Song Of The Year

This award is for any song, new or old, which was released or showed significant chart action within the eligibility period. Any song which has been nominated for this award in previous years is ineligible. The award goes to the songwriter and artist.

The Song Of The Year for 2006 is:

Review past recipients of this award.

Marty Stuart just took the stage to begin his hosting duties. He’s got a quick wit and big smile. He’s telling some great jokes. And the crowd is enthusiastic.

Hey Boys and Girls…

It’s awards night and I am backstage in historical (or is it hysterical) Dressing Room #11 at the legendary Grand Ole Opry House.  I’m going to be one of your hosts with the mosts as we celebrate bluegrass music at the Seventeenth Annual International Bluegrass Music Awards.  Things are just about to get underway and I’m here to tell you, it is just electric back here. 

We’ve already commenced from Studio A and the Pre-Awards reception and the National Anthem is being performed flawlessly by 3 Fox Drive.  Wow!  Those three can sure sing. I’m tickled to hear our Anthem opening the show because I was told on the drive over, by one Terry Smith that there would be no patriotic music performed this evening because it is the International Bluegrass Music Association.  Pssht….whatever. 

If this event were taking place in Canada, I would expect to hear O Canada and love every second of it, because it is a beautiful song, but, also out of respect for the country, or any country, for that matter. 

Anyway, back to why we’re here…to celebrate bluegrass music.  We’re going to have a great time, so y’all sit back and enjoy.  You can listen live on XM Radio.  If you don’t have XM, go sign up for a free, three day trial. 

3 Fox Drive opened with The Star Spangled Banner, and now Cherryholmes is on stage.

Brance and I are safely ensconced backstage at The Grand Ole Opry, preparing to start our live blog coverage of the 2006 International Bluegrass Music Awards.

As you might presume, it’s mayhem backstage with bluegrass starts flitting to and fro. Jim Mills just stopped in to say howdy.

See you all shortly…

Bumped back to the top: 6:20 p.m….  Just another reminder that Brance and I, ably assisted by Sharon Smith, will be offering live blog coverage of tonight’s International Bluegrass Music Awards. We will be in the media room at the Grand Ole Opry House, posting the winner of each award as it is announced on stage.

Sharon runs her own blog, A Whiff Of Smiff, and is married to Terry Smith, bass player with The Grascals, who will be performing on the show, and are up for several awards themselves. We’ll see if we can contain her enthusiasm should their name be called.

The show is scheduled to begin at 9:30 p.m. (EDT - 8:30 local time), so you can bring up The Bluegrass Blog at that time, and see the results in real time.

The connectivity issues we encountered last year during the Awards Show live blog have been corrected, so there will be no trouble handling as many simultaneous connections as may be requested.

We also invite all our readers to add their comments as the various awards are distributed. Agree or disagree - your input is solicited.

You will need to be registered to add comments, so go ahead and register now to be ready for tonight.

See you then…

UPDATE 11:30 a.m.: We will shut down voting in our Bluegrass Blog Awards Poll just prior to the start of the show tonight (9:30 p.m. EDT). If you are registered at The Bluegrass Blog, you can vote once in our poll, which mirrors the official IBMA Awards ballot.

It will be fun to see how the votes from our readers stack up against the voting membership of the IBMA. We’ll do a side-by-side comparison of the two sets of results sometime over the next few days to see how you did.

Vote in The Bluegrass Blog Awards Poll.

View the current results.

Here’s the second part of late night wanderings around the showcases. There was some really great music being played late last night, and I didn’t even make it to any of the jam sessions happening on various floors of the hotel. Here are a few more photos and some impressions of last night’s events.

It appeared as if Eddie Stubbs sat in one place for the entire day doing live interviews and broadcasts for WSM. At some point I stumbled across Byron House and Cody Kilby out in the hall working up a tune. Moving the other direction down the hall I spotted Chris Jones deep in conversation. Then I heard Don Rigsby & Midnight Call throwing down on some hard driving bluegrass.

Eddie Stubbs	Byron & Cody	Chris Jones	Don Rigsby

I headed back toward the PineCastle showcase room and caught a jam in hall with Carl Jackson and some others. I finally did make to the PineCastle room which is where I spent the remainder of my evening. The first act I saw was the John Cowan Band. John was great as usual. I spent some time talking with Barry Scott in hall and then went back in and sat down to watch John Cowan and Ronnie McCoury accompany Pat Flynn on a set.

