I just discovered this blog from the city of Ashville, NC. They had three posts about the Bluegrass First Class festival that happened this past weekend. Each post contains one photo of a bluegrass band, and they’re nice photos. Just visit the Blog Ashville website and scroll down about half way. In case more stuff is posted and those posts are moved off the main page, here are some direct links.

Lonesome River Band
Bobby Osborne
Seldom Scene

Jayme Stone, an adventurous young progressive banjo player from Canada, profiled last summer on the cover of Banjo NewsLetter, is now living in Boulder, CO, and has a new web site to announce. Jayme has immersed himself in the music of the five string banjo, encompassing old time, traditional bluegrass, and more modern styles, to create a sound of his own. He likes to say that he plays bluegrass and old time music, but specializes in modern picking styles.

The web site has news of his shows and recordings, plus some unreleased music and a number of free banjo tabs for tunes he has recorded. Jayme performs with several aggregations, including his own Quartet, based in the US, and Tricycle, which tours primarily in Canada.

Jayme has also recently embarked on offering banjo lessons via email, exchanging mp3 and midi audio files, plus pdfs of tabs and lesson notes with students. He also leads workshops and has a special interest in jazz harmony, composition and “post-Béla” techniques for five string banjo.

Visit the Jayme Stone web site, or contact him by email for more details.

The John Cowan Band was recently in the studio where they recorded a number of tracks for exclusive online distribution through Sony’s Connect. Sony is presenting Connect as an alternative to Apple’s iTunes Music Store. The Cowan tracks should be available on the site within a few weeks.

NOTE: Sony Connect only works with Internet Explorer and the Windows operating systems, and is not compatible with Macintosh computers or non-Microsoft web browsers. Proponents of Mozilla/Firefox browsers and Windows resisters will have to satisfy their online music urges elsewhere.

The Washington Post ran an article in Sunday’s edition about the gradual resurgence of bluegrass music in our nation’s capitol. This piece, by Michael Alison Chandler, discuses how DC was once a hotbed of activity for bluegrass and acoustic music, where bands like The Country Gentlemen and Seldom Scene got their starts, but saw interest in the music dwindle after the 1970s.

He describes some area jams, and mentions the efforts of the DC Bluegrass Union to keep the music going in the DC, northern VA and southeastern MD areas.

Much of the hopeful tone in the article is based on Chandler’s discussions with a number of younger musicians who are developing a following in DC.

Read the entire article here.

Nickel Creek has just announced new tour dates for here in the US. They are currently on tour in England, Ireland, and Scotland. That tour is nearly sold out at this point. But they have quite a number of dates lined up once they return to the states.

Opening acts will include The Ditty Bops in March, matt pond PA in April, and then the Ditty Bops once again for Merlefest.

Presale ticketing opens today at 10:00 AM ET for three shows on their spring tour:

• 4.06.06 Athens GA
• 4.12.06 Laramie WY
• 04/13/06 Colorado Springs, CO

Visit NickelCreek.com to purchase tickets.

Wallace Lewis, one of the founding members of The Lewis Family, is back home after being hospitalized since the last week of January. He went in as a result of high fever and kidney problems, and was diagnosed with pneumonia and a urinary tract infection. Wallace is back home as of February 15, and all of the entire family wish thank their many fans and friends for the prayers, kind thoughts and messages of good will they have received.

If you would like to send a card, the address is:

In bluegrass we think of banjo in terms of what Earl did with the instrument. Sometimes we consider the claw-hammer style used by old time players. But rarely would we think of banjo and associate it with the blues. But here is a CD of a recording made about 16-18 years ago with two sisters Etta Baker and Cora Phillips who play what can best be described as a mixture of appalacian old time and blues music.

If you have a love of traditional blues and old time country music, you will probably love this album. But there’s another good reason for buying this album aside from the great music: The Music Make Relief Foundation.

