Mandolin Cafe has details on another Butch Baldassari benefit concert, this time in Seattle on December 1 at Dusty Strings.

Regular readers of The Bluegrass Blog will recall that Butch was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor earlier this year, and has been undergoing rigorous and aggressive chemo and radiation therapy to arrest the growth of the tumor. His contributions to the mandolin, bluegrass and music industry communities are well-documented, as a performer, composer, band leader and record label owner.

The show will feature performances from John Reischman, John Miller, Orville Johnson, John Miller, Grant Dermody, Trisha Gagnon and Nick Hornbuckle. All proceeds from the $25 tickets will support the Baldassari Medical Fund.

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

The Associated Press is reporting that last night’s American Music Awards on ABC featured an unexpected duet between country sensation Sugarland and pop mega-star Beyonce

Sugarland has been performing an acoustic version of the Beyonce song, Irreplaceable, in their stage show, and their publicist was able to arrange the impromptu duet for the AMA show.

AP quotes the pop star while watching a replay of their set backstage as remarking:

“The bluegrass version… It ain’t bad.”

The new music video from Uncle Earl can be viewed online, at www.stereogum.com. The video is for the tune, Streak o’ Lean, Streak o’ Fat from their current CD, Waterloo, Tennessee.

It is a comical and quirky take on the tune, with the g’earls finding their dinner at a Chinese restaurant interrupted by a West Side Story-like step battle between kung fu fighters and step and clog dancers - complete with classic fight scene audio clichés from the Bruce Lee genre.

Throughout the set-to, the ladies play an old time tune, which has no apparent effect on the combatants. Fiddler Casey Driessen and Waterloo producer John Paul Jones have cameo appearances.

Watch the full video at stereogum.com.

Tonight’s (11/18) edition of BanjoTalk will be a Bill Sullivan Tribute show.

BanjoTalk is a live, online, call-in radio show hosted by Dave Pericone at BanjoTalk.com. The show begins at 8:00 p.m. (EST), with Eric Sullivan (Bill’s son) joining David to remember the many contributions Bill Sullivan made to the banjo and bluegrass community before his sudden death in September of this year.

David asks all of Bill’s many fans, friends or customers to call in this evening to share their thoughts and remembrances. To call during the show, the number is 877-288-9933 (PIN # 8255).

Memories and thoughts can also be shared by email.

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.

Next Great American Band on Friday night held the first big surprise of the show. Franklin Bridge, the band that judge Sheila E. had predicted would win the contest, got voted off. The judges were shocked; I was shocked. But in my heart of hearts I was glad because it meant that both Cliff Wagner and the Old #7 and the Clark Brothers made it through to play another night.

Cliff chose the Lieber and Stoller song Poison Ivy to sing and adapted it very well. Cliff was back on the banjo, though there was no banjo break in the song. He looked quite dapper in a suit with an ascot. In the pre-song clip about the group we learned that Cliff does everything from booking to promotion to writing the songs for the band. If the band was a kingdom, one of the guys said, “Cliff would be the emperor.”

The Clark Brothers chose Lieber and Stoller’s Saved, and delivered an absolutely amazing performance. Ashley sang the fire out of it with a truly passionate lead vocal; Austin wailed on the dobro, and Adam pounded out the rhythm on the guitar. The judges were practically beside themselves with praise. John Rzeznik said, “I’m questioning everything now…” meaning, I believe, that before he thought a drummer necessary to a rockin’ performance. Shelia deemed it “Magnifico,” and the dour Dicko said, “Even a wretch like me feels closer to salvation” after hearing that song.

Next week bands tackle a Rolling Stones cover. As I said last time, the competition is truly fierce now and it all depends on the stamina of Appalachian-America’s thumbs (dialing those phones) to determine if our bands make it through another round.

Unfortunately last week’s performances are not up on the show’s site, but you can still see songs from weeks 1, 2, and 3.

