A while back I posted about Buddy Merriam and Backroads - in Ireland. The band is currently in the middle of that tour and Buddy just emailed me an update. It sure sounds like they are having a great time. If you’re in Ireland and haven’t heard them yet, you should try to catch one of these shows he mentions. Here’s the news: (more…)

StarPulse.com is reporting that Marty Stuart will be appearing on Late Night with Conan O’Brien tonight, January 24th 2006.

Tuesday, January 24th, Stuart will be in NBC’s Rockefeller Center studios to make a guest appearance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien. Late Night airs on the NBC network at 12:35 a.m. (ET & PT) / 11:35 p.m. (CT & MT).

Stuart will release his third Universal South Records CD, Live at the Ryman, on February 7th, and he plans to tour extensively in support of the album.

What’s not said here is that the new CD is bluegrass. Next week we’ll be bringing you more info on this CD, including some direct comments from Marty.

Award winning fiddler Michael Cleveland has announced that in addition to his regular gig as a member of Dale Ann Bradley’s band, he will also be doing shows this year with his own group, FlameKeeper. Joining him will be Audie Blaylock on guitar and Bobby Davis on bass (both performing regularly with Audie Blaylock & Redline), Jesse Brock on mandolin and Pete Kelly on banjo (Mike’s DAB band mates), and Jeff Guernsey on guitar and twin fiddle.

Mike took this band on a tour of Scotland in the fall of 2005, and they have decided to accept some dates for 2006 and beyond with this aggregation, within the limitations posed by everyone’s prior commitments. Booking is being handled by Jim Roe of Roe Entertainment. None of the members of Flamekeeper will be leaving their present and primary gigs.

You can find all of Michael’s show dates on his web site, both with Dale Ann and Flamekeeper.

Fans of Mike’s music will recognize that the band name Flame Keeper was the title of his debut CD release on Rounder Records, which was named as the 2002 IBMA Instrumental Album Of The Year. Audio samples from this CD are available on Mike’s web site.

Country singer Josh Turner releases his sophomore CD Your Man today, January 24th, 2006. The CD may be of interest to readers of The Bluegrass Blog due to the inclusion of a duet with Dr. Ralph Stanley on the gospel number Me And God. Other songs on the 11-song CD also contains touches of bluegrass influence, including some banjo on the song Would You Go With Me. Make no mistake, this is a country album, with some bluegrass sounds added to the mix.

I found this quote from Josh in the Charlotte Observer | Turner faces down sophomore blues:

“I grew up on bluegrass, gospel and a rootsy-Americana style of country. It’s honest and real,” says Turner, who was raised near Florence, S.C., but recently bought his first home in the Nashville area. “The phrase that really describes my kind of music is South Carolina Low Country.”

You can hear samples of the disc here and here.

Acoustic Disc, the mando-centric record company owned by David Grisman, has started experimenting with online music downloads. At this time, only four titles from their catalog can be purchased via download, but more are expected to be added should the project be deemed successful.

The Acoustic Disc downloads are being served by Livedownloads.com, a web site that is dedicated to connecting touring bands with their fan base, and fosters the direct sale of live show recordings via downloads. The site is operated by nugs.net, whose owner Brad Serling is often described as the “Johnny Appleseed of live concert downloads,” and a prominent figure in emerging video on demand technology. Livedownloads.com is supported by a number of popular “jam bands,” such as Yonder Mountain String Band, String Cheese Incident and Widespread Panic.

Born on July 2, 1923 Janette Carter was only 4 years old when a talent scout “discovered” her parents in Bristol in 1927. A.P. and Sara Carter performed with Janette’s Aunt, “Mother” Maybelle Carter. Raised in that environment, Janette grew up around traditional music. And she had a true love for it.

She, and her brother Joe, built a barn in 1976 with room for about 1000 people. They called it The Carter Fold and started holding Saturday night shows featuring only acousitc music, to preserve the legacy of The Carter Family.

When her brother Joe passed away last March, at the age of 78, Janette became the last surviving child of members of the original Carter Family. She continued to perform in that same barn and honor her parents music. On Sunday, January 22nd 2006, Janette left this world. But her influence, and that of her family, still remains. Her daughter Rita Forrester will continue the tradition of the Carter Family Fold.

Scott County Funeral Home in Weber City, Virginia is handling the final arrangements, which have not yet been announced.

For more information about Janette and The Carter Family Fold, visit their website at CarterFamilyFold.org.

