I don’t know how many of our readers still watch Sesame Street, but maybe you’ve got some kids, or grandkids, who do. I just discovered that the Sesame Street label released a DVD earlier this summer featuring several bluegrass and country artists.

The DVD is entitled Kids’ Favorite Country Songs, and contains all the makings of a musically good time. Sesame Street perennial favorites, Elmo and Elmer, lead the way to a country jamboree featuring both Alison Krauss and John McEuen, along with a number of country music stars.

While John plays his banjo and sings Oh Susannah, he’s accompanied by an assortment of barnyard animals. He commented that he enjoyed the filming of the DVD and had a great time,

playing the banjo with about 50 goats, a cow and about 15 kids running around.

He went on to say that as a musician you are always wondering when you’ve reached the pinnacle of your career. Now he knows.

When Elmo introduces you, you know you’ve arrived.

In addition to McEuen and Krauss’ contributions, country stars, Johnny Cash, the Dixie Chicks, Lee Ann Womack, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, and super star Garth Brooks, all take part in the festivities.

Word comes from Crooked Still that cellist, and founding member Rushad Eggleston will be leaving the band in November.

Perhaps serving as a testament to his unique abilities as both a musician and a performer, the band will be bringing in two players to fill his spot. Tristan Clarridge on cello and Brittany Haas on fiddle will join the band after Rushad’s last show on November 18, and will begin rehearsals for a new Crooked Still project which starts recording in January ‘08.

Clarridge has made a name for himself as both a fiddler and a cellist, and has been touring of late with Darol Anger and Republic Of Strings. Haas has also served in Anger’s Republic, and among her many performance credits, has been touring with Tony Trischka’s Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular shows - all while still in college.

No word yet as to what Rushad’s plans may be post-Crooked Still, nor a reason for his departure. Perhaps the rest of the band wasn’t ready to go quite so far as he in the envelope-pushing department, as evidenced by this recent photo of Eggleston with his own indelicately named trio, The Butt-Wizards.

Crooked Still has just a few dates in the northeast with Rushad, and you can expect him to go out with a bang.

“Awww… thank you T. Tommy.” How do you type that out of the corner of your mouth so it sounds like Lester Flatt?

I finally had a chance recently to watch the new Flatt & Scruggs DVDs released by the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and Shanachie Entertainment. Like the two previous DVDs in this series, these two new DVDs (Volumes 3 and 4), feature video recordings of Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and The Foggy Mountain Boys from their live Flatt & Scruggs Grand Ole Opry TV shows aired in the early 1960s. Each DVD contains two roughly 30 minute programs, complete with Martha White advertisements.

These two new releases are a crucial addition to any bluegrass lover’s - or student’s - library. They are truly timeless, and capture brilliantly the easy charm that made Flatt & Scruggs into popular television personalities - not to mention the power and precision of the musical performances.

They showcase one of the most influential editions of The Foggy Mountain Boys: Curly Seckler on mandolin and tenor vocals, Josh Graves on resonator guitar, Paul Warren on fiddle and Jake Tullock on bass - and comic relief. As a special treat, Vol. 3 also includes several cuts that feature an 8 year old Randy Scruggs, and Vol. 4 has 7 year old Ricky Skaggs on two songs.

On one hand, the viewer is struck by how much has changed in bluegrass music over the ensuing 45 years since these shows were recorded. Yet at the same time, much of the formula that made Lester and Earl into stars is still central to what keeps modern bluegrass fresh, and continuing to appeal to audiences of all ages.

They mix banjo and fiddle instrumentals, Gospel and spiritual numbers, familiar and newly-composed bluegrass songs and sounds from the current pop music of the day (hillbilly country, folk and early rock and roll).

It’s also fun to watch the band deal with the then still emerging medium of live television. Lester comes across like a seasoned pro, and Earl’s quiet persona serves as the perfect counterpart. The other members of the band each add their own personality as well, with Seckler’s stone-faced seriousness balanced by Tullock’s clowning, and Graves and Warren smiling broadly at the folks out in TV land while they lay down their seminal instrumental solos.

Four more volumes in this critically valuable series will be released in 2008.

Oddly enough, the new DVDs are not yet available for sale on the Shanachie site, but can be found on the Country Music Hall of Fame site, and from most popular online sellers of bluegrass music and videos.

November 3 will see four new exhibits unveiled at the International Bluegrass Music Museum in Owensboro, KY.

