Mountain Heart will be a featured performer on the 11/25 edition of The Grand Ole Opry on WSM radio out of Nashville. They will perform during the 9:30-10:00 p.m. and 12:30-1:00 a.m. segments (EST).

Also on the show this week are Mike Snider (8:00-8:30 and 10:00-10:30 slots) and Bobby Osborne & The Rocky Top X-Press (8:30-9:00 p.m. and midnight-12:30 a.m. slots).

If you live within WSM’s substantial broadcast range, you can tune in at 650 AM from Nashville. If not, you can 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, November 25.

Highlights of the audio broadcast are also available in the WSM audio archives if you miss the broadcast.

Legendary dobro flatpicker Tut Taylor will be Dennis Jones’ guest on this week’s edition of Goin’ Across The Mountain on WNCW. The show airs at 1:00 p.m. (EST) on Saturday, November 25, and can be heard over the air in the Charlotte, NC area at 88.7 FM, or via live online streaming at WNCW.org.

Dennis passed along a quick overview of his discussion with Tut.

“He talks about his soon to be released project with Norman and Nancy Blake, Shacktown Road, his days in starting and running the GTR shop, the Crafters Of Tennessee instrument company, working with Roy Acuff at The Opry, and of course the Aero Plane Band and John Hartford. He was funny, insightful and very candid.”

To hear the interview live, just visit the WNCW website and click the Listen Live button in the upper left.

There are a lot of bluegrass songs that reference cabins. Not the resort kind of cabin, I’m talking about the real deal, cabins people actually lived in. On the day after Thanksgiving I thought I’d direct your attention to a series of posts that talk in detail about the history and construction of cabins in Appalachia.

The posts can be found over at Blue Ridge Gazette and I notice he has some photos of turkeys up for the holiday. But here are the links to the series I’m talking about.

• Log Structures of the Appalachians - Part I
• Log Structures of the Appalachians - Part II - The Log House
• Log Structures of the Appalachians - Part III

On this day when those of us in the United States pause to reflect on the many blessings in our lives, Brance and I want to take a moment to express our gratitude to those of you who have supported The Bluegrass Blog over the past year.

That includes the many people who visit the site on a regular basis, and who recommend us to your friends. Thanks for spending part of your day with us online, and for sharing news that may be of interest.

Thanks also to our registered users for contributing to The Bluegrass Blog on The B, and by offering comments to our posts.

We are especially grateful to our many advertisers whose support allows the site to operate. Please consider offering them your custom when making holiday gift purchases this year.

Thanks as well to the publicists, record labels, artists, radio hosts, and others who help keep us informed so that we can share bluegrass news with our readers.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

I’ve often wished I had a theme song, you know, something menacing that would play when I walked in a room? I’ve always envied Darth Vader in that regard, but I never gave any thought to compiling a full soundtrack for my life…until now.

Many of you may be familiar with Sista Smiff, she was a guest blogger here on The Bluegrass Blog assisting us with blogging the IBMA Awards Show. She has her own personal blog and I read it regularly just to keep track of what she’s in to. A couple days ago she posted this idea (she got it somewhere else so it’s not original to her) of using iTunes, or whatever your favorite music player is, to create a soundtrack for your life. I did it and thought it was kind of fun so I thought I’d share it with you.

Here are the rules/instructions.

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that’s playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool and no disclaimers allowed.

(more…)

Listen now: (IE users click to activate)

Our guest this week on The GrassCast is bluegrass legend Paul Williams. Paul has a historic career in bluegrass. He’s well known for his singing but many fans may not be aware of his contributions to the music through songwriting. During the interview Paul talks about songs he wrote and then cut with Jimmy Martin. He also talks about the process of writing songs and how he got started writing bluegrass songs.

The interview is a long one so we’ve decided to split it in two. This week is part one and focuses on Paul’s history and how he got started as a songwriter. Next week we’ll continue it and see how Paul is continuing to be a vibrant songwriter who still gets cuts, while at the same time fronting his own band.

