Saturday night I took the wife and attended the Alecia Nugent concert in nearby New Castle, Virginia. It should be no surprise that Alecia put on a great show, she’s won awards recently from both IBMA and SPBGMA for her singing. She’s also a fine entertainer. And what a band! With Andy Falco on guitar, Ashby Frank on mandolin, Thomas Wywrot on banjo, and Jennifer Strickland on bass added to Alecia’s vocals, you’ve got a recipe for some great bluegrass music.

The first set opened with the Osborne Brothers standby Listening To The Rain, and a fair number of other standards were sprinkled throughout both sets making for a pleasant mixture of traditional and original tunes. Breaking from accepted practice, Alecia honored a request and ended the first set with a slow sad song from her self titled first CD. The title of the song is Paper and Pen. If you haven’t heard it, you can find audio samples on Rounder’s website. Be warned, it’s a sad one.

Let me give you my impressions about the band Alecia has touring with her now.

I’ve known Andy Falco for several years and have been a fan of his guitar playing since I first heard him set pick to string. Saturday night Andy got an enthusiastic response from the crowd on nearly every guitar solo. There is just something about his bluesy, downstroke driven, aggressive style that has something of Monroe’s mandolin style in it.

Ashby Frank has been a good mandolin player for a long time and he’s only 23, but Saturday night I was really struck by the economy of movement in his right had. I was sitting in the front row and could really see the ease with which he played. It’s very enjoyable to watch a musician with that kind of control over their instrument. I rest easy in the knowledge that bluegrass music will continue to grow, expand, and excel into the future in the capable hands of young pickers like this.

Thomas Wywrot I had known as a guitar player, but I was quite impressed with his ability on the banjo. He was driving and aggressive without being overbearing. He worked the mic like a pro making plenty of room for the guitar and mandolin in the mix. During the first set he played an original instrumental of his own composition that I didn’t catch the name of, but it was an enjoyable tune that got the crowd stirred up nicely.

Jennifer Strickland I didn’t know before Saturday night. I was pleasantly surprised to find she is Missouri girl. Having grown up outside KC myself, I always get a kick out of meeting another Missourian on the bluegrass circuit. She did a great job on the bass and harmony vocals all evening.

And that’s just the band. Alecia herself lived up to her title as the Traditional Female Vocalist of the Year, as recently awarded by SPBGMA. If you’re a fan of good bluegrass singing, you need to make a point to go hear Alecia.

Overall this was a great show. The material was good, the performance was great, the MC work (shared by the entire band) was funny and entertaining, and the whole experience was enjoyable. If Alecia and band happen to be in your area (tour schedule is on her website), I encourage to take the opportunity to go hear some fine bluegrass music from this award winning singer and her band.

H. Russell Farmer (Russ), had spent the last 30 years producing and directing programming for Kentucky Educational Television (KET), one of the largest public/educational TV networks in the country. Numerous broadcasting awards have come his way, and bluegrass fans are in his debt for producing Jubilee, a KET series which filmed live festival performances in the state of Kentucky. The show has been widely syndicated throughout the public television network, and seen all over the United States over its ten year history.

Both at the start of his career at KET, and now in his retirement, Farmer’s professional life has been influenced by the music of JD Crowe. He tells this story of a day shortly after he started at KET as an assistant director in 1975.

“One of the television directors at the time called me in my office one morning and asked if I were busy. I wasn’t. He had a group of musicians in the studio who were recording a program for KET’s first annual Tele-Fund. The Floor Director, the person in the studio in control of starting and stopping the action, was having some degree of trouble being heard over the musicians and would I come down and give them a hand. I did.

The band in the studio that day was J.D. Crowe and The New South which featured arguably the best bluegrass pickers that ever were: J.D. Crowe, Tony Rice, Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Douglas and Bobby Slone. All the guys were great that day and I enjoyed very much working with them. We recorded all that day and I had a great time watching and listening between my duties as Floor Director.”

The videotape of that fine performance - with the pompadour hair and the shiny shirts - became an underground treasure, and was available commercially for a time on VHS. For many folks, watching this video is the only chance they’ll ever have to see the groundbreaking band live.

Last fall, just a few years into his retirement from KET, Russ started a conversation with Crowe that has led to plans for him to create a documentary about the life and times of JD Crowe. It will be funded by the KET Independent Production Grant, offered to qualified independent Kentucky film producers who wish to create a project about Kentucky subjects.