Speaking of Cadillac Sky…

Their first music video is set to debut tomorrow (11/18) on GAC TV. It’s for the song, Born Lonesome, from their current Skaggs Family release, Blind Man Walking.

C-Sky’s Bryan Simpson said that working with director Roger Pistole was a great experience.

“Yeah… working with Roger was awesome. He’s done videos as varied as Del McCoury’s My Love Will Not Change and Limp Bizkit’s Sour.

This video is a little bit different from what we’ve seen from other bluegrass bands. The story is a bit abstract, and you may need to see it a few times before you catch the whole thing.”

The video is set to air for the first time on Sunday at 11:30 (EST) on GAC’s Edge Of Country show. Simpson said that they hope to have the video available for viewing online by sometime next week.

The band will be heading back into the studio early next year to start on their next CD, also slated for a Skaggs Family release.

3:00 p.m. - Updated with response from Cadillac Sky.

This past weekend Mountain View Arkansas was thriving with bluegrass during the annual Fall Bluegrass Festival. Cadillac Sky was one of the featured bands, and controversy was the order of the day after their first performance Thursday night. Here are the plain facts as I understand them.

Cadillac Sky was contracted to play 5 sets over the course of three days at the festival. After their first set a confrontation took place between the band the promoter. The confrontation resulted in the band being sent home.

Cadillac Sky soon released their side of the story on their MySpace blog. In their post they accused the promoter, Andy by name, of being a “Bluegrass Nazi” and firing them for not being bluegrass enough. And this after playing a set of traditional bluegrass gospel music. The post sparked outrage among the band’s fans and resulted in many comments, both on the band’s MySpace page and on other bluegrass discussion groups, suggesting a boycott of the Mountain View Bluegrass Festival, and bringing up issues of ethics and integrity.

Being alerted to the controversy, and aware that there are two sides to any story, I contacted Andy and had a lengthy telephone conversation with him. He tells a slightly different version of the tale. (more…)

The 9513 is the country/roots blog very similar to The Bluegrass Blog. It’s a blog that covers new, album releases, and other items of interest to country music fans. Sometimes bluegrass and country get a little friendly and stray into one another’s worlds. Such is the case with their latest giveaway.

The 9513 is celebrating its one year anniversary by giving away a limited number of iTunes album downloads. Here’s how it works. Visit their site and read this post. Leave a comment telling them how much you like their blog and which album on the list you would be interested in. They will randomly select 40 winners from among the commenters.

Two of the albums on the list are bluegrass. One is Old Photograph by Randy Kohrs, the other is More Behind The Picture Than The Wall by Doyle Lawson. So, if you are a bluegrass fan and don’t yet have one of these recordings, here’s a chance to win a digital copy for free.

Just as we head into the frantic holiday shopping season, Mel Bay Publications has a new book/CD set designed as a companion purchase for parents who will put a new banjo under the tree for their young children.

Easiest Banjo Tunes for Children was written by Larry McCabe, who has several other Mel Bay instructional products for banjo to his credit. This slim volume was created to offer simple, fun and easy to play versions of familiar banjo tunes, arranged with smaller hands in mind.

The book will be available from retailers who carry acoustic and bluegrass instructional materials, as well as online resellers.

The appearance by Larry Keel & Natural Bridge on WoodSongs Old Time Radio Hour from this past Monday - which Brance had mentioned earlier - can now be viewed as an online video.

They perform several songs - including some new ones not yet released on CD -  and chat briefly with Woodsongs host Michael Jonathan.

Folk duo Blue House also perform on this show.

Watch the full program on the Woodsongs web site.

Rural Rhythm Records has just released the first single from their upcoming Tim Hensley project, Long Monday. Bluegrass radio hosts and stations should be receiving their copy today (11/15), Tim’s rendition of the Rodney Crowell song, Ridin’ Out The Storm.

