This post is a contribution from Bill Evans, a prominent West Coast banjo player, instructor and bluegrass entreprenuer. You can find out more about Bill and his various ventures on his web site.

Christmas in California isn”t really all that much different than Christmas in other parts of the country. It”s usually a little warmer in my particular part of the state at this time of year than it might be where you live but it”s also a good bet that the traffic is probably much worse here in the San Francisco Bay Area than where you are. However, some things remain consistent no matter where you live: wherever there are children and those seeking a renewal of spirit in these shortest days of the year, Christmas finds a home.

When I think of California, I think of diversity “? not only in our landscapes and climate but also in our people, our food and in our art and music (including bluegrass). It would just make sense that the holiday season is also celebrated in a myriad of ways. I want to share with you a special manifestation of California”s diversity that embodies the spirit of the season for me.

Not more than two miles from where I live in the town of El Cerrito (which Ron Thomason once translated into English as “the Cerrito”), is a vacant hillside that at this time of year serves as a home to a holiday display that attracts up to 70,000 visitors per year. I imagine that it must be like hundreds of similar Christmas displays around the country: shepherds tend their sheep in the foreground with three wise men forming part of a processional that winds up the hill to the town of Bethlehem, which is illuminated overhead by a bright star. Handel”s Messiah provides a soundtrack that rises just above the sound of the generators that keep the lights on until 9 p.m. sharp each night. By today”s standards, this display is simple and in fact much of its appearance is homemade.

It”s the story behind this particular Christmas display that makes it special and keeps me coming as a visitor year after year. Its creator was Sumar Shadi, a native of India born in 1900 who came to the United States and earned a degree in subtropical horticulture at the University of California, Berkeley in 1921. Rather than return to India, he remained in California, building a house for his family in the East Bay hills in 1937. (more…)

This post is a contribution from Brad Davis. Brad is a guitarist, singer, songwriter, and recording engineer who has worked with a literal who’s-who in bluegrass music. Visit Brad online at braddavismusic.com.

Not long ago, I was called to cut some bluegrass tracks on an upcoming CMH Records release of a Van Halen tribute project. The songs I was scheduled for were going to be produced by John Jorgensen and they were Cradle Will Rock, Jamie’s Crying and Jump.

David Lee Roth got information about the project through his sister, Lisa Roth, who works at the CMH label in Los Angeles. He informed her that he would like to sing on one of the three songs on the project, and requested that John Jorgensen email mp3s for him to hear and approve as soon as the three tracks were completed.

The session was at Master Phonics in Nashville, TN. The players were Stuart Duncan on fiddle, Charlie Chadwick on bass, Scott Vestal on banjo, John Jorgensen on mando and harmony vocals, John Cowan on scratch/lead vocal track, and myself on flattop and high harmony vocals. John Jorgensen’s clever arrangement of these classic rock tunes fit so perfectly with the sound of bluegrass instruments. The old classic rock hits came to life again with a grass roots-sounding attitude.

The mp3s were sent and David Lee Roth was very happy with the tracks, so happy that he suggested him singing all three tunes, two of which John Cowan was scheduled to sing lead on originally. Through the CMH grapevine, we hear that David Lee Roth is interested in performing this new Van Halen bluegrass on The Tonight Show and/or Letterman Show sometime in the near future.

It’s truly amazing the variety of people bluegrass music reaches everyday. Bluegrass really does make a difference in this huge industry called The Music Business.

Just a reminder about NBC’s December 25th broadcast of their Holiday On Ice Christmas Special, airing on Sunday from 2:00-4:00 p.m. (EST). We made reference to this show before, and then again here, as it will feature a performance by Rhonda Vincent & The Rage. They recorded two songs for the show, songs which are expected to be included on Rhonda’s upcoming Christmas CD, set for release in December of 2006.

The show will feature rink performances by Brian Boitano and Katia Gordeeva, Todd Eldredge and Nicole Bobek, plus music from Bruce Hornsby and SHeDAISY as well as Rhonda.

Local NBC affiliates may air the show at a different time, so be sure to consult your local station’s listings if you want to be sure to catch the program.

Fans of bluegrass fashionistas, King Wilkie, may want to pay a visit to their new bulletin board discussion forum. The site is set up quite similarly to others of its type, and folks who frequent such chat sites should have no difficulty navigating, registering and joining in right away.

Being a new forum, the volume of posts there isn’t much at this point, but devoted followers of the band can be expected to change that in short order.

This post is a contribution from Greg Cahill, founder of, and banjo picker with Special Consensus. Greg has also been an active member of the IBMA, and a very effective bluegrass ambassador, bringing the music to non-bluegrass audiences all over the world.

