The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville has the story this morning of an unfortunate accident involving Ricky Skaggs’ tour bus which occurred on Friday evening. A young man apparently wandered onto I-24 after leaving the Bonnaroo music festival site near Manchester, TN, and was struck by the bus, heading back to Nashville after a performance at the festival by Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder.

Tennessee Highway Patrol have initially listed the event as an unavoidable accident, and do not consider the bus driver to be at fault. The victim had not been identified when the Tennessean story was released.

Nashville’s Channel 4 News also has a story on their web site.

Here’s a couple links to news stories I found about The Del McCoury Band’s new CD, Promised Land.

NPR : ‘Promised Land’: Del McCoury’s Gospel Bluegrass

NPR: Crossing Over The Threshold of Bluegrass

Blogcritics.org: most promising sounding new ablum

Sirius Satellite Radio announced yesterday that Del McCoury will host his own hour-long music program, exclusively available on Sirius Channel 65. Hand Picked with Del McCoury will debut on June 24, and air each Saturday at 3:00 p.m. (Eastern).

Each week, Del will personally select the music for the show, and announce the program himself, serving as both host and DJ. He intends to include both traditional and progressive bluegrass, and welcomes the chance to share his favorite music with Sirius listeners.

“We’ve enjoyed being the bridge between the old and new over the last 10 years or so, and now SIRIUS has given us the chance to do it on an even broader scale–keeping the traditions alive with the young folks and new fans of this music,???and introducing new progressive bands to the faithful. Life just keeps getting better.”

Elise Brown with Sirius was very excited about bringing Del on board, and described how the new show will work.

“Del will pick the music and voice the show, each week, from wherever he is. He will either do this from our Nashville studios, or due to the miracle of satellite radio & digital technology, from wherever he may be on the road. If he happens to be in NYC, he can use our state-of-the-art studios here in Rockefeller Center.”

Sirius currently has more than 4 million subscribers in the US, and Sirius Canada already has 100,000 since launching the service in December of 2005.

Subscribers can tune in on Channel 65, as can folks with many Dish Network Satellite TV packages where it will run on channel 6065. If you are a subscriber but won’t be in the car - or near your Sirius receiver - you can listen online. A free 3-day trial subscription is also available for online listening.

For the next two weeks, The GrassCast will focus on bluegrass songwriters. Episode 33 is a discussion with Mark “Brink” Brinkman, whose publishing company, Brinksongs, has been successful getting cuts on projects from Don Rigsby, The Kruger Brothers, Pine Mountain Railroad, Wildfire and others. We include audio samples from some of these recordings, and talk about how he got started as a songwriter, and how the digital download phenomenon affects independent songwriters.

This GrassCast is 17 minutes in length and the file download size is 16 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: ep33_mark_brinkman.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

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) just announced the 2006 recipients of the NEA National Heritage Fellowships. Doyle Lawson has been named one of this years recipients. Lawson will travel to Washington, DC for a September 13th banquet honoring Fellowship recipients, a September 14th presentation ceremony, and an appearance with his band at a September 15th recipient concert.

Lawson joins the list of great bluegrass artists who have received Fellowships, including: Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson, Ralph Stanley and Jerry Douglas.

When I spoke briefly with Doyle via email I asked him what he felt on being honored in this way. His response:

I am truly awed and honored with the news that I’ll be receiving this award. Music has been a great part of my life as long as I can remember. I thank God for his bountiful blessings.

Here are some more comments Doyle made that were sent to us in a press release.

For Lawson, the news, delivered via phone by Barry Bergey, the NEA”s Director of Folk and Traditional Arts, came both as an honor and a surprise. “My wife, Suzanne, and I were out in California on vacation,” he recalls. “She knew all about this, but I didn’t have a clue. I had just stepped out of the shower when we got the call, so I told her, “get a number and I’ll call them back.” Then, when I looked at the message, I saw Barry’s name, and I said, “I know this guy.” He had an official, behind-the-scenes role in the first tour I did for the National Council for the Traditional Arts some years ago. So I called him, and we caught up on old times, and then he said, “the reason I’m calling is that you’ve been selected as one of the recipients of the National Heritage award.” I knew what it was, of course, and it just floored me. Honestly, it still hasn’t really dug into me.”

“I didn’t have a blueprint of where I was going when I started out. I played music - and I still play music - first and foremost because I love the music. That has always been first; everything else has come second. I followed my heart, and went where it took me. And by doing that, I guess I introduced some music to people who otherwise had not or maybe would not have been introduced to it, particularly in the gospel music I’ve done. And I feel sure that in being chosen as one of the recipients . . . that must have been a part of what swayed them to consider me.”