Three will focus on the pioneering work of members of the IBMA’s Hall of Honor:

• Pete Kuykendall - founder of Bluegrass Unlimited magazine
• Lance Leroy - booking agent for Lester Flatt, Jimmy Martin and The Bluegrass Cardinals
• Bill Vernon - radio host, writer and archivist whose 7,000 bluegrass LPs have been donated to the IBMM.

The fourth exhibit celebrates The McCormick Brothers (Lloyd, Kelly and Haskel), who performed in the 1950s and 60s and recorded for Hickory Records. Red Hen Boogie, released in 1954, became a signature song for the band and was a radio hit for them as well.

The IBMM says that…

The historic exhibits contain photos, record contracts, instruments, radio equipment and clothing that document these forerunner’s contributions to bluegrass music.

Find out more bout the IBMM and their important work on their official web site.

Rebel Records has announced that their first new release for 2008 will be a duo project from Jimmy Gaudreau and Moondi Klein.

Bluegrass fans remember Gaudreau from his years with The Country Gentlemen, The Tony Rice Unit and his current gig with John Starling & Carolina Star. Klein will be familiar as a former member of both Seldom Scene and Chesapeake.

According to Mark Freeman of Rebel:

“It’s a very simple, straightforward traditional album, a polar opposite to their Chesapeake days. There are no additional musicians or instruments, just Moondi and Jimmy on guitar and mandolin respectively performing a number of bluegrass and folk standards with some very nice instrumentals as well.”

The two have played a number of shows in the DC-area, and will be booking shows for 2008 as their busy schedules with other commitments allow.

Look for their new CD on Rebel in February 2008.

Spring 2008 will find a bevy of top American bluegrass musicians heading to Wales to serve as instructors at the Transatlantic Bluegrass School. The school will be held starting on May 7 in the scenic coastal village of Newport, Pembrokeshire and are designed for students who have passed the most beginning stages of learning to play their instruments.

The faculty includes Ross Nickerson on banjo, Mike Bub on bass, Bobby Hicks on fiddle, Kenny Smith on guitar, Emory Lester on mandolin and Amanda Smith on vocals.

Class sessions will be held both morning and afternoon from May 8-11. Only 20 students will be enrolled for each class, so anyone interested in participating is encouraged to register right away.

This report comes from Casey Henry, a banjo player and writer living in Nashville, TN. She performed the past few years with her brother, Chris, in The Two Stringers, now disbanded.

The new FOX television American Idol spin-off The Next Great American Band airs Friday nights at 8 p.m./7 p.m. central. Last Friday on the two-hour debut judges whittled a wide field down to twelve finalists. The field was wide not only in numbers but in genre as well. Bands played everything from metal to classical, from blues to bluegrass.

Remarkably the two bluegrass bands who competed made it to the second round, airing this Friday, October 26th. The Clark Brothers and Cliff Wagner and Old #7 couldn’t be more different as far as bluegrass bands go.

The Clark Brothers are three of eleven siblings from Virginia. As The Clark Family, they appeared at bluegrass festivals in the 1990s and were staples at the Galax Old Fiddlers Convention before the eldest six made the jump to country as the Clark Family Experience.

On NGAB Adam (mandolin), Ashley (guitar), and Austin (dobro) are playing as a trio. The judges really liked their musicianship, displayed to good effect on a brisk gospel medley including This Little Light of Mine and Jesus on the Mainline.

Cliff Wagner and Old #7 hail from California. Their fearless leader Cliff was raised in Greenwood, Mississippi, attended Berklee College of Music, and lived some time in New York City.

They have a traditional sound and played an original song on the show. The judges responded to the “natural” sound of the music but one did ask “Can you play a cover that wasn’t written by a 70-year-old raccoon hunter?” (Yes those stereotypes are still alive and well!)

So Cliff and Co. gave them a little of Madonna’s Like A Virgin, which seemed to satisfy the judges, who sent them on to the next round. You can watch their submission video on You Tube.

Tune in on Friday night to see how our bluegrass brethren fare in round two. Cliff seemed confident that: “Appalachian America will vote for us.” Let’s make sure he’s not wrong!

We posted last month about pioneering bluegrass guitarist George Shuffler being recognized by the North Carolina Arts Council for his lifetime of contributing to the world of traditional and bluegrass music. George worked with The Stanley Brothers for many years, and his crosspicking style is imitated to this day by successive generations of bluegrass guitar pickers.

The News & Observer in Raleigh, NC has published a lengthy profile on Shuffler by staff writer David Menconi, which includes a memorable interview about how George got started on guitar.

