The Steep Canyon Rangers have put together an 8 minute video bio to introduce themselves, and their upcoming Rebel release, Lovin’ Pretty Women, to the YouTube audience. The video includes a live performance of the title track from the new project, a catchy and humorous band original that mixes traditional bluegrass and old time elements.

The video closes with the audio from Kuykendall, one of two instrumentals from Lovin’ Pretty Women, which one would expect might be a tribute to Pete Kuykendall, publisher of Bluegrass Unlimited magazine, former member of The Country Gentlemen, and a bluegrass mandolinist.

To this date, we’ve not found any audio samples online from the new CD, though they will surely appear on the band’s web site before long.

You catch watch the video bio on YouTube, or enjoy it here below.

We just received a note from Butch Baldassari, good friend to The Bluegrass Blog and anyone who loves bluegrass or mandolin music. Many of our readers may know that Butch, a prolific mandolin performer (Nashville Mandolin Ensemble), instructor and the head of the Sound Art Recordings label, was diagnosed earlier this year with a cancer in his brain, and has been undergoing treatment.

Here is his most recent update:

As of today, 7/24/07, I have completed my 6 weeks of Radiation and pill-based form of chemo Temodar. I was feeling pretty good until about Saturday July 14, then fatigue started to set in and I’ve been pretty tired for the last 10+days or so. My Docs think that the treatment went well and I have another MRI scheduled for AUG 20. After that there’s a chance I may have to take another round of Temodar only. Meanwhile I’m still teaching and playing with Nashville Mandolin Ensemble. I’ve been told it could take at least 6 weeks for my energy to come back ,which would make that date be sometime in September.

All in all, it’s just a great relief to have finished up with this phase of treatment - I‚m still taking energy-balancing treatments, acupuncture and an occasional massage. My macrobiotic diet is getting ready to enter a more “medicinal” phase with various teas and foods that will target the cancer. We will stay on this track at least until the next scan and then see what happens after that.

We extend our continued well wishes to Butch as he battles his illness.

Please also remember that Mandolin Cafe has set up a page to accept donations on Butch’s behalf. Even a small donation would be welcome, and a fine way to give back to someone who has given much to our music.

Some time ago a documentary film about the Station Inn was produced by a friend of mine in Nashville. That film has yet to find it’s way to DVD, but it is in the process. Nathan emailed me yesterday to let me know he had posted a trailer for the documentary online at YouTube.com.

He is still seeking some financial backing for the DVD release, but said he hopes to release the project soon, and eventually even see it broadcast on PBS.

The video features a great many bluegrass performers including appearances by Vince Gill, Del McCoury, Tim O’Brien, Peter Rowan and Vassar Clements. If you’re interested, take 4 minutes and give it a watch.

Over the next few months, while college choices for rising high school seniors are forefront in the minds of many students and parents, we will present a series of interviews on The Bluegrass Blog with administrators/faculty members at colleges and universities where young bluegrass or acoustic musicians might want to study.

You can read all the posts in this series here.

First up is Roger H. Brown, President of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. Brown brings an appreciation for a wide variety of musical styles - including bluegrass and traditional folk music - to his job running one of the most prestigious music schools in the world. He also recently approved the inclusion of both five string banjo and mandolin as principal instruments for study at Berklee.

Like many schools that mix a serious study of music with related disciplines (education, music technology, music business, performance, composition), Berklee requires that every student declare a principal instrument on which they must study for a minimum of two years, regardless of their major.

I asked Roger if the traditional string principal (banjo/mandolin) appealed to him immediately when it was presented.

Absolutely. We already had the foundations of a great string department with Matt Glaser as Chair, himself a highly regarded fiddler and connected to the Mark O’Connor, Bela Fleck axis of hot string players. Cellist Eugene Friesen on the faculty made his mark with the Paul Winter Consort. John McGann is a national flatpicking champion and excellent mandolin player. Dave Hollender had a robust bluegrass ensemble in operation. In addition, we had alumni like Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings writing and performing very successfully, Casey Driessen was touring with Bela Fleck, and Andy Hall and Chris Pandolfi had come together on dobro and banjo with the Infamous Stringdusters. Cellist Rushad Eggleston [Crooked Still] was, to the best of my knowledge, the first at Berklee to be nominated for a Grammy while still a student. The groundwork was absolutely all laid. I just needed to sprinkle some holy water on the initiative. So, what we implemented was an acoustic string principle, adding banjo and mandolin to the existing programs for guitar and violin.

