We heard yesterday from David Hollender, banjo player and professor at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Dave has been teaching bass and leading ensembles there for many years, and now also teaches banjo for students following the Acoustic String Principal. This is a relatively new program - spearheaded by Hollender, string chair Matt Glaser and associate professor (and mandolinist) August Watters - that enables banjo, mandolin, acoustic guitar or fiddle players to pursue a degree at Berklee.

Dave told us about a group from Berklee that traveled to Helsinki, Finland last week to give students at the Pop & Jazz Conservatory a taste of bluegrass music. The Conservatory, which is a participant in the Berklee International Network (BIN) of schools, invited the group as part of their Close Encounters concert series. They had specifically requested a bluegrass band from Berklee this year, and Hollender said that the school was was more than willing to accommodate their request.

The band mixed faculty and students from Berklee, including faculty members Hollender (banjo) and John McGann (guitar, mandolin and vocals), joined by two students, Nate Leath (fiddle and vocals) and Eric Robertson (mandolin, guitar and vocals), plus Finnish bass student Eero Tikkanen.

As we mentioned, Dave teaches banjo and bass at Berklee, while John teaches mandolin and guitar. The two also lead various student ensembles that play everything from bluegrass to Celtic, mainstream jazz and Gypsy jazz.

Hollender shared a few words about the students who were involved.

“Nate Leath comes from North Carolina is about to graduate from Berklee. One of the most adventurous and versatile fiddlers anywhere, Nate is a member of Old School Freight Train, has toured with Dave Grisman, and is a repeat winner at Galax Old Fiddler’s Convention.

Eric Robertson comes from Greensboro, NC and is a first semester mandolin student at Berklee. He has solid roots in bluegrass, great chops and it’s hard to believe that he’s only been playing for four years. Watch out for this guy!” (more…)

We heard recently from Jeremy Chapman of The Chapmans, who wanted to share a video bio of the band that they have posted on YouTube.

It runs just over minutes and is entitled The Family Business. In the video, the boys talk about how they came to become a family band, with the interview segment inter cut with clips and photos of the early days when John, Jeremy and Jason were barely big enough to hold a guitar. The documentary-style presentation carries us through the band’s emergence as a serious bluegrass act, culminating with them being named as the Emerging Artist of the Year in 2002 by the IBMA.

Jeremy says that the project just dropped into their laps.

“Around May of ‘07 we were approached by a couple of Film Students from Missouri State University who had seen us perform not long before, and were interested in doing a documentary on the band for a film project. So we set up a small concert at a local music shop and then had a pretty informal interview afterwards. It was definitely a lot of fun to go through all the old photo albums and home videos to get them some background on the band. I forgot we were once that little.

In the end though I think we were all impressed with how interesting they made us look.”

He asks that fans and friends keep up with them via the band’s MySpace page.

The European World of Bluegrass (EWOB) Festival is currently seeking submissions from bands that would like to showcase at the 2008 event. The event will take place in Voorthuizen, Netherlands on May 1-3, 2008.

Showcase opportunities are open to bands from Europe, the United States, or anywhere else. You can download a pdf application by visiting www.ewob.eu. Click on the US flag in the lower left for an english version of the page, then select “Contact” from the menu and “Bands” from the submenu. EWOB askes that you fill out the pdf and send it in with your CD, and band photos, to the address provided. They also ask that you fill out the online form so they know to expect your application package.

2008 will be the 11th EWOB. The deadline for application is November 20, 2007, so you’d better hurry.

Much like the IBMA, many European promoters attend the EWOB looking for bands to hire for the coming season. This is a unique opportunity for US bands to play for these promoters, meet them, and book some dates in Europe.

The three days of EWOB are the climax of a month of festivals and concerts held in the Netherlands every May (bluegrass month). During these three days, over 40 bands, including 4-5 from the USA and Canada, will perform. The festival is accompanied by a trade show featuring luthiers, music shops, event promoters, press, radio DJs, and more.

The musicians who play at EWOB choose their favorite European band to send to Nashville the following year to perform at IBMA. This year’s winner is G2. Be sure you read this recent post by John about G2.

We received a report over the weekend that two Michael Kelly Octave Mandolins were recently stolen from Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church in Milton, Florida.

The church was broken into and the two instruments were taken along with the sound system and various other items.

One is made into a 6 string soprano guitar and has a regular tailpiece and the other is tuned like the bottom four strings on a guitar and had a solid tailpiece.

