been a dream of Miller's for some time, and it seems appropriate that he will make his debut at such an event.

Adding some color to the card will be WGOW-FM 102.3 on-air personalities "Cowboy" Joe Varner and Gary "Doctor B" Haskew.

Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.

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