Roger did not study music in college, but entered the business as a self-taught drummer playing blues and funk music. He said that he dropped out of high school band in favor of football.

I wondered how a funk drummer came to be interested in bluegrass.

I love the banjo. My ears always perk up whenever I hear one. I never learned to play, but if I were to live my life over, maybe….

When I visited him in his office earlier this year, Roger spoke of how he became passionate about bluegrass and old time music, and he showed me one of his prized possessions on display.

My great grandfather was a minister and fiddler who lived in the North Carolina mountains near Valle Crucis. I have his fiddle with homemade replacement parts sitting in my office. In high school, we would drive to the Georgia mountains near my hometown and go to dances where bluegrass and traditional Appalachian music was the music of choice.

Roger answered a few more questions about the traditional string principal at Berklee. (more…)

The Music Link has announced a new model in its Recording King banjo line. The Melody King is presented as the entry level model to their roster of professional quality banjos, with the same basic component quality as its more costly cousins (minus the tone ring), but with less ornate appointments.

It is an all mahogany banjo (neck and resonator) with a maple rim and rosewood fingerboard. Instead of the bronze tone ring used on the other Recording King models, the Melody King head rests on the rim, which is shaped flat where the head lays across, but without the rolled hoop common in many non-tone ring banjos.

Recording King indicates that they created this rim with a “perfectly flat bearing edge for maximum acoustic contact with the head.”

The Melody King is offered with a hard shell case and limited lifetime warranty for a retail price of $999.99.

More detailed specs and a dealer locater can be found on the Recording King web site.

Old Crow Medicine Show has released a new music video for their song, I Hear Them All, from their 2006 CD, Big Iron World.

The video was shot recently in the mid-city area of New Orleans by director Danny Clinch, and features a number of New Orleans residents amid scenes of the devastation that still remains from the historically massive hurricane Katrina.

You can catch the video in rotation on CMT, online at CMT.com or on the official Old Crow web site.

The band also recently traveled to Austin, TX to record an episode for Austin City Limits, whose air date has not yet been set.

Music of Coal: Mining Songs from the Appalachian Coalfields is a new two-CD box set released by the Lonesome Pine Office on Youth here in Virginia.

The set contains 48 songs covering topics from coal mining history to union organization. The set was produced by Jack Wright who also wrote the extensive liner notes, which are contained in nicely printed book accompanied by historical photographs of the coal industry.

Songs were contributed to the project by such artists as Ralph Stanley, Dwight Yoakam, Natalie Merchant, Tom T. Hall, Blue Highway and the Carter Family.

The set can be purchased for $35 directly from the Lonesome Pine Office on Youth. Supplies are limited to 5000 units so they won’t be available forever.

Here’s a description of the Lonesome Pine Office on Youth and their mission.

The Lonesome Pine Office on Youth advocates for the needs of youth and families with the objectives of positive youth development, empowerment of families to solve their own problems effectively, identification and coordination of local resources, and through these efforts, the creation of safe and healthy communities which prevent delinquency.

Earlier this month, Ricky Skaggs was interviewed by The Daily Herald newspaper in central Utah. The topic of the piece by Alan Sculley was the recent recorded collaboration by Ricky Skaggs and Bruce Hornsby, and particularly a show they were to play in Salt Lake City on July 8.

The interview stirred up a bit of controversy among bluegrass fans, as a quote that was included struck some as insulting towards the IBMA, and perhaps towards bluegrass lovers more generally.

Skaggs, in a recent phone interview, said the “Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby” CD has been a hit in just about every sector except with the International Bluegrass Music Association.

“They’ve got a chart that they do in their magazine and we’re not even on it,” Skaggs said. “We’ve been No. 1 on the Billboard bluegrass charts for seven or eight weeks now. So I think it’s just jealousy on their part. They’re not playing it very much. But, hey, that’s all right. It just shows their ignorance.”

