The New England Mandolin Ensemble will be holding their second annual Cape Cod Mandolin Camp this fall in East Sandwich, MA. The camp runs from September 29 through October 1, 2006. Bringing a wide range of styles to mandolin playing and instruction, the faculty this year includes: Butch Baldassari, Marilynn Mair, August Watters, Seth Austen, Beverly Woods, Alan Kaufman and Jim Dalton.

CCMC offers a unique learning experience for mandolinists: a chance to rehearse and perform with directed ensembles in various musical styles, and to study technique, theory and style in depth. The instruction will be practical, accessible, and well-supported by printed as well as web-based materials. Expect to meet friends, cultivate musical relationships, and have a great time — and go home with a specific plan for musical development.

Cost of tuition is $205. This does not include housing which is available at reasonable rates from the East Sandwich Beach housekeeping cottages.
In addition to the camp, a public concert is planned for Saturday, September 30, at 7:30 p.m. at St. John’s Episcopal Church. The concert will feature Butch Baldassari, the New England Mandolin Ensemble, and special guests including CCMC faculty. The concert is being supported in part by a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and admission for the public is $15.

NOTE: Having lived at the base of Cape Cod for a year (back in the ’80s) I can tell you that this is a beautiful place to visit. Take the family and make a vacation of it!

Mandolinist Scott Napier has recently become the newest member of the Dale Ann Bradley band. I had to opportunity to speak with Dale Ann via email and asked her about having Scott in the band.

Scott is extremely innovative and his approach and style compliment our melodies and lyrics perfectly. He brings a great deal of experience and instrumental taste from his ten years performing with IBMA Male Vocalist of the Year, Larry Sparks.
It’s important to instinctively feel how an instrumentalist should back a singer. Scott has this ability. He is a “SUPERB ” addition in every way.

For more information about Scott you can read his bio on Dale Ann’s website.

Tomorrow on Monday, June 12, Gracie Muldoon from WorldWideBluegrass.com will be interviewing several members of High Ground on Muldoon in the Afternoon around 4:30PM. She will also be playing cuts from their forthcoming CD A Game That I Can’t Win. The CD features 13 original songs along with a bluegrass remake of Jimmy Fortunes’s 1984 Song Of The Year, Elizabeth. Jimmy joins High Ground on this song as well as others. Also contributing vocals to the project is Donna Hughes.

A preview cut from the CD is available on High Ground’s Myspace site.

We posted on Wednesday the news that legendary west coast mandolinist and vocalist Vern Williams had passed away on Tuesday afternnon (6/6). Today’s edition of the San Francisco Chronicle has a nice remembrance of Vern, which his many fans will surely enjoy reading.

We posted last week about the upcoming solo project from Chris Thile, How To Grow A Woman From The Ground, which is really a band project, though solo in the sense of it being recorded and promoted outside of his work with Nickel Creek. We referenced Chris’ MySpace page in that earlier post, and suggested that details about the new CD would first be posted there.

Within the past few days, Chris has posted three tracks from the new project, and says that he will post all of the tracks there, in sequence, two at a time, heading towards the September 12 release date on Sugar Hill.

As we mentioned before, the music was recorded live in the studio, and with a band of young super pickers. A quick listen to the three sample tracks will demonstrate both the virtuosity and adventurous nature of this recording.

This week’s edition of The GrassCast features a discussion with Alan Bibey of BlueRidge. Alan talks about their new CD, Gettin’ Ready, their first for Pinecastle - and their first all-Gospel release - and we include samples of several tunes in the interview.

This GrassCast is 10 minutes in length and the file download size is 11.5 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: ep32_alan_bibey.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

We just received some news from our friends over at Rounder Records. They tell us that the first music video from Rhonda Vincent’s new All American Girl is in post production now and should be ready for TV in a couple weeks. The video is for the song Heartbreaker’s Alibi. Dolly Parton joins Rhonda on the song, and in the video. The video was directed by famed country music video director Trey Fanjoy who was nominated for two country video awards at the recent ACM.

