Here’s another reminder about the Butch Baldassari benefit concert to be held tomorrow, October 22, on the campus of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. A long-time and greatly-beloved member of the mandolin community, Butch is battling an inoperable brain tumor, and proceeds from the concert will be given to Butch to help with both medical and family expenses.

The all-star lineup of performers who are donating their time for this show come from a wide range of musical styles, and include Dierks Bentley, Shawn Camp, Kathy Chiavola, John Cowan, Bela Fleck, The Grascals, Tony McManus, the Nashville Bluegrass Band, the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble, Maura O’Connell with John Mock, Mark O’Connor, Ricky Skaggs and Three Ring Circle.

Both general admission ($50) and patron tickets ($125) can be purchased online.

Butch toured as a member of bluegrass bands Weary Hearts and Lonesome Standard Time, and later founded the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble, to perform music written for a mandolin orchestra. He has also founded and run the Sound Art Recordings label, and has taught at Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Music since 1996.

If you are unable to attend the show, but would like to make a contribution to Butch’s Medical Fund, you can do so online. Mandolin Cafe has set up a PayPal account where online credit card or PayPal contributions are sent directly to Butch.

If you would prefer to send a donation by mail - or simply pass along notes of encouragement - the address is:

Butch Baldassari
125 43rd Ave. N.
Nashville, TN 37209

Following is the most recent update from Sinclair Baldassari (Butch’s wife) about his condition:

Dear Friends and Family,

Our doctor’s visit this week was pretty good. Butch’s blood tests show some improvement in some areas of concern. We still are working hard to gain him some weight, energy and strength. With his mother, Pat, and me waiting on him hand and foot, and with Butch eating all day long, you’d think he’d be fighting off obesity. Instead, he has lost a pound in the last two weeks. We all feel he is about to turn a corner, though. A neighbor loaned us a stationery bike of sorts. It’s set up horizontally more like a rowing machine so the fear of Butch losing his balance isn’t there. Butch has used it 15 minutes a day since getting it. Since he is not quite strong enough to start chemo, we are scheduled to have another MRI in three weeks from there, we will plan a course of action. (more…)

A few of Hollywood’s stars were rubbing shoulders with bluegrass musicians recently. The Mill Creek Boys played, last Friday night, at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. The gig was an end of shooting party for M. Night Shyamalan’s new movie, The Happening.

Shyamalan himself was there and the band tells me he is a “real nice fellow.” In addition to Shyamalan, the cast of the movie were also present and the female lead, Zooey Deschanel, joined the band on a number.

We were scheduled to play at 8 p.m., arrived at 6, and didn’t actually start picking until shooting ended around 10 p.m. We got to back up the female lead, Zooey Deschanel on an old country song. (She was quite good.)

Zooey has a background as a vocalist. She has performed vocally in several movies in which she acted, and apparently has a CD of country and rock songs in the works. You can read more about her musical endeavors on this wikipedia page.

The Mill Creek Boys, one of them is a girl, have been playing bluegrass in the Philadelphia area of Pennsylvania since 1998. Normally a four piece featuring bass, guitar, banjo and fiddle, they did hire Danny Stewart for this particular gig to play mandolin and do a little singing.

Ed Pollak, who plays fiddle in the band, described the scene as being a rather seedy section of the shipyards, but said the vibe was cool with a huge ship as a backdrop and “top flight catering.” I think the band enjoyed themselves.

Brance posted on Tuesday about the special Station Inn performance this week by Mashville Brigade and friends.

The band was initially formed late in ‘06 by Ashby Frank and a number of other hot young pickers when Frank was living in Nashville and working with Alecia Nugent’s band. It included Jim Van Cleve on fiddle, Darrel Webb on guitar, Greg Martin on bass, Aaron McDaris on banjo and Frank on mandolin. Their plan was to play at Nashville’s Station Inn on occasional Tuesday evenings, much as a group know as The Sidemen had done a few years ago, assembled from members of other Nashville-based bluegrass bands.

Now that Ashby is off touring with Special Consensus, the membership at Mashville Brigade shows fluctuates wildly, and the show this past Tuesday was set to feature a number of high-profile guests, including Scott Vestal and Josh Williams.