Direct Download: ep53_paul_williams.mp3

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There is an interview posted yesterday on jambands.com with David Grisman. It was conducted by Randy Ray, and covers David’s new efforts with his Bluegrass Experience, his new Quintet CD, Dawg’s Groove, his collaborations with Jerry Garcia, and his thoughts on the O Brother, Where Art Thou phenomenon (he didn’t care for the film).

Read the full interview at jambands.com.

Sam Bush will be a guest on the November 25th edition of A Prairie Home Companion on National Public Radio. The show will be broadcast live from Cincinnati, OH, and will also include performances by noted guitarist/luthier Wayne Henderson and steel guitarist Buddy Emmons.

The show is carried on 580 public radio affiliate stations, on the Armed Forces Network, and on Sirius Satellite Radio’s Channel 134. Broadcast times vary from one affiliate to another, with many carrying the live feed on Saturday afternoons, and others running it instead early on Sunday afternoon.

The show will also be webcast live (5:00 - 7:00 p.m. CST), and can be accessed using Windows Media Player on the Prairie Home Companion web site. Past shows are archived on the PHC web site, with audio files usually available by the Monday morning following a weekend broadcast.

Chris Thile will be a guest this afternoon (evening) on BBC 3 Radio’s Late Junction program. The show airs live at 5:15 p.m. (EST), or 10:15 p.m. London time, and features Chris in a largely improvised performance with Scottish musician James Yorkston.

It runs for an hour and 45 minutes, and you can hear the show live via online streaming.

The Thile/Yorkston program will be available in the Late Junction archives for 7 days after the broadcast on November 21, if you miss the live stream.

This post is quite long. I’ve made an effort to present the facts of the legal battle. At the end of the post I leave you with my opinion on the situation and some links for further reading, including the full text of the filed lawsuit.

In an effort to protect copyright holders, MySpace recently announced a partnership with Gracenote to set in place a system to filter unauthorized, copyrighted, works from being uploaded by users. But Universal Music Group says it’s not enough. UMG filed suit friday, Nov 17, 2006, against MySpace for copyright infringement. It really comes as no surprise considering the critical comments label chairman Doug Morris was making last week concerning MySpace.

In the filing UMG states that MySpace “harbors no illusions” that their online community site contains infringing content. They also claim that MySpace

knowingly and intentionally operated it’s business on the fiction that it has obtained the licenses it needs to exist

(more…)

Rounder Records has announced January 23, 2007 as the release date for a new recording that will surely be of interest to our readers. Innovative banjoist Tony Trischka has a new project, based on a banjo duet format, and appropriately titled, Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular.

Trischka solicits double banjo assistance from such luminaries as three finger godfathers Earl Scruggs and Béla Fleck, plus banjo player turned comedian Steve Martin for this 14 track romp. The remaining banjo duets feature Alison Brown, Tom Adams, Bill Emerson, Kenny Ingram, Scott Vestal and Noam Pikelny.

Other contributors include Chris Thile, Sam Bush, Tony Rice, Ron Stewart, Dudley Connell, Tim Stafford, David Grier, Barry Bales and Jerry Douglas, and the music is said to range from traditional bluegrass to the vanguard of new acoustic explorations.

On a Tony Trischka CD? Surely not.

One anticipates that a double banjo CD will be mostly focused on instrumental music, but a number of vocals are said to be featured as well - including a version of Fox On The Run.

I, for one, will be eagerly awaiting a copy of Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular, and will be on the lookout for audio samples, which have not yet appeared on the Rounder Records site. When they do, I’ll be sure to post an update.

Tony will soon be doing a holiday tour in December throughout the northeast, performing Christmas music from his 1995 Glory Shone Around CD. You can find the dates for these shows on his web site.

UPDATE 11/24: Rounder now has audio samples available for Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular available online.

