Take Me Back is the title of the next Rounder Records CD project from Canadian fiddler and vocalist April Verch, due for a February 14, 2006 release. As with previous Verch CDs, this one is said to combine her love and mastery of Canadian fiddle traditions with a flair for contemporary acoustic music.

Producer Dirk Powell, who worked on Cold Mountain soundtrack, and also produced projects for the Tim O”Brien Band, Balfa Toujours, and Uncle Earl”s acclaimed Rounder debut She Waits for Night, had this to say about Verch and the new CD:

“Unlike many in her position, she has arrived at a place where the technique she strived so hard to attain no longer has meaning on its own. It is now a means to an end, and the end in question is the realm of true personal expression.”

No audio samples up yet on either the Verch or Rounder web sites, but they should appear closer to the actual release date next year. Verch and her band will be on the road starting in February in support of Take Me Back. Tour dates can be found on Verch’s site.

The Isaacs just won the southern gospel Band of the Year award from the Caraway Media Group.

ISAACS RECEIVE SOUTHERN GOSPEL AWARD FOR BAND OF THE YEAR

The Isaacs enjoyed visiting with Charles Brady of the Caraway Media Group this past Friday night in Columbia, SC, as Brady attended the Gaither Homecoming Concert where The Isaacs performed.

Brady met The Isaacs prior to the concert and presented the group with their Band of the Year Award from Caraway Media Group.

Congratulations are in order. Here’s a link to a blog post on sogospel.com about all the winners. It includes some pictures.

In episode #3 of The GrassCast we continue our theme from last week as we share excerpts from interviews we conducted with a number of bluegrass personalities. We asked them to share their thoughts about the 2005 IBMA trade show and fan fest. With 2005 being the first year for the event to be held in Nashville, TN, there were a lot of positive and negative responses. We previously posted about this topic here. Now you can hear what the bluegrass artists, songwriters, and business persons in attendance thought, in their own words. Originally this was to be the last part in this series, but this episode ran long (24 min) and we still didn’t include everything. Part 3 will be along next week. Look for it early, due to Thanksgiving.

Comments from:

• Tim O’Brien
• Jere Cherryholmes
• Andy Hall
• Jessica Lovell
• Mark Brinkman
• Murphy Henry
• Greg Cahill
• Marty Raybon
• Jim Hurst
• Chris Jones
• Don Ribsby

This GrassCast is 24 minutes in length and the file download size is 22 MB

Direct Download: ep3_ibma2005_2.mp3
Subscribe with:
Free Download: The GrassCast iPodder software

To subscribe with your own podcatching software, copy and past this url into the appropriate entry box in your software: http://www.thegrasscast.com/rss

NOTE: This post is open to comments, so please share your thoughts about IBMA 2005 here. We just might include them in our next episode of The GrassCast.

UPDATE: Please leave comments and let us know if the length of this episode, along with the increased file size, is a detriment to downloading it. We aim to keep each episode to 10 minutes, but some may run long. Would this have been better split into two discreet episodes? Let us know what you think.

The American Society of Composers and Performers, more commonly known as ASCAP, has announced plans for a national conference dedicated solely to songwriting and composing. The debut event, dubbed the I Create Music EXPO, is scheduled for April 20-22, 2006 in Los Angeles, CA.

I Create Music EXPO will feature workshops with prominent songwriters, panel discussions with music industry insiders, and exclusive performances. ASCAP hopes that not only songwriters and composers, but producers, music publishers, managers, agents, entertainment attorneys and record company execs will see the benefits of this event, not only for the information provided, but also the networking opportunities that the proximity to so many other industry folks can provide.

A list of How To Sessions scheduled during the event on the ASCAP web site includes:

• Make Money in the Music Business
• Build Your Dream Team to Reach Your Goals
• Navigate the Digital Superhighway
• Market Your Music to an International Community
• Read a Music Contract
• Place Your Songs in TV, Films, Advertising & Games
• Break Into the World of Film and TV Scoring
• Get to Broadway with a Stage Musical

Discounts for early registration are available to ASCAP members. Registration details are available online.