Comments quickly circulated on bluegrass discussion groups, some quite critical of Skaggs, with the forum on Mandolin Cafe being particularly active in response. The BGRASS-L email list also featured two active threads about the article (here and here).

When we first saw this interview, we were struck by the fact that the interviewer had confused IBMA with Bluegrass Unlimited magazine, and their monthly chart based on radio play. We contacted Skaggs Family Records to see if Ricky might want to clarify his remarks, and received the following response.

“There was definitely confusion regarding the BU chart and IBMA. He meant no ill will toward the IBMA organization. He is an IBMA member and active supporter of the organization. Basically, his comments stemmed from his frustration as an artist who was struggling to understand why a record that has spent 10 weeks or more on the Billboard chart (Ricky Skaggs and Bruce Hornsby) failed to make the cut on the BU chart.

Ricky is passionate about his music, he’s passionate about the music that Skaggs Family Records releases, and it’s very frustrating to him as an artist and as a label head when everyone seems to be embracing the music except for his core audience, which is the bluegrass community, for whom he never hesitates to show his support.

It would be difficult for any artist of his caliber not to take that personally.”

In truth, Skaggs’ remarks might be more accurately seen as directed towards bluegrass radio, or more specifically those who report for Bluegrass Unlimited’s chart. To what degree those who were offended by Ricky’s remarks are mollified, we’ll have to wait and see.

You can read the full Daily Herald article online.

The latest release is now available from Pete Wernick & Flexigrass, previously billed as Live Five. The title, What The, is surely evocative of the reaction they often get when audiences first realize that Pete and his 5 string banjo are fronting a band made up of bass, drums, vibraphone and clarinet.

What The includes 14 tracks, mixing new Wernick originals with popular classics from both the traditional string music and jazz/swing libraries. They describe their music as “a mix of both traditional and modern elements of American roots music.”

Members of Flexigrass are Greg Harris (vibraphone), Bill Pontarelli (clarinet), Kris Ditson (drums), Roger Johns (bass) and Pete Wernick on banjo. Joan Wernick guests on vocals.

There is one audio track from the CD, and several video clips of the band up at Dr.Banjo.com, Pete’s web site. Samples of all 14 tracks are available at CD Baby.

Ron Block, guitar and banjo player with Alison Krauss & Union Station, has posted a number of free tabs on his web site. There are 22 in all, with both banjo and guitar transcriptions included, all available as free PDF/JPG downloads.

Ron has included 3 of his own banjo breaks (Poor Old Heart, Rain Please Go Away), plus classic solos from the playing of his heros: Tony Rice, Clarence White, Don Reno, Larry Sparks, Earl Scruggs and JD Crowe.

Some are typeset in the TablEdit format, while others are scans of handwritten tabs. All are quite legible and should be valuable additions to anyone’s tab library.

Ron asks nothing for these tabs, but requests that pickers honor his request not to post them on other sites. He also promises more to come.

“As time goes on I’ll put more tabs up, and I’ll also transcribe more of my own solos from the AKUS and other recordings. Sometime soon I’ll be doing some guitar and banjo instructional books and videos, so watch for those in the next year or so.”

You can find all the tabs on Ron’s site.

While we’re on the subject of Ron Block… Back in January when Brance interviewed Ron about his then upcoming CD, Doorway, he suggested that while the project wasn’t a bluegrass album by any stretch, that he hoped that bluegrass fans would give it a listen with an open mind. Having listened to it several times myself, I encourage anyone who appreciates his music to give it a shot.

The bluegrass that is included is stellar - as you would expect - and few of the songs are any further outside of the bluegrass mainstream than what Ron records with AKUS.

If you are likely to be bothered by electric guitars or percussion, perhaps you might sample the tracks in the iTunes Music Store, and purchase only the ones that strike your fancy

With Wichita Rutherford you never really know what to expect next and I’ll admit I didn’t see this coming. I guess I should have, I know how much he likes ice cream!

For the next two months Wichita is giving away free ice cream and free milk. He’s got all the details on his site, but basically all you have to do is read and look for the images of the ice cream and milk on his page and be one of the first 10 people to email him (the wording has to be specific so you’ll need to read the rules on his site) and he’ll send you some free milk or ice cream.

