The July 2006 edition of Bluegrass Unlimited is their official 40th Anniversary issue. In addition to the regular articles, features and reviews which we have come to expect from BU, they include as a bonus, a copy of the debut issue as an 8-page, removable insert.

When the magazine launched in 1966, it was available for dues of $3 per year. This first issue was a typed, mimeographed pamphlet with a hand drawn logo - quite a contrast from the slick, full color magazine we now see each month.

There are some real gems in the insert, like this short review of the then new single release from The Osborne Brothers, Hard Times/World Of Unwanted:

“About nine parts Nashville hokum to one part grass.”

The main portion of the magazine includes some more choice bits from past issues, including a piece John Duffey wrote in 1967, responding to the critics of the early Country Gentlemen who took them to task for deviating from the “true bluegrass’ way.

They also feature a version of how their National Bluegrass Survey might have looked for July 1966, with The Country Gentlemen’s Bringing Mary Home topping the list.

Subscribers should see their copies in the next few days, and news stands will surely sell out quickly, so pick one up if you want to have this as a keepsake.

We posted earlier this month about the new blog launched by Amy Orlomoski for Bluegrass Cafe, a three hour radio show heard weekly on WHUS from Storrs, CT. Amy is one of the hosts, and uses the blog to post playlists and notify listeners about bluegrass events in their area.

In that earlier post, we improperly listed the show’s air times. It runs each Sunday afternoon from 4:00-7:00 p.m. on 91.7 FM, and can be heard online from the WHUS web site.

The Isaacs report receiving several nominations for the 2006 SGN Scoops Diamond Awards, including Female Vocalist of the Year for Sonya Isaacs, Bluegrass Gospel Artist of the Year, and Video of the Year. Voting is done online, and anyone can cast a ballot from the Diamond Awards web site. The voting deadline is July 15, and their system is configured to allow only one vote per person. Paper ballots are also available, but the deadline for submitting those seems to have passed.

SGN Scoops is a monthly print publication covering Southern Gospel Music. The awards presentation will take place on September 15 in Louisville, KY.

The Crooked Jades, purveyors of “vintage music” in the truest sense of the word, are set to embark on a tour of the UK in July. The band is configured as an old time string band, but their music and influences are drawn from a wider range than the music of Appalachia. The approach is minimalistic, and the material includes both obscure older music, and their own compositions.

The Crooked Jades are Jeff Kazor (guitar/ukulele) Jennie Benford (mandolin/guitar), Adam Tanner (fiddle/mandolin), Megan Adie (bass), and Erik Pearson (banjo/banjo uke/minstrel banjo/slide guitar). Audio samples from their latest CD, World’s On Fire, can be heard on the band’s web site, or on their MySpace page.

Tour stops in the UK are as follows:

More details about these UK dates can be obtained by contacting Brookfield Knights, the agency handling this tour for the Jades.

We”ve previously told you about a new online instructional resource, The Bluegrass College. (here and here)

Two of the sites founders, Brian Wicklund and Ian Nicholls, recently wrote us to give us some background information on the site and how it got started. It”s an interesting story. I”ll let them tell it in their own words. (more…)

While the official release date is set for August 22, 2006, Larry Stephenson has announced that he accepting advance orders for his new CD Life Stories. Audio clips are currently not available. Here is a list of the songs included on the recording.

• Old Kentucky Hills
• Poor Old Cora
• The Knoxville Boy
• Why Don’t You Tell Me So?
• Monrovia
• Deep Water
• Behind Those Big closed Doors
• I’ve Lived A Lot In My Time
• Iron Mountain line
• Baby Shoes
• Waiting For The Sun To Shine

Del McCoury’s many fans will surely enjoy reading a piece posted yesterday on CMT.com.

Though largely focused on the band’s new all-Gospel release, The Promised Land, the interview also touches on a number of other topics, including his decision to form his own record label, his appeal to a younger audience, and the painful public dismay that came as a result of his performances with Steve Earle when their joint CD, The Mountain, was released in 1999.

