Brance posted a few weeks ago that Bradley Walker would be performing on this year’s Jerry Lewis Telethon, aired annually on national television in support of the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Walker suffers from the disease, and is confined to a wheelchair - something that has not stopped him from recording and performing at the highest professional level.

We got a note last week from the folks at the MDA alerting us to the fact that an autographed copy of Bradley’s CD, Highway Of Dreams, is being auctioned online as a part of the telethon fund raising effort. It sounds like a great way to pick up a treasured keepsake and support the work of MDA at the same time.

Find the auction site here. Bidding closes on September 6 at midnight.

The unwieldy band name “Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper featuring Audie Blaylock” has become a bit less of a tongue twister for emcees everywhere. Michael announced yesterday (8/25) that Audie has left the group, and that singer/guitarist/songwriter Todd Rakestraw will step in to take his spot.

Rakestraw has been performing with Timberline Drive, and was an original member of Alison Krauss & Union Station, back in the day. Three of his songs (Gentle River, I’m Alone Again, Lord Don’t Forsake Me) were included on her early releases.

No word yet on Audie’s future plans. We’ll post when we hear more.

We posted back in May when a live, in-studio performance by The Infamous Stringdusters showed up on YouTube. The clip was of them at KSUT in Durango, CO, and was part of a mini-documentary of the band then still being filmed by Craig Havighurst of String Theory Media.

Craig traveled with the ‘Dusters in February 2007 on a four day Colorado trip, and shot footage the whole time - in the van, on the stage and everywhere in between. He captured the band live at several CO venues, backstage, in rehearsal, and also interviewed each of them individually.

The 30 minute documentary, Four Days Of Infamy, is now complete and will debut here on The Bluegrass Blog on Monday, August 27. It will be available for free, online viewing here by noon on Monday, compliments of Sugar Hill Records.

UPDATE 8/27: Here is the link to watch the full length video on The Bluegrass Blog.

Four Days Of Infamy is narrated by John Cowan, and is sure to appeal to veteran Stringduster fans, and anyone curious about this hot young band. Be sure to swing back by on Monday, to get seat in the van and a VIP pass as these highly skilled six musicians experience the wonders and occasional hang-ups of a winter bluegrass tour through the Rockies.

Here’s a short preview to give you a feel for what will be contained in the full video.

I always enjoy hearing a new band, especially if they’re good. I discovered Hard Ryde a while back and I’ve been listening to their CD, Expressed, for several weeks and thought I’d share it with our readers here on The Bluegrass Blog. The CD isn’t new, it was released in 2006, but it will probably be new to many of you.

Hard Ryde hails from Ontario, Canada. The band consists of five members comprising the classic bluegrass instrument line-up: guitar, bass, mandolin, banjo, and fiddle.

The CD is a combination of traditional bluegrass numbers, originals, and at least one song stolen from another genre. Fifteen songs are included on the disc, giving a listener a good value for their money. The traditional tunes are done well, the performances and arrangements are traditional enough to satisfy even the most fundamental bluegrass listener.

Hard Ryde really shines though when you get to the original tunes on the disc. Nick McDonald, the mandolin player in the band, penned what has become my favorite tune on the CD. Let It Rain, is a traditional sounding song, with an interesting chord progression, great melody and lyrics. It’s one of those medium tempo songs that can really drive.

The band does have sound samples available on their website and MySpace page. If you’re looking for some new music, this is one band from up North that you’ll want to check out.

Cadillac Sky’s recent performance on the WoodSongs Old Time Radio Hour is now available online. WoodSongs is hosted weekly by folksinger Michael Jonathon, and is carried by more than 450 radio stations worldwide.

You can choose to watch streaming video of the program, or listen to streaming audio in either a high or low fidelity Windows Media stream.

Gretchen Peters also appears on this show.

Cadillac Sky is among the nominees for the 2007 IBMA Emerging Artist of the Year Award, so this is a great chance to see them perform live when contemplating a vote. Other nominees in their category are Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper featuring Audie Blaylock, The Infamous Stringdusters, Bradley Walker and Williams & Clark Expedition.

You can see the full list of ‘07 IBMA Nominees here on The Bluegrass Blog, with links to the various nominees’ web sites and audio files.