Tim has spent time with Ricky Skaggs, as well as country artists Patty Loveless and Kenny Chesney, and has put together a bluegrass-tinged acoustic album with songs drawn from some of today’s top writers. In addition to the Crowell song, there are songs from Tim Stafford, Ronnie Bowman, Carl Jackson and Larry Cordle.

Joining Tim in the studio were super-pickers Rob Ickes, Aubrey Haynie, Wyatt Rice, Tim Stafford, Adam Steffey and David Talbot, with vocal assistance from Ronnie Bowman, Melonie Cannon, Vince Gill, Sonya Isaacs and Patty Loveless.

The Hensley CD is due on January 29, 2008. More details and a clip from Ridin’ Out The Storm can be found online.

We hear from Hadley Music Group that Donna Ulisse was recently back in the studio with producer/guitarist Keith Sewell and Andy Leftwich on fiddle and mandolin laying down some basic tracks on new songs she had written.

Ulisse discussed this in a recent interview…

“I like to do pre-production work on everything I write that I am considering for a future project - just to get a feel for all of the possibilities of the song with more instrumentation. Sometimes a song will take a whole new direction with the creative energy of the musicians involved. Plus, it gives my publisher a good demo for our song plugger Matt Lindsey to pitch to other artists because as a songwriter, it is a thrill for me to have other artists record my songs.”

Donna is currently promoting her first release, When I Look Back, to bluegrass radio, and has been writing for her second bluegrass project, which will get underway early next year. Hadley Music Group says that a summer ‘08 release is expected.

We just got a note from Graham Sharpe, banjo picker with The Steep Canyon Rangers, to let everyone know that they will be joining Eddie Stubbs tonight for an interview on WSM in Nashville. They’ll be on in the 9:00 p.m. (EST) hour.

Graham also mentioned that they the guys had received a Spirit Award nomination for the song Call The Captain, from their current Lovin’ Pretty Women CD. These nominations are primarly for more mainstream country artists, but Cadillac Sky and Mountain Heart received nods this year along with the Rangers

These awards are based on online ballots, and the voting period begins today. Graham said that you can hear Call The Captain on their MySpace page.

You can hear their interview with Eddie on WSM 650 AM in Nashville, or via live streaming online.

UPDATE: 5:00 p.m.: Steep Canyon Rangers are headed to The Lucy Opry in Memphis for a show on Friday night (11/16). An earlier report here had them somewhere else on Friday.

A new batch of tour dates has been posted for Punch Brothers, Chris Thile’s recently renamed band of musical brothers. They’ll do a UK tour in January ‘08, after which they will be doing concert and club shows all over the US, with new stops being added regularly.

The band consists of Thile on mandolin and vocals, with Noam Pikelny on banjo, Chris Eldridge on guitar, Gabe Wichter on fiddle and Greg Garrison on bass. This is the group that recorded Chris’ How To Grow A Woman From The Ground CD, and also toured with him in support of that project as How To Grow A Band. They performed briefly as Tensions Mountain Boys, and have morphed nominally into Punch Brothers.

They are currently finishing up a debut CD as Punch Brothers, which is expected to be released in early ‘08 on Nonesuch Records.

You can keep up with their schedule on Chris’ MySpace page.

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will be among the guests on The Charlie Rose Show aired today (11/13) on most PBS television stations. They will be on to discuss their new CD, Raising Sand, along with producer T. Bone Burnett.

Times vary in different markets, so be sure to check the TV schedule for your area if you would like to catch the show.

Online video of recent shows is available on the show’s web site, so the Krauss/Plant/Burnett may appear there in a few days should you miss the discussion when it airs on PBS.

We came across an article in the Herald Citizen (Cookeville, TN) about a new marketing effort by the city of Sparta, TN.

In this official re-branding of the city’s image and tourism identity, they will henceforth promote themselves as Bluegrass, USA.

Home to several early bluegrass pioneers, Sparta is regarded as a cradle for the musical genre, a theme that resonates throughout the Web site, starting with the banjo picker who greets viewers on the home page.