We hear that even more unexpected special guests were on hand, and before the evening was concluded, country star Dierks Bentley joined the band for a song, as did Shawn Camp and Tina Adair. Sounds like a night of good fun and great music.

Ashby actually emailed from the Salt Lake City airport, to say that he had hated to miss that show, but had an interesting one of his own.

“Special Consensus did a show with the Idaho State Civic Symphony in Pocatello, Idaho last night in their beautiful new symphony/performing arts center. It went over amazingly well!

The crowd gave us such a warm reception, and called us out for an encore. It’s not every day that a symphony plays a full set with a Bluegrass band (we played a few new songs by ourselves, but did most of the set with the symphony), and its not every day that a bluegrass band plays in Pocatello, ID!”

Rhonda Vincent is running a new contest, offering those who pre-order her new CD the chance to win a piece of bluegrass history.

The first place winner will receive the Weber mandolin Rhonda is holding on the cover. Second places gets you a Shure KSM-44 microphone she used in the studio recording this project, and the third place winner gets the custom earrings Rhonda is wearing on the cover.

To enter, you must pre-order a copy of the new CD, Good Thing Going, by December 19, 2007 from her online store, or by mail from the Rhonda Vincent fan club.

All prizes are guaranteed to be delivered by December 24, and pre-orders for the new CD will be delivered by January 8, 2008.

Find complete contest details on the official Rhonda Vincent web site.

When we noted the release of Claire Lynch’s new CD earlier this month, we mentioned that audio samples were not available yet online.

Well, they are now. Rounder Records has samples from all 14 tracks of Crowd Favorites up on their web site. The CD is part of Rounder’s Cream Of The Crop series, which feature both pre-released and new tracks on a single disc.

Claire’s mixes 10 tracks from her previous Rounder projects with four newly-recorded encores of popular songs from her Front Porch String band days.

Clarence “Tater” Tate, a long-time member of Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys and Lester Flatt’s Nashville Grass, passed away on Wednesday. Tater had been battling lung cancer for some time, and will be fondly remembered as long as people play bluegrass music.

In his later years, he served as an instructor in the bluegrass music program at East Tennessee State University. How fortunate for his students to have had a brief glimpse of his wisdom.

You can read his obituary notice in The Johnson City Press online.

Get yours while the gettin’s good!

We’ve posted here previously about Road That Never Ends - The Live Album, the new CD project from Mountain Heart - and their first live release. It is due on October 23 on Rural Rhythm Records and was recorded May 26 at The Ark in Ann Arbor, MI where the band has developed a large and loyal audience.

The Bluegrass Blog is pleased to announce that next Monday, October 22, we will be offering a free track from Road That Never Ends for download from our site. 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 free MP3 will be available from noon on Monday (10/22) until 10:00 p.m. (eastern US time.) You must log in during that time to get the download.

We will also be running a contest next 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 next Tuesday.

More details will be posted between now and Monday. Be sure to visit on the 22nd and get a free sneak peek at the new Mountain Heart release.

And tell a friend!

Andy Falco has been getting a lot of attention this past couple of months. As the newest member of The Infamous Stringdusters, stepping in when Chris Eldridge left to join up with Chris Thile, he was scrutinized - and not found wanting - by their loyal fan base.

What an opportune time for his solo CD project to be released! Sentenced To Life With The Blues has been released by Flatpicking Guitar Records, with 13 tracks that demonstrate Falco’s guitar prowess on a fairly wide range of flatpicking material. Guest performers include Josh Williams, Cody Kilby, Adam Steffey, Luke Bulla, Jason Carter, Andy Hall, Noam Pikelney, Jim Van Cleve, Andy Leftwich, Alecia Nugent, Rob Ickes and more.

You can hear severalaudio samples online at Andy’s MySpace page.

Mandolinist John Frazier, a founding member of Hit & Run Bluegrass, has accepted a position with The John Cowan Band.

John is a Philadelphia native, and joined Hit & Run after he moved to Colorado to attend college - where he discovered bluegrass music and the mandolin. He and his Hit & Run bandmate (and spouse) Rebecca Frazier moved from CO to Nashville earlier this year, and with John’s professional move to Cowan’s band, Hit & Run expects to accept only a limited number of dates for 2008.