The American Made Banjo Company has launched a new fund raising effort based on their line of cryogenically-treated banjo strings. The program is called Cryos For A cause, and offers a dozen or more signature banjo string sets recommended by prominent pickers, with $.50 from the sale of each set being donated to the charity of the artists’ choosing.

For example, the Bill Evans’ signature set will benefit The Children’s Tumor Foundation for young folks who suffer with neurofibromatosis. Other artists who are participating in this program include Sonny Osborne, Brad Leftwich, Casey Henry, Charlie Cushman, Mary Z. Cox, Mike Scott, Peter Schwimmer, Rich Stillman, Todd Taylor, Ron Cody and Tony Ellis.

Each artist set is made up using the string gauge and winding they prefer, and sets suggested by both bluegrass and clawhammer players are part of this effort.

The treatment these strings receive involves exposing them to extremely low temperatures (below -300 degrees Fahrenheit), as is common in industrial applications to insure consistent hardness of critical metal components. American Made Banjos says that this extends string life and enhances tonal response.

Learn more about their banjos and banjo strings on their web site.

We are all aware of the tensions surrounding international diplomacy these days. Instability in the Middle East and the rising economic power of China are two major concerns not only of Americans, but also our international friends and partners.

Some of our friends aren’t as close as we would like, and for that reason we send Ambassadors to those countries. The Ambassador’s job varies depending on what country he is sent to and the purpose of his visit.

Bluegrass music is proud to acknowledge the latest Ambassador to represent the interests of the US overseas. Jamie Dailey left yesterday functioning in the role of temporary Ambassador and serving as Chairman of the Delegation for the ACG (American Council on Germany). The twelve day trip begins in Munich, tours the country of Germany, and culminates in Berlin.

Jaimie is known to bluegrass fans the world over for his nine year tenure with the award winning Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver. He is also an accomplished songwriter with artists such as Ricky Skaggs having recently cut his songs. In 2008 he will begin touring with his new band, The Dailey Vincent Band. For the next twelve days, Europe will know him as Ambassador Dailey.

The main purpose of the Delegation is to discuss, with German and other EU Heads of State, Iran and nuclear weapons, and how the US and EU should deal with the problem. Other issues that will also be dealt with include, 2007 elections in Turkey, the rise of China to superpower status, and the German government’s Grand Coalition.

The trip concludes in Berlin at a Gala dinner where Ambassador Dailey will perform three songs for the gathered Heads of State. Jamie will be playing guitar and singing, solo.

Jamie has asked that the bluegrass community remember him in their prayers for these next twelve days as he travels and attempts to make a difference in this world.

Randy Kohrs and his band, The Lites, just wrapped a video shoot the other day for the next single from their current CD, Old Photograph. The song is titled Who’s Goin’ With Me. We told you about this shoot (here) before it happened and brought you the news that mandolin prodigy Sierra Hull would be playing the part of the preacher’s daughter in the video.

The shoot is complete at this point, but the band has an interesting story to tell that happened while filming.

A location was spotted that looked ideal, but getting permission to film there was impossible. The location was an old brick home on a private lot that is currently for sale. The owner however, according to the information the band obtained, is currently in Europe and unreachable. The decision was made to go ahead with the shoot anyway. With a “For Sale” sign at the head of the driveway and not a “No Trespassing” sign in sight, they figured they would be OK.

The location had been trashed though by partying teenagers and a good deal of work was needed to clean up broken beer bottles and other trash before filming could commence. The band and crew spent several hours picking the place up and began filming with very little light left in the day.

The taping went well though, with the band on the front porch and the actors playing their roles amongst the old cedar trees in the yard. All the instruments were placed against a memorial stone to a Revolutionary War hero for a final shot.

The crew packed up their gear and left. The band took one last look around to make sure nothing was forgotten. Content with the day’s work, and pleased to be leaving the place in better shape than it was found in, they headed for their vehicles.

Fiddle player Ashley Brown tells us what happened next:

We were literally all in our cars driving off of the property when two cop cars showed up. After looking around, I saw there were other cop cars surrounding the property! The director and rest of the film crew had left, which meant the footage made it out, and Randy and I talked to the two cops for awhile, gave them a couple of CD’s, the director’s info, and we left. I think it will all work out. Apparently, it’s been a party place for kids lately and they’ve been trashing it. We left it better than we found it because we had to clean up some in order to shoot.

