This post is a contribution from Tim Kruzic, banjo player with Blue Daze. Tim is a long time friend of The Bluegrass Blog who has been involved with IBMA on many levels over the past several years. Serving on various committees and participating in the Leadership Bluegrass program Tim is a valuable asset to the bluegrass industry.

One of my favorite things about IBMA is witnessing some of the unique picking sessions that occur because of the gathering of so many great musicians. At Owensboro or Louisville, it was a bit easier to walk the halls and discover some of this magic. In Nashville, one of the coolest events is the series of concerts sponsored by Fred Carpenter at The Violin Shop. Though the venue is a bit of a ride from the main IBMA event and has a separate admission charge, it is well worth the effort. Fred sponsors shows on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights. The venue only seats about 50 people and features an all acoustic setup. The concerts are recorded on video and subsequently released on DVD. Twenty five percent of the concert admission is put toward a scholarship fund for up and coming fiddle players to attend music camps; the remainder of the admission goes directly to the musicians.

Last night’s concert featured Tim O’Brien with an all star supporting band of Bryan Sutton on guitar, Stuart Duncan on fiddle, and Dennis Crouch on bass. Tim played a ninety minute set that featured some old Hot Rize favorites (Blue Night), more recent material from his solo career (Senor, Drunkard’s Hiccups [Jack Of Diamonds]), current material (Look Down That Lonesome Road, Cornbread Nation), and some great instrumentals featuring the band (Red Apple Rag, Lee Highway Blues). An added treat was twin fiddles by Tim and Stuart on several tunes. (more…)

World of Bluegrass week has begun and so this will be the last Awards Poll update before the actual awards show Thursday evening.

Last week 18% of the registered users had voted in the poll. The number of voters has increased slightly to 20%.

Entertainer of the Year - Doyle Lawson has maintained his lead in this category with a 4% advantage over Cherryholmes at this final stage.

Instrumental Group of the Year - This week Mountain Heart and Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder find themselves in a dead even race for this award.

Emerging Artist of the Year - Last week Blue Moon Rising’s lead over Steep Canyon Rangers has slipped slightly to only 4 points.

Recorded Event of the Year - Daughters of Bluegrass - Back To The Well has grown their slight lead from last week over Bryan Sutton’s - Not To Far From The Tree, into a 2 point lead.

Banjo Player of the Year - Terry Baucom has retained his 2 point lead over Jim Mills.

Dobro Player of the Year - Rob Ickes is slightly leading this category with 2 points over Jerry Douglas.

Guitar Player of the Year - Bryan Sutton is still leading here with no change from last week’s standings.

And that wraps it up for now. We’ll revisit all this on Thursday night at the IBMA Awards Show. Be sure to join us live that evening at 8:30 PM Central Time.

While many of us in the world of bluegrass get started on our big week in Nashville, let’s not forget that our friends in The Americana Music Association just concluded their annual convention, also hosted here in Music City.

Like IBMA, AMA is a music trade association that works with artists, record companies, media, festivals, agents and anyone working in the field to bring attention and a wider audience to the genre.

They answer the question, “What Is Americana Music?” thusly:

Americana is American roots music based on the traditions of country. While the musical model can be traced back to the Elvis Presley marriage of hillbilly and R&B that birthed rock ‘n’ roll, Americana as a radio format developed during the 1990s as a reaction to the highly polished sound that defined the mainstream music of that decade. By also including influences ranging from folk to bluegrass to blues and beyond, Americana handily bridges the gap between Triple A radio and mainstream country.

Their annual Americana Honors and Awards Show was held last Friday night (9/22) at The Ryman Auditorium, with artists as stylistically diverse as Neil Young, Charlie Daniels and Robinella being honored.

The Tennessean covered the show, and you can read their review from the 9/23 issue online.

It appears that Pine Mountain Railroad has made a number of personnel changes, with one rebounding into Nothin’ Fancy.

Mandolinist Cody Shuler has taken over management of PMR, and is bringing in some new faces. We understand that guitarist Jerry Butler is gone, and banjo player Kipper Stitt will be leaving just after IBMA week.

Coming in to play banjo will be Eli Johnston, who until just last week was playing bass with Nothin’ Fancy. His leaving brought about a happy reunion for Nothin’ Fancy fans, as original bassist Tony Shorter has decided to return to traveling full time with the band.

I’m sure that we can pick up some more details later today when folks start schlepping down into the exhibit area.