I’m not sure exactly what the connection is to bluegrass. He does ask that when contacting him you tell him who your favorite bluegrass artist is, and how long you’ve loved bluegrass. Maybe that’s enough.

Our friend Dennis Jones at WNCW in Charlotte, NC shared with us the news that Horace Scruggs, older brother of Earl Scruggs, passed away on July 19.

Many stories have been told of how the Scruggs brothers would practice as boys, starting a song together in the front yard, and then walking around on opposite sides of the house, until they could meet in the back still playing in time.

Earl wrote in his book, Earl Scruggs And The 5-String Banjo, of their learning to play together.

“My brother, Horace, and I used to spend many happy hours picking away on the banjo and guitar. The combination of the two worked out very well. We would pick on rainy days when we couldn’t work on the farm, and especially on winter nights after we had studied our school lessons.”

Horace’s friend Dr. Bobby Jones, who performed with him in the band Flint Hill, wrote a tribute to Scruggs when he was named recipient of the 2006 Heritage Bridge Award.

Although Horace never made his living as a musician, he certainly had the opportunity. Being Earl’s brother, he was in jam sessions through the years with folks like Bobby Osborne, Marty Stuart, Del McCoury or John Hartford. At one back stage session, no less a critic than Bill Monroe singled him out for his rhythm playing, proclaiming “that’s the way it needs to be.” In spite of his more famous connections, though, Horace was always equally at home playing with his less well known Cleveland County friends who loved to pick bluegrass music, (at least if they kept good time.) The famous still call too, though, and Little Roy Lewis always asks Horace to join him on the stage when he plays shows in the area. A lot of folks wondered why Horace never went on the road. Once I asked him, and his reply was simply, “Well, I always had a job to do.”

You can read that tribute in its entirety online.

Dennis Jones recalls that Horace was a regular listener to Goin’ Across The Mountain each Saturday on WNCW, and would often have his wife call in requests.

“He was one of the good ones. My heart is kinda heavy right now.”

Services for Horace Scruggs will be held on Saturday, July 21 at First Baptist Church in Boiling Springs, NC, with visitation from 1:30 until 3:00 p.m., and a funeral to follow.

The Bluegrass Blogs sends our condolences to the Scruggs family and Horace’s many dear friends.

The guys from the US Navy Bluegrass Band, Country Current, are the featured guests this week on Kyle Cantrell’s Studio Special series on XM Satellite Radio (Channel 14 - Bluegrass Junction). The show aired this morning at 8 AM EST, but will be aired again several times in the next week.

Here’s a list of the air times for the show.

Mondays - 8 PM ET
Tuesdays - Midnight ET
Thursdays - 3 PM ET
Saturdays - 11 AM ET
Sundays - 6 PM ET

The Country Gentlemen 50th Anniversary Celebration concert took place last weekend and it seems the show was taped. No word yet as to whether there will be a DVD release, but it seems likely.

Randy Waller’s website has a video available of the reunion band playing the Country Gentlemen classic Rebel Soldier. What a great sound. Randy sings lead with Doyle Lawson cutting the tenor.

The video is in Windows Media format and the clip is 37 MB, so those with a slow connection will need to be patient. It’s worth the wait though.

Steve Parker and Alan Davis have released a new book of tunes for fiddlers and mandolinists. 150 Hot Tunes for Fiddle & Mandolin contains a mix of American and International tunes transcribed from recordings by notable players, plus a number of classical pieces.

Some of the artists included are: Dave Bing, Rayna Gellert, Brad Leftwich, James Leva, Bruce Molsky, Rafe Stefanini and Tom Sauber, among others.

An accompany audio CD includes MP3 examples of each tune, output from the transcription software from MIDI sound sources. The book also features a complete discography of the recorded sources, and is carefully indexed. Biographical information on some of the prominent artists whose music is transcribed is included, along with suggested sources for further research.

Both the book and CD are sold as a package for $35, and orders can be placed from Steve Parker’s web site.

