Katherine Cole reviewed Chris Thile’s latest CD, How To Grow A Woman From The Ground, for Voice Of America in a broadcast on November 15. There isn’t much in the way of news in her review, and readers of The Bluegrass Blog will not learn much they don’t know from reading or listening to the VOA feature.

I note it primarily to point out the fact that a great many people all over the world may learn of the CD, and hear samples of the music, through it being included in a VOA broadcast.

VOA describes itself and its mission thusly on their web site:

The Voice of America, which first went on the air in 1942, is a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. government through the Broadcasting Board of Governors. VOA broadcasts more than 1,000 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural programming every week to an estimated worldwide audience of more than 115 million people.

Cole covers folk and Americana music for VOA, and has made bluegrass part of her reports on a recurring basis. You can hear the audio for her Thile review on the VOA web site.

Here’s a feel-good story, one about which we have been aware for a few weeks, but have waited until now to mention, once the episode played out. As an admission of interest, let me say up front that it involves a good personal friend of mine, Steve Huber, who is also an advertiser here on The Bluegrass Blog. Without regard for that, the story involves an admirable act on Huber’s part, one worthy of wider attention.

Several weeks ago, a friend mentioned to Steve that he had seen a posting on the BanjoHangout.org discussion boards from Maj. Corey Seats, an Operations Officer with the 875th Engineer Battalion, stationed in Iraq.

Corey posted asking if anyone might have a banjo available for sale at a modest price which he could keep with him on the base. His batallion, an Arkansas National Guard unit from Jonesboro, spends their days looking for Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), and he had been leery of shipping his personal banjo over to Iraq.

Huber’s first reaction on hearing about this was that he wanted to do something, and asked his friend, Dave Foster, who frequents the BanjoHangout, to contact Corey and ask that he email Huber directly. Once they got in touch, Huber told Corey that he would like to assemble one of his Lancaster model banjos from parts he had on hand in the shop, and ship it to the base at no charge, along with one of his Huber capos and a strap.

Needless to say, Seats was floored by the offer, and very appreciative of Huber’s generosity.

“Man, I don’t know what to say. Thank you doesn’t cover it! It certainly wasn’t my intention to try to get a free banjo! I am very familiar with your banjos, and those that play them. Jim Mills, Barry Abernathy, Sammy Shelor, and Cia Cherryholmes are all favorites of mine. I’ll have to put on my Jim Mills DVD (yes, I brought it with me), and TRY to match him note-for-note!”

He received the banjo a few days ago, and sent along this photo of himself with his new Lancaster.

Huber said that he didn’t see this as such a big deal, and was happy to have been able to do something concrete in return for the sacrifice these men and women in uniformed service make on a daily basis.

“You think about those guys over there risking their lives, and want to do something to show your appreciation other than just sending money to an organization somewhere. This opportunity to do something for Corey just landed in my lap, and I feel grateful for the chance, even if it only helped this one guy.”

Corey Seats has been playing banjo for more than 25 years, though only seriously for the past four. His home is in Jonesboro, AR, where he lives with his wife and two small children. He has been in the military for 14 years, in the National Guard this past 11.

He now describes himself as a “Huber customer for life.”

On a related note, you may be interested in the efforts of Operation: Music Aid, who help obtain musical instruments for the use of US military members who are in recovery or rehabilitation for injuries incurred during their service.

Charlie Daniels has also been involved in helping get musical instruments to service men and women stationed overseas through Operation Heartstrings. He discussed this with us in a GrassCast interview last year, which you can hear online.

Wildfire guitarist/vocalist Robert Hale is working on a solo project, according to the Wildfire web site. They don’t say much about the material or the guest artists, except to say that many of Robert’s long time musical friends and collaborators will be involved.

Prior to joining Wildfire in 1990, Hale had been a member of JD Crowe & The New South, and was a founding member of the group Live Wire, which also included Scott Vestal on banjo and Wayne Benson on mandolin.