Plans are for the video to be finished by the end of the month and uploaded for viewing on Randy’s website. The video will also be pitched to both CMT and GAC for rotation.

In addition to Rand and band, other persons of note included in the video are Jim Lauderdale, Pam Tillis, Sierra Hull, Waylon Payne (Jerry Lee Lewis in “Walk The Line” and signed to Universal), Shannon Lawson and Chris Wood, along with some other friends and family.

This post is a contribution from Lilly Pavlak, who runs Lilly’s Bluegrass Agency in Switzerland. She also works as a music journalist in Europe. We thank her for sharing this report, and the photos from the festival.

Last week I returned from 10th European Bluegrass Music Festival and Band Contest, a unique European event, held for the second time in La Roche-sur-Foron, a pretty little medieval town in the French Alps, near Mont Blanc.

It was a festival of superlatives !

Organised by Christopher Howard-Williams, the chairman of FBMA and supported by the town’s mayor, the Tourist Bureau and many others (120 volunteers!). After the rain last year, this time the weather was beautiful.

Thirty bands came to play from eleven different countries: France, Czech Republic, Spain, Estonia, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Russia, Slovakia and U.S. - over twenty hours of free concerts.

The whole city beat to the rhythm of Bluegrass music with bars hosting bands for a “fringe” festival on Thursday evening and the local movie theater playing Deliverance. Friday was a gala concert with French bluegrass comedy act Zip Code 2025, Bluegrass Stuff from Italy – last year’s contest winner – and headliners from the U.S. Hickory Project.

Saturday and Sunday was the European band competition and, on Saturday, this year’s winners of the European Bluegrass Pioneer Awards were proclaimed. The beautiful hand-made wooden awards went to Jaanus Vainu from Estonia, Loek Lamers from Holland and Petr Kus from Czech Republic.

The winners of the band contest are :

• 1st place Kralik & his Rowdy Rascals from Czech Republic
• 2nd place Country Saloon from Russia (for the second year running)
• 3rd place G-Runs & Roses, a young hot band from Czech Republic

As well as the music several other attractions were organized to suit all tastes and ages, such as the festival market, music market, pony rides, climbing wall, masterclass workshops, bluegrass gospel singing at Sunday Mass and so on. An estimated 10,000 spectators came to the festival this year and enjoyed this great event over three days !!

If you are planning to be in Europe for the first weekend of next August, don’t forget to stop by www.larochesurforon.com.

For me it was the event of the year 2007!!!!!!!!!!

     

In the midst of the inescapable media coverage last week marking the 30th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley, here’s a story you might not have seen.

Bluegrass singer/songwriter Shawn Camp and rockabilly singer Billy Burnette have joined forces to release The Bluegrass Elvises, a new CD out August 14 with bluegrass versions of some of The King’s most cherished hits. Songs covered bluegrass style on this CD include Don’t Be Cruel, All Shook Up, Jailhouse Rock, Burnin’ Love, Hound Dog, That’s Alright Mama and several others.

In addition to Camp and Burnette, musicians on this project include Scott Vestal and David Talbot on Banjo, Aubrey Haynie on fiddle, Chris Henry on mandolin, and Mike Bub and Terry Eldridge on bass.

Audio samples for all 13 tracks can be heard in iTunes, and you can find out more about the CD on The Bluegrass Elvises site.

Chris Thile and The Tensions Mountain Boys have announced a string of three dates at the fabled Station Inn in Nashville next month. They will be there September 21-23, starting at 9:00 p.m. (CT) each night, with an admission charge of $20.

Tickets will go on sale August 28, and can be purchased online from the Nickel Creek web site at that time.

For those who haven’t been following Thile’s work of late outside of Nickel Creek, The Tensions Mountain Boys is the band that evolved from the group who recorded his recent How To Grow A Woman From The Ground CD, and who toured with him in support. Members include Noam Pikelny on banjo, Chris Eldridge on guitar, Greg Garrison on bass, Gabe Witcher on fiddle and Chris Thile on mandolin. All sing, but Thile takes the bulk of the lead singing.

We are trying to find out what Chris has planned for this group once the Nickel Creek Farewell, For Now tour concludes in November of 2007, and we’ll post back with what we discover.