“This is by far the highest honor that I’ve ever had bestowed on me, and I don’t think there are adequate words to express my true feelings.”

Rhonda Vincent will be the guest this week on Kyle Cantrell’s Studio Special program, which runs on XM Satellite Radio’s Bluegrass Junction (Channel 14). Each week Kyle welcomes a guest into the studio for interviews and live performance.

Rhonda and The Rage will feature songs from their latest release, All American Bluegrass Girl. Her show debuts this morning at 8:00 a.m., with several encore presentations over the course of the following week.

Airtimes for the Studio Special broadcasts are:

All times shown are Eastern.

XM subscribers can listen online when away from their XM receives, and non-subscribers can register online for a free, 3 day online trial subscription to sample XM’s service.

We just heard from David Russell with The Bluegrass Journal, who shared a note he had received from Ernie Thacker. Regular readers of The Bluegrass Blog have surely noted that Ernie was seriously injured in an auto accident back in April, and remains hospitalized even now.

It’s just a brief note, which was sent by Ernie’s family to his many friends and fans who have offered support during his recovery.

“I would like to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers. I am still in ICU, but I am doing better. I can’t talk because I have a trach tube. I’m paralyzed from the waist down but am hoping rehab will help me get back on my feet. It overwhelms me the fans and friends I have, words just can’t describe. I love you all more than you will ever know.”

Updated 6/16, 7:00 a.m.
The recent history of bluegrass music has seen the occasion of a number of “part time” bands, made up of members of other full time touring acts. Perhaps the most prominent was The Bluegrass Album Band, featuring Tony Rice, Doyle Lawson, JD Crowe, Bobby Hicks and Todd Phillips, whose CDs still are top sellers, and whose few short tours were something of a bluegrass sensation. Longview made, and continues to make their mark in this realm, with James King, Dudley Connell, Don Rigsby, Marshall Wilborn, Joe Mullins and Glenn Duncan - though current membership has changed considerably for their 2006 dates.

White House was a Nashville-area outfit that produced a CD and performed a few shows with David Parmley, Missy Raines, Charlie Cushman, Larry Stephenson and Jason Carter, and The Dreadful Snakes and The Sidemen were Nashville favorites at The Station Inn.

A new group in the VA/MD area sure to generate a similar sort of buzz is Seneca Rocks! Band members include Dudley Connell, Marshall Wilborn, Sally Love, David McLaughlin and Tom Adams. Students of 1970s era bluegrass will recognize that the four gentlemen in the group were all part of The Johnson Mountain Boys, a dynamic and engaging band that developed a large and loyal following for their brand of traditional “old school” bluegrass.

Each has remained active in bluegrass since JMB disbanded. Dudley now plays guitar and sings with Seldom Scene, Marshall is in frequent demand as a free-lance and session bass man, and has worked for quite some time with his wife, Lynn Morris. David has been most active as a recording engineer and producer, and has released an instructional DVD for mandolin. (more…)

This Saturday night at 6PM EST BluegrassRadio.org will be broadcasting a one hour radio special entitled Ralph Stanley: A Distant Land To Roam, Songs of the Carter Family. This is a special program that includes music from Stanley’s new CD by the same title, as well as an interview hosted by Carlene Carter. The show was produced by Paul Chuffo.

The interview focuses and how his life and music have been inspired by the Carter Family.

Carlene Carter guides us through this history of both Ralph Stanley and her own family. John Carter Cash, writer Billy Altman, and Aaron Davis (Executive Director of the Ralph Stanley Museum) also provide comments between Ralph Stanley”s new versions of these classic Carter Family songs.

The folks at WHUS in Storrs, CT who host Bluegrass Cafe (each Sunday from 4:00-6:00 p.m.) have started their own blog. The primary thrust of the new Bluegrass Cafe blog is to post their playlist each week, but site author Amy Orlomoski tells us that they will also highlight bluegrass events in New England that might be of interest to their listeners - and readers.

Bluegrass Cafe broadcasts from the University of Connecticut in Storrs, and can be found at 91.7 on the FM dial for listeners in Southern New England, and parts of Long Island. The show is closing in on its 25th anniversary, with hosting shared by Orlomoski and Jim Beaver.

Artists, labels and publicists can check the blog each week to catalog plays.

We have mentioned New Tattoo, the just-released CD from The John Cowan Band, a number of times this past few months. It was officially released yesterday, and the band has created a full-featured e-card to help promote the CD. The card utilizes flash, so a flash player or plug-in will be required to view it. Most web browsers are already configured with a flash plug-in.

It provides a quick thumbnail bio, audio from 3 tracks, and a brief description of each of the 11 songs written by John. Links to the band’s schedule and for ordering the CD are also included.