McCoury says he and Earle are still on speaking terms and have chatted at such common venues as MerleFest and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. “He’s such a great writer,” McCoury asserts. “I guess he’s from another culture. It didn’t work.”

Read the entire piece on CMT.com.

This Saturday’s Grand Ole Opry broadcast from Nashville will feature performances by a half dozen artists whose music may be of interest to our readers. The mix includes traditional bluegrass (Ricky Skaggs, The Whites), more contemporary grass (Alecia Nugent, Mountain Heart), and jamgrass favorites (John Cowan Band, Old Crow Medicine Show).

If you want to listen over the air (650 AM out of Nashville) or via online streaming, to hear the entire Opry broadcast, here are the times to tune in for specific artists:

All times above are Eastern Daylight Time.

Grand Ole Opry Live on GAC TV is airing a repeat this week, so no live bluegrass there.

This is our second week of GrassCast episodes focused on bluegrass songwriters. Episode 34 is a discussion with Donna Hughes, whose song Poor Old Heart was recorded by Alison Krauss & Union Station on the CD Lonely Runs Both Ways. Donna has a new project of her own that will be released on Rounder Records when completed.

This GrassCast is 11 minutes in length and the file download size is 13 MB.

Below is an mp3 file for you to listen here or download. The GrassCast is also available in the iTunes music store as an enhanced podcast containing photos and hyperlinks relative to the subject matter being discussed in the interview.

Listen now:
Direct Download: ep34_donna_hughes.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

First round ballots for the 2006 IBMA Awards have been entered, and the second round ballots will be mailed by July 10. One of the last details to be concluded before the second round ballots go out are the candidates for certain awards, which while finally selected by a vote of the membership, have the initial candidates chosen by a special IBMA Committee. Examples include Recorded Event and Emerging Artist, which are subject to stricter eligibility requirements.

Other awards, designated by IBMA as Special Awards, have candidates nominated and recipients chosen wholly by special select committees of the organization. The five committee members are chosen annually from among the professional membership, and selection requires a minimum of ten years experience in bluegrass music and “a demonstrated significant knowledge of the history of the music.”

The awards in this category include:

Any IBMA member can put forward a candidate to be considered for these Special Awards, and the submission deadline is June 30, 2006. These awards will not be announced during The 17th International Bluegrass Music Awards Show on September 28, but at a special presentation during the World Of Bluegrass Trade Show that week.

You can read more about the eligibility requirements and the nomination procedures on the IBMA web site. If you would like to submit a candidate, please be sure to read the requirements, as they are quite specific, and get your package to IBMA by next Friday (6/30).

We have posted recently about the upcoming solo project from Nickel Creek mandolinist/vocalist Chris Thile. The CD is entitled, How To Grow A Woman From The Ground, and will be released September 12 on Sugar Hill Records. Chris assembled a band of young superpickers, and recorded the music live (in studio) using only two microphones - the old time way.

Chris is running an interesting contest on his MySpace page, which requires that visitors decode clues to the actual identities of the people Chris references in the Influences section of his MySpace profile. Whoever correctly identifies the most names will receive an autographed copy of the new CD upon its release, and be listed in his Top 8 friends, with links to their MySpace page. The next 7 runner-up entries will also be listed among Chris’ Top 8.

Details on the contest can be found in Chris’ MySpace Blog, and entries are limited to folks with a MySpace account.

In 2001 Adam Steffey released a solo project entitled Grateful, on Mountain Home Records. It sold out and was unavailable for a time, but has now been brought back to retail. Grateful includes Steffey, 4 time IBMA Mandolin Player of the Year, along with a host of the top players in Bluegrass today including Tim Stafford, Ron Stewart, Barry Bales, Randy Kohrs, Marc Pruett, Ben Isaacs, John Bowman and Tim Surrett.