Visitors to www.spartatn.com can travel the virtual streets of Bluegrass, USA and find everything from historical tidbits and a Sparta trivia quiz to key information such as phone numbers for city officials and economic development information.

A planned second phase for the site will include a “Wall of Legends,” which will highlight the accomplishments of some of Sparta’s more notable heroes, including Lester Flatt, Benny Martin, Blake Williams, John White, Black Fox, Earl Webb, Sam Agee, Dale Farley, Stan Mitchell, Ken Jolly, David Culley and others.

Sparta has been the home of the Lester Flatt Memorial Bluegrass Day for the past ten years in honor of their native son. It will be interesting to see what sort of steps they might take to solidify their claim of Bluegrass, USA.

Read the full Herald Citizen article online.

Our friend Tony Williams, promoter of the Kentucky Lake Bluegrass Festival, recently contacted us with news concerning a benefit concert being organized in his area of Kentucky.

The concert is to benefit Mr. Scottie Henson, one of the charter members of the Jackson Purchase Friends of Bluegrass, the organization behind many bluegrass events in Western Kentucky. Henson is known to the bluegrass community as an instructor, as well as a member of The Kentucky Opry in Draffenville, KY. Recently Henson underwent double aortic aneursm surgery at Vanderbilt Medical Center.

The surgery went well, but shortly after the operation Scottie started being plagued by all kinds of setbacks, including pneumonia and kidney failure, but through the miracles of medical science and the prayers of hundreds of his friends, he has survived, and has now been moved to Select Specialty Hospital in Nashville to begin a long and difficult rehabilitation. His wife and daughter have been with him in Nashville since August 28, 2007 sleeping on the sofas in Vanderbilt Surgical Intensive Care waiting room, and in Motels, and eating every meal out the entire time.

Now that the worst is past and Henson seems to be recovering, Josh Williams, who had Scottie as his first musical instructor, along with the Campbell Family, the proprietors of The Kentucky Opry, JPFOB, and members of Henson’s home church, the Hamlet Baptist Church, have planned this benefit to help defray the medical costs not covered by Henson’s insurance.

Joining Josh Williams will be the other two members of the soon to be FGM DVD release Guitarmageddon, Andy Falco and Chris Eldridge.

The show is scheduled to take place at The Kentucky Opry on December 7, 2007 from 7 PM to Midnight. There is no set price for admission, they ask that attendies simply make a donation to the fund.

The Kentucky Opry is located 5 miles North of Benton, Kentucky on U.S. Highway 641 North. It is also six miles south of Kentucky Dam Village State Park. It is less than one mile from the Purchase Parkway South via Exit 47, and only 5 1/2 miles off Interstate 24 at Kentucky Exit 25A.

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

Charlie Sizemore recently released Good News, his debut album for Rounder Records (0591) and the first of any kind for five years. For a lot of people it is indeed very good news, even if the CD’s title is a bit convenient. But that’s not really important. What is important is the quality of the music found thereon.

It is exceedingly difficult to pick highlights, favourites, call them what you may, as this is a uniformly excellent album. The songs are all very strong, regardless of source. Sizemore and co-producer Buddy Cannon penned Alison’s Band, I Won’t Be Far From Here and The Less I Drink. The former expresses a wishful desire to play with you know who. Paul Craft wrote Mama Turns Aloosa My Soul and I’ve Fallen And I Can’t Get Up, the driving opener that features some sparkling banjo from Wayne Fields. Both are top quality songs. The tempo changes with the two following songs, I Won’t Be Far From Here and Hard Rock Bottom Of Your Heart, both excellent observations of relationship issues, as is The Less I Drink.

Friends of Sizemore’s, and providers of the recording studio for the sessions which produced these recordings, Dixie and Tom T Hall, wrote Whiskey Willie, and the collaboration with Sizemore, Silver Bugle, a haunting account of another horrific episode in the War between the States. Barnes’s clawhammer banjo playing gives this story an additional atavistic touch.