Also, be sure to read Murphy Henry’s post The Carter Family Fold.

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.

Do you like hats? I love seeing them on somebody who wears them well. Jerry Cherryholmes wears a hat well. So do his boys. Bobby Osborne goes without saying as does Mac Wiseman. Do we even need to bring Bill into this? Few things are more humorous than someone who tries to wear a hat that just doesn”t “take”. My uncle Edward for example. 78 years old and nobody ever told him that when he wears a hat it looks like there”s been an attempt to kidnap him and he got away and forgot to take off the blindfold they tried to put over his face. Oh its pitiful. You”d think one of his closer loved ones would say something to him. I guess I could. But what would we talk about at Thanksgiving? His sister, Aunt Mayetta, always thinks the flower arrangement on the table is a cat and she tries to “shoo” it away. “If Marilyn catches you on her table she”ll gut you like a Christmas goose! She will too. I”ve seen her do it!” She”s been saying that as long as I can remember. I believe NASA is studying her for their Mars program because she”s been 87 for about 36 years and has apparently discovered some sort of suspended animation without having to be asleep. She wears a little Christmas hat every year. It”s the same one. It just sits there” bobby pinned to the side of her head just daring me to pull it off and put it on myself and start talking like her. It would be so easy. She probably wouldn”t even know it. Oh bless her heart. Then she looks at me with those sweet little old lady eyes, pats my hand and says “How are you honey? I sure love you. You”re gettin’ so biiiiiig”" Then she tells me the same story she always tells about how she got me my first hat on my 5th birthday. A little cowboy hat. With a badge on the front. I”ve been wearing one ever since. Sans badge. “You looked like a little Bill Monroe” she”d say. “Of course he had good teeth and took better care of his hair. But you sure were sweet.” Oh the older ones loving the younger ones and the younger ones loving the older ones. A bizarre dichotomy when you get right down to it. Then add a bunch of hats to all that. Wow. And guess what… it”s the Bluegrass way.

Your pal,

Wichita

The next Pinecastle release for Nothin’ Fancy is coming along nicely, according to mandolinist and vocalist, Mike Andes. Mike reports that they tracked the last song for this as yet unnamed project just after New Years at Flat 5 Press & Recording, with mixing underway. The as-yet unnamed project was produced by David Parmley for Pinecastle Records, and engineered by Tom Ohmsen.

Mike mentioned that they had a photographer with them during the final tracking session, and studio photos can be viewed online.

Three of the twelve tracks for the new project were penned by Andes: How Can I Lose, I Can’t Say Hello and Ghost Dance. Tom T. Hall contributed one new song and the band also selected a number of “bluegrass classics” for their Nothin’ Fancy treatment. George Jones’ Walk Through This World With Me (also recorded by Seldom Scene) and The Country Gentlemen’s Two Little Boys are featured, along with their versions of Jim & Jesse’s I Wish You Knew and the gospel favorite, Nearer My God To Thee.

This time out, the guys in the band recorded all the tracks without guest artists, so Nothin’ Fancy fans can expect to hear the same band sound they hear from the stage.

The band has also recently engaged the services of a publicist, East Public Relations.

Legendary fiddler Bobby Hicks will perform with The Blue Ridge Orchestra (BRO) on Sunday March 12, 2006 in The Lipinsky Auditorium, on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Asheville, in Asheville, NC. The program for the 3:00 p.m. concert will mix bluegrass and classical music, with some Celtic and Appalachian fiddle music thrown in as well.

Bobby will be featured on versions of Turkey In The Straw and Orange Blossom Special, arranged for solo violin (fiddle) and the 70 piece orchestra, plus Bobby’s original fiddle tune, Angel’s Waltz.

The BRO is a community orchestra serving the Asheville area, focused on education and community participation, performing five concerts each year since their founding in 1999. They do not seem to have a web site, but more information on the show can be obtained by calling BRO Director Ron Lambe at 828-252-0643, or by email.

Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike were in the studios of XM Satellite Radio recently. They recorded a show with Kyle Cantrell the host of Bluegrass Junction on XM channel 14. The show will be broadcast today, January 22. Air time will be 1:00 P.M. EST.

We received a note earlier this week from Gene Reasoner, who along with Mark Withers hosts Believers Bluegrass, a weekly one hour bluegrass gospel radio program based in Missouri. Gene wrote to make note their two year anniversary on the air this month, and to let us know that they have grown in that time from a single station in Lebanon, MO to 12 stations in the US and one in The Philippines.