When completed, it will be aired on KET-affiliated stations in KY, and hopefully licensed for distribution to other public television properties through the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA).

We had the opportunity to conduct a lengthy interview with Russ about this project, here he shared his goals and vision for this film, and how you can help! Please read the whole interview if you are interested in this Crowe documentary.

Q. What led you to pursue this concept for a documentary?

A. I love bluegrass music. During the thirty years I worked for KET, I had the chance to work in the field of music quite a bit. I had co-produced a biography of Kentucky folk artist, Jean Ritchie titled “Mountain Born: The Jean Ritchie Story”. It had turned out really well and I had proposed a series of programs at KET which would be titled, “Mountain Born: The _______________Story.” KET was never able to fund that proposed series and I guess I carried the idea all those years. After retiring, I was looking for a project to do and since J.D. Crowe was a neighbor and I had become acquainted with him over the years, it was only natural I gravitated toward doing a similar project with him.

Q. Will Crowe be involved in the making of the film.

A. Yes, J.D. was of course the first person I asked about the project. (more…)

McCoury Music has four tracks from the upcoming Larry Sparks CD, The Last Suit You Wear, available for online listening on their MySpace page. The CD is due for release shortly on the McCoury label, produced by Don Rigsby and Larry Sparks.

The tracks available online are The Last Suit You Wear, For Your Love, Goodbye Little Darlin’ and Casualty Of War. There is one additional track from the Sparks CD on Del’s MySpace page, Those Blue Eyes Don’t Sparkle Anymore, which features Del singing tenor with Larry.

Wichita Rutherford, the podcasting superstar, has just announced that he has moved from Sirius to XM in the satellite radio world.

Wichita’s new show on XM is called The Grand Old Time Machine which is also the name of his upcoming TV show on Blue Highways TV

Kyle Cantrell and the fine folks at XM gave me the ultimate spot for Bluegrass; 5 pm Eastern every Friday on channel 14. (They call that “Drive Time”) As well, I’ll be on for 5 minutes a day throughout the week…

You can read more of Wichita’s thoughts on his blog. What follows here is a special report from one of our roving correspondents, Jim Scott, who had the chance to interview Wichita at a recent event.

WICHITA RUTHERFORD TO ORBIT ON XM

by Jim Scott

Wichita Rutherford; Host of the hilarious 5 minute interview show “5 Minutes With Wichita”, Mayor of Bluegrass and Podcast phenom, was the very first Podcaster to get a deal with SIRIUS Satellite Radio. With his three shows; “5 Minutes With Wichita”, his flagship, on several channels, “The GrooveGrass Show” on the SIRIUS Stars channel and “Nothing New Here” an hour of old Bluegrass and traditional American music on the Bluegrass channel, his popularity netted him an upcoming TV show on the recently launched Blue Highways TV, car commercials and a gig as pitch man for sausage and biscuits as well as grits and a chain of convenient stores. I met up with Wichita at a an after Oscars party where actors and musicians of the highest caliber of fame and fortune wined, dined and schmoozed until the early morning. He had in tow, as well as in the floor laughing, funny men Jim Carrey, Ricky Gervais and hip-hop icon P Diddy. Confirming the rumor he had flown from SIRIUS to XM, he had a few things to say when we talked…

(more…)

Just a reminder that The Infamous Stringdusters will be performing live on WDVX today (3/19) at noon, eastern time. The show, Blue Plate, is broadcast from Knoxville, TN at 89.9 FM, but is also offered online via streaming audio. It is an hour long program.

They will surely be showcasing material from their Sugar Hill debut, Fork In The Road, which was released in late February.

Brance told us in early February that mandolinist Davide Harvey would be leaving his position with The Claire Lynch Band.

Claire has just posted an open letter which David wrote to fans and friends of the band, to share the reasons why he had reluctantly come to the conclusion that he had to make this move. These include the demands of his position at Gibson, and a desire to be at home to spend time with his young daughter.

“Folks, this isn’t farewell….our music community is small and it is a comfort to me to know that my family and I will see you at music events from time to time. I have many projects in the works….I have started production on Moody Bluegrass, Volume II, and will hopefully release a solo project in the near future. I also plan to continue live performances as I can.”