Rounder tells us the video will be released on both CMT and GACTV, so be looking for it soon. We’ll keep you posted as we receive more info.

We heard recenty from Rainer Zellner, a bluegrass radio host in Germany, seeking CD contributions from American artists. As regular readers may have noticed, The Bluegrass Blog is a strong and aggressive supporter of the efforts of bluegrass musicians and promoters outside of North America, and non-US bluegrass radio is often the primary way new and potential fans in Europe and Asia will first encounter the music.

It has been my experience that independent artists get a positive response from European show hosts, as major US labels are often unwilling to cover the costs of mailing large numbers of promo copies of new releases overseas. Non-US shows are often especially appreciative of the CDs they do receive, and a number of American bands who might be considered “mid level” here at home make regular tours in the UK and Europe as a result of building a following via radio.

In any event, for artists or labels who would like to send projects to Rainer, his address is:

Rainer mentioned tha his show, Hillbilly Boogie, is on twice each week (since 1999), and is streamed online. He can be reached by email as well.

Rebel Records has reissued two Ralph Stanley albums as download only releases on Apple’s iTunes Music Store. Both were originally released in the mid 1970s, during what is widely viewed as the hey day of Dr. Ralph’s post-Carter era, when the band included Keith Whitley, Curly Ray Cline and Jack Cooke.

The first of the two digital reissues is the all-Gospel, Let Me Rest On A Peaceful Mountain, which first came out in 1975, and which features some of the finest a cappella “mountain style” harmony you’ll ever find. The other, Old Home Place, was originally released the following year and includes Whitley singing the classic Sharecropper’s Son, and the cut of If That’s The Way You Feel, later covered (brilliantly) by Ricky Skaggs during his country period.

The album title links above will take you into the iTunes Music Store, but you must have a copy of iTunes software installed on your computer in order to hear the audio samples, or purchase these fine recordings. These two Rebel reissues are only available from iTunes.

We congratulate Rebel Records for making these wonderful albums available again, and hope to see this trend continue. There is a wealth of bluegrass music, out of print from an original LP release, which has never found its way onto CD. Sometimes individual tracks make it into box sets and collections, but we see this option of re-releasing them in toto, but for download only, as an excellent alternative - and one we hope to see repeated many times.

We heard from Gracie Muldoon at Internet radio station WorldwideBluegrass that they will be cybercasting from the Festival of the Bluegrass in Lexington, KY tomorrow and Saturday, starting at 2:00 p.m.

A number of WWB show hosts will be on hand, interviewing performers, festival goers and fans, with an eye towards giving listeners a taste of the event online. In addition to Gracie, WWB netcasters Vickie Abbott from OH, Terry Poirier from NB (Canada), Steve Bilbrey from TN, and possibly Julie Raye from Nashville will be on site at the fest. Their regular streaming of bluegrass music will be offered throughout the afternoons, with the various hosts breaking in from the festival when they have interview opportunities.

Gracie asks everyone to look them up at the festival and say howdy - and maybe be interviewed online! She said to just look for their WWB banner (pictured above) and you’ll see where they are located.

Also later Friday afternoon (6/9), Gracie will feature a live interview with The Grascals, who will call in from the CMA Music Festival in Nashville. Catch the interview on Muldoon In The Afternoon at 5:30 p.m. (EDT).

Listen to their feed online.

CORRECTION (6/8, 2:40 p.m.): The Grascals interview is on Friday at 5:30 p.m., not Thursday as we posted earlier today.

One of our readers just wrote in to tell us that he recently had several instruments stolen from his home. John did not indicate where his home is located, but since his company is in Atlanta, GA I assume his home is in that area as well. Here’s his report about the instruments, and a way to contact him with info if you know anything.

