Margin Walker Presents Joins the Fitzgerald’s Boycott
While the battle for boycotting runs rampant on a presidential front, a music boycott is happening stateside. Acts have been pulling out of historic Houston music venue Fitzgerald’s after Houston promoter Garrett Brown a.k.a. Traxxsounds posted screenshots on Twitter containing an alleged email exchange between him and Fitzgerald’s owner Sarah Fitzgerald where she responded to Traxxsound’s hip-hop show promotion by saying her venue is not a big fan of music that “worships rape culture and harbors hatred.” Her rant included remarks stereotyping the clothing, attitude, and habits of a typical hip-hop show audience, summing it up with “300 fans that buy little, tip little and create disharmony-no thanks.” Since the reveal of the email exchange, many promoters and artists have joined Traxxsound’s call to boycott the venue, the newest among them being Margin Walker Presents founder Graham Williams. Williams has moved an upcoming show with Oddisee from Fitzgerald’s as well as several other unannounced bookings. When asked about the decision, Williams said, “the decision to move wasn’t hard and already, somewhat, in process. Those horrible comments made the decision easy.”
Jerry Garcia’s Iconic “Wolf” Guitar to Go Up for Charity Auction
Jerry Garcia’s go-to guitar for two decades, his iconic “Wolf” guitar, is heading to Guernsey’s auction block in late May to raise money for the Southern Poverty Law Center. Garcia first performed with the Doug Irwin-crafted-instrument at a private concert in 1973 for the Hell’s Angels. It was after that show that Garcia affixed the guitar with the iconic sticker of a cartoon wolf, and used the guitar in countless Grateful Dead performances before retiring the guitar in 1993. Following Jerry’s death in 1995, Irwin reclaimed the “Wolf” guitar and sold it at auction for over $700,000 in 2002, a then world record for a guitar. That anonymous buyer is now putting up again for auction, saying, “playing this iconic guitar over the past 15 years has been a privilege, but the time is right for Wolf to do some good.”
-Taylor Wallace
