Starting tomorrow, May 26, VH1 Country will become CMT Pure Country. If your cable or satellite TV provider offers VH1 Country, the feed will switch to the new CMT network at 6:00 a.m. on May 26. Pure Country is intended as a 24/7 music channel, something that may be welcome to fans who tune in CMT to see music and music videos, and find instead that they are running movies, reality programming or sitcom reruns.

I traded email yesterday with Amanda Murphy at CMT, and she mentioned that Pure Country intends to embrace “all country genres,” good news for bluegrass lovers hoping to see more grassy video content on television.

Murphy shared some further insight into the change in format and name for the channel:

“CMT and VH1 are both part of MTV Networks Group and this is essentially a re-brand, allowing CMT to infuse it with our distinct creative direction and sensibility. CMT PURE COUNTRY fits in to CMT’s overall music strategy, which includes providing viewers with multiple ways to give country music fans more of the pure music content they are passionate about.”

Coinciding with the launch of the re-branded network comes a change of venue as well, as the new music channel will now be programmed from Nashville. Pure Country will be available in over 16 million homes, and offered by major cable providers like Comcast, Charter, Cox, CableOne, Mediaone, Knology, Cequel II, Armstrong Cable and Blue Ridge Cable.

Some familiar CMT shows will appear on the new channel, like the popular Wide Open Country program, which incidentally, specifically mentions bluegrass in its intended offerings. This show has always been meant to highlight music that isn’t featured on mainstream country radio. Also making its broadcast debut is Studio 330 Sessions, which has heretofore been a web-only offering on CMT.com and which has featured live performances by bluegrass artists in the past.

“Wide Open Country will remain on CMT in its 30-minute daily block, but will be a one hour daily feature on CMT PURE COUNTRY that could air as many as three times a day. Studio 330 Sessions will continue to live on CMT.com. CMT PURE COUNTRY will be the first time the Web series has been televised.”

Let’s hope that bluegrass labels move rapidly to take advantage of this newly expanded opportunity for the airing of music videos - and that CMT Pure Country will choose to air them! CMT.com has an email address (questions@cmt.com) for feedback and comments, should anyone wish to congratulate them for the new launch, and suggest to them that the bluegrass market is worthy of their attention.

UPDATE 11:00 a.m.: I just heard again from Amanda Murphy, who wanted me to share an additional comment from Evan Kroft, Director of Music Programming and Talent Relations at CMT. He asked us to add that bluegrass will receive expanded exposure on Pure Country, since in addition to the Wide Open Country video hour, bluegrass clips will also be included in the normal video blocks.

The June issue of Bluegrass Unlimited magazine is on its way to subscribers and retailers, with Del McCoury (and the band) on the cover. The Del piece is a substantial one, written by Chris Stuart.

Also included this month are features on Blue Moon Rising, Shad Cobb, and The McCormick Brothers. You can get more info on Bluegrass Unlimited, including subscription details, by visiting their web site.

Within the next week or so, you’ll be able to view selected content from the new issue online, including most of the reviews, the National Bluegrass Survey, and at least one or two of the feature articles. The May issue is still up on the site now.

John adds: The new issue also includes a great review of our new Acoustic Endeavors CD, On A Farm. Yee hah!

We have posted several times (here and here) about the upcoming Van Halen bluegrass tribute CD from CMH Records, Strummin’ With The Devil. It started as just another of CMH’s popular grassified tributes, but has grown into something of a media sensation since it was announced that former Van Halen front man David Lee Roth was adding vocals to a number of tracks.

The CD won’t be released until June 6, but audio samples are now available, either on the CMH site, or on CMT.com.

Keep an eye on The Bluegrass Blog for more exciting news about this CD and its promotional push.

Del McCoury is scheduled to appear on WNYC’s Soundcheck program today (5/24) at 2:00 p.m. (EDT), broadcast from New York City - where Del performs tonight at Carnegie Hall. The show is hosted by John Schaefer, a well-respected figure in the New York music scene.

Del is said to be appearing “later in the show,” which is an hour long program. He will perform live, and talk with Schaefer about a number of topics.

You can hear the show over the air at 93.9 FM in the New York City radio market, or listen via live streaming audio online. The shows are archived so you can find it after the fact on the Soundcheck Archives site.

We posted back in March about Michael Cleveland’s latest solo project on Rounder, Let ‘Er Go Boys! At the time, we mentioned that there were no audio samples available online, but they have just been added to the Rounder site. Samples from each of the 17 tracks are up, in both Real Audio and Windows Media formats.

Find the Cleveland audio samples here.

The good people over at BluegrassBooksOnline.com have updated the free lessons available on their site. And this time Rick Williams has added a little something extra for guitar and mandolin players alike. He has included a short video along with the usual Tab and Mp3″s. The video is a close up view of Rick playing the slow version of the tune, and is recorded for both guitar and mandolin. Rick hopes the video will make it easier for students to understand the right and left hand positions and fingering. The lessons are set up in the same manner as his Bluegrass Guitar Jam Tunes and Bluegrass Mandolin Jam Tunes.