The CD will be released on Pinecastle Records, possibly by the spring of 2007. We’ll post with more details about this CD as we find them.

We posted last week about some of the press coverage from China of the current Sparrow Quartet tour. The band features Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn on picked and non-picked banjo respectively, with Casey Driessen on fiddle and Ben Sollee on cello.

There is a fascinating video up on YouTube that shows the Sparrow Quartet jamming with members of Hanggai, a Mongolian folk band, on the roof of a building in Beijing. The clip opens with the assembled musicians playing what I presume is a traditional Chinese melody, and progresses to Bela showing them the traditional fiddle tune, Sourwood Mountain.

Interviews with the musicians are conducted in their native languages, with English subtitles provided on the YouTube video, and Chinese subtitles on this version of the video on tudou.com.

The part that I found fascinating is the common musical ground the musicians found despite the cultural gulf between their backgrounds. Washburn, who has studied in China and speaks the language well, is essential to making this musical bridge work. Both she and Bela discuss the reactions to their music in China in the course of this clip.

The video is also available on the Danwei.TV site, which has some additional links about this tour, which now seems to be concluded.

Our sources tell us that Larry Keel is in the studio this week with his band Natural Bridge, working on a new bluegrass CD. The CD is a mixture of familiar bluegrass numbers, like Groundspeed, and original compositions by various band members. The CD is being cut live in the studio with as little overdubbing as possible.

A title has not yet been announced but Larry says an early spring release is planned.

Listen now: (IE users click to activate)

This week’s guest on The GrassCast is Tim Shelton of NewFound Road. Their latest CD, Life In A Song, was released the end of September 2006. Tim and John discuss the CD and preview several of the tunes including one written by Tim Stafford and another by Tom T. Hall.

Tim also introduces each of the band members and discusses their role in the band.

Another topic of interest to some listeners, will be their discussion of how NFR got signed to Rounder Records, and the benefits they’ve seen from being on the label. All aspiring bluegrass bands hoping for a record deal should give this a listen.

Direct Download: ep52_tim_shelton.mp3

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We found a nice profile of Louise Scruggs in the November 13 edition of American Chronicle, which can be read online. She was married to banjo pioneer Earl Scruggs for more than 50 years when she passed away on February 2, 2006.

The article by John Hood covers her impact managing the careers of Flatt & Scruggs, and later Earl himself as a solo artist and bandleader. It quotes Louise from previous interviews, some included in The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Banjo Man exhibit, which was on display this past spring in Nashville.

One quote describes how she came to take charge of Flatt & Scruggs’ business arrangements:

“He was getting ready to leave one day,” said Louise of her almost accidental entry into the music business. “He was in a hurry. He had a name on a notepad and said ‘Here’s a guy in Virginia. Could you give him a call and see if you can set this date up?’ So I took the name and called the guy and booked the date. When he came back home that night, I said, ‘I got that date for you. Do you have any more calls you want me to make?’ He said, ‘Yeah, I have.’”

And the rest, as they say, is history. Read the article on the American Chronicle web site.

To help promote her newly-released Christmas CD, Beautiful Star: A Christmas Collection, Rhonda Vincent has launched an online contest with a 12 Days Of Christmas theme.

This is really a series of 12 contests, involving trivia questions, each running for 2 days before starting over the next day with a new question. The contest began on November 13, with the first episode due to expire today. These two-day contests will continue until the twelfth concludes on Christmas Eve.

Here’s how it works: when each new contest link appears, contestants can view the new Rhonda Vincent trivia question. The 12th person to email the correct answer to the address provided will get to choose among 12 prizes, which include a 12 minute personal phone call from Rhonda, a private tour of The Martha White Express (her tour bus), backstage Opry passes, an autographed mandolin or mini-guitar, and other personalized merchandise.

You can hear audio samples from Beautiful Star: A Christmas Collection on the Rounder Records web site, or in the iTunes Music Store.