In the 1980s, The Special Consensus was approached by a booking and management firm based in Florida to consider joining the cast of a touring theatrical production of a show called Cotton Patch Gospel. This show was a two-act musical (words and music by Harry Chapin) that had run on- and off- Broadway in New York City, and had already completed one rather lengthy tour of the USA. The premise of the show (based on a book by Clarence Jordan) was to present the biblical stories and parables in the scripture if Jesus Christ was born today in the State of Georgia. The script was cleverly written for a cast of five “? one primary actor who assumed numerous roles and was the story teller and four bluegrass musicians who sang the songs and remained on-stage throughout the show to react to the tales of the narrator. We were basically the apostles and disciples who were “good old boys” from the South.

We were a bit reluctant at first to accept this offer since none of us had ever been in a professional stage production and the tour was 12 weeks long (not including two weeks of intense rehearsal). This would keep us from performing our own music for several months, and we would have to spend a great deal of time learning the words and music as well as to familiarize ourselves with the script and all of our moves on stage (called “blocking” in the world of theater). The producers of the show were eager to have a professional bluegrass band assume the musical roles rather than actors since the band members would be familiar with performing together and would most likely learn the music together rather quickly. They were quite successful with this plan for the first tour “? the bluegrass band Cloud Valley (with Missy Raines and Bill Evans) had completed that tour and had received excellent reviews.

We eventually accepted the offer - how great to have a steady income for the first quarter of the year with all travel expenses paid and the opportunity to play in cities in many states we had never visited (basically covering the circumference of the United States). We worked hard to learn all the music in a relatively short period of time, spent two weeks in a warehouse in Texas with the director and musical director learning the actual show and began the tour with a performance in a small Baptist church in Texas. (more…)

CMH Records has three new titles in their Pickin’ On instrumental bluegrass series due in January 2006. To date, nearly 200 recorded projects have been released in the series, each featuring bluegrass arrangements of songs from the recorded repertoire of a wide variety of pop, rock and country artists.

Among these three new projects shipping on January 10 is In Her Shoes: Pickin’ On Shania Twain - A Tribute. 15 of her top hits are presented, instrumental bluegrass style, including Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under, You’re Still The One, Any Man Of Mine, Love Gets Me Every Time and 11 others.

A few audio samples are available on the CMH site.

Also being released on January 10 are two other Pickin’ On CDs: Heartbreaker: Pickin’ On Tom Petty - A Tribute, and Bluegrass Tribute to The Strokes.

Tim Stafford and Rob Ickes of Blue Highway will be featured guests on the Christmas Day edition of NPR’s All Things Considered radio program. Tim reports that they conducted a lengthy interview with Debbie Elliott, host of Weekend All Things Considered, via a live hookup at Nashville’s NPR affiliate, WLPN.

“She said a few of the engineers and folks who worked there were fans of the band. She was very nice, professional, and seemed to have done an inordinate amount of research about the music. It was a great experience, and I wish we could have had the whole band there, but there were evidently family obligations that prevented that.”

They discussed the newest Blue Highway release, Marbletown, and spoke in some depth about the dynamics of arranging material in the band, Tim’s songwriting, and Rob’s success as a solo recording artist outside of the band. Tim says that they also spun some tracks from the new CD, and even played some live music in the studio. He is unsure which parts of the interview or the performances will end up on the air, but mentioned that Rob played a solo version of Old Rugged Cross and Tim sang a bit of Wild Bill in discussing his songwriting.

One piece that is sure to make air is their instrumental version of The Christmas Song, in which Tim insists they played all the chords. I can’t wait to hear that!

Audio is made available for each show online by approximately 7:30 p.m. (EST) as a rule, though one can imagine that audio might be slower to post on weekends - and major holidays. You should be able to find the audio for the Blue Highway feature by making sure that you are viewing the page for the 12/25 show, and then finding the link to this story, which will allow you to hear the segment online.

NPR is also likely to notice if they receive a number of favorable comments following the interview. You can leave your feedback by visiting the NPR contact page, clicking in the NPR Program option under Recipient, selecting All Things Considered from the resulting pull down menu, and then composing a message.

Just a quick note to remind our readers that new content will continue to appear each day on The Bluegrass Blog through the Christmas weekend. If you have gotten into the habit of checking the site each day, we hope that you will continue to do so while you enjoy some time away from work in celebration of this joyous holiday.

There will be new posts with the same sort of bluegrass music news to which you have become accustomed on this site, but we also have some very special pieces scheduled, written by guest contributors. We think that you will find their posts to be both informative and entertaining, and look forward to reading any feedback you may choose to offer on the site this next week or so.