The video files are in Windows Media format and the file sizes are quite small, suitable for download even on dialup. Rick hopes to continue the video as a permanent part of the free online lessons. The lessons will be updated semi monthly as time permits. Previous lessons are also still available on the site. And Rick encourages you to contact him with any questions or comments. He may be reached via email: Rick@bluegrassbooksonline.com

Yesterday (May 23) was the official release date of Rhonda Vincent’s new CD release on Rounder, All American Bluegrass Girl. She did an interview with Nashville’s City Paper, which ran in yesterday’s edition where she discusses the new CD, and how they chose and arranged the songs to be included.

Read the article here.

Still no sample audio up on the Rounder site, but it is available on CMT.com.

The next CD from Lonesome River Band, The Road With No End, is scheduled for a July release on Mountain Home Records. Sammy Shelor mentioned yesterday that he has a few more banjo tracks to finish, and then they will be ready to start mixing. This will be the first release from the newly reconfigured LRB, with Shannon Slaughter on guitar, Barry Berrier on bass, and Jeff Parker still on mandolin. Guesting on the new CD will be Ron Stewart on fiddle, and Matt Leadbetter on dobro.

Sam said that he was really excited about the material on the new project, with new songs from Billy Smith, Jerry Salley, Shawn Camp, the Easter Brothers and band members Slaughter and Berrier among others. He also mentioned that pre-release sales will be available from the band’s web site, including digital downloads. Keep an eye on their site for more details over the next few weeks.

The LRB site is also reporting that Matt Leadbetter will be out with the band on dobro during the month of June. Matt is the 22 year old son of Wildfire dobroist Phil Leadbetter.

We just received the news that Sara Evans has asked Jim Van Cleve and Clay Jones to perform with her at this year’s Academy of Country Music Awards, which is being televised from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas tonight. Most of our readers should be familiar with these two pickers from their work with Mountain Heart, or our recent post about Jim’s new CD.

The show goes live tonight, May 23, 2006 at 8:00 ET/PT on CBS.

In a continuing effort to fulfill it”s charter and aid the growth of bluegrass music, the International Bluegrass Music Association has developed an artist training workshop for the Bluegrass in the Schools program. The course includes information about educational tools available through the IBMA, ideas on how a band or artist can develop and present their own program, a live demonstration of a successful presentation, a Q&A session, a presentation on how to motivate students, and information on how to pitch and fund such a program at a local school.

The first of these regional training workshops is to be held Saturday, June 10, from 9 AM - noon at the Festival of the Bluegrass in Lexington, KY. You must purchase your own festival ticket for that day, but there is no additional fee for the workshop. Attendees will receive a Bluegrass in the Schools Certificate of Participation for the training session.

Presenters will include Tom Kopp, Ph.D. and Kentucky Blue (a popular Kentucky-based band that presents educational programs to students on a regular basis), among others.

Additional trainings are tentatively planned for Minnesota (the MBOTMA Fall Jamboree in November) and Arkansas in the fall. In 2007 we hope to be at SuperGrass in Bakersfield, Calif. (early Feb.); the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival in Boston, Mass. (mid-Feb.); and Wintergrass in Tacoma, Wash. (late Feb.)

To register for the first Bluegrass in the Schools Regional Training in Lexington, Ky., call 888-GET-IBMA, 615-256-3222, or email nancyc@ibma.org.

Be sure to do your homework by reading the Bluegrass in the Schools Implementation Manual.

The Copper Creek Bluegrass Calendar has been a popular, if not staple, holiday gift item since they were first introduced in 1991. Not only does each month highlight important dates in bluegrass history, but birthdays of prominent bluegrass artists and personalities are also indicated. On top of that, the calendars have been consistently marked by high quality photography, with many editions having a particular theme to the artists or photos chosen for inclusion.

Copper Creek has just announced a special deal on their limited back stock of calendars, with copies of most every year dating back to 1991 still available. You can get a copy of 14 calendars, including the current 2006 edition, for only $20, postage paid. That’s 168 pages of photos, many of them clearly suitable for framing.

Get all the details or place an order on the Copper Creek site.

Let The Ride Begin is the debut recording from Pinecastle recording artists the Circuit Riders. While Pinecastle has yet to announce a release of the project, the band does currently have them available for purchase at their live shows. If you like, you can order the CD from their website by sending in a check or money order.

I spoke with Greg Corbett, the banjo player with the Circuit Riders, and asked him briefly about the CD.

We hope folks enjoy the project as much as we did making it. It has some original material that we are proud of and hope folks like it also.

Song clips are available, but I had to dig for them. The clips page is here, but none of the links worked for me. I had to click on the link and then change the extension in my browser url bar from http to mp3. That worked for all but a few of the songs with the notable exception being the first track. The mp3 filename is mis-spelled so you have to change the extension and retype it to read lonsomewind.mp3.

I’ll make this post open for comments, so someone on a windows box take a look at this page and let me know if the clips work for you.

In addition to the Bon Jovi tribute we have mentioned recently, CMH Records had two other new CDs released last week. Both are compilation projects that offer a whole lot of bluegrass music at a bargain price.