Carl Jackson	John Cowan Band		Ronnie McCoury

After that Blueridge took the stage. I may be a little biased since these guys are friends of mine, but I say with all honesty that it was the best performance I saw last night. The group as a whole is just incredible, they are tight and rehearsed, they know their arrangements, and the material is wonderful. In addition to all that, Alan Bibey is simply one of the best mandolin players in the business and Junior Sisk has got to be the most soulful singer I know. When he sings a song, you believe him. It’s always a great performance, but it’s also completely heartfelt. They really are a great traditional band, though Alan is certainly capable of so much on the mandolin that I hate to qualify him that way. If you can’t tell, I like these guys’ music. Check them out when you get a chance.

BlueRidge	Alan & Junior	Alan Johnson	Alan Bibey

That’s it for now, but we have more photos of the event from contributing photographers and we’ll try and get some more galleries up soon.

Last night I stayed up late to sample the offerings at the afterhours showcases here at IBMA. I had a great time, though I am dragging just a little this morning. The first act I caught last night was David Davis and the Warrior River Boys. They were playing the main stage before it closed down for the evening. Good traditional bluegrass.

After that I wondered the halls for a while talking to friends and listening to jams. I hung out with Bull Harman and his crowd for a while, spoke to my good friend Buddy Merriam for a few minutes, and heard an old friend from my school days, Andrew Collins, jamming in the halls. From there I headed over to the PineCastle showcase room to catch Greg Cahill and Special Consensus. I then slipped downstairs to hear Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper.

Bull Harman	Buddy Merriam	Andrew Collins	Special Consensus

Justin Carbone	Greg Cahill	Flamekeeper

More to photos to come in a few minutes.

We just heard from our friend, Lee Kauffman, operator of the BanjoTrain web site, and banjo picker with Lonesome County, here to do some showcase shows during IBMA week.

He wanted to let us know that he has a new lesson available on the site, designed to help banjo players negotiate the oft-imposing key of F.

It’s geared to intermediate or advanced players who would like to learn to playing is a key other than G. The lessons presents several songs usually played in G the take on new life when played in F. Songs include Roll in my Sweet Baby’s Arms, Man of Constant Sorrow, Wreck of the Old 97, and Wildwood Flower.

Lessons at BanjoTrain range from $14.95 to $19.95, with discounts offered for multi-lesson packages. All include tablature, and audio and video examples of the techniques being demonstrated.

Lee also has a page of free banjo instructional resources, including tips on how to buy a banjo, how to read tablature, and some basics of reading chord charts and understanding music theory.

A great many of the folks who have stopped by to visit with us this week in the IBMA Exhibit Hall have asked variants of this same question: “What is The B?“ or “How can I post something in The B?”

It seems that a recap is in order.

In a nutshell, The B is a section of The Bluegrass Blog where our readers get to select the topics. You are also encouraged to comment - both on the posts in The B, and any subsequent reader comments. You must be registered to contribute, but registration is quick, painless and costs you nothing.

Submissions to The B are moderated, so they don’t appear immediately, only after Brance or I have a chance to look them over. We want to ensure that the contributions are germane to the interests of our readers, and be able to prevent any spam or indelicate material from getting through.

Brance posted in some detail about all this a few weeks ago, so a read through of that post may answer a lot of questions about The B, and how you can be a part of it.

Please join in!

CMT’s Cross Country program has as its premise the pairing of two celebrated country artists, each performing the other’s songs with the original artist providing support. The next episode will involve two singers with bluegrass roots, Alison Krauss and Vince Gill.

They taped the show last Saturday, with both bands in tow, and it is scheduled for broadcast on CMT October 27 at 9:00 p.m.

Alison offered her take onVince’s Whenever You Come Around and Tryin’ to Get Over You, and Vince sang Alison’s The Lucky One and So Long, So Wrong.

Last night John and I attended a showcase hosted by Marty Raybon and his band Full Circle. The show was a media event, by invitation only, designed to generate the kind of post I’m writing right now. While I’ve known for several years that Marty was one of the best singers in the business, last night’s show cemented that opinion. I’d have to say the band Marty has together right now is the best he’s had since his return to bluegrass a few years ago.