The John Cowan Band store indicates that autographed copies of New Tattoo are available, “while supplies last.”

View the New Tattoo e-card online.

We posted yesterday with news that Kristin and Wayne Benson were expecting their first child in October. We mentioned that we weren’t sure what Kristin’s plans might be for the future, either with regard to playing banjo with Lonesome Standard Time, or as a faculty member at ETSU.

We heard from Kristin yesterday, and she passed along this update:

“We went to the doctor today and everything looks good. We’re past the 1/2 way point and are both really excited.

I decided against the full-time position at ETSU, after learning that we would have a baby in the fall. It’s a great job, but the days are long and demanding….not very ideal, with a newborn at home. Maybe something will work out in the future.

I am going to continue playing with Larry. The schedule is nearly tailor-made for an October delivery. I’ll only have to miss 1 or 2 shows, if everything goes smoothly. Cord is extremely understanding and I couldn’t imagine working for a better guy. It’s a fun band.”

It looks as though the future Master Benson will be well acquainted with the sounds of a five string banjo by the time he breathes his first in October. We repeat our congratulations to Kristin and Wayne.

Huber Banjos got its start in 1997 when Steve Huber introduced his Vintage Flathead banjo tone ring. Steve’s earlier investigations had shown him that the alloys used in most modern banjo tone rings differed significantly from that which was used for the vintage, “pre war” banjos so prized by banjo pickers and collectors alike. He felt that this difference was a key reason why modern banjos tended to respond differently, and his background in metal manufacturing and machine work provided him with the background to consider making and marketing a vintage replica tone ring for pre war banjo enthusiasts.

The Huber tone rings were immediately successful, and before long, Steve Huber was hatching plans to build a banjo as well, also with the intent of “doing it the pre war way.” Knowing that the tone ring was but one piece of the puzzle, he began a serious study of the many other components of the five string, flathead tone ring banjo. The goal was to help him understand what made these fine banjos from the 1930s and early ’40s so sonically distinctive, and to incorporate these materials, designs and methods of construction into his new banjos.

The banjos were introduced in 2001, and have been embraced by a number of top pickers, with Jim Mills, Sammy Shelor, Cia Cherryholmes, Jason Burleson and Steve Dilling among the many Huber endorsers.

Huber initially made only banjos that were uniquely styled, but with introduction of the Jim Mills and Sammy Shelor signature models, they have begun to offer replicas of classic pre war banjos as well. The interest these banjos have generated has led to the introduction of a new line of reproduction models from Huber.

Five models exist in the Huber Vintage Series, each designed as a replica of one of the pre war classics. These are professional quality instruments, and are priced accordingly between $4200-$5000. That may look steep, until you consider that the original, five string flatheads on which these are styled can go for between $50,000-$100,000, if you can find one!

You can click either of the images below to see a larger version, and many more photos and product details can be found on the Huber Banjos web site.

The newest host to join WorldWideBluegrass.com’s daily cybercast is Jeff DeFord, whose show will originate from Arizona. Jeff’s show debuts this evening, and will run each Wednesday evening from 8:00-10:00 p.m. (Eastern). The playlist is expected to mix string band and roots music, plus some “close-to-the-edge” acoustic music, with WWB’s regular bluegrass programming.

WWB offers free, online bluegrass streaming over the internet, and while hosted programs make up only 40 hours each week, the music is streamed 24/7, 365 days a year.

I spoke yesterday with Larry Simpson of Original Country Radio Network, the parent company of WWB, and he mentioned some fairly staggering numbers of daily listeners to the various shows on his online network. He indicated that bluegrass is the fastest growing of the many country music formats they offer, and suggested that WWB may even be their #1 station within the next six months.

WWB Station manager, Gracie Muldoon, says that they are always eager to hear from folks who might be interested in becoming a volunteer DJ. A commitment of just a couple of hours each week, an audio-capable computer, and a high speed Internet connection is all that is required to share your love of bluegrass music with internet listeners all over the world.

Mountain Stage, the long-running roots music radio show hosted by Larry Groce, and now also offered on television, will travel to Bristol (TN/VA) to record shows in honor of Bristol’s status as “The Birthplace Of Country Music.” An organization by that name (Birthplace Of Country Music Alliance - BCMA) has been in operation in Bristol since 1994, and was successful in having that designation formally declared by the US Congress in 1994.

This theme was stressed in the press release issued by the Mountain Stage folks:

It will be 79 years ago on July 25 in a warehouse on State Street that the first recording kicked off what would be 12 days of sessions. These historic Bristol Sessions included local and regional musicians like the now legendary Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers plus perhaps the first inter-racial recording with African American El Watson and his partner Charles Johnson. The Bristol Sessions also became a crucial step in the beginning of what was to become RCA Victor Records.