We discussed this CD with Rhonda during her August ‘06 GrassCast interview, which you can hear online.

Avatars are those small icons that are used to identify users in online discussions, or in more complex form, in many online games. If you frequent such sites, you may have seen them before, though the word, or its use in this setting, may not be familiar.

The term is borrowed from Hindu philosophy, and is taken from the word Avatāra, a Sanskrit term meaning “descent,” used to refer to the various incarnations on earth of divine beings.

Gravatar.com is a site that regulates gravatars (globally recognized avatars), icons that can be used to identify a user with the same image on different bulletin boards and discussion sites. We chose to use Gravatar.com when we launched The B, our user-driven section of The Bluegrass Blog, because it was so widely used, and integrated their system into ours.

Unfortunately, just at the time when we launched The B - and enabled commenting on all posts - Gravatar.com stopped accepting new submissions to allow them to update their system. What had been initially promised as a process of a few weeks dragged into months, but everything is back up and running now, and we urge our registered users to submit a gravatar.

Every registered user here at The Bluegrass Blog is automatically assigned our default gravatar, shown here to the right. It is a simple thing to upload your own custom icon via gravatar.com, and once your icon is approved (obscene, profane or pornographic images are not allowed), it will appear alongside any posts you make on The B, and any comments you add there, or to posts on the front page of The Bluegrass Blog.

Your custom gravatar can be a small image of yourself, your favorite musical instrument, your pet, or a graphic of your own design.

There is no fee to register and submit a gravatar, and we hope that our readers and commenters will visit Gravatar.com and do so soon.

We found a link on Pete Wernick’s web site that points to the audio from a recent edition of Etown, the weekly radio show hosted by former Hot Rize bass man Nick Forster. The show included one of the occasional reunion performances by Hot Rize, plus an appearance by Earl Scruggs.

Scruggs’ segment starts off with Rob Ickes leading the band through Foggy Mountain Rock, followed by a version of John Hardy. Nick Forster then interviews Earl about how he came to develop his groundbreaking banjo style, which Earl describes in his typically understated and unassuming manner. He also speaks about the early days performing on the road and on TV with Flatt & Scruggs, and how he came to be associated with The Beverly Hillbillies.

After the discussion, the band returns to play The Ballad Of Jed Clampett and Foggy Mountain Breakdown. The music is fine, of course, but for many Scruggs-o-philes, the interview may be the more enjoyable part of the show.

There is a direct link to the audio on Wernick’s site, or it can accessed directly via the Etown archives. Access to the archives is restricted to registered users on the Etown site, so if you feel that you are “getting over” by using Pete’s direct link, you can register and get the audio from this and other Etown programs.

Speaking of Wernick’s web site and Hot Rize…

Pete now has two bits of sample video up at Dr.Banjo.com taken from the recently released Hot Rize concert DVD, shot in 1987. One is the band performing Keep Your Lamp Trimmed And Burning, and a song from their bus mates, Red Knuckles & The Trailblazers doing One Woman Man.

These are Quicktime files of one entire song each, and may take a few minutes to download or open in your browser.

Our good friend and fellow laborer in this business of blogging, Sharon Smith, has posted some photos and comments from Billy Smith’s 50th birthday party held at the Station Inn on Sunday. Her post includes photos of husband Terry Smith, Del, Ronnie, and Rob McCoury, Earl Scruggs, Ronnie Bowman, and more.

Billy is a great songwriter and the birthday bash looks like it was a lot of fun, sorry I missed it. Happy birthday Billy!

David Grisman is among the list of judges for the upcoming 2007 Independent Music Awards. It seems they like to choose mandolin players to represnt bluegrass and acoustic music, as Chris Thile was a judge at the 2006 IMAs. The IMAs are intended to provide real career opportunities for the winners. The winners will be strongly promoted to over 9 million music fans through print, radio, and online promotions via the events co-sponsor, Border’s Books & Music.