Adam comments:

This Album is something that I’d wanted to do for some time. It was recorded while I was playing with the great Bluegrass/Gospel group The Isaacs. The idea was to get some of my best pickin’ friends in the studio and cut an album of songs that I’d wanted to record for some time. It turned out better than I could have imagined! All the folks on the record were just an inspiration to me and I hope that you will enjoy the songs included here as much as I enjoyed recording them.

The project, along with two audio samples, is currently available from SouthernDirect.com, and is soon to be available through County Sales and Music Shed. It is also available through some local retailers.

Songs:
1. Pitchin” Wedge
2. Leaves That Are Green
3. East Tennessee Blues
4. Big Country
5. Did You Think to Pray?
6. Come on Down
7. Picking Wild Cherries
8. Don”t Let Your Deal Go Down
9. How Do You Like That?
10. Thirty Pieces of Silver
11. Daybreak in Dixie

Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road have just released a new CD, A Stop In SouthPort Towne , on Blue Circle Records. Produced by Steve Dilling and Lorraine Jordan, this is the band’s sophomore release. The musicians on the project include band members Josh Goforth - fiddle, Benny Greene - banjo, David Guthrie - guitar, Lorraine Jordan - mandolin, Tim Hall - bass, and special guest Zack McLamb - bass. All of the musicians contributed vocals to the project.

Audio samples from the CD are available here.

The Del McCoury Band will spend the second half of July touring in the British Isles, with 7 shows during that time in England, Scotland and Ireland. Fans in the UK will have a chance to see this powerful and engaging entertainer in person, some perhaps for the first time.

The dates and cities are as follows:

More details about the venues can be found on the Del McCoury web site.

UPDATE 6/22: Thanks to our friend Richard Thompson in England, who pointed out that several of the Del shows in the UK will feature him as a supporting act on Nanci Griffith tour dates. If you contact a venue and they report no knowledge of a Del McCoury concert, ask about the Nanci Griffith show.

We posted in late March about the newly-announced Rob Ickes signature model resophonic guitar manufactured and marketed as a joint venture by Scheerhorn and Wechter Guitars.

The new model is a replica of Rob’s unique custom Scheerhorn, with the bodies and necks made in China, and then assembled with Scheerhorn components at the Wechter shop in Michigan. Unlike the heralded Scheerhorns, however, these new Ickes guitars sell for only $1500, and can be had without the wait of up to several years typical of their big brothers.

Rob has been playing one at most Blue Highway shows since he received the prototype in March, and reports that it sounds great and handles beautifully.

More details are available on Rob’s web site, where you can also place an order for one of the guitars.

Michigan’s Greensky Bluegrass took first place at last weekend’s Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Colorado. A last-minute addition to the band contest, Greensky Bluegrass came out on top against 8 other bands, and as they note on their bulletin board, with only three hours of sleep!

The prize includes a cash award of $750, but even more valuable is the opportunity to perform at the main stage during next year’s festival.

Their latest CD, Tuesday Letter, is due for a July release on their private Big Blue Zoo label. It was produced by Tim Carbone of Railroad Earth. Some audio samples are available on the band’s web site. They also have audio on their MySpace page, and several live shows are available for download from archive.org.

Both Greensky Bluegrass and the Telluride Fest draw influences from what has come to be called the acoustic “jam band” scene, and the band represents their music as “jamgrass.” This growing genre might be described as being informed by traditional string band and bluegrass music, and performed on the instruments long associated with those formats, but intentionally breaking from the song structure and both harmonic and lyrical themes that define those styles.

Greensky Bluegrass includes Michael Arlen Bont on banjo, Dave Bruzza on guitar, Michael Devol on upright bass, and Paul Hoffman on mandolin.

We offer our congratulations on bringing home this prestigious award.

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.

