There are three shows left in the 2006 Bluegrass Nights At The Ryman series and I thought I’d tell you about them. If you are in the Nashville area on any of these three dates then you should make an effort to attend. The cost is the same for all three shows at $20.50 per seat. Showtime is 7:30 pm each night.
A search is currently underway for a full time faculty position in the bluegrass, country and old time music program at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN.
This is a tenure-track Assistant Professor/Assistant Director position beginning August 15, 2007, with an on-campus commitment of approximately 9 months per year. From the official job listing:
Essential Functions: Teaching bluegrass instruments and classes; directing student performing groups; recruiting and advising students; assisting the director in administering the program.
Qualifications: Experienced, professional-level bluegrass musician; ability to teach two or more standard bluegrass instruments from beginning through advanced levels; ability to sing and to coach students in singing lead and harmony preferred. Appropriate college-level training or equivalent work experience in bluegrass or country music field required.
From time to time we have discussed various ventures that involved online video instruction for bluegrass music. The idea has a great deal of appeal to bluegrass instructors, and some are actively involved in providing such instruction. Three that come to mind immediately are Butch Baldassari, Ross Nickerson, and BluegrassCollege.com.
Ours is a small industry and I suggest that we look outside of bluegrass to see what other people are doing and possibly learn from them. There are other artists and companies who are also pursuing this avenue of instruction, and income. One such company that has come to my attention is WorkshopLive.com. They don’t have any bluegrass instruction on their site, it’s all rock, blues, jazz, etc. But what they do have is great quality video. At a reasonable price. Reasonable, but not cheap.
Theirs is a subscription service. You pay by the month and can then access as many lesson as you want from any of their offerings. The lessons include the video instruction, synchronized graphics of the instrument fretboard, and printable exercises. It”s an impressive program.
To be fair, they have spent a lot of money to get set up. I saw it reported just this week that a new investor has just provided them with $3.25 million dollars in funding to bolster their staff, expand the service, and expand their marketing efforts. Not many of us in bluegrass will have that kind of capitol to work with, but let”s not write off the idea of achieving a similar level of success in our own industry. There is much to be said for the idea of emulating success.
The latest CD from Chatham County Line,Speed of the Whippoorwill, was released in late May of 2006, and features 14 new original songs in the style that they like to call “new traditionalism.” Like many young bands in and around bluegrass music, their sound owes much to influences other than the bluegrass masters, but they don’t like to be labeled as a newgrass or jamgrass band.
Their goal is expressed as finding a way to blend older and newer sounds, and can include old time influences with a style that is intentionally sparse.
Chatham County Line are Dave Wilson (vocals, acoustic guitar), John Teer (vocals, mandolin, fiddle), Chandler Holt (banjo, vocals), and Greg Readling (bass, vocals, pedal steel). Audio samples from the new CD can be found on the Yep Roc Records web site, and you can find their performance schedule on the Chatham County Line site.
They also have some concert video you can view online (scroll down the page for the video.).
IBMA has announced the names of the ten songwriters invited to showcase during the IBMA Songwriter Showcase, held during their annual World Of Bluegrass trade show, where they can perform their original material for the assembled membership.
The Songwriter Showcase will be held on Tuesday, September 26 from 4:00-6:30 p.m. at the Nashville Convention Center.
Invited this year are:
M.D. Van Brackle
Thomas J. Brown
Lynda Wittig Dawson
Brandi Hart
Chris Henry
Donna Hughes
Connie Leigh
Nelson Mandrell
Wayne Taylor
Chris West
We posted last week about the Grascals interview available on the Country Weekly web site, where they discussed their upcoming CD. The new project will be entitled Long List Of Heartaches, and will be released August 29 on Rounder Records.
They are especially excited about the duet between The Grascals’ Terry Eldredge and country super star Dierks Bentley. The two are long time friends, and trade verses on a new song by Harley Allen, Being Me, which tells the story of a man fighting between his better and darker sides. Wonder which guy sings which part of the story?
Below are a couple of shots from the recording studio, with Dierks Bentley and George Jones, both of whom appear as guests on the new CD. Click either image to see a larger version.
We’ve got about 6 months to go before the cruise season is upon us, though the 2006 Alaska Bluegrass Cruise departed yesterday, and there are several bluegrass cruises we’ll be telling you about. The first of which is The Banjo Cruise.