Hit & Run will be recording a new tribute project for CMH Records soon, following up their appearance as part of the popular Simpsons bluegrass project, Four Finger Music - The Bluegrass Tribute to the Music Made Famous by The Simpsons. The new project will focus on bluegrass remakes of 1980’s pop classics, with songs like Take on Me, Jessie’s Girl and Everybody Wants to Rule the World planned for inclusion.

Check John Cowan’s schedule online to catch John, John and the boys near you.

UPDATE 10/19: Clarification… Before anyone gets the wrong idea, Hit & Run is still moving forward as a band. In fact, they are celebrating this week their sixth anniversary playing together.

Current lineup is Rebecca Frazier on guitar, John Frazier on mandolin, Andy Thorn on banjo, Steve Roy on bass and Tod Livingston on dobro. Livingston and the Fraziers are in Nashville, with Thorn in NC and Roy in NH.

Just before we left for IBMA earlier this month, I promised that Brance and I would spend our traveling time listening to a stack of new CDs we had received, and pass along some comments. While we did do our dutiful listening, we ended up with so many new CDs at IBMA that we are now further behind than ever!

We’ll try and get caught up, starting today…

One in the stack is a new project, from a new label - and an artist who may be new to many bluegrass fans.

Donna Ulisse has been singing and performing as a bluegrass and country artist she she was just a wee girl. From singing with country bands as a young woman in Virginia Beach, VA, she married into bluegrass royalty when she wed Rick Stanley, cousin to Dr. Ralph. A move to Nashville won her a major label contract, and the release of Trouble At The Door on Atlantic Records in 1991.

She made the circuit promoting that project, including TV appearances and videos, but her mainstream country career was not to be. But country music’s loss may turn into bluegrass music’s gain with the recent release of When I Look Back, her first recording with a newly-established label, Hadley Music Group.

Hadley has been Donna’s music publisher for some time, and her songwriting is front and center on the new CD. In fact, they liked her music so well, they elected to form a label in order to get it before the public.

She has enlisted some of the brightest lights in the Nashville bluegrass community to record this project. Keith Sewell co-produces with Ulisee, and provides guitar and vocal accompaniment. Scott Vestal is on banjo, Randy Kohrs on dobro, Andy Leftwich on fiddle, Byron House on bass and both Jesse Cobb and Andy Leftwich on mandolin.

The music is decidedly modern and fresh - in composition, arrangement and performance. She mixes her country and bluegrass backgrounds in ways that should appeal to fans from both sides of that aisle, and the songs are often frankly personal and introspective.

When I look Back is available from CD Baby, iTunes and wherever bluegrass music is sold.

Two weeks ago at IBMA John and I, along with Brandi Hart of The Dixie Bee Liners, conducted a seminar, the official title being Establishing & Maintaining an Effective Web Presence. I thought I’d do a recap here of some of the topics we discussed during the seminar, as well as some we didn’t get to but had intended to cover.

The main point we focused on was the difference between merely having a web presence, and having an effective web presence. Now, effective means that it successfully produces the desired results. That means you must have some desired goals in mind to begin with.

As an artist or event producer or DJ or whatever, we all have the same basic goal for our web presence. We want to make a living at bluegrass music and we intend for our web presence to assist us in doing so. From that point on though, the specific goals will differ considerably. That’s your first task, decide what your goals are. Here are a few suggestions.

• networking
• gathering contact info
• maintaining communication with fans
• finding new fans
• selling merchandise or tickets

You get the idea. Depending on your goals, you go about developing your web presence differently, but some constants remain.

One of the main topics of discussion was MySpace. A point we kept trying to make was that MySpace is not YourSpace, it’s TheirSpace. (more…)

More than 60 banjo players will converge in the small town of Cumberland Furance, TN this weekend for the 7th Annual NashCamp Banjo Retreat. Hosted by Sonny Osborne and Bill Evans, this year’s camp also features multi-IBMA award winner Tony Trischka, Alan Munde, Ned Luberecki, Kristin Scott-Benson and Frank Neat. Camp director is Cindy Sinclair, who co-directed this year’s IBMA Awards Show.

The setting for the Banjo Retreat is the stunning 1865 Drouillard House and its surrounding grounds and The Mad Platter, an acclaimed Nashville restaurant, caters the event.