The first is simply and appropriately titled, 36 Bluegrass Hits - and that’s just what it is. The tracks are drawn from previous CMH releases, and feature performances by Bill Monroe, Curly Seckler & The Nashville Grass, Marty Stuart, Jim & Jesse, The Osborne Brothers, Mac Wiseman, Lester Flatt, Don Reno, Jimmy Martin, Grandpa Jones and The Bluegrass Cardinals.

A complete track listing and a few audio samples can be found on the CMH site.

The other new compilation release is called Pickin’ & Singin’ - The Ultimate Bluegrass Collection, and contains a total of 64 tracks of classic bluegrass featuring many of the same artists listed above, plus Carl Story, Benny Martin, Arthur Smith, Josh Graves, Merle Travis, Paul Warren and Eddie Adcock.

You can also see the track listing online, but there are no audio samples for this one.

If you enjoy the music of the early pioneers of bluegrass, or find that your knowledge of their work is lacking, these two new CMH releases might be just the ticket.

We got a note from IIIrd Tyme Out bassist and Deaton Agency founder, Ray Deaton, which will surely be of interest to our readers.

Hello everyone! I just wanted to let you all know that I am still very much a member of IIIrd Tyme Out. However, I am excited to announce that I am also a full time member of The Anita Fisher Band. I have joined the band as a bass player and vocalist. I would like to invite you to visit our website and come see us in person whenever you can. This band is very talented and it is a great honor to be a part of it.

One imagines that since The Deaton Agency books both acts, Ray should be able to handle the double duty schedule just fine.

We posted a note last week when CMH Records released Nice Life - The Bluegrass Tribute to Bon Jovi. At the time, we didn’t have much info about the new CD, but have a few more details we can share about it now.

Unlike the CMH Pickin’ On series, which has grown to a library of over 200 instrumental CDs of bluegrass covers, the new Bon Jovi tribute features grassed up vocal treatments of their hit songs.

The personnel on the recording include some familiar names:

There are still no audio samples up on the CMH site, but they should appear before too much longer.

Thanks to reader Larry Jackson, who tipped us to this lovely Larry Rice tribute which appears in this morning’s Citrus County Chronicle. The article by Nancy Kennedy contains quotes from Larry’s widow, Linda, brothers Ronnie and Wyatt, and mom Louise Rice. Though brief, it is both a career overview and a personal glimpse into Larry’s life away from music.

Here’s just a taste:

Born in Danville, Va., Larry met Linda in a phone booth in Donalsonville, Ga. She was making a long-distance call and saw him and thought he was the handsomest man she had ever seen. All the girls in town wanted to date him, but he picked her.

On their first date they went to the fair. Linda recalled how they went on a ride and Larry lost all the change out of his pockets.

So many memories, so many stories, Linda said.

You can read the whole article here, though a quick, free registration is required.

Fans of the recently departed bluegrass musician will surely appreciate reading about his family life, and friends can relish the shared memories of the man they knew off stage.

Perennial bluegrass Gospel favorites, The Lewis Family, have released their latest recording, Flyin’ High. Audio samples are available and online ordering is enabled from the Lewis Family web site.

The site also mentions that Miggie Lewis is scheduled for knee replacement surgery tomorrow (May 23), and asks her many friends to remember her in their prayers.

Sorry I missed this while I was away last week…

Billboard and Reuters are reporting that country music superstar Alan Jackson is at work on a bluegrass album, produced by Alison Krauss, which is expected to be released in September of 2006.

It is also mentioned on Jackson’s web site.

We found a reference to Jerry Douglas and Alison Krauss on a widely read blog, known primarily for political comment and discussion. The blog has the unlikely name of Little Green Footballs, and it is consistently ranked as a Higher Being (top 10) by the Truth Laid Bear blog ranking service.

The LGF blogger has a habit of listing the music he is playing in iTunes on the site, and also shows a playlist of songs he has recently played, with the music actually available to sample on the site. Regardless of where you may reside on the political spectrum, it can only be of benefit to our music when it is featured - and promoted - on a popular site like this one with an average daily readership of over 80,000.

lgf: Friday Night Playlist

In the second track of this playlist, Alison Krauss introduces Jerry Douglas as “the greatest dobro player the world has ever known,” and that isn’t hyperbole.

Here are two versions of A Tribute to Peador O’Donnell by Jerry Douglas, the first from his studio album Restless on the Farm, and the second from Alison Krauss & Union Station - Live. (Audio available for a limited time.)

If we could get these popular political sites to argue more about whether electric bass belongs in bluegrass or whether Rhonda Vincent’s attire is appropriate instead of the issues of the day, bluegrass would really take over!

But seriously…

The May/June issue of International Bluegrass, the trade newsletter published by IBMA, has a story citing recent polling data from the Simmons Research firm that says there are 17,977,000 bluegrass fans in the US. That’s 8.5% of the adult population who listed bluegrass as the the musical genre they liked most. Bluegrass music found the 18th slot on a list of the 38 top choices for music genre. Here’s a little more data on this same group of people. The bluegrass fans are:

52% aged between 25-54
53% male
80% own their home
20% have an income of over $100,000

Does this fit you? The first two fit me, but not the second two!