New content will be posted each day over New Year’s weekend as well.

This post is a contribution from Alan Munde, banjo legend, teacher, performer, and writer. Be sure to check out Alan’s band The Alan Munde Gazette.

I have been teaching banjo in the Creative Arts Department (when I began it was known as the Country and Bluegrass Program) of South Plains College in Levelland, TX since 1986. Before that I was a touring bluegrass musician with Country Gazette, and before that a Sunny Mountain Boy with Jimmy Martin. During my time as a touring musician I tried my hand at giving lessons to supplement my income. Guided by my own experiences as a learner (a degree in Education from the University of Oklahoma was also helpful) and aided by the few instructional books available at the time, I created the best instructional method I could. I continued that method at South Plains College, expanding it with more teaching ideas from other banjo teachers and colleagues here.

For these many years I have tried my best to explain things I have found to be relevant in learning to play the banjo, things a good player needs to know how to do. But I continued to struggle with one issue that I still had trouble explaining. Students ask me, “Why can”t I just play what I feel? Why should I have to copy or learn the music of another player?” Many esteemed players, including Tony Trischka and Peter Wernick in their very fine book, Masters of the 5-String Banjo, added to my dilemma by giving contradictory advice that runs something like this: play it like Earl, don”t copy anybody, learn everything Scruggs did, develop your own style.

I finally realized that Trischka and others are addressing two different audiences. The first audience is of banjo students. As a student, we should strive to learn as much as we can about how the creators and masters of the instrumental style played so that we, too, might be able to play successfully in the style. What better model do we need than Earl Scruggs? Of course, there are others to learn from also - Stanley, Reno, Osborne, Shelton etc. - to get the full scope of the bluegrass banjo world. The second audience is banjo players as musical artists. Here one should strive to develop a personal style “? take the things we have learned as a student and add our own views of the art and become our own musical person. (more…)

In episode #8 of The GrassCast Brance has a conversation with Kerry Hay, owner of Hay Holler Records. Hay Holler has recently released a Christmas CD, Christmas with Hay Holler, and Kerry tells about the disc, the artists who are on it, and how it came about. Brance and Kerry also discuss the history of Hay Holler Records, as well as upcoming projects from the label.

This GrassCast is 13 minutes in length and the file download size is 12 MB.

Direct Download: ep8_kerry_hay.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 this episode here. Also feel free to share with us your thoughts about The GrassCast in general.

Randy Waller & The Country Gentlemen will have a new CD early next year. Entitled Keeper Of The Flame, it is expected to be released in January ‘06 on Lendel Records.

As most of our readers will recall, Randy is the son of the legendary Charlie Waller. Charlie was a giant in the bluegrass world, and the long time leader of The Country Gentlemen from the band’s inception almost 50 years ago, until his passing earlier in 2005. Randy, a uniquely talented singer and guitarist in his own right, has assumed his father’s role and is maintaining The Country Gentlemen as a legacy to Charlie’s music.

Speaking of the title of the new project, Randy had this to say:

I chose the name Keeper of the Flame for this new project because it seemed to say it all. When my father gave me the old guitar at Christmas 2002 it was like the passing of the torch, so to speak. So now I am to carry on his work and continue the Country Gentlemen and I will, to the best of my ability.

The CD will feature both new material, and a number of classic Gentlemen numbers, resurrected and re-recorded with the new band: Dave Kirk, Gary Creed and Mark DeLaney. Guests on Keeper Of The Flame include Mike Aldridge, Rickie Simpkins, Chris Sexton and Heather Berry.

Audio samples from the new CD are available on Randy’s web site.

The following is an unsolicited contribution from Ted Lehmann, a regular reader of The Bluegrass Blog. The views expressed are his, and are not necessarily those of the authors of The Bluegrass Blog. Commenting is enabled for all ViewPoint posts, so please feel free to chime in with your own thoughts.

The recent announcement of Bob Dylan as a broadcaster for XM Radio, added to Howard Stern on Sirius Radio, poses a serious threat the development of bluegrass. The picture of dueling superstars on satellite radio raises red flag of increasing commercialization that can infect bluegrass at every level. Already the bluegrass programming on XM is suffering from neglect as the satellite service appears to have removed its on-air hosts in favor of running recorded programming full time. While I”ve only been listening to XM radio for six or seven months, I”ve noticed a change in their bluegrass programming. During the spring and summer, I heard live in-studio interviews with Doyle Lawson and also Mountain Heart. XM also featured album rollouts, for instance, Jamie Hartford commented on each track of his new disk of his father”s music. Such programming provided important insights into the world of bluegrass. While they still replay these programs on Saturday afternoons, there don”t appear to be new ones in the works.