These folks have produced this and countless other albums of musicians who might otherwise have been forgotten. The money made from the sale of these discs, and other ventures, is used to help support some of these people who have ended up with nothing.

Here are two articles about this CD.

nashvillenews.net and desicritics.org

Dave Roye, who kept us updated from Nashville during the recent SPBGMA convention, has just been in touch to let us know that he has posted nearly 1000 photos from the event on his web site.

“Thanks to everyone who let me shoot photos of them to be posted on the BLOG and to the Stearmans for putting on such a great event! It was great meeting new bluegrass friends and seeing some old ones and am looking forward to the bluegrass festivals and events in 2006.”

New Road, a bluegrass gospel group based in Knoxville, TN, released their latest CD on February 14. The Message is their sixth recording as a band, and is made up primarily of songs written by the members. Attendees at last year’s IBMA Convention in Nashville may recall New Road, as they were one of the invited showcase acts who performed during the week.

The band’s web sites contains congratulations and laudatory quotes from such respected bluegrass and gospel artists as Doyle Lawson and Steve Gulley of Mountain Heart.

No audio online that we could find, but lots of other information on the New Road web site.

This post is a contribution from David Hollender, a professor at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. He has been keeping us updated on the way bluegrass music and traditional acoustic instruments are being presented at the school.

Pete and Joan Wernick are in Boston this week to play at the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival and present a Jam Camp. They used the occasion to visit Berklee College of Music Wednesday, where they presented a master class sponsored by the college”s Ensemble Department.

Pete and Joan kicked things off by playing two tunes and then worked with a student band in an open master class format. Students Charlie Worsham, Ashleigh Caudill, Kristen Weber and Joe Walsh, all members of Back Bay Bluegrass, played on stage for Pete, Joan and fellow students.

The extent of Pete”s work with up-and-coming musicians was evidenced by the fact that he had met three of the four band members before and had notes about them going back as far back as ten years ago. By coincidence, Walsh happens to be Joan”s cousin.

Pete and Joan were very complimentary of the band. They offered suggestions and worked with them to fine-tune some fine points of their playing. They spoke about how singers could emphasize the meaning of lyrics and critiqued the arrangements. Along with the specific suggestions Pete and Joan expounded on their personal philosophies of what makes good music and what it takes to reach a large an audience.

Preceding the master class Pete spent time working one-on-one with another student banjo player.

Boston area readers can hear Pete and Joan, Back Bay Bluegrass, The Stringdusters (with Berklee graduates Chris Pandolfi and Andy Hall) play sets Friday night at the Joe Val Festival, which runs Friday through Sunday.

IBMA has just announced special hotel pricing and reservation procedures for this year’s World of Bluegrass events to be held in Nashville, TN September 25-October 1, 2006. These prices and the block of rooms that are earmarked for reservations are for exhibitors or attendees of last year’s event. The hotels have a list which they will check names against. You should make you reservations through the Nashville Central Reservations Department. IBMA has asked that you not call hotels directly for room reservations for World of Bluegrass. The special rates are only available by calling the central reservations office.

Call 1-877-259-4716 or 615-259-4700 on or after your designated date.

UPDATE (2.32 PM): The designated dates for this special reservation period are March 1 through April 30, 2006.

You must specify that you are making reservations for the World of Bluegrass. Here’s more details (more…)

This post is a contribution from Cathy Hicks, who is both the wife and business manager for legendary bluegrass fiddler, Bobby Hicks. Cathy had the good fortune to become acquainted with Louise Scruggs, and like so many businesswomen in the music world, saw her as a role model and mentor as well.

Louise Scruggs - what can I say that hasn’t already been said more eloquently than me. I cried (a lot) at her funeral, not so much that we were close friends - we were friends, but not real close - but more that I realized what we’ve lost (what I’ve lost in particular). She was a virtual encyclopedia of the music and the way business is done. I was so looking forward to seeing her again in better health and learning from her. Our last phone conversation was about just that. I liked her a lot and judging from her emails to me I’m pretty sure she liked me as well.