This Bird Has Flown is a tribute album to the 40th anniversary of The Beatles’ Rubber Soul. The CD contains all the songs the Rubber Soul album contained in the same sequence. The difference is the performances are all from various artists in various genres. The only bluegrass representation on the record is a contribution from the Yonder Mountain String Band. They performed the tune Think For Yourself. I went online looking for a review of the album and found a couple. Here’s one from Rolling Stone Magazine for you to enjoy. But this one from houstonpress.com made me wonder what the reviewer meant by this statement. (more…)

Maybe it’s something in the water…

Just yesterday, we posted about The Jackson Agency and New Frontier Touring working together to better represent a number of bluegrass acts. Today, we see that Class Act Entertainment and Don Light Talent have done the same thing. They will be offering exclusive management services for Larry Sparks, Ronnie Bowman and The Steep Canyon Rangers.

Class Act Entertainment will continue to serve as booking agent for a number of prominent bluegrass acts, like The Whites, J.D. Crowe & The New South, Larry Sparks, Marty Raybon, Jerry & Tammy Sullivan, Billy Joe Shaver as in the past, and adds exclusive representation for Larry Sparks and Ronnie Bowman to the roster.

Mike Drudge of Class Act offers this final comment:

“Stay tuned for more announcements to come. This is an exciting alliance.”

Alison Krauss performs tonight on a CBS special tribute to Johnny Cash.

Watch for Alison and band member Ron Block (along with Carmella Ramsey) as they perform “Wildwood Flower.” Alison also performed with Dwight Yoakam on “If I Were A Carpenter.”

The special will air on the CBS Network on Wednesday, November 16th at 8PM ET. For additional information on the show (including a list of the other artists appearing on the special) visit cbs.com

The Jackson Agency has just announced a special arrangement with New Frontier Touring to represent a number of bluegrass acts including: The John Cowan Band, The Gibson Brothers, John McEuen, and Wildfire.

The Jackson Agency, along with Hope River Entertainment, is also accepting bookings for traditional bluegrass band Audie Blaylock & Redline.

The Jackson Agency’s roster also includes: George Clark & Dixie Flyer, Sam Jackson, and The Jackson Gang.

You can find more information at JacksonAgency.net.

Here’s the full text of the press release. (more…)

Rounder Records has just re-released a number of projects on CD long unavailable since going out of print as LPs. While a few - like B???la Fleck’s Crossing The Tracks - have been released for typical retail distribution, several others are only available directly from Rounder’s web site. We posted in advance about this in early October, and these online exclusives are now available for purchase.

One that we didn’t mention in our previous post is Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper, a 1976 release from this popular husband/wife team from West Virginia. With their band, The Clinch Mountain Clan, they were a very successful hillbilly and country act from the late ’40s through 1963 when a heart attack forced Stoney to back off touring. Opry members since 1959, Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper could still be heard and seen on the Opry stage, but an attempt to revitalize and recast their sound in the mid ’60s came to no avail.

This Rounder release marked a return to their traditional mountain sound, and it was released about a year before Stoney passed away in 1977.

Also available as online exclusives are Rounder’s CD reissues of Butch Robins’ 40 Years Late, Andy Statman’s Flatbush Waltz, and James Bryan’s The First Of May.

The Denver Post has an interesting feature on Pete Wernick, by staff writer Ed Will, which includes both background and lengthy interviews with our own Dr. Banjo. The article is not so much about Pete’s music, but on his decision to leave the life of the big city, and the academic environment in which he was raised, for a more bucolic existence in CO and a life teaching and performing as a professional banjoist.

Read the entire article online.