Have you ever gotten a look inside somebody”s instrument case? If you ever get a chance get a look. At first glance you”ll just see a picture of a little kid or some scraps of paper and some meaningless junk. Maybe some spare change and some picks. Ask if its OK to look at what they”ve got in there. They”ll be more than happy to share with you what”s in there and why. You”ll find there”s always more than one picture. If it”s a guy”s case, there”s always a picture of his wife or girlfriend. If it”s a girls case, a picture of her husband or boyfriend. Some times you”ll find pictures of little babies, little kids, grandparents and family members. Some are still here with us. Some have already gone home. A lot times you”ll find a picture of a hero. Like Mac Wiseman, Bill Monroe or somebody in the service. Jason Carter has a picture of The Tiger in his case and Tim Stafford has a picture of Doc Watson as well as Tony Rice. Look at one of the little pieces of paper. You”ll find they always have a sentence or two and at the bottom it always says “I love you”. You”ll be surprised at how many pictures of Jesus there”ll be. I”ve even seen a pacifier and an old dog”s collar. A guitar string package with Mutt Lange”s autograph next to an old worn autographed picture from the 50″s of Lester and Earl. Doc Watson”s case always has a recipe somebody”s given him to give to Rosa Lee and Ricky Skaggs always has a Bible verse somebody”s given him before one of his shows that week. These cases are sacred places. Musicians rely on them. They make their living with the old friends protected inside them. And the inside of that case is the last thing they see before they start walking toward the stage; that small scrap of paper, that old picture of their Dad with a flat top haircut, that quarter Bill Monroe gave them when they were a kid and that picture of Jesus their Mom gave them. It all goes with them, in their hearts, on stage. That”s something else. It sure is. It”s the Bluegrass way.

Wichita Rutherford

We posted a number of times of late about the recently-concluded European World Of Bluegrass events held in May across the continent. The European Bluegrass Music Association celebrates May as Bluegrass Music Month, with coordinated festivals and events that ran this year from April 27 through June 5, highlighted by the EWOB festival and convention in The Netherlands in late May.

EBMA has announced the numbers for this year, and they have reason to celebrate. A total of 18 festivals were listed during May (up from 16 in ‘05), and ticket sales at the EWOB were up by 25% over last year’s festival. They also report that the Spring Festival at Willisau, Switzerland saw sales up by 30%, and that new events were added this year in Bratislava, Slovak Republic and Switzerland.

The trade show during EWOB sold out all available exhibit space, with a number of US companies making the trip across the ocean to display their wares along with their European counterparts. The EBMA also made note of the number of artists who travelled from the US/Canada to showcase for the Europeans.

North American artists performing at the EWOB Festival included Randy Waller & the Country Gentlemen, Greasy Beans, the Hunger Mountain Boys, and the Abrams Brothers. Bill Keith, living legend of bluegrass banjo, was again present. American artists performing in EWOB events elsewhere in Europe included Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike, Chris Jones & the Night Drivers, Randy Kohrs & Band, Neil Rosenberg & Terri Thomson, the Gordons, David Grier (with the UK’s Hootenanny Three), the Moonlighters, Mike Bella & the Blue Boys, Prickly Pair, and Tim & Mollie O”Brien.

As we mentioned when it was first announced, Mideando String Quintet from Italy was named as the #1 European Band for 2006, as chosen by their peers. Last year’s winner, Carmel Sheerin and the Ravens (from Ireland) will represent the EBMA this fall at the IBMA convention in Nashville.

When we first announced the imminent release of The Lewis Family’s new CD, Flying High, we mentioned that CMT had filmed some of the recording sessions for an upcoming edition of their CMT Insider program.

The show has been scheduled to air on Saturday, July 22, just following the official release date for Flying High, which is on 7/18. Look for the show at 1:30 p.m. on 7/22, with encore presentations the following Sunday (11:00 a.m.) and Monday (both 2:00 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.).

Audio samples from the new CD can be found on The Lewis Family website.

We have previously reported to you about the new CD release from mando master Sam Bush, Laps In Seven, so I won’t go into detail. But I will point you toward what Gibson calls it’s Backstage Pass series. It’s an interview with Sam about the new CD with lots of interesting information. For instance, the title track was inspired by Sam’s dog Ozzy who apparently laps his water in 7/4 time!

Go read it for yourself.