Mrs. Scruggs didn’t just drive the train, she laid the tracks - through pretty unfriendly territory - and did it with dignity. Oh, and there’s that other thing of being a great wife and mother all the while managing the career of her husband. The women out there know what I’m talking about. It never stops for most of us. Think about that - three little boys, pretty much alone, since Mr. Scruggs was gone a lot, keeping house, homework, laundry and a superstar husband you manage in the 1950’s.

You bet I’m amazed and I’m also proud to have known her as well as I did. I’ll sure miss her.

Cathy Hicks

If you haven’t listened to this week’s episode of 5 Minutes With Wichita then you should get yourself over there and give it a listen. Wichita’s guest this week is Alison Krauss and this interview is worth 5 minutes! Everyone who has listened knows how funny Wichita is. And if you’ve attended an IBMA Awards Show in the last couple years, then you know how funny Alison is. Together they are quite the team.

UPDATE (7:24 AM): Wichita just sent me this photo to include!

Details on the 3rd Annual Smoky Mountain Banjo Academy are now posted online. This three day banjo workshop weekend will be held April 21-23, 2006 near Gatlinburg, TN and is modeled in large part on the now-defunct Maryland Banjo Academy once hosted by Banjo NewsLetter. SMBA is organized and run by Jack Hatfield, who will also be an instructor.

The idea of this event is to bring together banjo players (teachers and students) from both the picked and non-picked disciplines, with bluegrass, jazz, classic, minstrel and old time banjoists sharing a weekend of instructional opportunities together. Each day at SMBA is broken into short class segments, each quite specifically targeted to a stated skill level and topic, and attendees can pick the ones that best suit their interests and needs. Each student also has the option of signing up for private sessions with the instructor of their choice, though these times are limited and scheduled on a first come, first served basis on site.

This year’s staff includes Tom Adams, Jason Bales, Dave Ball, Eddie Collins, Charlie Cushman, Bill Evans, Gary “Biscuit” Davis, Wayne Erbsen, Andy King, James McKinney, Roger & Anne Simpson (Eucalyptus Banjos, Australia), Sammy Shelor, Tom Nechville and Leroy Troy.

Find complete details and registration information on the SMBA web site.

Episode #16 of The GrassCast features an interview with singer/songwriter Ronnie Bowman. John and Ronnie talk about Ronnie’s new CD It’s Gettin’ Better All The Time, having a #1 hit on country radio, and what it’s like living in Nashville.

This GrassCast is 11 minutes in length and the file download size is 11MB.

Listen now:
Direct Download: ep16_ronnie_bowman.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.

The Lonesome River Band recently launched a new website and made 2 audio tracks available as free downloads. They have since uploaded another free track. This is a new cut of the LRB favorite Tears In My Tracks and features Jeff Parker on lead and tenor vocals, with new band members Shannon and Barry joining in on the chorus. As stated previously, access to the free audio does require a simple registration on LonesomeRiverBand.com, which is also free.

Previous:
Free Music From The Lonesome River Band
Lonesome River Band website

Larry Sparks is pleased to welcome two new members to The Lonesome Ramblers. Jackie Kincaid comes onboard playing mandolin and singing tenor, and Larry’s son, Larry D. Sparks, has taken the bass spot. In addition, Johnny Collins is the new bus driver for the band.

Jackie is a first rate Monroe-style mandolinist and a strong tenor vocalist who had worked once before with Larry.

“I received a phone call from Larry in 1979, saying he liked my tenor singing. I sang ‘I Wonder Where You Are Tonight’ over the phone, and he hired me that night.”

Now, 27 years later, after just one weekend’s tryout with the band, Sparks has put Jackie back on the payroll.