The instruments that were stolen are:

Music Man Sting Ray Bass (black body)

Ibanez Acoustic guitar with La Bella Deep Talking Bass Strings

Earthwood Bass by Music Man/Ernie Ball. (Note: This instrument was given to me 6 days before it was stolen. The instrument was made for me by the original makers of the Earthwood bass at Music Man. Dan Norton and Ron Saul are very good friends and this was a gift. This instrument is priceless for many reasons. As you can see I like my acoustic bass instruments, strange as it is.)

Two amps were also stolen, here are the descriptions:

Hartke Kickback Bass Amp combo

Fender Combo Bass Amp

As you know all of these instruments can be replaced except the Earthwood Bass. The wood that was used to make this was wood that Dan Norton has had since the early 80’s. He had planned to build himself a bass but never did. He used his wood to make this instrument.

If you have any information about these instruments please contact john@jriddle.com or call 404-876-1988

Mandolinist Butch Baldassari, who has recently begun offering webcasting video lessons, has just made available 5 video lessons on his website. Four of the five tunes are found in his book/CD 30 Fiddle Tunes for the Mandolin. The book is available through Homespun Tapes. The fifth video, Leather Britches, is not found in the book, so consider it a bonus.

The video clips are in quicktime m4v format (mpeg4), the same format used by the Apple iTunes Music Store for video downloads and podcasts. The file sizes are quite manageable. The clip I downloaded was only 5MB in size. For some reason the file downloaded with .m4v.txt as the extension. Once I removed the .txt it opened and played fine in iTunes. The quality is obviously less than DVD, but good enough to learn from. The clip was short, only one time through the tune (I downloaded Whiskey Before Breakfast). It started with a wide shot and then zoomed in for a close up.

If you have an interest in online instructional video, then go check it out.

We have posted many times about Studio Special, a live music and interview program that runs weekly on XM Satellite Radio’s Bluegrass Junction (Channel 14). Host Kyle Cantrell welcomes a different bluegrass act into the studio to record live performances and discussions, with a new show debuting on Friday mornings, and encore presentations over the course of the week following.

This week, it’s BlueRidge who will join Kyle on XM, and they will surely offer some musical samples from their newly released Gospel CD, Gettin’ Ready, their first for Pinecastle Records.

Airtimes for the Studio Special broadcasts are weekly as follows:

All times shown are Eastern.

For those of you that missed the David Lee Roth appearance on the Tonight Show last night, here’s a link to a forum post containing a video clip of Roth’s performance of the song Jump. The video is from YouTube.com and is in the flash format.

We learn from the California Bluegrass Association that Vern Williams, a truly marvelous bluegrass singer and mandolinist, passed away on Tuesday afternoon. We will update with more details as we find them.

For folks who are not aware of this very talented performer and his legacy, we found a few biographies that are worth your attention. The first comes from Billboard Magazine’s web site, and focuses on Williams specifically. The other is from California Bluegrass Association’s site, and is a bio of the group that brought him to prominence, Vern & Ray, with Ray Parks.

Vern & Ray were rare gems, and their contributions to our music were tremendous, especially to bluegrassers on the west coast, where east coast and southern bands toured infrequently in the 1960s and ’70s.

We found some audio on CMT.com from a live recording of Vern & Ray made in 1968, which is still commercially available, and commend it to our readers who are not familiar with their music. I have always felt that their Sounds Of The Ozarks album was one of the finest bluegrass recordings of its time, which seems now to be out of print.

Rest in Peace, Vern Williams.

We’ve had a lot on The Bluegrass Blog of late about the new CMH Records bluegrass Van Halen tribute release, Strummin’ With The Devil - almost on a daily basis this past week or so. We hope that our readers with no interest in this project will excuse the focus it has been given, but we find that the wide media attention this project has generated is at least of interest to folks who work in the bluegrass world, and find it newsworthy on that front alone.