I just spoke with Dave Carney. Dave is in New York City celebrating with his boss Keith Urban who won two awards from the CMA earlier this evening. It was loud wherever he was so we didn’t speak for long, but he did tell me that Jon Randall and Bill Anderson won song of the year for Whiskey Lullaby, sung by Alison Krauss and Brad Paisley.

UPDATE 7:43 AM: I’ve just learned that Jerry Douglas was named musician of the year last night at the CMA Award Show.

Fretboard Journal is a new quarterly magazine for acoustic instrument players, builders and collectors. The inaugural issue includes an interview with David Grisman, a history of Santa Cruz Guitars and a profile on “the Millionth Martin.”

Fretboard Journal is published and edited by folks with many years of experience in music, magazines and acoustic instruments. They describe themselves and the new publication thusly:

The Fretboard Journal is an archival-quality, quarterly publication celebrating the culture of fretted musical instruments. We chronicle the most innovative instruments (mandolins, banjos, ukuleles and”?of course”?guitars) and instrument makers of the last 150 or so years; the best players; and the most interesting tales from the world of music. In addition, each issue boasts stories from the working musician”s perspective and never-before-seen photography. Basically, we”re the nerds in the guitar store who love sharing a yarn with fellow players and this is our outlet.

Subscription information is available on their web site.

The 2005 Christmas Pageant of Peace???opening ceremony will be held on Thursday, December 1, 2005. This is the 82nd lighting of the national Christmas tree. The event occurs at 5PM EST on the Ellipse near the White House.

This opening ceremony will feature performances from a number of musicians and bands, including Ricky Skaggs.

I spoke with both Tim Austin and Cody Kilby by phone. Cody told me that the performance will not include the entire Kentucky Thunder band, but rather Ricky and The Whites. Tim will be attending to run sound for them though.

Tickets are available to the public at no charge on a first come, first served basis. Here are the details.

The National Park Service will distribute free Christmas Pageant of Peace Tree Lighting Ceremony tickets to the public at the Ellipse Visitor Pavilion at the south-west corner of 15th and E Streets, NW, on Saturday, November 5, 2005, beginning at 8:00 a.m.

The tickets will be available on a first come, first served basis until all are gone. A maximum of four tickets will be issued per person.

I called and spoke with the White House Visitor Center and was told that all available tickets have been given out, but there are often vacancies left when people who received tickets don’t show. They told me that you would be taking a chance on that, but could wait in the standby line on the day of event for such openings. The gates open at 3:30 PM and seating is limited to 5800 visitors.

For more history of the event:
White House website
National Park Service website

CMH Records has three new titles being released today which may be of interest to bluegrass fans - especially those with a broad spectrum of musical interests.

First is a new release in their popular Pickin’ On series, in which bluegrass instrumental arrangements are produced based on the compositions or hit songs from popular mainstream recording artists. Pickin’ On John Mayer Volume 2 (A Tribute) features 10 more Mayer songs performed in a bluegrass style, including Clarity and 3×5. More details and some audio samples available online.

Also out today is A Bluegrass Tribute to Linkin Park, which contains 11 bluegrass vocal tributes to the “nu metal/rap metal” act, Linkin Park. The material is performed by Cornbread Red, an Alabama band who has been involved in a number of previous CMH bluegrass tributes.

The third CD is not specifically bluegrass, but does feature some bluegrass artists. It’s entitled Train Of Love: A Tribute To Johnny Cash and a portion of the money generated from the sale of each CD will be donated to Vanderbilt University Medical Research Center to further research in Shy-Drager Syndrome, the disease affecting Johnny Cash for the last few years of his life.

In the final installment of the series featuring interviews with bluegrass stars, GACTV’s Edge Of Country interviews Alecia Nugent. This interview was recorded during the recent IBMA trade show in Nashville, TN. The show airs today at 1PM, 10:30PM, and 1:30AM EST.

Nov. 15 - From the IBMA Convention floor, a delightful interview with Alecia Nugent!