Hat tip: Mandolin Cafe

Colorado progressive banjoist Jake Schepps is releasing his latest CD next week (7/26). Entitled Ten Thousand Leaves, it features Schepps on 11 new compositions, both his own and pieces from his collaborators on this project, guitarist Greg Schochet, bassist Eric Thorin and mandolinist (and producer) Matt Flinner.

The music is adventurous and challenging, and will appeal strongly to fans of modern banjo music - and banjo players who pursue this style themselves. Among the more ambitious tracks is a Schepps string quartet, written for banjo, violin, guitar and bass.

Audio samples from several of the pieces can be found on Jake’s web site, where orders for Ten Thousand Leaves are being accepted now.

In addition to the players mentioned above, the new release also features Ryan Drickey on violin and Adam Aijala on guitar.

Jake also has a YouTube clip of himself and his band (Expedition) with Matt Flinner guesting from a show earlier this year.

There is an online feature about the latest Larry Sparks release, The Last Suit You Wear, up at CMT.com.

Written by Edward Morris, the piece provides details about the new release, interspersed with comments from Sparks, along with a brief overview of his more than 40 year career in bluegrass music.

Sparks was just 16 and still living in his native Ohio when he began playing occasional dates with the legendary Stanley Brothers. After lead singer Carter Stanley died in 1966, Sparks took his place and held that post for the next three years. Then he quit to form his own band, the Lonesome Ramblers.

He says he learned a lot about stage presence from watching Carter Stanley work. “He was pretty good at it,” Sparks recalls, “and he always had something to say. He could always say it well and make that contact with the audience.”

Also like Stanley, Sparks is a sharp dresser on stage, invariably clad in a tailored suit and wearing a tie, his curly hair immaculately coiffed. “I think it gives the people something to look at,” he says, “[it’s] more of a show look. I’ll admit it’s more comfortable in jeans.”

He points out that his prized 1953 Martin D-28 guitar, with its artist’s palette pick guard, has become part of his image as well. “Some say my pick guard is designed like my hair,” he quips. “That’s what a lot of the old ladies tell me.”

Read the full article at CMT.com.

You can hear audio samples from The Last Suit You Wear in the iTunes Music Store.

Wildfire has just announced the addition of fiddle player, Brandon Godman. Brandon will be joining the current line up of the band which includes Chris Davis, Daniel Grindstaff, Robert Hale, and Curt Chapman.

Hailing from Falmouth, KY, Brandon has been playing fiddle since he was just a youngster of 10 years old. While he’s still fairly young, he has a great deal of experience as a bluegrass fiddler. He played with a number of local/regional bands growing up, he’s recently traveled with touring acts Melvin Goins & Windy Mountain and the Wildwood Valley Boys. Most recently he’s been a member of The Karl Shiflett & Big Country Show.

Brandon is currently enrolled at Morehead State University as a Jazz Violin Major with a minor in traditional music. You can hear a few samples of his playing on Brandon’s MySpace page.

John and I have been on a little road trip this week. The business of bluegrass brought us down out of the mountains of Southwest Virginia to visit Music City USA. We’ve been in Nashville since Monday afternoon, and have had a great time visiting with friends and associates in the bluegrass industry.

We spent a great deal of time at the Nashville Guitar Company shop in North Nashville, with luthier Marty Lanham. In addition to being a great guitar builder, Marty is also one of the friendliest people you’ll meet in this business. We had a great time talking shop with him and learning all about guitar construction and maintainance (hint: keep an eye out for a forthcoming DVD release).

Marty was kind enough to let me snap a few pictures around his shop. I’ve sorted through a few of them already and you should start seeing them show up in the header image rotation. A couple of them may be difficult to identify, so have fun.

This Friday (6/20) offers two good chances to catch bluegrass artists online.

From noon to 1:00 p.m. (EDT), The Grascals will be performing live on Knoxville, TN station WDVX’s Blue Plate Special. The station broadcasts at 89.9 FM in the Knoxville market, and the show is streamed online at WDVX.com.

Then at 1:30 p.m., Brad Davis will be interviewed on WorldWideBluegrass.com. Brad will join WWB station manager Gracie Muldoon for her Muldoon In The Afternoon program to talk about what he’s been up to of late.

You can listen to WWB online, where they stream bluegrass music 24/7.