Another factor affecting XM seems to be the appointment of Kyle Cantrell as program director. His on-line biography emphasizes his roots in Nashville and the Grand Ole Opry, where he served as an announcer for a number of years. There”s no evidence in the bio of a connection to bluegrass. Rather he”s a country music guy with a great voice and a noted on-air personality. Meanwhile, Felton Pruitt, who was an effective and knowledgeable on-air voice has disappeared from Bluegrass Junction, but apparently not from XM.

All this would not seem quite so ominous if it weren”t for what seems to be happening at IBMA. (more…)

Bluegrass Tracks is the name of a new bluegrass radio show, airing on ACTV-4 in Hiawassee, GA. ACTV-4 is a local origination television channel owned and operated by Alltel Cable Television, serving portions of Northeast Georgia and Western North Carolina.

Yes… you read that right. It’s a bluegrass radio show on television.

While community news, announcements and weather updates display on the screen, viewers/listeners will hear the Bluegrass Tracks audio feed, featuring music from the many fine local and regional bluegrass musicians in the southern Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountain regions, plus selections from the best of traditional bluegrass, old and new. The show runs for an hour, and repeats four times daily (Monday-Saturday) at 8:00 and 11:00 a.m., and 3:00 and 10:00 p.m.

Jon C. Moon, who manages the show, tells us that they hope to eventually incorporate on-screen graphics with song, artist and recording information such as you commonly find on digital cable or satellite radio.

Bands who would like to send music for airplay on the show can find all the information they need on the Bluegrass Tracks web site.

We just heard from Kenny Smith that Zak McLamb is now officially the new bass player in The Kenny & Amanda Smith Band. Zak has been filling in with the band since Alan Bartram left to join The Del McCoury Band last fall, and just recently accepted the Smith gig on a permanent basis.

Zak is from Benson, NC was most recently the bass player with Constant Change. He’s been playing music since he was 7 years old and has been a bass player since a very young age, starting out his family’s group when he was 12. While he was still in high school, Zak was a member of New Vintage, a NC bluegrass band that won both the SPBGMA and Pizza Hut International Band competitions in 1992.

Kenny is quite high on this young man’s abilities:

“Zak is probably the most innovative bass player I’ve ever played with. He will be playing the normal bass line, and suddenly he’s working in a harmony to what Amanda is singing. He is a great addition to the band.”

The band’s latest CD, Always Never Enough has been generating considerable critical acclaim this past few weeks, being mentioned by The Chicago Tribune as one the Top Ten Bluegrass Recordings of 2005 and by The Washington Post as one of the Good CDs We Overlooked This Year.

See Kenny & Amanda’s schedule online for a chance to catch this exciting group in person.

March 26, 2006 is the date for a very special Grand Ole Opry show at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. The show is a part of three week festival at The Kennedy Center, entitled Country: A Celebration Of America’s Music, which will feature a number of concerts, workshops and other presentations.

The Opry show will include a performance by Opry members The Del McCoury Band, along with Travis Tritt and Marty Stuart.

As a part of this same festival, there will be a concert on April 4, 2006 called String Masters. On this bill are Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Bela Fleck, Mark Schatz, and Bryan Sutton for a show which The Kennedy Center describes thusly:

An acoustic super group of all-star stringed instrument players - collectively, they’re winners of nearly 20 Grammy Awards - performs in an evening that explores country music’s roots and progressive trends.

The festival is created in partnership with The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

This post is a contribution from Alan Stewart, co-host of The Marketer”s Podcast, where you”ll hear tips, tools and tactics for marketing your business both online and offline. Comments are enabled for Alan’s post so please feel free to share your reactions.

When Brance asked me to write a post about “niche marketing online” for The Bluegrass Blog, I must confess I was just a tad concerned.

Why?

Because I would have to be the most musically challenged person I know. I can barely tell the difference between one genre and the next.

Brance explained that “Bluegrass is a niche inside a niche on the internet. It”s a small piece of the music business, but not as small as some people might think. In my experience the consumers are very loyal.”

As a marketer, my livelihood depends upon successful marketing campaigns. I want to be sure to back a winner, so I normally conduct some fairly thorough due diligence before I market any concept, product or service. So it was at this point I wanted to know if Bluegrass would at least meet my initial criteria for potentially being a profitable niche online. (more…)

We heard recently from Carly Nix, who will be launching a new folk/bluegrass radio show on the Boston University radio station, WTBU. Her show will be entitled Over Yonder! and will run for two hours, once a week when it debuts in the near future.