We recently received a note from David Culbertson, Secretary and Publicity Chairman for the Houston, TX Bay Area Bluegrass Association. He shared with us an article he had published in the BABA monthly newsletter back in September, and which we think will be of interest to our readers as well. Though some time has passed since the raw emotions first surfaced in the aftermath of the hurricanes’ devastation in the Gulf Coast area, this two moth old story from the Houston area still has an impact.

In light of recent events in the New Orleans area amid stories of police officers committing suicide and walking off their jobs because of the tremendous pressure and turmoil all around them, many having lost their own family members and homes because of Hurricane Katrina, I thought about some of my friends in law enforcement. I also wondered what I would do if I found myself in the midst of these kinds of pressures. I tried to remind myself that these folks are not only public servants and beacons of the community but they are also mere mortals like the rest of us. I especially thought of one friend in particular who had just called me with some great personal news, and I would like to share his story with the rest of my community. The story is not about some great heroic event that many of these folks perform daily, but illustrates the human side of life of many of our public servants and their true character as creative individuals who could have chose other professions rather than serving the rest of us. I hope this helps all of us to look at them in a different light and not take them for granted the way we sometimes often do. The remainder of this article is a reprint from the Bay Area Bluegrass Association’s monthly newsletter. (more…)

GACTV’s Edge Of Country interviews the Cherryholmes family today. This interview was recorded during the recent IBMA trade show in Nashville, TN. The show airs today at 1PM, 10:30PM, and 1:30AM EST.

Nov. 14 - New artist phenomenon, the Cherryholmes, share their excitement at winning the unprecedented (for a new artist) Entertainer of the Year award!

Don’t forget to check out our interview with Jere Cherryholmes in episode #1 of The GrassCast.

The GrassCast - episode #1 - interview with Jere Cherryholmes

This morning Dolly makes an appearance on The Early Show. The show airs at 8AM on CBS. I couldn’t find much info, so I don’t know if it’s just her or if she will have a band with her. This is all it says on the website.

Monday, 11/14: Dr. Phil | Jennifer Aniston | Dolly Parton

[Warning: Beware of that cbsnews.com site, it never stopped loading in my browser and slowed my entire machine down. From what I saw the page contains a couple of frames and one of the frames seemed to load the original page inside itself, which then presumably loads itself into a frame of itself again, and again, and again, etc. Could be it’s just not Mac friendly, but either way it’s poor design.]

John has been busy this weekend as AcuTab and Herschel Sizemore present their annual instructional event, Roanoke Bluegrass Weekend. I spent the afternoon yesterday just observing the activities and then participated, in a very small way, in the faculty concert last night. It was quite a line up of instruction and performance with JD Crowe and Bobby Hicks being two of the main attractions. And that is just the beginning of the list of names serving as faculty this year. The concert was incredible as well. The high point of the evening, in my opinion, was hearing Aubrey Haynie and Bobby Hicks cutting twin fiddles on some old Monroe standards like Scotland. Now that’s bluegrass!

We received a number of comments from site visitors this past few weeks, especially during and just after our coverage of the IBMA convention in Nashville. From time to time, we will publish them for everyone to read. You are always welcome to pass along comments via our Contact Form.

Here is a comment that came in from Larry Gorley:

I just want to thank you for the service that you are providing. In the last few weeks since John told me about this site. I have found myself visiting it on average about three times a day. As someone involved in the music both as a bluegrass radio programmer and promoter. I need to stay in the know as to what is going on in the music scene.

I feel that the site helps me to do this. I do not hesitate in recommending it to others. So please keep on with what you are doing and I’ll keep on telling folks about you. As I told someone the other day this was the first time that I didn’t have to rely on the Associated Press to tell me the next day who the winners were at the bluegrass awards.

Here’s another, from Steve Breen:

John and Brance: As a consumer (and an Acutab customer to boot) I really enjoyed the blog this week. Keep up the good work.

(more…)