Steve Martin is one of five renowned artists to receive an Honour to mark the 30th Annual Kennedy Center Gala which takes place on Sunday, December 2, 2007. The actual awards will be bestowed the night before the gala on Saturday, December 1, at a State Department dinner, hosted by the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts have announced the selection of the individuals who will receive the Kennedy Center Honours of 2007. The recipients to be honoured at the 30th annual national celebration of the arts are: banjo player, comedian, actor and writer (not necessarily in that order, of course) Steve Martin, pianist Leon Fleisher, singer Diana Ross, film director Martin Scorsese, and songwriter Brian Wilson.

Steve Martin is famous for his appearance in such films as Three Amigos (1986), Planes, Trains And Automobiles (1987), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), Parenthood (1989), Father Of The Bride (1991) and The Pink Panther (2006), along with countless others, and a string of TV programmes going back to 1967.

Martin initiated an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman in September 2005 in which he was joined by fellow banjo players Earl Scruggs, Peter Wernick, Tony Ellis and Charles Wood for a banjo extravaganza Men With Banjos (Who Know How To Use Them) originally organised for the New Yorker Festival 2005.

Also, Martin has appeared this year on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and The Late Show with David Letterman playing the banjo with Tony Trischka on a tune, The Crow, that he wrote for Trischka’s recently released CD Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular (Rounder 0548), an album on which Martin is featured.

Kennedy Center Chairman Stephen A. Schwarzman said of Martin, “Steve Martin is a Renaissance comic whose talents wipe out the boundaries between artistic disciplines.”

CBS will broadcast a recording of The Gala on Wednesday, December 26 at 9pm (EST)

Our friends at MandolinCafe.com have teamed up with New Millennium Acoustic Design to give away a mandolin.

The prize is a Mix A5 model carbon fiber mandolin. Starting this morning, September 15, 2007, visitors of MandolinCafe.com will be able to register their name in the giveaway. Registration will only be open for one month. The winner will be announced on October 15, 2007.

Here’s some info about the instrument:

The giveaway instrument will feature an ebony fingerboard with a 12″ radius that is 1 3/32″ at the nut, Grover tuners, a Steve Smith adjustable ebony bridge, an engraved James tail-piece, an internally-mounted Schertler CDyn pickup for superb amplification and a TKL-style hardshell case.

The base price for this model is $3500 so this is a very nice prize.

This Saturday (9/15), Radio Bluegrass International (RBI), an online radio service of the International Bluegrass Music Museum, will feature portions of their interviews with Jake Quesenberry, an important figure in west coast bluegrass, and a co-founder of the California Bluegrass Association.

Jake passed away on July 3 of this year, but his reminiscences had been recorded by the IBMM as a part of their Video Oral History project. This is the museum’s crucially important mission to capture audio interviews with the early generation of bluegrass pioneers before their first hand reportage is lost to us.

Jake’s contributions to bluegrass music are fondly remembered on the Pleasant Valley Music blog site.

You can catch the RBI program on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. eastern time on the IBMM site. For now, there is no charge to access the online audio feed at RBI, but a $4/month subscription will be required starting on October 1.

With IBMA fast approaching, and the official awards soon to be handed out, don’t forget to vote in our reader poll. We haven’t talked much about it since it was put up, but it’s time for an update!

At this point only 11% of our registered readers have voted. Here’s a short summary of who’s winning in each category.

Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver are the big winners as they currently have a 10 point lead for Entertainer of the Year, a 20 point lead for Vocal Group of the Year, a 1 point lead (over The Infamous Stringdusters) for Song of the Year, a 14 point lead for Album of the Year, and a 2 point lead (over Kenny & Amanda Smith) for Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year. Doyle himself is also currently 3 points ahead of Adam Steffey for Mandolin Player of the Year.

Instrumental Group of the Year is currently being led by Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder by 5 points.

Instrumental Album of the Year is a very tight race with 4 out of 5 nominees all within 5 points of each other.

The Infamous Stringdusters have a 21 point lead in the Emerging Artist of the Year category.

Tony Trischka’s “Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular” is currently leading Recorded Event of the Year by 7 points.

Male Vocalist, Banjo Player, Fiddle Player, and Dobro Player are all tight (less than 5 points) as well.

If you haven’t voted yet, be sure to take a minute and cast your vote.