Read David’s letter in full on Clair’s site.

Singer/songwriter Donna Hughes’ recently released her new CD, Gaining Wisdom, and has been touring some to support the release. Today she’ll be on XM satellite radio with host Kyle Cantrell at 11 AM EST. I’m sure they’ll be discussing and playing tracks from the new recording.

As she performs this spring and summer, Donna at times will have a full band with her and at other times it will be more intimate, with her on guitar with one accompianist.

Her tour schedule is available on her website, along with sample clips from the CD as well as a wealth of other information.

With all the talk here on The Bluegrass Blog of late about Internet radio, here’s a new wrinkle on an old staple - a phone-in talk show about banjos, cybercast online.

David Pericone has launched a new site - and a new show - called BanjoTalk. Each Sunday evening at 8:00 p.m. (eastern), he will host a call-in show about banjos, banjo players and banjo music.

David said the format will be familiar to anone who listens to talk radio.

“Callers will call in via telephone to a number that I will give out during the broadcast. This will be just like a radio talk show except our only topic is all things banjo. Hopefully over time the show will grow and I will be able to get some bigger names in the banjo community.”

To listen, just go to the BanjoTalk site, and click on the Listen button. David is still setting up the server, so it’s not active yet, but will be by Sunday evening. He urges anyone with an interest in banjos to listen to the show - and join in the discussion.

Big Sky is the name of the next CD release from Gospel favorites, The Isaacs, which will hit the street on April 24. It was produced by Mark Bright, who has a string of Grammy Awards, and who also produced the latest release from Mountain Heart, Wide Open.

Pre orders are being accepted now on The Isaacs’ site, which also features a special pre order package which includes the new CD, an Isaacs T-shirt and a discount on their new fan club.

The Isaacs have also announced a Scandinavian tour for this summer. They have dates in Norway and The Netherlands in June, with details available on the tour page of their web site.

Church House Hymns, from David Parmley & Continental Divide, is due for a March 25 release on their private label, DP&CD Records. It is a collection of familiar Gospel songs, including ones that have been most requested by fans over the years.

Their intention was to select timeless hymns that many bluegrass fans may have grown up singing in church. Included are such classics as Farther Along, Are You Washed In The Blood (of the Lamb), I’m In The Gloryland Way, Will You Meet Me Over Yonder and Over In the Gloryland.

They have also chosen to feature a re-recording of There Is A Fountain, the groundbreaking a capella song which The Bluegrass Cardinals sang on their first record back in 1975. Ron Stewart guests on fiddle for several tracks on Church House Hymns, and regular banjo picker Dale Perry adds Scruggs-style finger picked guitar as well.

Mandolinist and tenor singer Randy Graham passed along some background on the striking cover shot.

“It’s a church we played in Norway a couple of years back. You can’t see it in the shot, but about 100 yards from the front door, the water in the fjord is 1,200 feet deep, so clear you can see as far as light will penetrate.”

Randy also shared a touching personal reminiscence of fellow former Bluegrass Cardinal, Steve Stephenson.

“As you may recall, Steve added his bass vocal on the original cut of There Is A Fountain. We have known him since the late 60’s. David and I called Steve’s wife, Judy, from the studio Sunday evening, to check up on Steve’s ongoing battle with cancer and arrange a visit with him before festival season got into full swing. Steve was unable to talk on the phone, having received a chemo treatment during the week and was dealing with flu-like symptoms. We passed our bests wishes to Steve via Judy.

Long story short, Steve passed away early the following morning, just hours after we finished up There Is A Fountain. He was a dear friend… we were/are deeply saddened at his passing.”

Church House Hymns will be available from the band at any of their live shows, and from their official web site as soon as it is released on March 25.

As The Del McCoury Band sets their sights on their 10,000th MySpace Friend, they have decided to mark the milestone with a special prize for the Friend who sets the mark.

The 10,000th Friend will receive a copy of the official Del McCoury Grand Ole Opry Induction poster, autographed by Del. Only 100 were printed, and this is the last one from that single run. They will also receive several live recordings of the band.

To join Del’s MySpace Army, visit his MySpace page.

During the course or our interview back in September of 2006, Chris Thile indicated that the How To Grow A Band would eventually become The Tensions Mountain Boys. That metamorphasis is about to occur. Tomorrow, March 17, 2007 The Tensions Mountain Boys will perform live at Carnegie Hall.

