Here’s another opportunity for you to enjoy some great bluegrass while also enjoying a cruise, and this one is to Alaska! The Bluegrass Cruise to Alaska is put together by Cottage Music and features all the normal cruise activities along with bluegrass performances, workshops, and jams.
Although the fabulous Bluegrass and the luxurious cruise experience are definitely a winning combination…..the backdrop of the majestic Alaska Inside Passage takes this adventure to an awe inspiring level. That first morning when you awake to the narrows of Tracy Arm with deep indescribable aqua blue ice, crystal clear waters, lush green forest, eagles flying overhead, bears playing on the shore, waterfalls tumbling from sheer drops….I can hardly wait! Once you have seen a glacier up close and personal you will never be the same. For many this is the essence of the experience. Something that does not exist anywhere else in the world and here we are. What an unbelievable privilege to be able to experience it along with the music we love and the company of great friends.
For more information visit cottagemusic.net or call Rick Biel at 1-800-848-3488 Only those booking with Rick will be able to attend Bluegrass activities
Pepsi is entering its fourth year of sponsorship of FiddleFest, a not-for-profit bluegrass music festival held annually on the campus of Hollins University, just north of Roanoke, VA. What makes the sponsorship unique is that, in addition to cash and merchandise, Pepsi helps promote the festival by manufacturing soda cans that display the event logo, details and contact information.
For 2006, Pepsi has printed 1.5 million Mountain Dew cans which are distributed to retail outlets in VA, WV, MD, NC, SC, TN and KY. Not only do they increase awareness of the festival, the cans are also becoming collector’s items, especially prized by artists who perform at the festival.
FiddleFest organizer Mike Conner described how important corporate sponsorship has become to event producers of every size and type.
“It is my opinion that sponsorship with corporate partners is the ONLY way that festivals can expect to survive for the long term. You must create a product that is worthy, then work very hard in creating and maintaining ties to the corporate world, and be able to show them some value for their money. In the case of non-profit events like FiddleFest, its the only way to get something like this off the ground. The only exceptions I can think of would be an event where talent donates their time, as talent is by far the largest single expense, or an event that has a large gift or grant from an individual. The MACC festival in Ohio, and the first Merlefest are two examples of the former. I’m not aware of any example of the latter. To those that believe that the event should stand on its own, even the Super Bowl has sponsors. It is how things get done.”
FiddleFest will be held July 28-29, 2006 with performances by Rhonda Vincent & The Rage, Wildfire, The Dale Ann Bradley Band and many others. They also feature wokshops and round table discussions with the various artists on the bill, plus opportunities for amateur pickers to join in organized jam sessions with members of the featured bands.
This seemed like an appropriate post for a Sunday morning. I found this website recently while surfing the net. It’s a Canadian site run by a promoter who is dedicated to Bluegrass Gospel music. You can find all the info about the concerts he’s promoting and things like that, but what I found particularly interesting was the page where containing a very thorough history of bluegrass gospel music. So if you’re interested, click on over and give it a read.
With Mountain Gospel we have a tradition of sacred music that is a real treasure. It dates back 100 years, is still alive today, and it’s offshoot, Bluegrass Gospel, is a powerful force in music today
We posted last month about what is sure to be an exciting new instrumental outfit, composed of dobro wizard Rob Ickes, mandolin/fiddle prodigy Andy Leftwich, and Nashville session bass stalwart Dave Pomeroy. The band, who describe themselves as a “jamgrass acoustic power trio,” is called Three Ring Circle, and their debut, self-titled recording will be released in just a few weeks’ time on Earwave Records.
The new CD contains everything from adventurous improvisation romps written by the three soloists, to a lovely, lyrical retelling of Stevie Wonder’s Isn’t She Lovely as a dobro feature. Audio samples from each of the ten tracks can be found on their web site.
Despite their commitments to busy touring responsibilities - Ickes with Blue Highway, Leftwich with Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, and Pomeroy in the studio - Three Ring Circle will do some live appearances, as scheduling allows. Find more info about shows on their site as well.