It’s not too hard to persuade Shuffler to pull out his guitar and show off a little. Does he play much anymore?

“Oh, no more than I have to,” he deadpans, a twinkle in his eye.

But he still plays more than passably, in a homegrown rhythmic style somewhere between country blues and sea chanteys.

“When I was 12,” Shuffler says, pausing to expel some tobacco juice into a cup, “the old fellow across the creek, Jack Smith, showed me how to do three chords — G, C and D, that might have been all he knew. I took it from there.”

“I was barefoot, walking home with my dad afterward and playing my old guitar,” he continues. “I’d stop and play those three chords, G, C and D, because I was afraid I’d forget them. I’d do that, then run to catch up with my dad, stop and play some more. That evening, Mama was humming ‘Birmingham Jail’ and I seconded on guitar. She got so hoarse she couldn’t talk.”

Simply precious… Read the full article on the News & Observer web site.

This evening (10/23) at 6:00 p.m., you can tune into Uncle Billy Dunbar’s show on WorldWideBluegrass.com and hear John Abrams talk with Billy about his work as one half of The Abrams Brothers.  Along with his younger brother James, these Canadian teenagers have been performing at bluegrass shows for several years, and have two CDs as The Abrams Brothers on Mastershield Records.

They were recipients of the 2006-2007 Daniel Pearl Memorial Violin Award, awarded by Mark O’Connor on behalf of the Daniel Pearl Foundation. Pearl was a Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped and murdered by terrorists in Pakistan in 2002. Many readers may recall the shock and outrage that accompanied his murder, but may not have known that he was also an avid fan of bluegrass and old time music, and played the fiddle at DC-area jams when he was at home in the US.

The brothers were awarded a hand crafted violin made by noted maker Jonathan Cooper. Two young award recipients are chosen each year at the Mark O’Conner Strings Conference in California, and the recipients get the use of the violin for a year, during which they are charged to uphold the values of Daniel Pearl: excellence, peace and belief in humanity.

The Abrams Brothers toured Israel earlier this year, specifically to take the opportunity to play the Pearl violin in his homeland, and they shared the poignancy of this gesture in their account of the visit.

“This was especially meaningful, as we soon have to return the violin to allow another person to play it and take forward Daniel’s message of peace and harmony through music and the written word. This is a responsibility we have taken very seriously, so we were especially pleased to be able to travel to Israel to share the memory of Daniel and what he stood for with the festival attendees.”

To listen to the 24/7 WWB audio stream online, just visit their streaming page, and choose a connection speed and file type. Uncle Billy’s show begins at 6:00 p.m. (eastern).

Mixing bluegrass and blues influences in their music - rhythm’n'bluegrass, as they like to call it - is the signtaure sound of The Steeldrivers, whose debut CD is due on Rounder early in 2008.

Their self-titled project features all-original music written within the band, all of them veterans of the music business who now find themselves in Nashville. Richard Bailey is on banjo, Mike Fleming on bass, Mike Henderson on mandolin, Tammy Rogers on fiddle with Chris Stapleton on guitar, and also taking the primary lead vocal spot.

A complete track listing and audio samples from The Steeldrivers can be found on the Rounder web site. The CD will be released on January 29, 2008.

UPDATE: We just heard from Rounder Records, and they tell us the release date has been pushed up to January 15.

There was an overseas invasion on Michael Jonathon’s Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour on October 1. Both Boys of the Lough from Ireland and Scotland, and Italy’s Red Wine were featured on a recent edition of the program, and the video is now available online.

Boys of the Lough may be the most widely recognized and celebrated practitioners of their native Celtic music, while Red Wine is among the leading exemplars of bluegrass music in Europe.

Red Wine spent a week or so in the US this month, performing at the IBMA convention in Nashville as well as San Francisco’s famed Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in addition to their stop in Lexington, KY for the Woodsongs taping.

In the video from the show, Red Wine performs a number of songs, and talks with host Michael Jonathan about their discovery of bluegrass music and how much they enjoy getting to tour in the US and perform on shows with top American bands which, in the words of mandolinist Martini Coppo, is like “walking through our record collection.”

Members of Red Wine are Silvio Ferretti on banjo, Luca Bartolini on guitar, Stefano Cavallo on bass and Coppo on mandolin.

Watch the full video online.

It’s been a while since we made mention of The B, our reader-submitted news page here on The Bluegrass Blog. The B features content written by our users, and we hope you will take a look and see what it is all about.