More information about our poll can be found here.

In the bluegrass world - as in any other - a 25th Anniversary is something to celebrate. In our slice of the music business, anyone who survives for a quarter century is rightly lauded for persevering in the face of the obstacles that confront a niche market such as ours.

Red Shipley, host of Stained Glass Bluegrass on WAMU in the Washington DC market has chosen to mark his 25th Anniversary on the show by stepping away from the microphone. This Sunday’s (9/16) program will be his last, a position he has maintained since August of 1982.

In 2006, Red was honored by the IBMA with their Broadcaster Of The Year award. His show has also been carried since 2001 on WAMU’s internet bluegrass channel, BluegrassCountry.org.

Shipley’s radio career actually spans more than 50 years, with stints at stations in Orange and Alexandria, VA. WAMU has set up a special phone line for fans and friends of Red’s show to leave their comments and well wishes: 202-885-8827.

Red’s final show will air from 6:00-10:00 a.m. (EDT) this Sunday, September 16 on both WAMU and BluegrassCountry.org. Co-host Bob Webster will assume solo host duties after Shipley’s retirement.

George Shuffler, pioneering cross picking guitarist and one of the memorable personalities in bluegrass music, will be acknowledged by the North Carolina Arts Council with its annual Folk Heritage Award on October 25 in Raleigh, NC.

Shuffler will lunch with NC Governor Mike Easly on the 24th, and receive his award the following day.

Shuffler spent 18 years as a member of The Stanley Brothers in the 1950s and 1960s where his cross picking lead guitar technique was a distinctive aspect of the band’s sound. The technique involves using a flatpick jumping across three or more strings to mimic the rolling sound of the 5 string banjo. This cross picking style mixes a basic melody with “fill notes” for an eighth note flurry that has been replicated and honed to this day.

Here is a YouTube clip taken from his instructional DVD with James Allen Shelton, Clinch Mountain Guitar.

As John and I are preparing for IBMA’s World of Bluegrass event we are presented with a wealth of opportunities for covering the event here on The Bluegrass Blog. We want to be sure to present the aspects of the event that are of greatest interest to our readers.

Last year we live blogged the Thursday evening award show from backstage. We had a great time and are considering doing so again this year.

What we don’t know, is if our readers enjoyed following along on The Bluegrass Blog as the show unfolded, or if you would simply prefer to have us announce the winners after the event has concluded.

To that end we are asking for your participation in the following poll. Let us know if you enjoyed last year’s live blog, and if you would like to see us do it again this year. Thanks!

Larry Sparks is on the cover of the September/October ‘07 issue of Bluegrass Music Profiles. The cover feature finds Larry discussing his new CD, The Last Suit You Wear, plus his road band, his personal guitar, his sister’s songwriting and his future performing and recording plans.

Also profiled in the current issue are radio host Terry Herd (Into The Blue), Curly Seckler, Bobby Osborne and songwriter Mark Brinkman. Sammy Shelor shares his Bluegrass Favorites, and Brad Davis talks guitars. The new Recording King Artist Supreme banjo is written up, and coverage of the 50th anniversary Country Gentlemen concert is included.

Find out more about this bi-monthly print publication online.

Lonesome Day Records has two new artists on the roster, both of whom will have new projects in the near future.

Back in June, Brance reported that Larry Cordle’s new project, Took Down and Put Up, would be released on Lonesome Day later this summer. We still haven’t seen a street date for this project, but we’ll be sure to update when we get the word.

Just this week, Lonesome Day announced that Ralph Stanley II will be the newest addition to their artist roster. “II” (two), as he is nick named, is the youngest son of the venerable Dr. Ralph Stanley, now just shy of 30 years old. He has released four previous CDs for Rebel Records and looks at the new agreement with Lonesome Day as an opportunity to define his own sound, which Lonesome Day describes as mixing the mountain Stanley sound with some more contemporary material.

One stylistic break from the earlier projects involves the backing musicians. On his prior CDs, Stanley was accompanied primarily by his father’s touring band, The Clinch Mountain Boys, but this time out he had a stellar group of bluegrass superpickers with him in the studio. Tim Crouch, Steve Gulley, Cody Kilby, Randy Kohrs, Marty Raybon, Adam Steffey and Ron Stewart are listed as guest performers.