The band is offering a pre-release special with orders being received before March 21 being eligible for free shipping to addresses in the US and Canada.
posted by John on 03.18.06 @ 6:12 am Tag: Bill Evans
Banjo player Bill Evans has worn a lot of hats over the years - as a teacher, writer, ethnomusicologist, IBMA board member, IBMM associate director, workshop leader and as a banjo player with Dry Branch Fire Squad. Next week, Bill launches his own all star band, Bill Evans String Summit, with three northern California performances.
The Bill Evans String Summit is Scott Nygaard on guitar (a former editor of Acoustic Guitar magazine, and well known for his work with Laurie Lewis, Tim O’Brien, and the Darol Anger); LA dobro phenom Michael Witcher (who has performed with Dolly Parton and Herb Pedersen); bassist Cindy Browne (who has performed with jazz greats Mel Torme and Lionel Hampton) and four-time National Fiddling Champions Tashina and Tristan Clarridge. Tristan will also be playing cello with the band.
“Bluegrass is a meeting ground for a diverse group of musicians in the String Summit who have also been influenced by jazz, classical and various world music traditions. We’ve started on a path where we are performing a good deal of my own compositions, which for the most part are firmly within the bluegrass tradition. However, I’m hoping as time goes on that everyone will be contributing original tunes to the band. We’ll venture in whatever directions the tunes take us. Ultimately, I think that’s what all musicians do. I’ve been writing new tunes for this band and I hope we can go into the studio soon and do some recording.
Bill Evans String Summit takes advantage of the growing youth movement in acoustic music - Tristan, Tashina and Michael are all under the age of 25. The band makes its northern California debut with the following three shows:
Recently we told you about Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver on Mountain Stage.Mountain Stage is a two-hour radio show recorded before a live audience in the Cultural Center Theater at the Capitol Complex in Charleston, WV. The show is now in its 20th year and has established a long tradition of featuring national and international acts in almost every style of music. On average they produce 26 new shows a year, most of which feature five acts. Typically each guest performs a three- to six-song segment.
The television version of Mountain Stage is an outgrowth of the radio show which features many - but not all - of the same guests. The TV shows are essentially hour-long compilations of the radio show. However, not all of the radio shows are videotaped.
You can find a station in your area that carries the show by visiting the Station Listings page.
Let me call to your attention an upcoming show with quite a bit of bluegrass content. This show is scheduled for the week following March 31. Here is the list of performers scheduled for this show.
We posted last fall about the efforts of the International Bluegrass Music Museum to record first person chronicles of the early generation of bluegrass artists and songwriters for the benefit of future generations. This time critical endeavor, The Video Oral History Project, is in need of funding to complete their work while these bluegrass pioneers are still with us, and have scheduled a benefit show at Nashville’s popular bluegrass watering hole, The Station Inn, on March 22 at 8:00 p.m. (CST) to just that end.
The show will be hosted by Andrea Roberts, and will feature music from The Grascals, Ronnie Reno, Larry Cordle, Carl Jackson, Jerry Salley, The J.T. Gray Band, Mark Newton, and The Stringdusters, with other special guest performances anticipated.
If you would like to support the IBMM’s effort to chronicle the contributions of the 232 musicians who have been designated as significant members of this First Generation (prior to 1954), you can find more details about making donations on the museum web site.
The Dale Ann Bradley Band has signed with Nashville-based Compass Records, a well respected independent label owned by progressive banjo player Alison Brown. With over 200 titles in release, Compass has been more focused on folk, celtic, and new acoustic music than bluegrass in their ten years in business, though the addition of Dale Ann to their artist roster goes a long way towards changing that perception.
Bradley, who has recorded previously for Pinecastle, Dobbie Shea, and Mountain Home, will start work on her Compass debut later this year, with no solid plans for a release date announced at this time.
Bluegrass favorites, Cherryholmes, are featured guests on the Billy Graham Special being aired throughout this week (March 11-19), with both dates and times varying widely from market to market. They perform some of the music that has swept this family band to the top of the bluegrass heap in remarkably short order, and also tell the compelling story of how they turned a tragic loss into a lasting commemoration.