In fact, you might consider taking a look there each time you pay us a visit. You can always get there by clicking the link just under the image at the top of the page.

Any registered user of The Bluegrass Blog can submit news items for The B, and registration is quick and free. Posts are moderated prior to publication, but all submissions that are germane to a discussion of bluegrass or acoustic music - and are not profane or abusive - will be approved.

We invite anyone with news to share with our readers to consider submitting it for The B. Event or product announcements, concert/festival reviews, or any bluegrass-related information which isn’t likely to find its way to the main page of The Bluegrass Blog is welcome on The B.

Registered users are also entitled to post comments to any posts, whether on the main page of The Bluegrass Blog or on The B. Just look for the Comment link at the bottom of each post.

Click here to register, or here to visit The B.

Would you like to see more bluegrass and acoustic videos played on CMT? Here’s a chance to vote for Randy Kohrs and his new video for Who’s Goin’ With Me, a track from his current Rural Rhythm release, Old Photograph.

Randy’s video is in the running for CMT’s Pure 12-Pack Countdown on their new 24/7 digital music channel, CMT Pure. Viewer votes determine which videos get aired on CMT Pure, so why not bop on over to the Pure 12-Pack voting site and put your mark down for Randy Kohrs?

His video is not in the top 12 at this point, but a nice bluegrass surge could move him right on up.

You can watch the video for Who’s Goin’ With Me, at the voting site, or here on The Bluegrass Blog. It is also scheduled to air tonight on CMT Pure at 10:04 p.m. (eastern).

Here’s your chance to get a free track from the new Mountain Heart CD, Road That Never Ends - The Live Album. The track is While The Gettin’s Good, a new song written by Josh Shilling, Jim Van Cleve and Craig Market.

In order to get the free MP3 download, you’ll need to be a registered user at The Bluegrass Blog - and registration is free, painless and only takes a few moments. Registered users will need to log in to access the track.

The download will be available today (10/22) until 10:00 p.m. (eastern).

Go to the download now.

We will also be running a contest this week where six winners will receive free, autographed copies of Road That Never Ends as well as Mountain Heart t-shirts/caps. Everyone who downloads the track will be automatically entered, and all others will be welcome to enter for the drawing starting next Tuesday.

Tell a friend!

Back in the spring, we posted about a new book on the history of the WBT Briarhoppers.

The book, The WBT Briarhoppers - Eight Decades of a Bluegrass Band Made for Radio, by Tom and Lucy Warlick, has been released by McFarland & Company.

The book chronicles the history of one of the longest-running American string bands, with quotes from Doc Watson, David Holt, Curly Seckler,Wade Mainer, George Hamilton IV, and others.

Find more details on the McFardland web site.

Get yours while the gettin’s good!

Don’t forget that today (10/22) between noon and 10:00 p.m. (ET), any registered user of The Bluegrass Blog can download a free track from the new Mountain Heart live CD, Road That Never Ends. The track is While The Gettin’s Good, a new song written by Josh Shilling, Jim Van Cleve and Craig Market.

In order to get the free, iTunes-compatible MP3 download, you’ll need to be a registered user at The Bluegrass Blog - and registration is free, painless and only takes a few moments. Registered users will need to log in to access the track.

We will also be running a contest this week where six winners will receive free, autographed copies of Road That Never Ends. Everyone who downloads the track will be automatically entered, and all others will be welcome to enter for the drawing starting tomorrow.

Be sure to return and log in between noon and 10:00 this evening and get a free first look at Mountain Heart live.

And tell a friend!

UPDATE 12:15 p.m.: Go to the download now.

Our UK correspondent, Richard F Thompson, shares this review of a CD he found to be especially worthy.

Red Henry has been playing mandolin since the 1960s and he soon developed into what a Bluegrass Unlimited reviewer described as “one of the most prolific interpreters of Monroe-style mandolin picking”. This mastery is displayed not only in the playing of Bill Monroe’s many great instrumental pieces, but in the creation of original tunes that possess the characteristic intensity of Monroe’s music.

About six years ago Red’s Bluegrass Mandolin And Other Trouble (Arrandem AR-120) was praised for the stellar mandolin style and the inclusion on the CD of eight of his original tunes that sound like they’re 40 years old and the thoughtful rendition of some old favourites like Sleepy-Eyed John, Rawhide and Bluegrass Breakdown.