Organized by Ross Nickerson of BanjoTeacher.com, The Banjo Cruise is a banjo and guitar workshop cruise to the Bahamas. The dates for this cruise are January 22-26, 2007. Instructors for this year’s cruise include:
Hit & Run Bluegrass’ guitarist/vocalist, and Richmond VA native, is featured in an artist profile today on the Richmond.com web site. She discusses her influences, other musical interests and how she came to move from Virginia to Colorado six years ago, and started working with Hit & Run.
A few bits of news that come out in the discussion are that the band will be working on a new CD this winter, and that Rebecca and bandmate John Frazier will be married in August.
We hope that bluegrass lovers in that part of Europe will take advantage of the opportunity to catch this dynamic group in person.
Podcast note: Larry was our guest for Episode #20 of The GrassCast earlier this year, and shared some details about his next CD, and how he found himself making a living as a songwriter and bluegrass performer.
Our friend Wichita Rutherford is profiled and quoted in an article in today’s online edition of Tennessean.com, the web version of Nashville’s hometown newspaper, The Tennessean. Rutherford’s podcast, 5 Minutes With Wichita, has become an Internet sensation, with bluegrass, pop and rock music stars lining up to play the straight man to Wichita’s gags and yarns.
The article is about podcasting from Nashville, and also covers the work of Candace Corrigan, whose podcast, The Nashville Nobody Knows, has also profiled bluegrass and acoustic artists in her quest to bring more attention to deserving musicians, singers and songwriters who have not become household names.
The folks at BanjoLounge.com have established an audio chat forum for banjo pickers. It is browser-based, and uses plugins that are available for both Windows and Mac computers. You’ll need either a built-in or external microphone, and speakers to take part.
Banjo pickers can talk with one another, or even pick a few with whomever may be logged in at any given time. Site administrator Jim Pankey says that he is hopeful of using this technology to offer online workshops, and other scheduled events in the near future. The forum is accessible 24/7, but Jim says that you can usually find more folks logged in during the evening hours.
There is no charge or membership fee to access the BanjoLounge.com audio chat, but they are accepting donations to defray the costs associated with hosting this feature.
As they say on the site: This is an AUDIO chat, so bring your Banjo!
Leigh and Eric Gibson have plenty to celebrate this month. Their latest CD, Red Letter Day, has climbed to the top of the album chart on Bluegrass Unlimited’sNational Bluegrass Survey. The chart measures regular airplay on a selected group of prominent bluegrass radio shows, and reaching the number one spot would be good reason for any artist to break out the party hats.
Now comes word that Leigh and his wife Alison welcomed their daughter, Annie Gray, into the world on July 1st. Now that’s something to celebrate!
We send congratulations to all the Gibsons, with wishes for continued success on both fronts.
Here’s an online resource that has recently been brought to our attention and we thought we’d share it with you.
Bluegrasspass.com is an online bluegrass showcase that features streaming online interviews with regional and national bluegrass groups and artist. The interviews are recorded live at various venues, events and festivals, and hosted by Richard Peoples and Stanley Pinion.
The audio is streamed via a Macromedia Flash audio player. Load times should be fairly short even on slower, dial up connections.
The most recent interview to be posted is with the current IBMAEntertainer of the Year, Cherryholmes.
We just got a note from our good friend Gracie Muldoon, station manager at WorldWideBluegrass.com. She wrote to let us know that Steep Canyon Rangers would be her guest today on the Muldoon In The Afternoon show. The SCR guys will surely be crowing about the fact that the title track from their current One Dime At A Time CD is residing atop the Bluegrass UnlimitedNational Bluegrass Survey this month.
Hear the interview on Gracie’s show today (7/7) at 4:30 p.m. (EDT) by accessing WWB’s live streaming audio feed. The station broadcasts bluegrass online, 24/7, 365 days a year.
Rhonda Vincent is slated to appear on The Grand Ole Opry on Saturday evening, featured in both the 9:30-10:00 p.m. and 12:30-1:00 a.m. segments of the July 8 radio show.
Bobby Osborne & Rocky Top X-Press and The Whites are also on Saturday night’s roster. Catch The Whites in the 7:30-8:00 and 10:30-11:00 p.m. slots, and Osborne during the the 8:309-0:00 p.m. and 12:00-12:30 a.m. segments
The Grand Ole Opry Live program on GAC TV is an encore presentation, so no Rhonda on TV this week.
