The holliday season is upon us once again and it’s time for a new bluegrass Christmas CD. Christmas Grass Vol. 3 is great addition to the iTunes collection. I personally enjoy Christmas music very much, especially when it’s this well done.

The subtitle for the CD is Featuring 3 Fox Drive and Friends. That should give you a clue as to the quality of singing on this recording. Astral is the only word I can come up with that comes close. Kim, Barb, and Joel Fox provide the harmonies all through the CD, and they are certainly out of this world. The Fox family members (3 Fox Drive) also handle lead vocal duties on good number of tunes, including O Holy Night, White Christmas, and others. Their version of O Holy Night is easily one of the best I’ve ever heard.

The instrumental performances on this recording are fantastic. Tasteful, mature playing is exhibited throughout by such illuminaries as Darrin Vincent, Byron House, Bryan Sutton, Cody Kilby, Adam Steffey, Aubrey Haynie, Joe CaverLee, Rob Ickes, Joel Fox and Eric Darken.

In addition to the instrumental guests, the singing of the Fox Family is augmented by a few noteworthy guest vocalists as well. (more…)

We’ve posted recently about banjo man Bill Emerson’s new CD, Bill Emerson and the Sweet Dixie Band, and the former member of The Country Gentlemen, The Sunny Mountain Boys and the US Navy Band’s Country Current coming back to music after several years in retirement.

Country Standard Time has a wide ranging interview with Bill published on their web site, where he discusses Charlie Waller, Jimmy Martin, his return to touring and recording and his new band and CD.

A few choice tidbits…

Recalling that Fourth of July 50 years ago when he and Charlie Waller brought the Country Gentlemen into being, he admits they were just doing what they needed to do at the time.

“We never thought we’d amount to that much, we just wanted to play music and make a little money, have some fun. We never thought we would ever get a recording contract and become the group that the Country Gentlemen became. I was just glad to play with somebody who could play guitar as well as Charlie Waller and somebody who was as great a singer as he was. I certainly benefited from that, and I hope he benefited from me being around, especially in the later years, and Charlie Waller is certainly one of the greatest lead singers of all time as far as bluegrass music goes.”

Emerson also notes that his former US Navy band mate Wayne Taylor will soon be a part of The Sweet Dixie Band.

“(Wayne’s) gonna be full time with me starting at the end of April when he retires…I’m not gonna start hittin’ it heavy until 2008. I’ve got some other people lined up, plus the thing we did in Nashville, the (IBMA) Rebel showcase was almost like a variety show. We had a lot of the people that were on this project with me, and we’re gonna try to maintain that concept.”

Read the the full piece by John Lupton online.

Acoustic guitar Maharishi Larry Keel, along with his band Natural Bridge, will be making an appearance on WoodSongs Old Time Radio Hour on Monday, November 12, 2007.

If you’ve ever seen Keel and band in concert you know what kind of energy you’re in store for. If you haven’t seem them live, you should make a point of catching this show. It’s coming to a radio and computer near you.

The show is broadcast from The Kentucky Theatre in Lexington, KY. The show starts at 6:45 PM EST, and is broadcast to 900,000 listeners on over 400 radio stations, including a number of international stations, and now XM Radio Channel 15.

In addition to the radio broadcast, the show can also be heard, and seen, online. The WoodSongs Webcast is a multi-camera weekly broadcast made available online as a streaming cybercast, and also as a downloadable podcast. Join the fun at 7 PM to watch the 60 minute show live as it happens, then stay tuned at 8:05 PM for the encore performance. The encore is not broadcast on radio due to time restraints.

The webcast happens live and the show is made available as a podcast soon after the show date. Visit this page for more information about the WoodSongs Podcast.

If you’d like to be part of the studio audience, the ticket cost is $10. More information is available here.