L-R Back Row: Steve Garvan/MMF, Roto/The Cringe, Wayne Kramer, Craig Hyman/MMF, Bobby Bare Jr, Jonny Matias/The Cringe. Front Row: John Cusimano/The Cringe, Jack Bookbinder/MMF, emcee Jessie Scott, Allison Shaw (mgr-The Cringe)

Music Managers Forum-US members with Rachel Ray.
L-R Back Row: Carolina Eriksson, Jacco van Lanen, Alan Wolmark, Steve Garvan, Steven Scharf, Justin Seidenberg. Front Row: Jack Bookbinder, Rachel Ray, Craig Hyman.

SECOND ANNUAL MMF-US SXSW MUSIC SHOWCASE – THE STORY
Music Managers Forum-US (MMF-US) hosted the Second Annual SXSW Music Showcase on the evening of Saturday, March 21, 2009 at the legendary Maggie Mae’s – Gibson Room in Austin Texas. MMF-US offered four hours of live music to all SXSW Music Conference registrants consisting of IMMF/MMF members, managers, music industry professionals and media (invited by MMF-US’s in-kind publicity sponsor PAI Media). Pioneering rock and roots DJ Jessie Scott (Music Fog, current AMA Board President/Founding Council member, former XM Cross Country) was the jubilant emcee to introduce the performing artists The Cringe, Wayne Kramer and Bobby Bare Jr. Music Manager Forum-US board members Steven Scharf, Alan Wolmark, Craig S. Hyman, Steve Garvan, Justin Seidenberg, and Jack Bookbinder mixed backstage with the performing musicians and their MMF managers (including Margaret Kramer and Allison Shaw) celebrating MMF affiliation and connection at the once-a-year popular music conference and music showcase.

Concert goers were thrilled by the beautifully adorned and renovated Maggie Mae’s – Gibson Room located right off Austin’s famed East 6th Street. The large stage in the showcase room invited the large crowd an up-close and intimate experience of rock music’s riveting performers from all parts of the United States (Los Angeles, Nashville & New York City), with each act performing their own distinctive sub-genre of garage rock, rock-folk and roots rock.

Late night crowd at Maggie Mae’s – Gibson Room, Austin, TX
for Second Annual MMF-US @SXSW Music Showcase

The Cringe took the stage first, fresh from their performance at national TV talk show host’s Rachel Ray’s day party. The Cringe’s band includes band founder John Cusimano, lead guitarist Roto, bassist Jonny Matias and longtime Saturday Night Live band drummer Shawn Pelton. The Cringe’s songs are driven by the powerful lead vocals and incisive, edgy, yet accessible songwriting of Cusimano. The lead singer LIVED rock and roll on the stage of Maggie Mae’s – Gibson Room by captivating the audience with his riveting stage jumps and emotion-packed vocals, yet held the audience in his palm of his hand with stirring ballads in which he alternated between keyboard and acoustic guitar. When the stage energy couldn’t conceivably be more, Steve Conti of the legendary New York Dolls upped the ante by jumping on-stage to play electric guitar and sing with Cusimano for an incredible take on Thin Lizzy’s “Jailbreak” leaving the audience overwhelmed with excitement, and this was just the BEGINNING of the MMF-US SXSW Music Showcase. MMF member/manager of The Cringe, Allison Shaw, glowed in pride as her band wowed the crowd which included TV talk show personality (and devoted Cringe’r) Rachel Ray who graciously and repeatedly posed for photos with MMF members.