Speaking of the Nickel Creek tour, bluegrass fans might want to note that Bela Fleck will be performing with them for three shows in mid-October. These dates are 10/12 in Atlanta 10/13 in Asheville and 10/14 in Chattanooga.

Full details on the Nickel Creek tour page.

The Lovell Sisters Band performed on the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center on August 11, 2007 and that show is now available for online viewing.

The audio mix is a little disappointing during the first part of the show. This is not the fault of the girls though and it does improve marginally as the concert proceeds. Thankfully the vocals are mixed up where you can hear them most of the time, but the mandolin is often absent just when you want to hear Rebecca cut loose. None the less, this band is worth hearing, even with a less than desirable audio mix.

Check their tour schedule to see them near you.

Our friends at BluegrassCountry.org have launched a new feature as part of their 40th Anniversary celebration of bluegrass programming on WAMU. It’s called Musician Tips and will be a weekly audio segment with prominent bluegrass artists sharing advice on a wide range of topics that will be of interest to those seeking to improve their own songwriting, stage presence or performance.

Each tip will be run for a week in BluegrassCountry.org’s 24/7 bluegrass programming, and then be archived on their web site. You can hear the first in this series, from noted songwriter Chris Stuart, on the Musician’s Tips site, where you can also subscribe to the series as a podcast.

BluegrassCountry.org’s Katy Daly says that they have quite a lineup of artists in the pipeline.

In weeks to come we’ll feature tips from Bill Emerson, Jaime Daley, Sonya Isaacs, Joe Carr, Alan Munde, Ralph Stanley, Honi Deaton, all the Stringdusters, all the Steep Canyon Rangers, Mike Auldridge, Missy Raines, and Randy Kohrs, just to name a few.

The fall 2007 edition of Fretboard Journal is in the mail to subscribers and will soon be available at music dealers and Barnes & Noble. This edition features a cover story on banjo master Earl Scruggs.

The story is appropriately titled “The Banjo That Changed The World.” The article weighs in at a hefty 18 pages. For those of you who aren’t keen on a lot of reading, don’t worry, fully 8 of those pages are dedicated to high quality photographs. If you’ve ever held a copy of Fretboard Journal in your hand, you’ll understand when I say the photographs are spectacular.

The ten pages of text are well worth reading though, so don’t skip them just to look at the pictures! With lots of history, stories told in the first person by Earl himself, and remembrances from other players and historians, the writing is just as good as the photography. This article is a must read for all fans of Earl Scruggs.

Scruggs isn’t the only bluegrass personality featured in the issue though. Another article of interest is a lengthy piece on guitar player, and fiddle expert, David Bromberg. Again, this article is complete with stunning photos, first hand interviews, and lots of history.

A shorter, but equally interesting, article about Old Growth Rims (built by Sullivan Banjo) devotes plenty of discussion to the hardships of trying to work the old hard-rock maple, from the floor of an 1870 factory, into banjo rims. These rims are available for after market purchase, but also come standard in Sullivan Banjo models such as the new Terry Baucom model.

Sorry for the last minute notice on this…

Flatpicker supreme Russ Barenberg will be the guest on today’s (8/21) edition of Live in Studio C on Nashville’s WPLN FM. The show airs each Tuesday at 11:06 a.m. Nashville time (noon eastern), and Russ will perform music from his new CD, When At Last, with Stuart Duncan on fiddle, Viktor Krauss on bass and Todd Lombardo on second guitar.

Listeners in Nashville can catch the show at 90.3 FM, and it is also streamed live on the WPLN web site. The show will be rebroadcast later today at 8:06 p.m. (CT).

It also appears that audio from each show can be accessed from the Live in Studio C site for a week after each broadcast.

During the rush to post the 2007 IBMA Award Nominees last week, we neglected to mention the announcement of two other awards which will be presented on October 4, 2007 at the International Bluegrass Music Awards show in Nashville.

These are not nominations which appear on the final ballot, but awards recipients which were determined in recent special election ballots by the professional membership of the IBMA.

2007 IBMA Hall Of Fame Inductees

• Howard Watts
• Carl Story

Watts, who performed as Cedric Rainwater, was the bass player in the classic 1945 edition of Bill Monroe & The Bluegrass Boys, and then became a member of Flatt & Scruggs’ Foggy Mountain Boys when they departed Monroe’s band in 1948. After leaving them in 1950, he worked with some of country music’s most notable entertainers, Hank Williams, Ray Price and Hank Snow, and recorded some stellar bluegrass sessions.