Carly contacted us for help letting labels and bands know that their new show is on its way, and to suggest that they contact her if they want to send CDs to be considered for airplay, or to pass along news which may of interest to her listeners,

She is also eager to reach any sponsors, in the Boston area or beyond, who might be in a position to either donate older recordings, or help them raise the necessary funds to purchase them for the station’s library.

Over Yonder! is planned to be webcast online as well once it launches.

This post is a contribution from world renowned podcast celebrity Wichita Rutherford. Be sure to visit his site 5MinutesWithWichita.com to listen to his weekly podcast featuring interviews with bluegrass stars.

Buttermilk biscuits and grits. Buttermilk biscuits and grits. If I had 5 cents for every buttermilk biscuit I’ve eaten and 2 cents for every time I’ve said “Will you pass the grits please ma’am”? I could take us all to Hawaii and build our own compound and we could live in it for the rest of our lives with ocean views from our back porches and pine apples 8 times a day and servants checking to make sure Ricky Skaggs and KY Thunder were still coming on after Dolly Parton’s show out there by the pool. Now I’m gonna tell you this and you’re not going to believe it. I swear its true. I swear it. I was in line at the baggage claim at the LA airport and these people are talking and one fella says to the other “They have a restaurant here where they serve grits! Can you imagine! I can’t wait to go, I’ve never had any. And they have buttermilk biscuits! What are grits anyway?” I thought I was on Candid Camera or something. He was being serious. I just had to get a look at him. So, slowly, slowly I non-chalantley look around to see what this guy looks like. And he says to me, and I swear this is true: “Oh I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you.” Well at that point I laughed so hard I almost threw up on him. My wife peed in her pants from laughing so hard and then the guy starts laughing too. We never said a word to one another. We just laughed at each other then at ourselves and then at each other again. I reached in my bag and pulled out a Flatt and Scruggs CD and handed it to him. He looked at it and then looked at me and bless his heart he said “Is this your band?” Then I peed in MY pants.

Your pal,

Wichita

This post is a contribution from Brad Davis. Brad is a guitarist, singer, songwriter, and recording engineer who has worked with a literal who’s-who of bluegrass music. Visit Brad online at braddavismusic.com.

Billy Bob Thornton the actor for Armageddon, Sling Blade, Bad News Bears and many others [filmography], is currently tracking his second rock record. I met Billy Bob through my eleven years as lead guitarist for music legend Marty Stuart. I recorded and performed with Billy Bob on many projects and have maintained a strong friendship through the years. He asked if I would fly to California to record and write for his new record. Being that Billy Bob is originally from Benton Arkansas, it’s no doubt that deep down inside he is still a hillbilly and this flavor comes out through in his voice and songs that he writes. I have the wonderful opportunity to co-write and co-produce on this new project. Yeah, It’s a folk/rock record with a whole lot of funky bluegrass in the mix. Working with someone as creative as Billy is quite a treat because when we get together we open the creative gate and work without stopping for two or three days straight. I normally don’t work this long without sleep, but being at Billy’s state-of-the-art cave studio is what I would have imagined it would have been like to be at The Band’s house Big Pink, the original creative rock and roll laboratory. Once the creative gate is open there’s no stopping until mother nature says to get some shut eye. This is another fine example that bluegrass is making musical friends with different genres of music everyday.

It’s a great pleasure to introduce Bill Evans as a Guest Contributor. Bill is one of my oldest friends in the bluegrass world, and I take a measure of personal pride in seeing the success he has achieved as both a performer, and an educator.

He and I were young banjo seekers together in Norfolk, VA in the mid 70’s, where we both were born and raised, and I have followed his career, and maintained a friendship since that time, ultimately featuring Bill in a number of banjo instructional DVDs with AcuTab.

Bill Evans has been involved professionally with bluegrass music and the banjo for over twenty-five years as a player, teacher, writer and historian. He occupies a unique niche in the banjo world: celebrated worldwide for his traditional and progressive bluegrass banjo styles as well as his outstanding original compositions, he also enjoys a reputation as a great teacher and workshop leader.

As if this isn”t enough, he is also an American music historian, with a master’s degree in Music from the University of California, Berkeley as well as being an expert player of 19th century minstrel and classic/parlor banjo styles. He currently performs with renowned old-time and bluegrass multi-instrumentalist Jody Stecher in a show called The Secret Life of Banjos, and will unveil his new band, the six piece Bill Evans String Summit, in early 2006.

Visit Bill online on his web site.