No title has been announced and a spring 2008 release is expected.

UPDATE 9/14: Reader Rick Randol emailed to say that he recently purchased the new Cordle CD from The Music Shed. Not sure why there is no mention of the release on eitehr the Cordle or Lonesome Day web sites. If it is offered by one retailer, it should be widely available now.

UPDATE 9:45 a.m.: The Took Down and Put Up CD is officially released on September 18, and will be available for sale everywhere at that time.

Modern Guitars Magazine is currently featuring a two page interview with Chuck Erikson, nicknamed The Duke of Pearl.

Erikson got his start as a banjo builder, but soon developed an interest in inlay. Discovering that small shop instrument builders did not have a reliable source for quality inlay material, Erikson began a quest to find, and provide, such materials. He soon became the go-to guy for custom luthiers seeking inlay materials of all kinds.

He still does inlay work himself, and is quite an accomplished inlay artist.

According to the article, Erikson has done personal inlay work for artists like the Kentucky Colonels, Pat Cloud, Herb Pederson, Doug Dillard, John Hartford, Don Parmley, The Jefferson Airplane, The Byrds, Bernie Leadon, David Lindley, Larry McNeely, Alan Munde, Geoff Stelling, Mark Platin, John McEuen, John Hickman, Bill Knopf, and more.

His primary business, however, seems to be providing inlay materials to other builders and inlay artists.

His website is a wealth of information on all topics related to instrument inlays. He has informational pages about various inlay materials, mostly shell, and for every product he sells there is an accompanying informational page about the material, the art, etc.

The article includes a lot of great information about acoustic instrument inlay that would be worth reading for anyone interested in doing inlay work, or having a custom instrument built with inlay on it.

Friends and fans of noted newgrass vocalist John Cowan have long held that he has a heart as big as his voice, but even the heartiest isn’t immune to health concerns.

After experiencing chest pains last Thursday, John was hospitalized where a partial blockage was discovered in one coronary artery. A stent was inserted, and John is expected to be released from the hospital tomorrow (9/14).

He will take the next two weeks off to rest and recover at home, but the band will be back fulfilling their busy schedule starting with shows on September 28-29.

We all look forward to seeing John back on the road, and wish him well as he recuperates.

D’Addario Strings has announced a recall on their humidity control products in the Humidipak line. It seems there is a potential defect that allows the solution to leak through the product lining.

We have discovered that we have a potential defect as it relates to the film lining of the Humidipak packettes. Our testing has discovered that there is a possible risk that minor spotting of the Humidipak solution may become visible on the packette over time.

The company says the solution is not toxic, but…

…due to the alkalinity of the material it can cause irritation to skin and eyes and may be harmful if swallowed.

Like most other humidity control products, the Humidipak is designed to be inserted into your instrument’s soundhole, or at least be in close proximity to the instrument when in the case. D’Addario assures users that the defect does not place your instrument’s finish in jeopardy.

Wood finished with lacquer or urethane is protected. Simply wipe the solution off of the wood with a dry cloth and clean spot with guitar polish to remove any residue.

They are offering a return program that allows you to choose between receiving a new Humidipak product once the defect has been fixed, or simply choosing other products of equal value from their catalog.

More information can be found here.

Our industrious British correspondent, Richard F. Thompson, is back with an expanded overview of a story Brance posted last month.

Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs will be among this year’s five new inductees into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Nashville Songwriters Foundation, Inc. announced on Monday. Flatt and Scruggs first met as part of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys in 1945. During his time with Monroe, Lester Flatt assisted with the growth of his leader’s song writing and is credited as co-writing Will You Be Loving Another Man and When You Are Lonely. Flatt sang lead on and thus helped to popularize many of the songs that they did. Of course, Scruggs’s banjo playing at this time was wholly ear-catching and new to the vast majority of those who saw and heard the innovative Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys.

In 1948 they left Monroe and started their own act, forming the Foggy Mountain Boys and the duo, recognizing that original material would help to create an individual identity and repertoire, began to write their own songs. Their catalogue is vast and a partial list alone features many songs readily recognizable as ’standards’ ….. God Loves His Children, I’m Going To Make Heaven My Home, We’ll Meet Again Sweetheart, My Cabin In Caroline, Down The Road, So Happy I’ll Be, Don’t Get Above Your Raising, Your Life Is Like A Flower [with assistance from Bea Lilly] and Blue Ridge Cabin Home, [credited to Louise Certain (Scruggs) and Gladys Stacey (Flatt)].