We shared the news last month about Rigel mandolins going out of business - sad news for devotees of their unorthodox mandolin designs. Now comes news (reported by Mandolin Café), that former Rigel co-owner Peter Mix is collaborating with Will Kimble of Kimble Mandolins to create what they describe as the world’s first carbon fiber mandolin.

(see update below) Also involved in this venture are the folks at Luis and Clark, who have pioneered the building of carbon fiber instruments in the viol family, using a design where the back, sides and neck are molded as a single piece. I’m not sure whether Mix and Kimble will use this uni-body approach with the mandolins, but will see what we can find out.

They will build and market these new mandolins as New Millennium Acoustic Design, and go as NewMAD. Read the full press release at Mandolin Café.

I belive that Will Kimble is here at IBMA, so I will try to run him down and see if they have a prototype with him we can photograph, and hopefully get more information about this new venture.

UPDATE 8:54 a.m.: I just got in touch with Peter Mix, who shared these comments:

I wish we had photos to share, but it’s just too early. If we stay on track, we should have a prototype by the end of October and this will give us a lot to work with. I assume that we’ll have some internal tweaking to do in order to dial in the voice, but we can then shoot photos and provide specs.

Peter promised to keep us updated about the NewMAD mandolin, and we will pass along whatever we receive.

UPDATE 9:05 a.m.: I also hooked up with Will Kimble, who indicated that Luis and Clark are not involved in the NewMAD venture, but had provided the inspiration to Peter Mix to consider using similar technology for mandolins.

The Isaacs returned from The National Quartet Convention in Louisville, KY with a number of new awards for their overburdened trophy shelf.

The group performed several times during the NQC event, and heard their names a number of times at the 2006 Fellowship Bluegrass Gospel Awards (9/14). They won the Favorite Group award, Becky Isaacs Bowman won Favorite Female Artist, and Ben Isaacs won Favorite Male Vocalist.

The next day, they did nearly as well at the 2006 SGN Scoops Diamond Awards, also in Louisville. There, they were named as Bluegrass Gospel Artist of The Year, and Sonya Isaacs was chosen as Female Vocalist Of The Year.

Congratulations, one and all!

Brance and I are here in Nashville, and will begin posting news (and photos) as our IBMA schedules allow. We had intended to pass along a few bits last night, but apparently the folks at the hotel were flummoxed by the notion of any guest needing to have two computers online at the same time.

That’s now resolved, and we will start assembling and erecting our trade show exhibit shortly.

I’ll try to post photos of the many exhibit vendors setting up if the opportunity allows.

Brance and I are heading to Nashville, arriving Sunday afternoon at the scene of the upcoming IBMA World Of Bluegrass and Fan Fest.

We’ll post with whatever news we pick up on the ground, as well as any photos we are able to take and/or obtain on site.

Our comprehensive list of IBMA and IBMA-related events will be available all week on The Bluegrass Blog, and we’ll keep a link near the top of the left hand sidebar throughout the week. This list is searchable by keyword (arrtist name, sponsoring agency, etc), by day, and by event type. Your search results can be formatted to print - if you have a printer with you.

We encourage anyone who is attending the various IBMA-week events to post their impressions on The B, our user-dominated section of The Bluegrass Blog. Likewise, if you want to highlight something you think readers/attendees might want to catch during the week.

You’ll need to be a registered user to post on The B, but that is a free, quick and painless process. Once you are registered/logged in, you’ll see the “Add A Post” link in the navigation at the top of the page.

If you will be attending IBMA, please stop by and visit us at The Bluegrass Blog booth in the Exhibit Hall. See you there!

Bluegrass singer/songwriter-turned radio host Chris Jones has a new CD out. It’s entitled Too Far Down The Road, and is his debut release on Little Dog Records.

The new project was produced by Pete Anderson, who produced the early recordings from Dwight Yoakam, and is credited with helping develop his honky-tonk sound. Anderson has also had success producing such wide ranging artists as kd lang, Roy Orbison, Sara Evans and Gillian Welch, and was responsible for the hot, chicken pickin’ electric guitar on those Yoakam recordings.

On Too Far Down The Road, Jones and Anderson stretch a bit stylistically from what Chris has favored in the past, including instrumentation and production that encompasses classic country, honky tonk, blues and folk music as well as the understated bluegrass that has been the Chris Jones trademark.

Guesting on the CD are Chris Hillman, Mike Auldridge, Ron Block, Rhonda and Darin Vincent and Chris’ wife, Sally Jones.