“While we try to get the best teachers and players we can each year, the Drouillard House and the food are probably what keep people coming back. I’ve taught at most banjo camps across the country, and I’ll proudly admit that I think the comfort level of our camp is second to none. And that creates a relaxing atmosphere for folks to have a great weekend.

We’re also excited about Kristin Scott-Benson being with us. She’s one of our favorite players and people and her playing and teaching are going to bowl people over!”

Small group classes, faculty concerts, jamming and a wide choice of electives highlight this year’s class offerings, with a special emphasis this year on double banjo playing, in honor of Tony’s CD, Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular.

Folks do seem to come back year after year - this year’s camp sold out in early June. As a special added feature for 2007, Munde, Evans and Luberecki will perform at the Station Inn on Thursday night, October 18th at 8 p.m., backed by guitarist Tim May, fiddler Megan Lynch, mandolin player Roland White and bassist Jon Weisberger.

If you want to get in on the NashCamp experience, reservations will be accepted for the 2008 event on January 2, 2008.

A new bluegrass video web site, Pickin’ & Grinnin,’ is officially launched today (10/17), offering members the opportunity to upload and share videos with other bluegrass and old time music lovers.

The site is operated by Robert Croft a retired firefighter from north central Georgia. We spoke briefly with Robert at IBMA, and he said that while the site is live now, he expects to be making refinements in the interface through the rest of this year.

He said that he welcomes any user-submitted videos of bluegrass or old time music - as long as they are family friendly - as well as bluegrass gospel and traditional folk music. This can include performance videos, music videos, instructional or interview video, and even bluegrass comedy.

Videos stored at Pickin’ & Grinnin’ can also be shared more widely by embedding them into your personal blog or MySpace page.

There is no fee to register, but you must register to upload videos for display on the site. No registration is required to view the videos, and a great many are already available at pickin-n-grinnin.com.

Here’s one we found this morning, featuring a number of now-prominent bluegrass artists when they were kids. Recognize anyone?

Thursday afternoon’s edition of Talk of the Nation will include time with The Del McCoury Band. The show (talk/news format) airs each weekday on many National Public Radio affiliate stations at 3:00 p.m. (eastern).

The McCourys will appear during the Performance Chat segment on October 18, where they will pick and sing live in the NPR studio, and also chat with show host Neal Conan. They will offer songs from Ronnie McCoury’s new children’s bluegrass CD, Little Mo’ McCoury, and perhaps some band favorites as well.

The NPR signal is streamed live online if your NPR station does not carry Talk of the Nation and, should you miss Thursday’s show, the audio will be accessible on the NPR web site by 6:00 p.m. tomorrow evening (10/18), and archived indefinitely online.

For many years now the legend of the Sidemen has lived on even though the group no longer performs at Nashville’s Station Inn.

In recent months, a new group of sidemen have come together to fill the void. They call themselves the Mashville Brigade. The group performs most Tuesday nights at The Station Inn and consists of pickers who all play in different bands on the road.

The line up may not be exactly the same every night if one or more of the guys has a gig somewhere, but the group more or less consists of Aaron McDaris (banjo), Ashby Frank (mandolin), Darrel Webb (guitar), Greg Martin or Randall Barnes (bass), and Jim VanCleve (fiddle).

The group makes an effort to play a strait up hard driving bluegrass setlist each Tuesday night, entertaining the crowd of hardcore fans who turn out for the shows.

Tonight, the line up will be a little different, as the band welcomes a few friends to the stage to “Mash” one with them.

At tonight’s show, band will be:

Josh Williams - guitar and vocals (formerly of Rhonda Vincent)
Darrel Webb - Mandolin and vocals (Currently with Rhonda Vincent)
Tim Dishman - Bass (Special Consensus)
Scott Vestal - Banjo (Sam Bush Band)
Jim VanCleve - Fiddle (Mountain Heart)
Daren Shumaker - sound engineer (Ronnie Bowman & Mountain Heart)

We’re expecting a fun crowd and a lot of energy, as we just recently fronted a show for Dierks Bently (where he graciously gave the Mashville Brigade a glowing review from the stage) at a Charity event in Nashville. You just never know who’s gonna drop in and mash one or two with the band, too, so it’s usually pretty interesting!

The Station Inn has dubbed the Mashville Brigade shows as $5 Tuesdays. The cover charge, pizzas, and pitchers of beer are each $5. If you’re in town, be sure to stop by and watch the guys Mash one!

