Country and bluegrass stalwart Marty Stuart has signed on to host a one hour weekly radio program on XM Satellite Radio. Marty Stuart’s American Odyssey will debut on Friday, October 5 at 8:00 a.m. on XM’s classic country channel, America (track 10).

Marty plans to showcase a wide variety of American music styles – traditional country, blues, rockabilly, bluegrass, gospel and rock – focusing each week on a different part of the country. He’ll interview and showcase local musicians from each highlighted city or town, and will perform himself with both studio and live sets.

Marty Stuart’s American Odyssey will also be featured all day October 5 on XMX (track 2), so you can tune in whenever it may be convenient.

Hailing from Selma, N.C., at Samantha Casey & The Bluegrass Jam is a two person band comprised of 11 year old Samantha Casey on fiddle, and her dad, Daniel, on guitar and banjo. The two have been performing together for four years now. They started when Samantha was only 7 years old, and performed mostly at churches, retirement homes, and civic organizations.

Now, four years later, at the age of 11, Samantha has just won the Oreo & Milk Jingle Contest. The duo performed the jingle on guitar and fiddle with Daniel singing lead and Samantha carrying the tenor part. The final performance was given in Times Square. The event was hosted by NBC late night talk show host Carson Daly, and broadcast live on national television. The father-daughter duo were also featured on Fox & Friends yesterday morning.

I couldn’t find video of either performance, but you can see their audition tape online at Samantha’s website.

The pair took home a cool $10,000 for their winning performance. They also had their image on the Times Square Super Sign. Samantha commented on the whole affair.

Playing in Times Square with the other groups was really cool. Our favorite part of the contest was seeing ourselves on the Times Square Super Sign and we’re so glad that Oreo made that happen!

The Caseys say that most of the $10K will be saved for Samantha’s college fund.

Interestingly, they are the first winning group in the contest’s history to use instruments; previous grand prize-winning groups sang a cappella versions of the cookie jingle. Carson Daly, didn’t just host the event, he was also one of the judges, and he commented on the winning performance.

Choosing a winning group was tough since all the groups were so great, but this talented father-daughter duo was something special and really brought the Oreo & Milk moment to life.

Any bluegrass fan could have told Nabisco this is the way the jingle should be done!

The first new set of post-Nickel Creek dates for Punch Brothers, the latest nom de guerre for Chris Thile’s merry band of super-pickers, have been posted online.

They show one date in New York City next weekend, a New Years Eve show in Chicago and a smattering of festival and concert stops in early 2008. One would expect to see that schedule fill in quickly over the next few months.

The band is well on their way towards completing a new CD, which has been said to be set for release on Nonesuch Records.

It has just been announced that The Dailey Vincent Band (Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent) have signed with Rounder Records to release their debut, self-titled CD in January 2008.

In addition to Jamie and Darrin, the band features Jeff Parker on mandolin, Joe Dean on banjo and Adam Haynes on fiddle.

Most of our readers will know Jamie from his 9 years as a singer, guitarist and bass player with Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver. Darrin has been with Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder this past ten years, and before that worked with his family’s band, The Sally Mountain Show, along with his sister Rhonda.

The band is managed by Don Light Talent in Nashville.