All of the band members enjoyed an easy camaraderie performing with smiles as genuine as their music. Scott Napier is the newest member of the band and his mandolin style really complements the musical direction that Marty is steering. Glen Harrell’s fiddle playing was tastefully appropriate and I saw Marty break into a big grin several times during a fiddle solo indicating that Glen had done something unexpected and enjoyable. Shane Blackwell contributed some great guitar pickin and even vocals on a couple numbers. Derek Dillman comes to Full Circle after several years as a Sunny Mountain Boy with the late King of Bluegrass, Jimmy Martin. Edgar Loudermilk, holding down both the low end and the high - playing bass and singing tenor, is not only a great musical asset but also an integral part of the stage show. (more…)

Surely a highlight of IBMA week for me so far was the showcase performance last night from Chris Thile & How To Grow A Band. (more photos here)

Regular readers of The Bluegrass Blog will have noted that I have expressed great enthusiasm for the new Thile CD, How To Grow A Woman From The Ground, and for Thile’s and banjo player Noam Pikelny’s musicianship demonstrated therein.

The showcase featured the same group of players who recorded the new project: Chris Eldridge on guitar, Noam Pikelny on banjo, Gabe Witcher on fiddle, Greg Garrison on bass, and Thile on mandolin and lead vocals. Their short set was wholly drawn from the CD as well, and the material came across as even more polished and authoritatively performed than on the recording. That shouldn’t be - and wasn’t - a surpise, since they spent only a few days preparing to record, and have been out on a mini-tour in support of the CD of late.

They opened with the bluesy, a capella If The Sea Was Whiskey, and then right into the instrumental tour de force, Watch ‘at Breakdown.

I watched the show with Barry Crabtree, banjo player with Wildfire, and we marveled together at the sheer joy of seeing these talented musicians on stage. We both were already familiar with the material from the CD, and had in common a tremendous admiration for the players.

He and I shared a humorous exchange that captured well the degree to which Thile and his crew stand above their peers. (more…)

Jen Hitt, production director for bluegrasscountry.org, stopped by to visit with us yesterday at The Bluegrass Blog booth at IBMA.The cyberstation, which provides a 24/7 bluegrass radio stream online, grew from Washington, DC’s venerable WAMU radio station, where bluegrass music was once a staple feature of their broadcast format.

When the station moved to the more common NPR news/talk format several years ago, the howls of protest from the relatively small but (thankfully) vocal contingent of bluegrass lovers led to the station management creating this internet vehicle, and bluegrasscountry.org became a pioneer in cybercasting bluegrass music.

Jen stopped by to let us know that their feed is now available in the DC area on HD Radio - great news for folks who still miss getting their bluegrass fix in the car or at work since the demise of WAMU’s bluegrass programming. If you’ve even visited the Northern VA/DC area, you can empathize with the amount of time commuters spend behind the wheel each week.

An HD Radio receiver is required to pick up the signal, and they are available in both automobile and table top models. Jen tells us that the fidelity of the signal is far higher than what they can stream online, and is based on the AAC (mpeg4) audio codec. They will also have expanded metadata which displays on the HD Radio receiver’s screen.

WAMU and bluegrasscountry.org have been out on the edge of new broadcast technology for some time, and they hope their listeners in DC will embrace this new move as well.

The streaming audio online can be accessed by anyone, anywhere with an internet connection, but the HD Radio broadcast can only be picked up in the DC metro market. The various details can be found on the bluegrasscountry web site.

Yesterday I participated in a panel discussion here at IBMA about Internet Promotions: Myspace and beyond. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the turnout. In past years the panels I’ve been a part of, whether as a speaker or a listener, were very sparsely attended. This year the turn out was great with nearly every seat full, people standing in the back and sitting along the walls. I noticed when we let out that the panel in the adjacent room was also well attended. I take it as a promising sign that people are taking advantage of such opportunities.

Our discussion was, I’m sure, a bit of information overload for those unfamiliar with the topics we were covering. We covered a wide range of topics from MySpace and other social networking sites to blogs, podcasts, rss feeds, news aggregators, and finally wound up discussing the landscape of the music business economy in 2006. The decline of CD sales seemed to be a concern that many of the artists present were dealing with. It’s understandable seeing that they derive their livelihood from such sales. What the panel said, and I’ll repeat here, is that we must realize we are in the music business, not the CD business. As that medium of delivery dies away we just have to find the new medium for making music available to the consumers.