There is a single MP3 sample on Chris’ web site, but none that I could find at Little Dog Records.

I thought I’d let all our readers know about a couple events I’ll be involved with at IBMA next week.

On Tuesday the 26th from 10 to 11:45 I’ll be a panelist at a discussion entitled Internet Promotions: MySpace and Beyond! The focus of the panel is on maximizing your efforts at online promotion. We’ll talk about MySpace obviously, and also give you some pointers and tips for other things you can do to promote you business/band online. It should be a good discussion, one at which I’m sure I’ll learn some valuable things. The other people on the panel are Scott Rouse, John Gusty, David Gales and Jane Grimes (the moderator).

Then on Wednesday the 27th from 4-6 p.m. I’ll be doing mentor sessions on the topic of Bluegrass Podcasts & Internet Promotions. I’m not sure how much we’ll get into podcasts on Tuesday, but we can talk about it on Wednesday if anyone is interested.

The mentor sessions are a little different from the panel discussion in that I’ll be the only one involved in this topic and the mentor sessions are one-on-one 20 minute meetings where I can try and help you with your podcast or online promotions. I’ll have my laptop with me at the session although I’m not sure if I’ll have access to an internet connection in that room. There are also a bunch of other great topics you can choose from for mentor sessions. All of them are being led by great people with a lot of wisdom to share. This is an opportunity you should really take advantage of if you’re attending IBMA.

I did the mentor sessions last year as well and they were a lot of fun. I got to meet some wonderful people and really enjoyed it. If you’re interested there will be a sign up sheet in the foyer outside the ballroom (just down the hall from the registration area) starting Tuesday morning, September 26th, at 8 AM. There are only 9 time slots available so sign up early!

Barry Abernathy will be the featured guest today on The Story with Dick Gordon, aired on WUNC (North Carolina Public Radio). Barry is the banjo player with Mountain Heart, and performed previously with both Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver and IIIrd Tyme Out.

You would never know it from hearing his music, but Barry had much to overcome in establishing a career as a professional musician. He was born with a deformity of his left hand, and has no fingers - only a thumb and several partial digits. Barry cultivated a fascination with the banjo at a young age, and developed a technique that was within his reach, playing over the top of the neck rather than wrapping the hand around from below. He uses his thumb and the knuckles of his partial fingers to fret the notes, modifying common fingerings and chord shapes allow him to play effective and authentic bluegrass style banjo.

There is much to admire about Barry, and succeeding against great odds is only one thing among many. His tone, command of time, meticulous execution and impeccable sense of appropriateness set him apart as a banjo player without regard to his physical challenges. On top of that, he has consistently refused to trade on his handicap, resisting the “show biz” urge to portray himself primarily in that fashion.

Even more admirably, when he does address it publicly or on stage, it is with humor and a great comfort with his situation. A running joke that involves my company, AcuTab Publications, is always a hit with audiences when he tells it on stage. Barry will mention how other prominent banjo players have had transcription books of their solos published by AcuTab, and then suggest that he has one called “AcuNub,” with every page showing a one finger bar chord diagram.

The interview with Gordon for The Story centers on Barry’s learning to play without fingers. It can be heard today, September 22, at both 1:00 and 8:00 p.m. on WUNC. The station can be heard on 91.5 in central NC, and is streamed live online.

The Story also maintains a show archive, or you can subscribe to receive their podcasts if you miss the show live.

Just a quick reminder to anyone who will be attending the IBMA World Of Bluegrass and Fan Fest: Our searchable, printable version of the IBMA week schedule of events is available now on The Bluegrass Blog, and will be up all next week as well. It includes all of the official IBMA events (day, evening and after hours), as well as various other on and off site events.

You can search the events here, and will be able to find a prominent link near the top of our left hand sidebar throughout IBMA week (9/25-10/1) to search it while you are in Nashville.

Banjo player extraordinaire, Alison Brown will be a featured performer on The Grand Ole Opry program this Saturday evening.

She’ll perform during the 9:00-9:30 p.m. and 12:30-1:00 a.m. segments, and though the Opry schedule doesn’t say so, it’s safe to presume that she will have her Quartet in tow.

Tune in on WSM 650 AM out of Nashville, or catch the live WSM audio stream online to hear the program, which runs from 7:30 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 23.

The folks at JamBase, together with Sugar Hill Records and MagnoliaFest have put together a special contest and prize package to celebrate the release of the new Duhks CD, Migrations.