“I cannot express how proud I am to be chosen by the ‘Best In Bluegrass.’ I have never heard a bad word spoken about Larry Sparks. I learned valuable lessons from him in the seventies and he is still a True Gentleman. With his unique style, golden voice, and heartfelt singing, he has been a tremendous influence on Bluegrass from day one, and it is far from over. I will always be grateful for this opportunity and grateful to my parents, Maxine and Neil Kincaid, for supporting me and leading the way for me to experience this great opportunity.”

Audio samples from Jackie’s solo CD, Second Time Around, can be found on his web site.

Larry D. Sparks, the 39 year old son of bandleader Sparks, has performed in local and regional bands for many years but this job in the family business is his first full-time band gig.

Larry is very excited about his new band members, and the sound they get with this grouping.

“The harmony in the group is very strong now, and the blend with the new band members is really great.”

Larry D. and Jackie will take the stage as members of The Lonesome Ramblers for the first time this weekend in Valdese, NC and Norfolk, VA. Check Larry’s schedule online to find a chance to catch Larry and the new lineup in concert.

IIIrd Tyme Out banjo picker Steve Dilling has just notified us that he has his own website, www.sdilling.com. Note that the URL is “sdilling” as opposed to “stevedilling,” and there’s a good reason for that. The web site is actually divided into two parts: half for Steve, and half for his 15 year old daughter, Stephanie, who designed and built the site (and is also a Guest Contributor here on The Bluegrass Blog).

Steve’s portion of the site focuses on his professional life (bio, discography, endorsements, tour dates, etc.) while Stephanie’s is mostly dedicated to reprints of her articles for Bluegrass Now.

Steve also reports that the upcoming IIIrd Tyme Out concert DVD is nearly finished. He said that the live show footage is pretty well edited, but that they are still assembling some additional “behind the scenes stuff” - riding the bus, sound check, and the like. A spring ‘06 release for the DVD - and a companion audio CD - is still their goal.

Rossetta Paxton recently wrote in to tell us about an event that she coordinates. It’s a unique event that takes place March 29th to April 2nd, 2006.

A UNIQUE one of a kind BLUEGRASS WORKSHOP held within the setting of a world-renowned health resort & guest ranch, located in the beautiful hills of the Cariboo in British Columbia Canada. For those of who wish to fly your own plane to the workshop there is an airport close by. For those who would like to fly commercial we are very accessible by Air Canada to Williams Lake where we run a shuttle from Williams Lake to the Hills Health Ranch.

This is the third year for the event and the instructors this year include:

Special Consensus (Greg Cahill, Ron Spears, Justin Carbone & Tres Nugent)

Restless Lester (Steve Fisher, Bruce Blair, Brad Lindberg & Keith Burgess)

Canadian Whitewater (Chris Stevens, Gene Bretecher & Bert Jensen)

Five On A String ( Carrol Oldenburg & Garry Stevenson)

Classes begin at 9:15 am each day and go to 5:00 pm with special workshops in the afternoon. The evening activities start at 7:30 pm. With something different happening each evening. We are offering instruction in: Standup Bass, Rhythm & Flatpick Guitar, Fiddle, Mandolin, Banjo, Resophonic Guitar and Vocals. Maximum of 10 students per class.

The resort is offering special bluegrass workshop pricing for rooms & meals. With such limited registration, you should register now if you want to go. For more info or to register please contact:

Email: rossetta@telus.net On subject line please put: 108 Bluegrass 2006
Phone: 1-800-668-2233

Visit the website at: thehillshealthranch.com

Heather Berry reports that her next CD, To A Dove, is nearly finished and should be released sometime in April. Guest artists include some real bluegrass legends - like Mac Wiseman and Eddie & Martha Adcock - plus more contemporary bluegrass luminaries like Don Rigsby and Alecia Nugent.

The new CD was recorded in Tom T. and Dixie Hall’s studio and the title track is one of Dixie Hall’s compositions.

Heather also has a new lineup for her band, Dominion Grass, which includes Wade Cox on bass, Travers Chandler on mandolin, and Robert Overstreet on banjo and dobro.