You can find visit the Billy Graham site for more details about when the special may run in your area.
The March/April issue of Bluegrass Music Profiles, a bi-monthly newsprint publication based in Kentucky, features a cover story on The Grascals.
We heard recently from BMP editor and publisher, Kevin Kerfoot, who passed along a few details about the Grascals piece, and the rest of the current issue.
“In the interview Terry Eldredge discusses how they came up with its name, the Grammy nomination, the Song of the Year Award, and how it feels to be the IBMA’s Emerging Artist.
Also featured in this issue are interviews with Jere Cherryholmes, Chris Stuart & Backcounty, and Kentucky Blue. James Shelton discusses his Huss & Dalton signature model and his 1946 D-28 Martin Herringbone in the Shop Talk section, and Michael Cleveland reveals his Bluegrass Favorites.”
Bluegrass Bluegrass profiles has just marked its second anniversary publishing a mix of fun facts and revealing glimpses into the musical - and “regular” - lives of popular bluegrass artists and personalities.
OUR MISSION is to have a good time gettin’ personal with bluegrass artists so we can deliver well-written and informative articles to you.
Kentucky Bluebird is the title of a new film project about to get underway, based on the life and frustratingly brief career of bluegrass/country star Keith Whitley. Keith made his presence felt in bluegrass from the early 1970s, when he joined Ralph Stanley’s band as a teenager (along with fellow Kentuckian, Ricky Skaggs), through an impressive stint with JD Crowe & The New South. His subsequent career recording mainstream country music for RCA earned him multiple chart hits and impressive sales figures, which continued even after he was discovered dead in his home in May of 1989.
Casting for the film role of Keith Whitley is now underway, and audition tapes are being solicited by Fincannon & Associates, who have been contracted to cast the film. They request that any audition be sent on DVD or VHS, and contain a brief monologue demonstrating your acting range, plus a live rendition of two Whitley songs - one each from his bluegrass and his country repertoire.
Fincannon & Associates
1235 N. 23rd Street
Wilmington , NC 28405
Phone: (910) 251.1500
Fax: (910) 251.9325
We have not yet been able to obtain any information about who is producing this film, or when it might go into production, but we will update as we find more details. Bluegrass fans harbor a great fondness for Keith Whitley, and will surely embrace a film on his life with great anticipation.
Episode #20 of The GrassCast features an interview with songwriter Larry Cordle. Larry has written a great number of songs that have become country music hits, including Highway 40 Blues, Lonesome Standard Time, Rough Around The Edges, Against The Grain, Lonesome Dove, etc. In the interview, we talk about an exciting new CD project he’s working on, and of course a good deal of time is spent discussing the history, business and art of song-writing.
This GrassCast is 13 minutes in length and the file download size is 12MB.
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
posted by Brance on 03.15.06 @ 11:19 am Tags: Doyle Lawson, WNCW
Doyle Lawson will be a featured guest on WNCW tomorrow (3/16) at 9:00 a.m. (EST). Doyle will talk with host Dennis Jones of WNCW about the latest DL&Q gospel release, He Lives In Me, and about his storied bluegrass career, including his stint with The Country Gentlemen prior to starting his own band.
WNCW broadcasts on 88.7 FM in Spindale, NC, 97.3 FM in Charlotte, NC and on other frequencies in Boone and Greenville as well. You can also listen online via streaming audio, live during the 9:00 a.m. broadcast. Streaming is available for Windows Media, Real Media or iTunes.
B???la Fleck & The Flecktones launch the second leg of their 2006 Tour today (3/15), in support of their newest Columbia release, The Hidden Land. They start out with two shows in Lexington, KY and then continue on a swing through the southern US through most of March. April finds them in the midwest before a short break, and then a week in New York.
Major stops include a taping for Mountain Stage, an appearance at Merlefest, and the closing date of the tour, a stop at the Bonnaroo Festival in June. You can find the complete tour schedule on the Flecktones’ site.