The IMAs recognizes excellence in Music, Music Promotion, Packaging and Merch Design. The program’s year-long marketing campaigns, partnerships and distribution alliances put IMA Winners and Finalists in front of millions of music fans and industry decision makers around the world.

Some of the benefits awarded to winners are:

• Featured in the 2007 edition of The Musician’s Atlas
• Artists info will be posted on the IMA online jukeboxes. The jukeboxes also include clickable links to artist websites.
• More than 9 million Borders Books and Music customers, music fans and industry pros will be directed to the IMA jukeboxes via targeted promotions throughout the year.
• Promoted in print, broadcast and online media campaigns.
• Their CDs will be available for sale at BordersStores.com.
• 10,000 copies of the IMA Winners CD will be distributed to music fans and industry movers and shakers at music conferences, festivals and other events throughout the year.
• The IMA CD compilation will be promoted to college radio stations throughout North America

The December issue of Golf Digest contains a list of the Top 100 Musicians. Our very own Dan Tyminski has been ranked #11 on the list in a three way tie with Lloyd Cole and Alice Cooper.

Golf Digest ranks the musicians based on the U.S. Golf Association’s Golf Handicap and Information Network along with state associations and numbers provided by publicists, friends, and playing partners.

With a maximum recommended handicap of 36.4 (for men), Dan’s is a very respectable 5.3. Other musicians we’ll claim who also made list are Vince Gill at #2 with a 0 handicap, Joe Diffie ranked at #32, and Charlie Daniels came in at #91. These are the ones on the list that I’m willing to claim anyway. Check the list out for yourself here.

There was a review of Bradley Walker’s debut release, Highway Of Dreams, featured on yesterday’s edition of Fresh Air, carried on most NPR affiliate stations.

The review by Ken Tucker focuses almost entirely on Bradley as a country singer, and discusses his MD briefly - about as much as he mentions the bluegrass aspect of his music.

You can listen to the review on the NPR web site.

Banjo pickers all over the US have come to rely on Arthur Hatfield of Glasgow, KY as a reliable luthier, set up man, and and more recently, banjo builder. His Hatfield Banjos have been well regarded since they were introduced, and Arthur also performs as a member of Arthur Hatfield & Buck Creek.

We were saddened to learn from our friend Dave Jack that Arthur was recently injured in a shop fire, resulting in 2nd and 3rd degree burns to his hands, arms and face. He is expected to recover fully, but may have to endure a long and arduous process of skin grafts and therapy before he can consider returning to work.

Like so many small, self-employed entrepreneurs in and around bluegrass music, Arthur’s resources are not vast and several of his friends over at The Banjo Hangout are looking into ways to offer assistance, perhaps through a banjo raffle, or a trust account that can be accessed by Arthur’s wife, Beverly.

For now, friends of Arthur and Beverly Hatfield can send well wishes at the following address:

We will post with updates about Arthur’s condition, and how our readers can be of assistance as we get more information.

Chris Thile has recorded a solo set for Reg’s Coffee House, a show broadcast weekly from WRAX in Birmingham, AL, hosted and produced by Scott Register. He regularly includes live, in-studio performances, recorded especially for his show, and Chris was on hand recently to promote material from his latest How To Grow A Woman From The Ground CD.

Four songs from Thile’s set can be accessed online, all performed with only Chris’ voice and mandolin accompaniment. Fans of the new CD should find these sparse arrangements forming an interesting contrast with the recorded versions. The songs are Heart In A Cage, Stay Away, You’re An Angel, and I’m Gonna Cry, and Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground.

The flack Chris took for including what strikes us as a gratuitous profanity in the opening line of Heart In A Cage must had had some effect, as the line has been bowdlerized for this show.

If the link for the Thile audio doesn’t show up on Reg’s Recent Shows page, it should be in their Archives.