The Sao Paulo Bluegrass Music Association has established a Brazilian Bluegrass Hall Of Fame, which they call The Brazilian Bluegrass Pioneers.

They have started a new section of their web site to honor the musicians who kindled an interest in bluegrass music in Brazil, starting in the 1980s, through both live performances and recordings.

The Hall Of Fame site features a mix of photos and sound files from the early days of bluegrass in Brazil, and can be viewed in either Portuguese or English.

Eric Schlange, webmaster over at BanjoHangout.org, contacted us with information about the benefit raffle they have set up to help raise funds for Arthur Hatfield.

As we have posted previously, Arthur is a banjo builder and friend to the banjo community who was seriously injured in a recent shop fire. This fund raiser will contribute to both his substantial medical expenses, and living expenses for he and his wife, Beverly, until Arthur is able to return to work.

The raffle is for a pre war TB-1 conversion banjo, which Arthur modified by installing a Huber flathead ring and a one piece flange. He also built a five string neck and assembled the banjo, which was donated for this raffle by its current owner, Dave Allen.

Chances are $10 each, and the drawing will occur on December 11, 2007. You can get the details on the raffle on BanjoHangout.org, where you can also purchase tickets online.

Compass Records, the Nashville based label run by banjo player Alison Brown, has recently redesigned their website and is now offering one track each week as a free mp3 download.

The free track as of this writing is not from a bluegrass artist. Compass handles artists that fit in the americana/bluegrass genre, but also covers celtic, jazz, jam, and pop/adult-alternative. Judging by their artist roster I would only expect the free download to be from a bluegrass artist about once every 6-8 weeks, but it’s worth keeping an eye on it. You might find out about some music you weren’t aware of previously.

We told you back in July that recordings were being made at the 2006 Grey Fox festival which would be available for purchase via FestivaLink, a web-based company dedicated to offering high quality festival recordings for sale online.

They work closely with the artists, and live tracks are carefully mixed before release. FestivaLink also operates under a code that seeks to ensure that “fair compensation for everyone involved: artists, songwriters, and presenters” is part of the equation.

Mountain Heart’s Jim VanCleve contacted us last week, brimming with excitement over their Grey Fox audio on FestivaLink. Jim said that he wasn’t sure when the audio files were officially released online, but indicated that the band had just recently “signed off,” giving their complete approval and promoting the Grey Fox audio downloads as the “first ever live recording by Mountain Heart.”

Jim shared a few thoughts about the FestivaLink/Grey Fox concert audio:

“We (Mountain Heart) have been asked about a billion times over the past few years about when we were planning to release a Live recording. So, we are really excited to FINALLY have exactly that available to the people! What’s even better, is that the Live Show we ended up releasing for folks is from one of the highlight Festivals of our touring year, AND at a Prime Time Spot on one of the most Storied stages in all of Bluegrass Music!! …Grey Fox, Saturday night, in the headline spot of the show…

The obvious energy a situation like that can produce… THAT is what a live musical recording is all about!! I can’t wait to hear what people have to say about this performance!”

There are 11 tracks in the Mountain Heart set, taken largely from their current release, Wide Open. 30 second audio samples of each track can be found on the FestivaLink site, where you can purchase the Mountain Heart set in either an MP3 or FLAC format.

Other audio from Grey Fox ‘06 includes shows from Austin Lounge Lizards, The Jerry Douglas Band, Crooked Still, Red Stick Ramblers and Tim & Mollie O’Brien.

When rising country singer Josh Turner released his latest CD, Your Man, in January 2006, we posted that one of the tracks would feature a duet with bluegrass icon Ralph Stanley. Universal Music Nashville has made the full audio from that song, Me and God, available on their web site for free live streaming.

The song has more of a country than a bluegrass feel, though banjo, dobro and mandolin are prominent in the mix, with both acoustic guitar and fiddle solos.

You can listen to the whole track, along with several others, on Josh Turner’s Universal web site.