The new CD, their first studio release in more than five years, has been garnering rave reviews from the mainstream music press, but hasn’t generated much interest to date from bluegrass critics. It is available as either a standard audio CD, or in a dual disc format with both an audio CD and a DVD on opposing sides of the disc.
posted by John on 03.15.06 @ 7:09 am Tag: Alecia Nugent
We had posted earlier this month about the release of Alecia Nugent’s new CD, A Little Girl… A Big Four Lane, on Rounder, and also featured an interview with Alecia on The GrassCast (our weekly audio podcast).
At that time, we indicated that no audio samples from the new release were available online, and that we would update everyone here when they appeared. They are now up on the Rounder web site for anyone interested in a taste of the new CD
BluegrassGuide.com is hosting a Song Writer Chat Room tonight (March 14) at 8 PM EST. Tonight’s guest is Chris Stuart. Chris is a songwriter, touring and recording artist, and he runs an independent record label, Backcountry Music.
He’s had five of his songs appear on the Bluegrass Unlimited chart, won the songwriting contest at Merlefest in both bluegrass and gospel categories, been selected for IBMA songwriter and band showcases, and has toured with his band Chris Stuart & Backcountry in the U.S., Canada, U.K., and the Middle East. Chris writes feature articles for Bluegrass Unlimited magazine. His songs have been recorded by Claire Lynch, Suzanne Thomas, Sally Jones, Tina Adair, and others, and he’s taught songwriting at the British Columbia Bluegrass Workshop and at festival workshops and will be teaching at the Sorefingers bluegrass school in the UK in 2007.
It should be an informative and fun chat. If you are interested in songwriting, be sure to log on at BluegrassGuide.com.
The USA Songwriting Competition is now accepting entries for the 2006 prize awards, with a deadline for submissions of May 31. Prizes of cash and merchandise are awarded, both in 15 style categories, and for the top three songs overall.
There are three categories which may be of interest to bluegrass, folk and acoustic music songwriters - folk, country and instrumental. A song can be entered in multiple categories, but each category entry is subject to the $30 entry fee. The entry form, which can be completed and sent by email, or printed and mailed, can be found online.
Winners from the 2005 competition who may be familiar to readers of The Bluegrass Blog include Darrell Scott, who won in the country category for Good Ol USA, and April Verch & Taylor Buckley, who won an honorable mention in the instrumental category for Monarch, a tune found on Verch’s latest CD, Take Me Back.
Find all the details, and the rules of the competition on the USA Songwriting Competition web site.
The upcoming CD release from The John Cowan Band,New Tattoo, is currently being pressed with a street date of June 13 anticipated at this point. The new project was produced by Jay Joyce and will be jointly released on CowVox and Pinecastle Records. Pre-release sales will be available from the John Cowan site, with details to be announced there soon.
The band plans to support the new release with extensive touring this summer. Find the John Cowan Band schedule online.
The show was fed via satellite this past friday, but many stations air the show later in the week. It could be showing up till next wednesday on some stations. You can find a list of stations that air the show on mountainstage.org. The list contains station call letters, dial location, day and time the show airs.
There is a lot of virtuoso playing on “Stomp,” but all the songs have the straightforward feel of two people making music for fun without a lot of studio tricks.
While this site is built on the open source weblog system Wordpress, along with a number of third party plugins, it has been heavily modified and appended to suit our needs, including but not limited to the user interface, contact form, commenting system, user registration system, and a whole bunch of administration features behind the scenes.
The design, layout, polls, and everything else were developed and programmed by Brance Gillihan with invaluable aid, consultation, and input from Rodger Gillihan and John Lawless.
The ad management interface and tracking system is built on the open source program phpAdsNew.
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Pepsi is entering its fourth year of sponsorship of 
Banjo player Bill Evans has worn a lot of hats over the years - as a teacher, writer, ethnomusicologist, IBMA board member, IBMM associate director, workshop leader and as a banjo player with Dry Branch Fire Squad. Next week, Bill launches his own all star band, Bill Evans String Summit, with three northern California performances.
Episode #20 of The GrassCast features an interview with songwriter 