Additionally, Lester Flatt penned many that are credited in his name - or his wife’s name, Gladys Stacey (Flatt) - alone. These include Why Don’t You Tell Me So, I’ll Never Shed Another Tear, Is It Too Late Now?, My Little Girl In Tennessee, I’ll Never Love Another, I’m Head Over Heals In Love, The Old Home Town, I’ll Stay Around, Get In Line Brothers, Brother, I’m Getting Ready To Go, Be Ready For Tomorrow May Never Come and You Can Feel It In Your Soul.

Earl Scruggs wrote and arranged a considerable number of instrumental pieces, including Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Earl’s Breakdown, Flint Hill Special, Dear Old Dixie, Foggy Mountain Chimes and Randy Lynn Rag, along with Shucking The Corn and all the traditional tunes that are featured on one of the band’s most successful albums, the all-instrumental Foggy Mountain Banjo. (more…)

Roberto Dalla Vecchia is organizing what he feels sure is the first ever meeting of Italian flatpickers, scheduled for September 22 in Milan. The site of this six string summit will be the Italian Music Fair MEET, which Roberto describes as being similar to the Musikmesse in Frankfort, though on a smaller scale.

Roberto invites any and all flatpickers, Italian or not, to attend this meeting/concert on Saturday September 22, which will be held in the Acoustic Guitar Village at MEET. He asks all flatpickers to bring their guitars and join in.

I decided to organize the first meeting of Italian flatpickers because we are not that many and people don’t know each other, so the main purpose of this is to connect with people. I will be playing some duets with a few flatpicker friends on stage and we will end up playing the classic fiddle tune Blackberry Blossom with all the participants.

If anyone who would like to join us is not familiar with the tune they are welcome to email me, and I will send along the TAB. Of course I would like everybody to join us from any country, so if some flatpickers are on vacation here in Italy during that period of time they are very much welcome to come and meet us!

For more details about Roberto’s flatpick summit in Milan, he recommends that you contact him by email.

Rounder Records has posted an interview with Charlie Sizemore on their web site. The occasion for the interview is his recent Rounder CD, Good News, but Charlie also talks about the influence of Ralph Stanley and The Stanley Brothers on his music.

In the interview, Sizemore recalls how he came to join Stanley as a member of The Clinch Mountain Boys.

It was 1977…I was playing with with Melvin and Ray – the Goins Brothers. I played lead guitar. During this time, I became fairly well acquainted with Keith Whitley. In September of that year, Renfro Profit, who was playing guitar with Ralph, left the band. Keith wanted to get me into the band playing lead guitar, so he asked me to come down and play the shows with Ralph at Ralph’s festival. Ralph liked what he heard and everybody seemed happy, and Keith said he’d give me a call. I left there thinking – and I think virtually everyone around was thinking – that I was going to work with Ralph playing lead guitar. It didn’t turn out that way because Danny Marshall, who had previously played with Ralph, ended up getting the job.

Then Keith left the band in November of 1977. Ralph asked me to sing a few songs with him, and I did. And then he asked me if I would come on stage with him and sing a few songs, and I did. And he said I’ll call you on Monday. And guess what? He called me on Monday. That’s how it began and lasted for the next nine years…

You can read the entire interview on the Rounder site.

Country music legend Gene Watson has a new CD due on September 25 on Shanachie Records entitled In A Perfect World. On this release, Watson records several duets with other notable Nashville vocalists, among them bluegrass music’s reigning queen, Rhonda Vincent.

Their duet is Buck Owens’ 1964 hit, Together Again, which was also successfully covered by Emmy Lou Harris 12 years later.

In A Perfect World producer Brent Rowan invited Rhonda to see Gene’s performance at The Nashville Palace earlier this year during the Country Music Association’s Music Festival Week (aka Fan Fair). At the show, Rowan shared the news that Gene was currently in the studio working on a new project, and Rhonda expressed her interest in singing with him at some point.

Gene was thrilled with this news and Rhonda was soon invited to be a part of the ongoing recording.