They are continuing to add new stations and a secular bluegrass show is expected to launch later this year. They don’t offer live streaming from their web site, but a number of stations on their syndicators list do. Like many specialty syndicated radio programs, Believers Bluegrass is bartered to stations who wish to carry it, and Gene and mark are always interested in hearing from programmers with an interest in their show.

Pine Mountain Railroad will be visiting the studios of WTUF in Thomasville, GA today (1/21), with an live guest spot featured at 3:00 p.m. (EST). They will spend some time chatting with show host “Lazy Len” Robinson, and also pick and sing a few there in the WTUF studio.

The show is broadcast over the air on FM 106.3, and is also available via online streaming from the WTUF web site. The Afternoon Bluegrass Show with Lazy Len runs from noon to 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays, and the Pine Mountain Railroad segment is scheduled in the 3:00-4:00 p.m. segment.

The PMR boys are looking forward to the release of their next CD in the second week of March, 2006. This new project, entitled Heartache and Hope, was produced by Missy Raines, and recorded by Ben Surratt at Rec Room Studios in Nashville.

Brad Davis will be performing this evening at the Acoustic Cafe with special guests Billy Bob Thornton and Tommy Shaw. The show is sponsored by the Takamine gutiar company and is part of this week’s Namm show activities. The show is being held at the Anaheim Convention Center.

The International Bluegrass Music Association has just announced the participants in the 2006 Leadership Bluegrass program. The date for this year’s event is set for March 21-23, 2006. The event will be held in the BMI offices in Nashville, and will be facilitated by Fred Bartenstein. If you are wondering what Leadership Bluegrass is all about, this is how they describe it:

The purpose of the Leadership Bluegrass program is to pull together a cross section of people with exhibited or potential leadership qualities into a network of learning and communication. The results will foster a broad-based understanding of the total needs of the bluegrass community, which will help participants better prepare to determine the goals of the particular organization, company or group in which they choose to serve.

Here is the list of this year’s participants. (more…)

We posted back in November that Sean Watkins of Nickel Creek had enabled pre-release digital download purchases of his new CD, Blinders On, from his web site. At the time, we reported that there was no indication of record company involvement, but we have just learned that the new Watkins CD will be released by Sugar Hill Records on March 14.

In a new move for the label, Sugar Hill agreed to allow for pre-release downloads since Sean finished the project well ahead of schedule, and was eager to get the music out there right away. Holly Lowman of Sugar Hill told us that this project seemed like a good opportunity to test the concept. She told us that pre-release download sales have been significant, but not “so massive that it will really detract from the national full-on release.”

Sugar Hill has also been keeping an eye on the Nickel Creek fan sites and bulletin boards to get a feel for fan reaction to Sean offering downloads. They seem to think that a large portion of the fan base wants to wait and get the full CD package, with artwork, etc, though some seem prepared to both purchase the downloads in advance, and then the manufactured product upon release.

It will be interesting to see whether it is something Sugar Hill (and other labels) will embrace on more projects in the future.

There are a number of opportunities to catch some live bluegrass performances on the radio this weekend, starting tonight. Bluegrass Junction on XM Satellite Radio will be rebroadcasting the New Year’s Eve concert from The Birchmere featuring Bob Perilla”s Big Hillbilly Bluegrass, The Good Deale Bluegrass Band, and The Seldom Scene. It will run at 8:00 p.m. (EST).

On Saturday (1/21) The Grand Ole Opry broadcast on WSM will include performances by The Del McCoury Band, The Whites, Bobby Osborne & The Rocky Top X-Press, Mike Snider and Jesse McReynolds & The Virginia Boys. You can catch WSM 650 AM over the air, or listen via online streaming, to hear the entire Opry broadcast, which runs from 7:30 p.m. until 1:00 a.m. (EST).

Back on XM’s Bluegrass Junction you can catch two editions of their Studio Specials over the weekend. On Saturday they will offer an encore presentation of their Cherryholmes show at 3:00 p.m., and a new edition with Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike on Sunday (1/22) at 1:00 p.m. Both shows feature live performances and interviews with the artists.

If you are already an XM subscriber, Bluegrass Junction can be found on channel 14, or you can listen online when away from your XM receiver. Non-subscribers can register online for a free, 3 day online trial of XM Radio.