This won’t be your ordinary band performance though. Chris and group will be unveiling a 40 minute composition called The Blind Leaving The Blind. The piece consists of four movements and contains intricate instrumental arrangements as well as vocal passages. Don’t be mistaken though, this is no medley of tunes strung together, this is a 40 minute composition. The article on the Carnegie Hall website quotes Chris’ thoughts on The Blind Leaving The Blind.

Musically, I’m just trying to write what I want to hear, and this time I wanted to try my hand at keeping a set of related ideas interesting for 40 minutes

The band has been playing the first movement of the piece during some of the How To Grow A Band performances, but tomorrow night will be the first live performance of the entire composition. In typical Chris Thile fashion, this is sure to be a musical experience that pushes the boundaries of what anyone expects, himself included.

There is a Myspace page in existence for The Tension Mountain Boys, and it contains a link to tensionsmountainboys.com. At the moment though, there is nothing more than a default placeholder page provided by the hosting company. Will we see a new website soon? We’ll just have to wait and find out…

Fans of new young bluegrass phenoms, The Infamous Stringdusters - or anyone curious to learn what they are all about - will have several chances to see and hear them over the next few days.

They will be interviewed on GAC TV’s The Edge of Country show on Saturday (3/17). The show is hosted by Kylie Harris, and airs at 1:00 p.m. with a rebroadcast at 11:00 p.m. The show will also be shown on Monday (3/19) at 1:00 p.m., and again on Tuesday morning (3/20) at 3:00 a.m. All times are eastern.

Banjo picker Chris Pandolfi shared some thoughts on taping the segment with GAC.

“The Edge of Country was some of the first real ‘national’ media attention we have received, and the show went really well. We do many press opportunities as a full band, so it was a challenge to get everyone involved, but we did, in turn showcasing one of our greatest assets - we are a band.

It’s hard to classify exactly what we do, genre-wise, but ‘edge of country’ seems an appropriate catch-all for our music.

I asked dobroist/vocalist Andy Hall what is was like for them, with a new CD out on a major independent label after actively performing without label support for almost two years. He responded with high praise for the folks at Sugar Hill, and said that all was right with his world.

“This is a great time for us, as we have a full touring schedule and a brand new first record. What more does a picker need?”

Andy also mentioned that The ‘Dusters recently recorded a live segment for AT&T blue room, which showcases artists online with both in studio performances and interviews. We’ll be sure to post an update when that is available on the blue room site.

On Monday, the band will be in Knoxville for a live radio broadcast from the studios of WDVX. The show will air from noon to 1:00 p.m. (3/19) on 89.9 FM, and will also be available online via streaming audio.

If you just can’t get enough of The Infamous Stringdusters, you could listen to the WDVX audio stream from noon to 1:00, and then tune in to GAC and catch the interview.

Earl Scruggs will be celebrating the release of volumes 1 & 2 of the Flatt & Scruggs TV show DVDs we told you about here, by signing copies in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum store on March 23, 2007 at 4 PM.

The signing will be limited to the first 150 guests. The line forms beginning at 3:30 PM. Earl will only sign items purchased in the museum, and there is a two item per person limit. Scruggs will not be posing for photos with fans during this event.

Photo by Gretchen Snyder and Steve Stolzenburg, originally posted here.

This week was set to be the start of an east coast tour by Peter Rowan and Tony Rice, in support of their Rounder CD, Quartet. Folks checking on these dates have been seeing cancellation notices, mentioning a recent injury to Tony Rice.

It turns out that Tony hurt his back in a fall at his home, and is undergoing traction therapy this week to try and alleviate the pain and allow his back to heal.

He hopes to be able to return to the stage next week if all goes well, and play the remaining dates currently booked with Peter Rowan. David Bromberg is filling in for Tony for the rest of this week.

Here’s a big Get Well Soon from The Bluegrass Blog!

Our friends at WorldwideBluegrass.com are promoting a pair of petition drives to get two of bluegrass music’s pioneers into the Country Music Hall Of Fame. Both Flatt & Scruggs and Bill Monroe have been inducted, but WWB is hoping to see The Stanley Brothers and The Osborne Brothers inducted as well.