We see that the Van Halen tribute now has its own web site, which not only includes news, reviews and a bulletin board discussion forum, but complete bios of the various bluegrass artists who contributed to the recording, with links to their official sites. Fans of Van Halen who stumble onto this CD will have a excellent opportunity to learn more about Blue Highway, David Grisman, John Cowan, Nashville Bluegrass Band et al.

The one quibble we might have with the artists page is that the members of what is billed as the John Jorgenson Bluegrass band on the CD get no mention, and these are the folks who perform on the tracks with David Lee Roth that are generating so much attention! It would nice to see Scott Vestal, Brad Davis and Stuart Duncan’s name on the list of performers.

Visit the Strummin’ With The Devil site here.

We also mentioned another CMH title earlier this week, Bluegrass Gospel Karaoke, which was released yesterday (6/6). We obtained a few more details about this CD which may be of interest.

The CD contains 8 bluegrass Gospel favorites, and each track is presented twice, one with a guide vocal, and one without. There are harmony vocals available as well, but we still aren’t sure whether they appear on the karaoke tracks or just the guide track. This sounds like a great practice tool for aspiring singers, or just a fun way to belt out some favorites with a bluegrass band behind you.

The latest issue of Silver Strings is now available from Angie’sBanjo.com. This is a free, monthly online publication dedicated to providing both encouragement and instructional tips for folks learning to play the banjo beyond “a certain age.”

The June edition includes a feature on The Lovell Sisters, a trio of teens who have become seriously accomplished bluegrass performers, a second installment of tips for learning banjo solos up the neck, and Nancy Nitchie’s remembrances of the early days of Banjo NewsLetter, founded by her late husband Hub, and published now by her sons Spencer and Donald.

Instructions for subscribing by email are found on the Silver Strings site, and once you subscribe, you will have access to all past and future editions of the magazine.

We heard recently from Keith Burgess, member of the popular Canadian bluegrass band, Jerusalem Ridge, about the recent announcements concerning their scheduled performances later this year with number of Canadian symphonies. The concerts will be billed as Fire on the Mountain: A Bluegrass Music Experience! . . . with Jerusalem Ridge, and will include 19 pieces, among them 13 with the band and the orchestra performing together.

The program debuted earlier this year with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra before a sold old house, and the reception was so positive that the ESO requested that they schedule a repeat engagement for Labor Day weekend (9/2/06).

The show starts with an overture performed by the orchestra alone, and arranged by maestro Claude Lapalme, with themes drawn from a number of traditional pieces (Fire On The Mountain, The Water Is Wide), concluding appropriately with an orchestral arrangement of Bill Monroe’s wonderful fiddle tune, Jerusalem Ridge. The band performs a number of pieces alone, including their take on Del McCoury’s version of Vincent Black Lightning and Lee Highway Blues, and with the symphony, offer a mix of tunes Jerusalem Ridge has recorded and popular bluegrass favorites.

Together, they will perform arrangements of Flatt & Scruggs’ Polka On A Banjo, the perennial Duelin’ Banjos, Man Of Constant Sorrow, Gordon Lightfoot’s Redwood Hill (famously covered by The Country Gentlemen) and several others. The concert concludes with a Gospel medley for band and orchestra.

We asked Keith how this all came to pass.

“Former Edmonton Symphony Orchestra conductor David Hoyt provided an invitation. When he was still conductor with the ESO, Hoyt caught us backstage one time and asked us if we’d like to do a show with the symphony. We ruminated on it for a couple years and got kind of serious about it in Fall 2004. More credence for the idea came after a surprising boost from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, which gave us a healthy project grant - about 70% more than what they’d applied for — for arranging and charts. In all, the program has taken two years to get onto the stage.”

The dates currently scheduled include:

Claude Lapalme, Conductor and Music Director of the Red Deer Symphony Orchestra, provided arranging and scores for Fire on the Mountain: A Bluegrass Music Experience! Maestro Lapalme will appear as Guest Conductor with the group for all of these dates. Jerusalem Ridge is made up of Keith Burgess on bass, Craig Korth on banjo, Byron Myhre on fiddle and mandolin, and Joe Teichroeb on guitar. All four are also featured as vocalists.