The GrassCast episode #12 features an interview with Eric Gibson. Eric and his brother Leigh form The Gibson Brothers. Their new CD Red Letter Day is set to be released January 24th. In this interview we talk about the upcoming release and some of the songs on the CD.

This GrassCast is 6 minutes in length and the file download size is 5 MB.

Direct Download: ep12_eric_gibson.mp3
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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.

The International Bluegrass Music Museum (IBMM) in Owensboro, KY will host a unique 3 day mandolin workshop this fall, the first of what they hope will become an annual event. The Monroe Style Mandolin Camp will be held September 8-10 at the Museum, with intensive instruction offered for mandolinists at any level in the specific music and style of the originator of bluegrass mandolin, Bill Monroe. Instructors for the camp are Frank Wakefield, Mike Compton, Skip Gorman, David Long, and Red Henry - all well known and highly regarded for their knowledge of the Monroe style of playing.

Registration is limited to 40 students, and multiple classes will be held simultaneously with the students grouped according to ability. These classes are arranged to ensure that each student, regardless of skill level, will get to spend time with each instructor. Full tuition also includes accommodations and a daily shuttle to and from the Museum, and commuter tuition rates are also available for folks who don’t need a hotel room or the shuttle.

The Monroe Mandolin Camp was the brainchild of Justin Holt, of the IBMM.

“I guess I started thinking about the camp this past summer. I tend to obsess over things and Bill Monroe has been my obsession for the last three years. I believe wholeheartedly in his musical and cultural importance and decided to create an event to honor and promote his legacy. I also wanted to bring more exposure to those folks playing and preserving his style of mandolin.”

Workshops will be organized around many specific areas of Monroe’s mandolin style, including his method for playing melodies out of closed chord forms, cross tuning, his use of pentatonic scales, twin mandolin playing and Monroe’s style of mandolin accompaniment. There will also be a panel discussion on Bill Monroe’s music, a Monroe-style mandolin competition and a faculty concert as a part of the weekend. Of course, jamming on site goes without saying.

“We’ve already had a number of calls about the camp. I just talked with one man who’d named the street where he lives after Monroe. That’s great stuff. In creating this camp, I’m betting that there are 40 people out there that would name their street Bill Monroe Avenue if they had the chance.”

You can find more details on the faculty, the schedule and the tuition rates - or register online - on the The Monroe Style Mandolin Camp web site.

During the holidays, tickets for the 2006 Telluride Bluegrass Festival have been on sale for $145 for a 4-day pass and $245 for a 4-day pass and camping. That’s $30 below their normal price and the sale ends Friday, January 27 at 5pm. After that date, the price of all Telluride 4-day passes and camping packages will increase to their normal rates. Single-day tickets to the festival will be available in the spring, once the full lineups have been confirmed. The dates for this year’s festival are June 15-18, 2006.

The 33rd Annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival lineup includes the Sam Bush Band, Tim O”Brien Band, Del McCoury Band, Bela Fleck, Nickel Creek, Yonder Mountain String Band, Peter Rowan, Shawn Camp, John Cowan, Jerry Douglas Band, and Edgar Meyer. In addition, the festival features headliners the Barenaked Ladies, Bonnie Raitt, and John Prine. The annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival attracts nearly 10,000 “festivarians” to the historic mining town of Telluride (population 2000), nestled in the majestic San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado.

Purchase tickets online at Bluegrass.com or call them at 800-624-2422.

We posted last week about the premier of the music video for Me and John and Paul by The Grascals being available on CMT.com.

Though not yet in rotation on CMT’s cable network, the video is set to debut on GAC-TV later today (January 19). The first showing is scheduled for approximately 4:55 p.m. (EST) and is likely to air several more times in the next few days. GAC’s Top 20 Countdown is based wholly on fan voting, so Grascals fans will want to be sure to get a vote in once they appear on the Countdown Voting Page.

Once the video starts airing, you will also be able to execute a search on the GAC site to find additional times when you can catch the Grascals’ video on GAC.

As we mentioned a few days ago, we had the opportunity to interview David Talbot and Terry Eldridge of The Grascals recently, and they talked at some length about the process of creating a music video, and how touched they have been by the reaction to Me and John and Paul, the Harley Allen penned tune that won them the IBMA’s Song Of The Year award for 2005.

Look for the interview in an upcoming edition of The GrassCast, our weekly audio podcast.