Mountain Stage will be working with the local community putting together programs that reflect where country music has come from, its influences and some of the directions it is taking.

Two live stage shows will be taped July 22-23 at The Paramount Center in Bristol, and each is expected to generate one radio show, and two for television. The first show (7/22) has a folk music theme, with guests Darrell Scott and Ramblin” Jack Elliott, while the other features bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley and Tim O’Brien. Roni Stoneman will also appear on the July 22 show, and Yonder Mountain String band on the 23rd.

Mountain Stage is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, and is normally recorded before a live audience in Charleston. The show is carried on more than 100 radio stations in the US, and is distributed by PRI. Support for the Bristol event is provided in part by the Crooked Road: Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail and the Virginia Tourism Corporation.

The radio programs recorded in Bristol are expected to run in September of 2006.

It is announced on the Larry Cordle & Lonesome Standard Time web site that Kristin Benson is expecting. Kristin plays banjo with the band, and is also on the faculty of the bluegrass music program at East Tennessee State University. The young master Benson, who should arrive in October, will have an impeccable bluegrass pedigree. His dad is Wayne Benson, mandolinist with The John Cowan Band and a former member of IIIrd Tyme Out. This will be their first child.

We have no word yet about Kristin’s schedule with the band, but we will be sure to pass along any information we receive.

On behalf of The Bluegrass Blog, we extend our congratulations to these two fine young people, who also happen to be first rate musicians, and who represent our music at its best.

Some of you may have noticed some strange behavior from the site yesterday afternoon. Recently as our readership has gone up we have experienced server overloads at an increasing rate. In an effort to prevent this from occurring in the future, I was in mucking around with the code yesterday trying to make some improvements.

For those that want to know, I moved the ads to their own server. Previously they were hosted on the same account with the blog. I’ve now got them set up on a separate account of their own. Since they are being served remotely now, you may notice that things load a little differently. I’ll be doing some more upgrades and performance modifications in the coming week or two. So hold on to your hats!

In the meantime, thanks for reading!

Del McCoury will be a featured guest this Thursday (6/15) on The Big Show, more commonly known as The John Boy & Billy show. It is broadcast from Charlotte, NC each weekday from 6:00-10:00 a.m. on nearly 100 stations and boasts a very loyal following for the hosts’ mix of zany “redneck humor,” interviews and musical parodies. Their affiliate list is skewed towards stations in the southern US, but the show can be heard in many midwestern cities as well.

They have been regular supporters and proponents of bluegrass music over the years. Perhaps not so strongly as they boost NASCAR and WWF, but enough to be a noticable aspect of the program. Jerry Douglas and Earl Scruggs have been repeat, and semi-frequent guests. The folks who syndicate The Big Show were also instrumental in getting Cindy Baucom’s Knee Deep In Bluegrass program off the ground, and into fairly wide syndication.

Del and the boys will be featured at some point between 8:00 and 10:00 a.m. You can consult the station list to find where it may air near you, or listen to the show via online streaming online.

Tyler Grant has a new CD, In The Light, which features primarily his original material, with a few traditional tunes and classic bluegrass numbers included as well. Tyler is a current member of the Drew Emmit Band, and has also performed with Casey and Chris Henry & the Two-Stringers. Though he prefers to view himself as a band player, he has won or placed in some prestigious flatpick guitar competitions in recent years as well.

On the new project, Tyler plays guitar and handles lead vocals, and is joined by Casey Driessen (fiddle), Scott Vestal and Chris Pandolfi (banjo), Andy Hall (dobro), Chris Henry (mandolin), Amanda Kowalski, Missy Raines and Mike Bub (bass), and Pat Enright (harmony vocal).

There are a number of sample tracks available on Tyler’s MySpace page, and orders can be placed from Flatpicking Guitar Mercantile.

The June/July issue of Bluegrass Europe is available. This bimonthly, English language magazine is distributed to members of the European Bluegrass Music Association, and is bound with two additional European bluegrass publications, Bluegrass Buhne (German) and Strictly Country (Dutch). Editor Paolo Dettwiler encourages anyone who might enjoy the magazine to email for a free sample issue.

The new edition includes coverage of May as Bluegrass Music month in Europe, and the recently concluded European World Of Bluegrass trade show and festival. The three magazines also feature their regular concert and CD reviews, plus news of European bluegrass artists and visits by US acts.

We also hear from the editors that they are in need of some volunteer editors to assist them with getting the magazine out every two months. Specifically, they are looking for people who can write comfortably in English to help with editing of the news and concert calendar, and an assistant to the editor. Anyone with an interest in volunteering is encouraged to contact the editors by email.