Story was a long-time bluegrass singer and songwriter who also did his time as a Bluegrass Boy in the early 1940s. After serving in the US Navy in WWII, he formed his own band, The Rambling Mountaineers, and wrote and recorded a string of bluegrass Gospel songs that are still being performed and recorded today, like He Will Set Your Fields On Fire and If You Don’t Love Your Neighbor (Then You Don’t Love God).

You can read more about both of our deserving 2007 Hall Of Fame Inductees on the IBMA web site.

Also worthy of note are several IBMA Distinguished Achievement Awards which were announced last week. This award is described by IBMA as…

…an honor which recognized individuals in the bluegrass music industry who have fostered the music’s image with developments that will broaden the genre’s recognition and accessibility.

This year’s recipients are:

• Mike Auldridge
• The Bluegrass Breakdown
• Marko Cermak
• Warren Hellman
• Happy & Jane Traum (more…)

We posted last Friday with a story out of Folsom, CA regarding a stolen banjo and how police were closing in on the bandits after they attempted to pawn it - and were captured on video surveillance cameras.

Yesterday’s Sacramento Bee reports that the banjo has been recovered, but suggests that the perpetrators may have successfully turned it in for the $10,000 reward.

Sacramento attorney Daniel A. Nicholson and Nicholson’s private investigator, Robert Dick, contacted [the banjo’s owner] Pollock over the weekend. They had acquired possession of the banjo somewhat mysteriously and wanted to basically ransom it back to its owner.

“I have it in the trunk of my car,” [Pollock investigator] Windle said. “I find the whole thing pretty distasteful. I feel that people should get a reward for returning found property but in this case the property was known to be stolen.”

Fortunately, the police have not stopped their investigation.

Folsom Police Detective Jon Lasater also confirmed that the banjo has been recovered. He said the case is not closed

Read the full story on The Sacramento Bee web site.

A track from King Wilkie’s latest CD, Low Country Suite, has been selected as the Discovery Download in iTunes for this week. Any iTunes subscriber can get the track (Wrecking Ball) at no charge starting tomorrow (8/21) through next Monday (8/27).

This is part of iTunes’ weekly New Music Tuesday, where they highlight new recordings deemed worthy of mention, with one or two free tracks available each week, based on a rotating schedule by genre.

You will see a link for the Discovery Download on the front page of the iTunes Music Store - look for the FREE ON iTUNES link near the bottom of the page. It will also be available from the front page of the Country genre section of iTunes.

Speaking of King Wilkie…

We posted back in June when their video on the making of Low Country Suite was available at Amazon.com. That video is no longer up at Amazon, but we found it on YouTube.

UPDATE 8/21: The direct link to the King Wilkie Discovery Download in iTunes is here. You must have an Apple or AOL iTunes account (free), and be logged in to download this free track. The link is good through 8/27/07.

Bill Monroe is the subject of a recent article published as a web exclusive on the Newsweek Entertainment section of MSNBC.com.

The article is written in remembrance of the man who influenced so many, and forever altered the landscape of American music.

It’s a nice article that includes good observations by Malcolm Jones, who writes like someone knowledgeable about bluegrass music. The article also includes a nice flash audio player with three song clips cued up and ready for people to listen as they read.

Here’s one statement that particularly resonated with my own experience.

It was a curious thing, though, watching him from the audience in those last years. In a way, he seemed indestructible, as though he would go on doing this for years…It came as a genuine shock to realize that Monroe was mortal.

Recording King has announced the latest model in their Artist series of banjos, designed to appeal to players looking for a banjo with professional quality features at a lower price than the major American builders.

The Artist Supreme features a figured maple neck and resonator, engraved gold-plated parts, and an extremely intricate mother-of-pearl vine pattern inlaid in the fingerboard. Like their other pro grade banjos, it is made with a 3 ply maple rim, Mastertone-style tone ring and one-piece flange, twin coordinator rods and a Presto-style tailpiece.

With a hard shell case and limited lifetime warranty, the Artist Supreme carries a retail price of $2,699.99. You can find a Recording King dealer near you on the RK web site.