Native Ground Music has released The Bluegrass Gospel Songbook, with words, music and chords for more than 100 gospel favorites.

In addition to the lyrics and melodies, this new volume includes histories on many of the songs, an overview of how the style developed and tips on singing these songs in a bluegrass quartet style. Suggestions are offered on how to choose the best key, and how to find the right capo position to accompany yourself on guitar.

They have sprinkled the book with dozens and dozens of old photos, and have a companion audio CD available, Old-Time Gospel Favorites, with 13 songs from the book performed in the studio.

You can find a list of songs found in this book, and several MP3 audio samples from the CD, on the Native Ground Music web site.

Hazel Smith is one of the more colorful characters you’ll find on TV. Her cooking segments on such popular programs as Emeril Live and The Ellen DeGeneres Show have made her into a minor celebrity. Her cookbook, Hot Dish: Hazel’s Cooking With the Country Stars, and her personality, have a decidedly country flavor.

Hazel also hosts a show on CMT called Southern Fried Flicks, which runs on Sunday evenings. The format is one that has been a TV staple for decades: screen an older film, and mix interviews and cooking tips in between the breaks.

This week, the show will feature the 1992 “classic,” Pure Country, which boasted of country star George Strait’s big screen acting debut.

Joining Hazel in the studio will be The Grascals, who will crack wise with Hazel as they talk about the band and bluegrass music - and verify the toothsome nature of the table fare.

Look for The Grascals on Southern Fried Flicks this Sunday (11/19) at 9:00 p.m. (ET/PT) and again on Monday afternoon (11/20) at 4:00 p.m. (ET/PT).

Bluegrass fans immediately recognize the name Bill Yates for his many years as a member of The Country Gentlemen. Bill played bass and sang harmony with the band through several line up changes, staying with Charlie Waller for 20 years, starting in 1969.

In early December, Mastershield Records will release a new CD from Bill, entitled The Country Gentlemen Tribute. Bill is assisted on this project by the The Shenandoah Blue Band, whose members include Keith Waddell on guitar, Kevin Mallow on fiddle, Dave MacGlashan on bass, David Propst on mandolin, and Scott Walker on banjo.

Yates sings both lead and harmony vocals on the new CD, with additional lead vocals provided by Darren Beachley (of Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver), Mike Phipps (of Eastern Tradition) and Shenandoah Blue’s David Propst.

It contains 12 songs which Bill had previously recorded as a supporting member of The Gentlemen, including Little Bessie, Redwood Hill, The Secret of the Waterfall, Remembrance of You, Son of a Hickory Holler’s Tramp, I’ll break Out Again Tonight, Walking Down The Line, Heaven, and Two Little Boys.

There are no audio samples up yet on the Mastershield site, but they expect to have them by the time the CD is released next month.

We posted on Monday about Arthur Hatfield, a well-loved and respected banjo builder, who was seriously injured in a shop fire. At that time, we mentioned that efforts were underway to help assist Arthur and his wife Beverly with the large medical expenses they will face, not to mention the substantial loss of income until he can return to the shop.

There are two ways for friends and admirers of Arthur and his banjo work to contribute to funds established for this purpose.

A PayPal account has been set up for donations, through the folks at BanjoHangout.org. All donations sent to hatfield-benefit@banjohangout.org will be deposited into an account to benefit Arthur Hatfield.

If you prefer to donate directly to this account, you can do so at the following address:

If you would like to contact the bank before making a donation, you can call Candace Steen at 270-651-7466.

Additional efforts are afoot to help raise money for the Hatfields, and we will pass along those details as they are firmed up.

UPDATE 11:15 a.m. A minor revision to what appears above… You’ll need to have a PayPal account established in order to send a donation to the hatfield-benefit@banjohangout.org address. If you log in to your PayPal account, you can use the Send Money tab to submit funds to the Hatfield account using hatfield-benefit@banjohangout.org.