With its concert series Century of Song, Germany's renowned annual arts festival RuhrTriennale (Artistic director: Juergen Flimm) has created the world‘s first concert series to celebrate the history of the popular song. Century of Song pays tribute to the various traditions of the popular song: the most important musical form of the past hundred years.

Century of Song is entirely dedicated to the great songwriters‘ art – a homage to the sung three minute miniature. All the programs and events are planned exclusively for Century of Song. The first musical curator of the series between 2003 and 2005 was Grammy-Award winning jazz guitarist Bill Frisell. Guests have included songwriters such as Rickie Lee Jones, Suzanne Vega, Patti Smith, Vic Chesnutt, Van Dyke Parks, Loudon Wainwright III., Ron Sexsmith, Chip Taylor, Buddy Miller, The Campbell Brothers, Marc Ribot, Vinicius Cantuária and Elvis Costello. A songwriter is someone who writes the lyrics to songs, the musical composition or melody to songs, or both. ... Grammy Award statuette The Grammy Awards, presented by the Recording Academy (an association of Americans professionally involved in the recorded music industry) for outstanding achievements in the recording industry, is one of four major music awards shows held annually in the United States (the Billboard Music Awards, the American Music... William Richard Bill Frisell (born March 18, 1951) is an American jazz guitarist. ... Rickie Lee Jones (born November 8, 1954) is a vocalist and songwriter from the United States. ... Suzanne Vega Suzanne Nadine Vega (born July 11, 1959) is an American songwriter and singer. ... Patti Smith is often confused with Patty Smyth - the former lead singer of the band Scandal. ... Vic Chesnutt (born 1964 in Jacksonville, Florida) is a singer-songwriter resident in Athens, Georgia. ... Van Dyke Parks (born January 3, 1943) is an American composer, arranger, producer, and musician, noted for his collaborations with Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys on the song Heroes and Villains and the recently released cult-classic-album, Smile. ... Loudon Wainwright is the name of a father and son pair of American writers. ... Ron Sexsmith live in Bochum, July 10th, 2004 Ron Sexsmith (born 1964) is a Canadian singer-songwriter from St. ... Chip Taylor is the professional name of American songwriter John Wesley Voight (born in 1940). ... Buddy Miller is a country singer, songwriter, recording artist and producer, currently living in Nashville, Tennessee. ... Marc Ribot (born 1954) is an American guitarist, composer and occasional singer from Newark, New Jersey. ... Declan Patrick Aloysius MacManus, aka Elvis Costello. ...

The musical core of these evenings was provided by Frisell and his musicians. Together with the invited guest stars they created new arrangements of their best-known songs. The second element underlying this English-American series were the songs written by songwriters whom the invited musicians hold dear and which they performed together with Frisell and his band at Century of Song. This aspect has, in the past, often led to moving scenes. Such as when Rickie Lee Jones rediscovered hits by Dan Penn and sang the Beatles‘ »You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away« ; when Vic Chesnutt paid tribute to the songs of Hoagy Carmichael; when Patti Smith shouted Bob Dylan’s »Like A Rolling Stone« or songs by Phil Spector; when Marc Ribot discovered songs from the Civil War, when Loudon Wainwright serenaded his idol Hank Williams; when Chip Taylor, Carrie Rodriguez and Buddy Miller transformed Chuck Berry into Country music or when Elvis Costello sang the songs of the great Charles Mingus. Wallace Daniel Pennington (16 November 1941 -) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and sometime guitar player who co-wrote many soul hits of the 1960s including Dark End of the Street & Do Right Woman (with Chips Moman) and Out of Left Field & Cry Like A Baby (with Spooner... The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 as part of their first tour of the United States, promoting their first hit single there, I Want To Hold Your Hand. ... Hoagland Howard Hoagy Carmichael (November 22, 1899–December 27, 1981) was an American composer, pianist, singer, actor, and bandleader. ... Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman on 24 May 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, musician and poet whose enduring contributions to American song are comparable, in fame and influence, to those of Stephen Foster, Irving Berlin, Woody Guthrie, and Hank Williams. ... Harvey Phillip Phil Spector (born December 26, 1940) is a highly influential American record producer who turned out some of the best-known popular music of the 1960s and 1970s. ... A civil war is a war in which the competing parties within the same country or empire struggle for national control of state power. ... Hank Williams Sr. ... Chuck Berry Charles Edward Anderson Chuck Berry (born October 18, 1926) is an influential African-American guitarist, singer, and composer, and one of the pioneers of rock & roll music. ... Country music, also called country and western music or country-western, is an amalgam of popular musical forms developed in the Southern United States, with roots in traditional folk music, Celtic Music, Blues, Gospel music, and Old-time music. ... Charles Mingus (also known as Charlie Mingus; April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz bassist, composer, bandleader, and occasional pianist. ...

The detailed festival program and the new musical director will be published mid-April 2006 along with the program of the RuhrTriennale.

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