The Cringe (NYC) kick-off the MMF-US Music Showcase

Special guest performance by Steve Conti of the New York Dolls
joins the stage with The Cringe. (photo by Jack Bookbinder/MMF-US)

Wayne Kramer (from Los Angeles)	Bobby Bare Jr (from Nashville, TN)

Detroit turned Los Angeles transplant Wayne Kramer, the teenaged leader of the notorious MC5, respected film and television composer, then took the stage for a rare solo acoustic performance at SXSW to support the Music Managers Forum. Wayne created a sonic assault that still resonates in rock music today. The resilient, irreverent, rapier-witted, amplifier burning Wayne Kramer is in full effect today. Kramer alternated between performing acoustic packed anthems he composed and speaking from his heart to the crowd hanging on every word from one of punk rock’s true pioneers. Manager Margaret Kramer (Muscletone Records) from Los Angeles has been supporting Music Manager Forum-US for some time as an active and present participant with MMF supported events hosted by non-profit affiliates MusiCares & Road Recovery, so her early and fervent support for husband Wayne Kramer to perform the MMF-US music showcase was well appreciated by the MMF@SXSW committee involved in organizing the night.

Wayne Kramer speaks at SXSW (Photo by Jack Bookbinder/MMF-US)	Bobby Bare Jr captures the audience

Closing the evening was Bobby Bare Jr. with his big-as-the-room persona, and ability to rock the doors off the most jaded of clubs. The crowd at Maggie Mae’s Gibson Room swelled with Mr. Bare’s late night Saturday night appearance, setting the stage for Mr. Bare to have his heart hold the room completely still with just his guitar, and a genius for arrangement. Bobby Bare, Jr. and his band of merry makers are one of the most unique bands around by abandoning common sense in favor of laying themselves at the feet of a rambunctious, freewheeling, and unfettered and unhinged muse. The band performed a set of Nashville-based roots rock that combined humor, pain, and anger in such an effortlessly well-crafted manner. MMF-US sends special thanks to Nan Warshaw of Bloodshot Records for her vital role in bringing Bobby Bare Jr. to the MMF-US showcase at SXSW. For those MMF members able to hang out with Mr. Bare throughout the night, they met an affable, gentle artist so giving of his time and goodwill for the sake helping promote the managers’ non-profit trade organization fighting for a voice amongst the huge machinery that the music industry has become in the 21st century.

MMF-US member group photo with Margaret & Wayne Kramer
and emcee Jessie Scott.

L-R: Craig Hyman, emcee Jessie Scott, Steve Garvan, Jack Bookbinder.	L-R: Steve Garvan, Jack Bookbinder, Rachel Ray, Craig Hyman. (Photo by Gene Bowen of Road Recovery)

Music Managers Forum-US is a proud affiliate of the IMMF, the international umbrella organization of eighteen MMF’s from around the world. MMF managers from around the globe showed up in force at the showcase through the late night hours. The managers in the crowd included Peter Jenner (MMF-UK), Tiffany Tse (MMF-Canada), Jacco van Lanen (MMF-Netherlands), Carolina Eriksson (MMF-Sweden), Allison Shaw, Cindy da Silva, Angie Devore-Green, in addition to MMF-US board members Steven Scharf, Alan Wolmark, Craig S. Hyman, Steve Garvan, Justin Seidenberg, and Jack Bookbinder. "As the music industry continues to transform and consolidate, we at the MMF-US are proud to announce our continued expansion with the second annual SXSW Music Showcase featuring very special musical guests,” says President Barry Bergman. “We are delighted to be focused on the artists and their music”.

Music Managers Forum-US thanks all the participants, SXSW (especially SXSW showcase organizer Brad First), Paula Amato of PAI Media, photographer Paddy Jane, Gene Bowen of Road Recovery for his production advance work, and the staff at Maggie Mae’s Gibson Room for another successful MMF-US SXSW Music Showcase, paving the way for a continuous annual tradition at SXSW for the non-profit trade organization.

Tiffany Tse between Craig Hyman and his managment client artist David Tamaoka	L-R: Bobby Bare Jr, Cindy da Silva, Steve Garvan, Craig Hyman, Tiffany Tse

PAI Media (www.paimedia.com) is the media sponsor to the non-profit MMF-US SXSW Music Showcase 2009.

Press contact:
Paula Amato
PAI Media
212.206.1598
paula@paimedia.com