Contest winners will receive VIP passes to MagnoliaFest, held October 19-22 in Live Oak, FL, free camping accommodations, a gas card for travel expenses, plus autographed copies of the new Duhks CD and other memorabilia.

Visit JamBase for all the contest details, and to enter online.

The first music video from Migrations is now available on CMT.com. It’s for the song, Out Of The Rain, which debuted yesterday (9/21) on CMT TV’s Top 20 Countdown.

The list of winners from the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, KS has been posted on the festival’s web site, but finding them is a tiny bit counterintuitive. Once you get to their site, click on “Contests” in the sidebar, then on “Contest Archives,” and then on “2006.” The link for “Recent Winners” displays 2005 results.

Walnut Valley hosts one of the most prestigious music competitions in bluegrass and acoustic string music, so much so that simply using the term, “Winfield,” conveys as much as the official name of the event.

Each year in mid-September, they host competitions for flatpick and finger style guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, autoharp, plus mountain and hammered dulcimer.

Just as we did last year, The Bluegrass Blog will offer live-blog coverage of the International Bluegrass Music Awards next Thursday (9/29) from The Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville. If you aren’t able to attend, or listen to the show live on XM, you can spend the evening here and find out who wins each award as it is announced.

We’ll post the results in real time, and will have photos available shortly after the conclusion of the show.

Now that commenting is enabled on all posts, you’ll also have the ability to share your thoughts about the IBMA members’ choices, or start your own discussion thread on The B.

The problems we experienced last year that prevented some visitors from reaching the site during the Awards Show live-blog have been precluded by some recent server changes. We anticipate no difficulties this year, even with greatly increased traffic on 9/29.

Mark your calendar, set a To Do prompt, and spend next Thursday evening with us - live from The Grand Ole Opry!

The folks at Flatpicking Guitar Magazine have posted a nice photo gallery from the 35th Annual National Flatpicking Guitar Championship, recently concluded in Winfield, KS. They have three pages of photos, taken during the competition itself, and from the warm-up area.

They also have a brief description of the contest, and the winners in the flatpicking competition - like top prize winner Matt Arcara, shown above.
The newest of FGM’s free monthly lessons is also posted on their site, Tim’s may’s arrangement of Bill Cheathum as played on his CD, Find My Way Back.

Studio Special, XM Satellite Radio’s weekly program of live performance and interviews with bluegrass artists, has a mix of their most popular shows set to run during IBMA week.

Instead of one new show, airing multiple times over the course of a week, the shows starting tomorrow (9/22) will feature a different encore program each time the show airs through September 29.

Here is a breakdown of IBMA week episodes of Studio Special:

Times above are Eastern.

All of these shows will include live (in studio) performances, and interviews with XM’s Bluegrass Junction host Kyle Cantrell, and can be found on XM Channel 14.

On Wednesday (9/27) they will run an encore of the 2005 IBMA Awards Show at 6:00 p.m., and will have coverage of the 2006 Awards from The Grand Ole Opry House on Thursday evening (9/29) starting at 9:00 p.m.

UPDATE 6:00 p.m.: The Ricky Skaggs show on 9/29 is not an encore, but a new show that will debut that day, and run through the following week.

We posted last month about our plans to involve a number of intern bloggers on The Bluegrass Blog during IBMA week in Nashville. We have a few folks lined up, who will help us provide a variety of vantage points and impressions of the many World Of Bluegrass activities, but can bring a few more into the fold if there is an interest.

Please contact us if you will be attending and would like to participate - as a blogger, or a photographer. You can read a few more details in our original post.

Banjo player Noam Pikelny is a mighty busy guy this fall. It seems like any time you investigate what is happening in the world of progressive bluegrass and acoustic music, his name pops up.

Until recently, Noam was a member of The John Cowan Band, a position he held for a little over two years, and left just this past weekend. Tony Wray is taking that gig.

Noam is prominently featured on the new Chris Thile CD, How To Grow A Woman From The Ground, and is currently touring with Thile and the other players on that recording. They are being billed now as How To Grow A Band, but will shortly fold that into The Tension Mountain Boys, as Chris reported in his recent GrassCast interview. (Chris’ MySpace page indicates that the new band will be introduced in a Carnegie Hall concert on March 17, 2007.)

Look for Noam to also sub for Greg Liszt on two tours with Crooked Still - on the west coast in early October, and on the east in early November. Greg had done shows with Bruce Springsteen earlier this year, and will be out with him again in the fall.

You can sample Noam’s music on his web site, or his MySpace page.