There is also a live Nickel Creek set on Reg’s site, recorded about a year ago. That show includes six songs: When In Rome, Jealous Of The Moon, Nice Dream, Reason’s Why, The Smoothie Song and Scotch & Chocolate.

Bluegrass booking agency Roe Entertainment has announced the addition of Jesse McRynolds to it’s artist roster. Jesse should need no introduction to bluegrass fans. In addition to McRynolds Roe has also recently added Karl Shiflett & Big Country, and The SteelDrivers. These additions have doubled the number of artists Roe is booking. Prior to this the roster included Lonesome River Band, Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper, and Randy Kohrs & The Lites.

With six artists now the roster I suspect Jim Roe is going to be busy acquiring bookings for next year. Hopefully he’ll keep all his artists busy as well. If you are an event producer and would like more information you can visit Roe Entertainment on line at www.roeentertainment.net or via the info below.

Contact Information:

Jim Roe
Roe Entertainment
PO Box 128186
Nashville, TN 37212

Office: 615-770-2622 ext 10
E-mail: roeent@bellsouth.net

The July 2007 Alaska Bluegrass Cruise looks to be a great event. The line up of artists participating this year by performing and teaching workshops is sure to make it a success. Blue Highway, The Claire Lynch Band, and The Infamous Stringdusters will all be performing.

The various band members will also be teaching workshops each morning. A songwriting workshop is planned with Claire Lynch and Tim Stafford. And harmony singing workshops are being arranged as well. Here are some of the other workshops that will be available.

• Guitar: Tim Stafford, Jim Hurst, and Chris Eldridge.
• Banjo: Jason Burelson and Chris Pandolfi
• Mandolin: Shawn Lane, David Harvey, and Jesse Cobb
• Fiddle: David Harvey and Jeremy Garrett
• Dobro: Rob Ickes and Andy Hall
• Bass: Missy Raines, Wayne Taylor, and Travis Book

And did I mention the boat is going to Alaska?! It’s a seven day cruise that leaves July 1, 2007 from Vancouver, BC. It is a popular cruise and the last two years all available cabins have sold out by February. If you are interested in attending you should book as soon as you can.

To book a cabin call Rick Biel, at Carlson Wagonlit Travel 1-800-848-348

I recently discovered the photo-blog of photographer Mark Hamilton. Mark has some really great images on his blog, a couple of which will be of interest to the bluegrass community. Since his site is all about the photos I’m not going to post them here, I’ll just link to them. You’ll have to visit him to see the photos.

J.D. Crowe - at the Paramount Arts Center, Ashland, KY (Sept 2004)

Jere Cherryholmes - at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN (Nov 2006)

With the recent mid-term elections behind us, it’s now time to start the campaigning for the really important stuff, Mayor of Bluegrass. Wichita Rutherford has just announced his decision to run for the office over on his blog. The only other candidate to announce a bid for the position is Trent Dobbins. Mr. Dobbins is a real estate appraiser in Harrison County Mississippi.

UPDATE 12/2/2006: It seems we had the wrong Trent Dobbins. The Mr. Dobbins who is running against Wichita in this election is actually an importer of  organic salmon and he lives in Beverly Hills.

Wichita is exuding confidence at this point in the campaign.

The opposition, Trent Dobbins, is a fine man I’m sure, but I’m the best man for the job.

Wichita’s confidence may be well founded as early polling suggests Wichita has a slight lead amongst likely voters.

Neither candidate has yet to announce a platform or take a stance on the issues facing voters during this election cycle. Personally I’d like to hear what each of them has to say about the following issues.

1. Will they increase the number of bluegrass police officers present at jam sessions to prevent terrorists from playing tupperware guitars?
2. Is it bluegrass if it doesn’t have a banjo?
3. And finally, what are they going to do about the unemployment rate among banjo players?

We’ll do some research and bring you more information about the candidates and what they believe in the coming weeks. You can read Wichita’s complete announcement here.