Recently departed from Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Ron Spears has become the newest member of David Parmley and Continental Divide.

Ron replaces the outgoing Randy Graham on mandolin and tenor vocals. Ron is also a very fine song writer, and I’m sure a tune or two of his will find its way into the band’s repertoire as well.

David Parmley shared his excitement at having Ron join the band.

We are looking forward to playing with Ron and are certain he will be an exciting new addition to our performance.

From what I understand, Spears has already started with Continental Divide. Check out their tour schedule to see them near you.

We had posted back in August when Chris Thile and his merry band of super pickers announced a three day string of shows at Nashville’s fabled Station Inn. They were, at the time of that posting, billed as The Tensions Mountain Boys, but within a few weeks their rebirth as The Punch Brothers had been disclosed.

The Station Inn dates were scheduled in large part as a live rehearsal before the band headed into the studio to start work on their debut CD for Nonesuch Records. Some preliminary recording was done in late September in Nashville, with the bulk being completed in New York City.

A number of YouTube videos have surfaced from the Station Inn shows. These were shot by audience members, so video and audio isn’t pro quality.

The performances are nevertheless inspired, and range from bluegrass classics like Don’t Give Your Heart To A Rambler and Ocean Of Diamonds to banjo picker Noam Pikelny’s Manchicken.  Songs from Thile’s How To Grow A Woman From The Ground are also represented with The Beekeeper, and one from a Thile solo project in Song For A Young Queen - with Jerry Douglas providing comic relief.

While we were in Nashville for the IBMA convention earlier this month, I had occasion to speak with Kyle Cantrell, on-air host and program director for XM Satellite Radio’s Bluegrass Junction (track 14), which broadcasts bluegrass music 24/7 to XM subscribers.

Kyle caught me up on XM Nashville’s plans to move soon into new facilities, which had been announced in late August. For the past six years, Bluegrass Junction has been broadcast from a small studio space in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and Kyle tells me that he is eager to get a look at their new home as soon as construction is completed.

Bluegrass Junction has been able to air live, in-studio performances on a semi-regular basis, but had always been restricted by their need to lease studio space elsewhere whenever such an occasion arose. Kyle says that the new space will have a dedicated live performance studio, to be shared by the several XM channels currently based in Nashville, and he hopes to be able to offer more, and more timely live programming once they move to the new facility.

The new studio space will be located downtown in the arena towers, adjacent to the Nashville Arena, officially known as The Sommet Center, which is also home to the Nashville Convention and Visitor’s Bureau.

Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs were honored last night as they were inducted into Nashville Songwriters Association International’s Hall Of Fame at their 38th Annual Hall of Fame Dinner and Induction Ceremony.

Marty Stuart inducted Flatt & Scruggs, recalling how he joined Lester Flatt & The Nashville Grass when he was 13 years old. The Del McCoury Band performed a number of Flatt & Scruggs compositions (If I Should Wander Back Tonight, Earl’s Breakdown, Little Cabin Home on the Hill, Don’t Get Above Your Raisin’ and The Martha White Theme) and were then joined by Stuart for Scruggs’ classic Foggy Mountain Breakdown.

From the NSAI press release:

Joining Scruggs to accept the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Manny Award (short for manuscript) were Flatt’s widow, Gladys Flatt, and granddaughter Tammy Brumfield. “It’s been a wonderful ride,” Scruggs said. “Thank you all very much.”

Also inducted last night were Bob DiPiero, Mac McAnally, Dottie Rambo and Hank Williams, Jr.

In addition to plugging away on the bluegrass circuit, we understand that mandolinist, vocalist and band leader Jimmy Bowen is shopping a country project to record companies in Nashville.

Steve Brooks mentioned recently in his Music Biz and Broadcast Beat column in Country Music Report that…

Jimmy Bowen & Santa Fe are working with Music Row maven Gary Lamb to land a record deal. Word has it that Big Machine Records is giving Bowen’s new album a spin to see what develops. I’ve listened to the album…and it’s good.

Bowen’s group, Santa Fe, includes Rick Briggs on banjo, Daniel Dingeldein Ron Lane on guitar and Blake Bowen on bass. All the members play a variety of instruments, and can perform in either a bluegrass or country format.