Keith said that he is not aware of any plans to record or film any of these concerts, but would be eager to see that occur, and would be keen in hearing from anyone with an interest in doing so for commercial release. He also mentioned that they would be willing to lease the charts should any other bands or Symphonies have an interest in offering this performance elsewhere.

Reach Keith Burgess by email, or phone (800-359-3758).

Brance posted yesterday with the show dates for David Lee Roth’s television appearances to promote the new CMH release, Strummin’ With The Devil, their Van Halen bluegrass tribute CD which is officially released today. We found a few more bits of news about all this, which may be of interest.

The John Jorgenson Bluegrass Band will be accompanying Roth on these shows: John Jorgenson (mandolin), Brad Davis (guitar), Scott Vestal (banjo), Stuart Duncan (fiddle), Charlie Chadwick (bass), Rob Ickes (Dobro). Jorgenson produced the Van Halen tribute project for CMH, and these pickers recorded tracks with Roth on the CD as well.

CMH has sample audio up on their site for each of the tracks on the CD, including Blue Highway’s version of I’ll Wait, John Cowan Band doing the title track, Nashville Bluegrass Band on Could This Be Magic and Dennis Caplinger’s stunning solo banjo version of Eddie Van Halen’s signature guitar piece, Eruption. Roth adds vocals to Jamie’s Cryin’ (2 versions) and Jump, and the CD also includes contributions from David Grisman, Mountain Heart (a soulful version of Dance The Night Away) and Larry Cordle.

Despite the ease with which one could cast a cynical and jaundiced eye at this project, it actually is a serious effort with some terrific music, and should appeal to fans of the abovementioned bluegrass artists, as well as Van Halen fans with an open mind and a taste for fun. It seems clear that the bluegrass pickers had a blast with this, and Brad Davis has reported to us that Roth is really pumped about it himself, showing up for a recent rehearsal in Nashville full of the same “go-go” energy that has long been his trademark. Brad suggests that tonight’s appearance on Letterman will be an emblematic Roth bit, not at all what you might expect from a conventional bluegrass act at a festival or on the tube.

In other words, don’t expect him to stand in place with his mic stand and “phone it in.” Should be great fun.

The Associated Press has a story that was posted last night which features an interview with Roth about the new CD release. You can find it on the MSNBC web site. He was in Nashville this past few days, rehearsing for these TV spots, and apparently recording one that will appear on CMT’s Insider show at some point. We’ll pass along those details when we get them.

This post is a contribution from Amos Hopkins and Katy Graves, whose fundraising hike-a-thon of The Appalachian Trail, The Bluegrass Music Trail, is raising money to purchase bluegrass instruments and instruction for needy children in the Appalachian region. Find all the pledge and donation info here.

We are publishing their trail journal here on The Bluegrass Blog.

From Amos Hopkins and Katy Graves - June 4, 2006

Hey Folks!

So we are half way through Pennsylvania already and I understand that the topography starts to get much more steep after the town we are in right now. It has been two weeks since we started the trail. I have been experiencing what is commonly known as “Trail buzz”. I have always had a part of me that is at home with the woods, the mountains, the animals, and the open trail. It feels that this part of me has been reawakened after a year of the indoors. I am in total bliss!

Things have been great although, I have had some pretty severe foot problems. After limping about 50 miles through Maryland, I finally had to break down and see a doctor in PA that diagnosed me with plantar fasciitis (sp?). Apparently the tendons in my foot are separating from the bone. It sounds yucky and it is, but I’m still limping on. Mornings are the toughest when my legs and feet are severely inflamed, but I get them stretched back out throughout the day. The trail has been such a joy that I cant let myself miss out merely because of foot trouble. (more…)