Other songs are no less enjoyable; Blame It On Vern (co-written by Jeff Barbra and Steve G Jones) eulogizes Vern Gosdin. Doesn’t Sizemore’s singing sound so much like ‘The Voice’ in his prime? Yes, very much so! Upright bass player John Pennell co-wrote Devil On A Plow with Harley Allen, wherein a deceased farmer’s offspring speaks of a hard working existence and the possibilities in afterlife. Providing a little more variation, Matt DeSpain sings lead vocals on Hey Moon, a jaunty request for the moon to shine down on two lovers. DeSpain’s lighter tone is just right for this Ron Workman song.

I suspect that Cannon brought the country numbers Eddie Noack’s No News Is Good News and Hank Cochran’s My Dying Day to the studio. Irrespective of the source, these are very much in keeping with the rest of the package.

Some titles might suggest a low, even funereal, mood, but these are rendered in a matter of fact way with a large dose of dry humour, soul and sensitive consideration of the subject. Sizemore puts all of that into his singing and the listener is very aware of that throughout.

I have already mentioned Wayne Fields and John Pennell, but this album is noted as being by The Charlie Sizemore Band, and Sizemore has gathered together a worthy troupe with two others in Danny Barnes (mandolin, banjo and vocals) and Matt DeSpain (Dobro ®, Hawaiian guitar and vocals). They all combine to support the vocals and enhance Sizemore’s wonderfully expressive voice. The harmony vocals, whether two-part or a trio, admirably underscore Sizemore’s mellow tones.

This is a consistently top quality CD and Rounder Records did very well to pick it up and release it when it was on offer.

If you weren’t lucky enough to catch the on-stage preview of The Dailey Vincent Band at IBMA last month, you may be eager to hear the widely-anticipated debut release on Rounder when it hits on January 29, 2008.

If you just can’t wait that long, Rounder has recently put a few sample audio clips online, and the band has four full songs available for online listening on their MySpace page.

Their official stage debut will be on December 29 of this year when they take the stage at The Grand Ole Opry, and 2008 has them traveling all across the US.

You can see their full tour schedule online.

The National Association of Broadcasters is launching its next salvo in their ongoing battle with the Recording Industry Association of America. This latest campaign is in response to an RIAA-backed effort to levy what NAB calls a performance tax on local radio stations for the airplay of music broadcast over-the-air.

This proposal is being promoted in Washington by The MusicFIRST Coalition, formed recently for just this purpose - collecting performance royalties from broadcast radio in addition to songwriter royalties. A story on the RadioINK web site describes a MusicFIRST draft document being circulated in lawmakers’ offices.

According to the document obtained by Radio Ink, the coalition is proposing changes to the law that would do away with broadcasters’ royalties exemption and have small commercial stations — “small” is not defined — pay a flat royalty rate of $5,000 per year, while noncoms and college stations pay $1,000 a year.

In addition to an advertisement that will run in several Washington, DC political publications tomorrow (11/13), suggesting that the new rates are in fact a new tax on local radio, the NAB is sending a stuffed duck to all Congressional offices today, along with a copy of the ad.

The NAB ad text reads:

If it walks like a duck, and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck… well, you know…

The big international record labels are asking for a congressional mandate to force local radio stations to pay for promoting the labels’ artists, music and concerts. But they’d rather you not call it a tax, because no one likes to pay taxes.

You can’t change the facts.

By levying a new fee on radio stations – which some analysts estimate could reach $7 billion annually – Congress would be taxing the stations in their backyards to line the pockets of international record label executives. Taxing radio for promoting their music free of charge? That’s one idea that just won’t fly.

No performance tax on local radio.

Rep. Gene Green and Mike Conaway have introduced a resolution in the US House of Representatives (HCR 244) opposing such a tax, which has more than 50 co-sponsors from both political parties.