You can add your name and address online, and the folks at WWB will send the petitions on to the Hall Of Fame once they receive 10,000 signatures on each.

The Osborne Brothers petition can be found here, and The Stanley Brothers here.

Folks, it always bothers me when I hear that someone’s instrument has been stolen, but it’s especially troubling when it happens in your own area.

Last week in Blacksburg, VA a 1994 Randy Wood F model mandolin with varnish finish, fern inlay, and the fancy pearl tuners was stolen. The serial number of the instrument is 11294.

The owner is offering a reward for the return of the instrument and may be contacted via an online form on the Mandolin Cafe.

In the continuing fight over royalty rates for internet broadcasters, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) is now coming under legal assault as the webcasters begin to fight back against what many see as an unwise ruling. The CRB recently changed the way royalty fees are calculated for internet broadcasters, resulting in greatly increased royalty fees. You can read previous posts here, here, here and here.

Now the webcasters are preparing for legal action. Both National Public Radio (NPR) and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) have sent their lawyers to D.C. to prepare for a legal battle. The broadcasters will soon be joined by Pandora and, most likely, other commercial broadcasters.

NPR station WXPN General Manager Roger LaMay has been quoted as saying that the ruling serves as a dis-incentive and would cause cutbacks in service from internet broadcasters.

If this were to go into effect it’s going to have public radio stations looking for ways to cut back what we do, as opposed to expanding. Now, there is significant dis-incentive when you’re talking about services that are committed to public service.

LaMay went on to say that independent artists are the ones who will suffer the most from this ruling as they aren’t getting played that much on terrestrial radio so internet broadcasts serve as an outlet for their music.

CNNMoney.com reports today that NPR will be filing a petition with the CRB asking them to reconsider the rate increase, on Friday of this week. Failing that, NPR has vowed legal action.

Adam Jaffe, dean of arts and sciences at Brandeis University thinks the industry is trying to collect the wrong type or royalties from webcasters. (more…)

The Music Link, a California company who distributes a variety of musical instrument lines, many produced in Asia, has announced two new instruments which will be of interest to bluegrass pickers.

First up is the new Artist Deluxe Banjo from Recording King. This is a maple instrument with gold plated and engraved hardware, and is the most ornate Recording King model released to date.

It also features a bound ebony fingerboard, 3 ply rim and 20 hole tone ring. Like all the Recording King banjos, this one was designed by Greg Rich.

The Artist Deluxe carries a retail price of $2449.99. Recording King has a dealer locater page on their site, if you want to see one in person.

Also new from The Music Link is the Palatino Violin Corner Bass. This is a flat back, maple bass with a carved ebony fingerboard, 24:1 geared, single plate tuners, and is available in 3/4 size.

The Violin Corner bass comes with a Padded DuraGuard Nylon Bag and has a retail price of $999.99

Visit the Palatino Musical Instruments web site to find a dealer - either online or at a store near you.

Looking at our visitor statistics, we note that roughly 40% of our readers are first timers. A good portion of these new readers come through Google or Yahoo searches, or from the many placements of our RSS syndication links on bluegrass sites all over the web.

With these numbers in mind, and in response to questions we receive by email, we have decided to post from time to time with information to help new readers take full advantage of the integration and navigational features we use on The Bluegrass Blog. Of course, new readers are always encouraged to visit our New Reader FAQ page, where most any questions that may arise are answered in one place.

Today, we want to talk briefly about Tags - what they are, and how to use them. Tags are like shortcut links to other posts on The Bluegrass Blog that deal with the topic named by the tag. They are typically included just under the post title, one line beneath the post author and date. If you examine the image of a recent post below, you’ll see the tag line, with tags highlighted.

That particular post discussed a YouTube video that featured Jethro Burns performing a talking blues tribute to prominent mandolin players, joined on stage by Red Rector and Bill Monroe. Each of the tags shown (Bill Monroe, Jethro Burns, mandolin, Red Rector, YouTube) would link when clicked in an actual post to all articles we have published about either Bill Monroe, Jethro Burns, mandolin, Red Rector or YouTube.

You’ll notice that this current post has as its tag, About The Bluegrass Blog, and clicking it will display a list of other posts we have tagged that contain information similar to what we have posted here.

We hope that our readers, whether you are new or one of our treasured regulars, will take advantage of tags to find more information of interest here on The Bluegrass Blog.