Tonight, she and Watson will perform their duet publicly for the first time on The Grand Ole Opry, which will be filmed for broadcast this weekend on GAC TV. There is nothing yet about this on the GAC web site, but we are told that it is set for Saturday, September 15.

Located in Rochester, NY, the George Eastman House is a museum of photography and film housed in the mansion of the late George Eastman, the founder of Eastman Kodak Company. The museum is an independent non-profit, dedicated to educating people in the history of photography and motion pictures. The building itself, built between 1902 and 1905, is a National Historic Landmark.

Beginning this Friday, September 14, 2007, and running through the weekend, the museum will present a three day music and film festival called Reels and Reels. The three day event includes an exhibition of rare banjos at the museum on Friday, a claw hammer style banjo workshop on Saturday, and an all day music festival on Sunday. In addition to these activities, Friday and Saturday the museum will be showing ongoing film screenings featuring traditional American String-band performers, with a focus on the banjo, in the Curtis Theatre.

Sunday morning before the concerts get underway, Bob Carlin will present a lecture on his new book The Birth of the Banjo. Carlin will be headlining the concert event later that evening.

The concert is being produced jointly by the George Eastman House and Bernunzio Vintage Instruments.

More information is available, and tickets can be purchased, online at the museum’s website.

Richard Thompson, our enterprising British corespondent, has found a mandolin gem he recommends to eight stringers worldwide.

Lou Martin, born 1944, mandolin disciple of both Bill Monroe and Ralph Rinzler, has published his third book devoted to the teaching and understanding of mandolin playing using standard notation. Lou Martin’s Tunebook, Opus 3 features 77 traditional tunes for mandolin.Martin, already noted for his participation on the first Country Cooking album and for his own LP Recent Work (Rounder 0214) - released in 1986, currently available on cassette only - has been a mandolin teacher in the Syracuse and Albany areas of New York State since 1980, as well as having taught with cassettes throughout America, Britain, and mainland Europe. His work is very widely endorsed by bluegrass musicians; Bill Monroe, Frank Wakefield, Ralph Rinzler, Mike Seeger, Jesse McReynolds, David Grisman, Andy Statman, Alison Krauss, Eddie Stubbs, Lynn Morris, Richard Greene, Byron Berline, Bill Keith, and Tony Rice are not easy to get as endorsers, and there are many more!

Lou Martin’s Tunebook is intended for diligent students of bluegrass music, including those who already know how to read music but need further practice and development in the skill, as well as a deeper knowledge of the tradition. It is compiled and arranged, with an introduction, commentaries on many of the tunes, and detailed indications as to authentic bluegrass and classical technique.

The tunes featured include Ace of Spades, Jack of Diamonds, Limerock, Tom and Jerry, Yellow Barber, Long Fork Of Buckthorn, Horse And Buggy and Shaking Off The Acorns.

Here’s what Martin’s mentors have had to say about him……

“If you’re learning it from Lou Martin, you’re learning it right.” - Bill Monroe

“Lou Martin is an exceptional musician, who has a very exceptional relationship with Bill Monroe. His abilities as composer, performer, bandleader, teacher, and musicologist are at the highest level.” - Ralph Rinzler

A review of this book can be on the Mandolin Café website, while details of Martin’s other books and forthcoming projects can be found at his website.

Sam Bush will be appearing on television twice this week as a member of Lyle Lovett’s band, with whom he has performed on many occasions. Look for them on Tuesday (9/11) on Live with Regis and Kelly, and then on Wednesday (9/12) on Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

Late Night airs on NBC, typically following The Tonight Show with Jay Leno at 12:30 a.m. Full episodes are available for viewing the following day after broadcast.

Live is a syndicated program which airs at different times in different markets. Local stations can be found online.

Mandolin Cafe is handling the sale of a Gilchrist Model 1 mandolin, recently acquired through an anonymous donor, which be sold online to raise money for Butch Baldassari’s medical fund. Butch is undergoing treatment for an inoperable brain tumor, and was hospitalized again recently after experiencing sudden swelling in his brain.

This instrument was a custom commission built by Steve Gilchrist, an A style, oval hole mandolin. Additional images can be viewed at Mandolin Cafe.

Offers will be accepted over a two week period, with the mandolin going to the highest bid over $6000. The online sale will begin in the next few days, with an exact date to be announced later this week on the Mandolin Cafe front page.