It was a very thorough discussion of the topic with some great comments and input from those in attendance as well as the panel members. If you are interested in internet promotions and the future of digital music I would say this is something you should check out. IBMA did record the whole thing and will be making it available on CD at some point in the near future. I believe the price for the CDs is $15 and you’ll find them here when they become available.

Béla Fleck appeared this past Monday on the This I Believe segment of NPR’s Morning Edition program. The concept behind these recurring segments is to air radio essays from non-radio people, who write and read their contributions for the show.

Béla talks about what he believes, which turns out to be doing things his own way when it comes to writing music and playing the banjo.

Much of my individualist, bone-headed nature comes from my grandfather.

Opa grew up in New York’s rough-and-tumble Lower East Side, didn’t go to college, but owned and ran two successful businesses: a restaurant and a car wash. He figured out what he wanted to do, and how to do it without studying a manual. He used his own creativity to solve problems as they came up.

You can read or hear Béla’s essay on the NPR web site.

One of the folks I had a chance to speak with yesterday was Chris Pandolfi, banjo player with The Infamous Stringdusters. He told me that their new CD is on track for an early ‘07 release on Sugar Hill Records, and was able to respond to some speculation that has been circulating about the status of Dusters guitarist Chris Eldridge.

Eldridge also filled the guitar chair on Chris Thile’s How To Grow A Woman From The Ground CD, and with Thile publicly stating that the band from the CD would become his touring band (including in his recent interview on The GrassCast), the notion that Eldridge would bolt for a gig with Thile seemed like a fair question.

Pandolfi assured me that Eldridge was in for the duration. Bryan Sutton has been playing guitar on any How To Grow A Band dates with Thile that conflict with Stringdusters shows, and all of the Dusters are excited about their long-term commitment with Sugar Hill (4 projects), and getting to record and perform as a band.

We have spoken on The Bluegrass Blog several times about this young band, and look forward to catching their main stage showcase on Wednesday night, or at one of their many other showcase appearances this week.

Last night’s Keynote Address, traditionally offered on the first night of the IBMA World Of Bluegrass convention, was delivered by Jerry Douglas.

His address seemed to focus on three basic themes: bluegrass music is in good shape, it is being noticed by the larger music industry, and we ought to be willing to share it with those outside our circle.

He spoke of his intense love of the music, especially expressing his admiration for Earl Scruggs and his ability to “float above the band” in a way that he had never heard before, or since. Given that Jerry’s career could often be seen as on the fringes of bluegrass by those with a preservationist bent, he may have been using some of this discussion to solidify his bluegrass bona fides. At one point, he glanced up from his prepared text, and looked us collectively in the eye to say that no matter what the session, show or style of music he was playing, he approached it as a bluegrass musician, and challenged the listener not to hear that in his playing.

He described how the country music world in particular sat up and took notice when Alison Krauss sold big on an indie label with no appreciable mainstream radio play, and when the O Brother and Down From The Mountain phenomena were in play. In another challenge to the bluegrass industry, after noting the huge success of bundling so many artists for the successful tours that supported those releases, he asked, “Do we have to wait for another movie to do that again?”

His final theme was perhaps the one that has the greatest import for the future of bluegrass. (more…)

Like a great many other folks here at the World Of Bluegrass, Brance and I are moving a little slowly this morning.

The first day at IBMA, for those who exhibit in the trade show, involves a frantic rush to load in, and get your display assembled and spruced up before the hall is opened to the public. That was Monday morning for us, ably assisted by Andy Friedman of AcuTab, getting our retail product display and iso booth for recording GrassCast interviews constructed.

We had the pleasure of meeting many regular readers of The Bluegrass Blog, some fairly prominent in our business, others hoping to be some day. I’ll post later this morning with some of the news we picked up in idle discussion.

Not all of the vendors/exhibitors who will display this week arrive on Monday, leaving the exhibit hall a bit spare for the first day, but we were pleased to see so many smaller companies and new exhibitors setting up.

We’ll have more photos from the exhibit area as the week progresses.