For Red’s latest CD, Helton Creek (Arrandem AR-200), the mix is much the same; three original tunes, two of which are each a descendant of one Monroe classic or other - Shawnee Land and the title track; some older numbers, both rare and no-so-rarely heard - Toy Heart, Chubby Anthony’s Stay Out Of Your Way, High On A Mountain, Remember You Love In My Dreams, a Stanley Brothers’ classic, The Flood Of ‘57 and Frank Wakefield’s Alone And Forsaken. Additionally, Red has, with the help of his guests, re-introduced some old fiddle tunes, Yellow Barber, Birdie and Bitter Creek, the story Clermont’s Visit To Georgia (not a word of which is true), the 16th century Divers And Lazarus and Murphy Henry’s unlisted cut Miss Nora’s Blues.

Red tells us a bit about the background to his writing and recording the title track ……..

“Helton Creek is a real place. It’s a small trout-fishing stream in the North Carolina mountains, where mandolin players (mostly members of the Co-Mando email group) gather once or twice each year for a weekend of music. So Helton Creek is significant in the mandolin music scene, and one day a couple of years ago, I thought I’d write a tune about it. (more…)

John posted the other day that Del McCoury and band would be making an appearance on NPR’s Talk of the Nation. In that post he mentioned that the show’s audio would be made available online.

The story is now online and does include a link for listening to the audio of the in studio performance. You can find it here.

The NPR: Blog of the Nation includes two follow up posts to the Studio 4a performance.

The first story focuses on a 10 year old mandolin player who called in to talk with Ronnie about the mandolin.

The second story, actually the first one posted, includes a video of Del’s in studio performance of 1952 Vincent Black Lightning. It’s wonderfully filmed footage and worth watching for all Del Heads.

We’ve written a good bit this past few months about Josh Shilling, the newest member of Mountain Heart who had the unenviable job of taking the spot held by founding member, Steve Gulley, on guitar and vocals. Josh and the rest of the band will release their newest CD, Road That Never Ends - The Live Album, on Tuesday, October 23 on Rural Rhythm Records.

Our local Roanoke, VA newspaper, The Roanoke Times, has published a feature on Josh, written by staffer Tad Dickens, which follows the “local boy makes good” format. Josh grew up not far from Roanoke in Martinsville, VA, and got his professional music career started playing with Roanoke-area bands.

For 24-year-old Shilling, the road that never ends started around Roanoke.

Shilling was already a veteran of the region’s music, nightspot and recording scene by the time he graduated from Bassett High School. Every male in his family plays guitar. His maternal grandfather, Leon Woodward, and uncle, Kim Woodward, were well-known nightclub pickers.

Read the full article on The Roanoke Times web site.

Don’t forget that tomorrow (10/22) between noon and 10:00 p.m. (ET), any registered user of The Bluegrass Blog can download a free track from Road That Never Ends. Be sure to log in during that time and get a free first look at Josh Shilling and Mountain Heart live.

This past Friday evening (10/19), The Steep Canyon Rangers played a show here in Roanoke, VA. I was familiar with their recordings, and caught a few brief sets at IBMA, but this was my first chance to see them live in an extended club concert setting.

They performed before a full house at the the 202 Market restuarant in downtown Roanoke, and just as when I saw The Infamous Stringdusters there earlier this year, the audience was composed of both old and young - Friday night clubbers, seious bluegrass lovers and hard core Rangers fans.

Over the course of three strong sets the band demonstrated their unique approach to the music, where the instruments are played in a traditional bluegrass style while the material owes as much to old time and blues as it does the bluegrass canon. The great bulk of their songs are written within the band, and most were taken from their most recent release, Lovin’ Pretty Women.

Each member of the group contributes to the band sound. Graham Sharpe’s banjo playing is powerful and inventive, whether the style calls for a bluegrass, old time or blues feel. Mandolinist Mike Guggino’s mastery of the Monroe style is always in evidence, and Woody Platt’s vocal delivery and guitar work manages to be both unorthodox and appropriate at the same time. Charles Humphrey excels on bass, whether he is providing accompaniment or taking a solo, and his dead pan delivery as an emcee is dead-on in fronting much of their show.

But it was fiddler Nicky Sanders that kept my attention the bulk of the time. He represents one of the rarer species in and around bluegrass music: a player with the technique and virtuosity of a conservatory-trained performer, but who has also captured the soul and authentic feel of traditional string music. He is a joy to watch, and though The Steep Canyon Rangers would offer a compelling performance without him, he adds an element that completes the package in a most appealing manner.

You can find their complete tour schedule on the band’s official web site.