You can listen over the air (650 AM out of Nashville) or via online streaming, to hear the entire Opry broadcast between 7:30 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. Saturday evening.
Dedicated fans of Nothin’ Fancy have a unique opportunity for self designation, in the form of a name contest being run by their publicists. It occured to a fan and poster on Nothin’ Fancy’s discussion board that fans of Rhonda Vincent & The Rage could refer to themselves as “Ragers,” and even that Williams & Clark Expedition’s fans were “Exhibitionists,” but that they had no name for loyal Nothin’ Fancy followers.
This sparked the folks at East Public Relations into action, and a contest is now in play. Fans are requested to send along their name suggestion by July 20, at which time the band members will review the entries and select their favorite. The winner will receive a Nothin’ Fancy ball cap, and the band CD of their choosing, in addition to the honor of naming the fan base.
Continuing with our education focus, we talk this week with August Watters, who in addition to being an accomplished mandolinist, guitarist and banjo pickers, is also an Associate Professor at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. August describes how Berklee has come to embrace using traditional string instruments (like banjo and mandolin) as a principal of study at the school, and how useful this has been for young musicians seeking a career in bluegrass and acoustic music.
John’s discussion with August will be continued in the next episode of The GrassCast, where he goes on to discuss his involvement with teaching young people to play bluegrass through the Boston Bluegrass Union.
This GrassCast is 11 and a half 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.
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
It has just been announced that celebrated Nashville banjo picker Charlie Cushman has been added to the faculty for the 2006 Roanoke Bluegrass Weekend. Charlie is a master of the Scruggs banjo style, and one of the most sought after session players in Music City. Students at RBW will also benefit from his vast knowledge of banjo set up and maintenance, skills which both Gibson and Deering banjos have called upon him to offer their respective companies of late.
Roanoke Bluegrass Weekend is a three day seminar to be held November 10-12, 2006 in Roanoke, VA, with simultaneous workshops offered for banjo, mandolin, guitar fiddle and voice/harmony. The faculty this year includes such noted bluegrass legends as Kenny baker, George Shuffler, Roland White, Don Rigsby and Eddie Adcock.
RBW offers scholarships to exceptional young musicians, with four full-cost awards being offered this year. The scholarship is funded by an annual raffle for a professional quality instrument donated by Gibson. This year’s drawing is for a new RB-250 banjo.
Update 8/12: Charlie had to bow out as an instructor as well, when he was given the opportunity to be a member of the band on Vince Gill’s upcoming fall tour. Roanoke Bluegrass Weekend has announced that Craig Smith will teach on Sunday (11/12) in his place.
The July/August issue of FGM is out, with Tyler Grant on the cover. We made mention of his new CD, In The Light, when it was released last month. Tyler discusses how he made the switch to playing bluegrass and acoustic music after starting with rock and classical guitar, and how he has searched for a voice of his own after a careful study of the greats of flatpicking.
Also featured in this issue are Yiannis Gougourelas, described as the only bluegrass flatpicker in his native Greece, with a new CD, Flapicking Guitar Instrumentals, to his credit. His profile describes how he learned and mastered the style without ever visiting the United States.
Regular columnist Dave McCarty describes the Selmer-style arch top guitars made by Michael Collins and Dan Huckabee’s Beginner’s Page walks new pickers through a simple solo for the banjo classic, Earl’s Breakdown.
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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.
There are three shows left in the 2006 Bluegrass Nights At The Ryman series and I thought I’d tell you about them. If you are in the Nashville area on any of these three dates then you should make an effort to attend. The cost is the same for all three shows at $20.50 per seat. Showtime is 7:30 pm each night.
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From time to time we have discussed various ventures that involved online video instruction for bluegrass music. The idea has a great deal of appeal to bluegrass instructors, and some are actively involved in providing such instruction. Three that come to mind immediately are 
IBMA has announced the names of the ten songwriters invited to showcase during the IBMA Songwriter Showcase, held during their annual World Of Bluegrass trade show, where they can perform their original material for the assembled membership.
Leigh and Eric Gibson have plenty to celebrate this month. Their latest CD, 
Rhonda Vincent is slated to appear on The Grand Ole Opry on Saturday evening, featured in both the 9:30-10:00 p.m. and 12:30-1:00 a.m. segments of the July 8 radio show.
Continuing with our education focus, we talk this week with 