If anyone has any information on these instruments, please contact Pastor Charles Bradshaw at 850-380-6000.

The new video from Randy Kohrs, Who’s Goin’ With Me, has once again been voted into the top 3 by viewers on CMT.com. It debuted two weeks ago at #3, made it all the way to #1 last week, and has settled back in at #3 again in the CMT Pure 12-Pack Countdown poll that was posted on November 9.

Voting for this week closes on Wednesday (11/14), so head on over to CMT.com and let them know how much you enjoy Randy’s video.

The Infamous Stringdusters were excited to announce late last week that they have been invited to perform on The Grand Ole Opry. Their debut Opry set is scheduled for November 23, the day after Thanksgiving.

Since that day tends to be one given over to family, frantic shopping and resolutions to start getting more exercise for those of us here in the US, perhaps Friday evening, 11/23, would be a fine time to tune in to WSM and enjoy these young bluegrass pioneers, fresh off their big night at the 2007 IBMA awards last month.

Dusters’ bassist Travis Book also had some news to share last week. His occasional, part-time band, The Colorado Playboys, have recorded a 6 track EP which is due for release on December 5. They also have an 11 day tour of Colorado set that runs from the 5th through the 16th of December.

Band members include John Frazier on mandolin, Jon Stickley on guitar, Andy Thorn on banjo and Book on bass.

You can hear audio tracks and find the tour dates on The Colorado Playboys’ MySpace page.

We’ve heard this week from several readers about the death of David Kiser, known for years to bluegrass lovers in and around Lexington, KY as Uncle Dave. He was a regular performer at regional festivals and a familiar voice on WRFL, hosting Blue Yodel #9 on alternate Saturday mornings.

Kiser passed away on November 8 at home, succumbing from a cancer which was diagnosed earlier this year.

One reader, Blake Jones, shared this remembrance of Uncle Dave.

Dave was such a wonderful man, a true lover of bluegrass music and musicians. Everyone was welcome in his jam circle, no matter their talent level. I often took my small sons to jam sessions organized by Dave and I loved his broad smile and pure joy at seeing them try to play their little mandolins.

Jones also especially asked that we let our readers know about a scholarship that has been established in Kiser’s memory, the Uncle Dave Kiser Spirit of Bluegrass Scholarship Fund, which will provide tuition assistance for students at the Kentucky School of Bluegrass and Traditional Music at the Hazard Community and Technical College in Hyden, KY.

Donations can be sent to:

Uncle Dave Kiser Spirit of Bluegrass Scholarship Fund
c/o Dean Osborne
P.O. Box 1870
Hyden, KY 41749

You can read more about Dave Kiser in The Kentucky Kernel, the student paper of The University of Kentucky.

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.

They made it! Both Cliff Wagner and the Old #7 and The Clark Brothers got enough votes to keep them on Next Great American Band for another week. Friday’s show was only an hour long, so the eight remaining bands each played one song from the catalog of Billy Joel.

Cliff Wagner and the Old #7 chose You May Be Right from “the old Kentucky fox hunter Billy Joel” and gave it a laid-back country shuffle treatment, with Cliff trading the banjo for a guitar. Two judges loved in, but Dicko, reliably cantankerous, deemed it a “soporific, sleepy” arrangement.

The Clark Brothers played seventh (a little nail-biting going on by that time) and did a slow beautiful rendition of She’s Got A Way, with Ashley on fiddle, Adam on guitar, and Austin, as usual, on dobro. All three judges proclaimed their song the best of the night.

Now the stiff competition begins as all the bands left are quite good, have excellent musicianship and vocals, and are improving all the time. Next week bands tackle the songs of early rock & roll writing team Lieber and Stoller. Be sure to tune in Friday the 16th and phone in those votes!

You can watch previous weeks’ performances on the NGAB site.

CMT.com is reporting that Jerry Douglas told reporters at the CMA Awards in Nashville that he will start work on a new recording with Alison Krauss & Union Station by the middle of next year.

Rounder Records doesn’t have any information yet about when they might complete this next project, or when it may be released.

Jerry will also have a new solo project of his own in April on Koch Records, and plans to tour in support with his band in the Spring.

Here’s another CD that I’ve found the time to listen to. Ricky Skaggs recently released a CD with his wife Sharron and her family, The Whites. The CD is called Salt of the Earth, taking its name from the fourth track on the disc. The CD is released on the Skaggs Family label and distributed by Fontana. The CD was released in September of this year.

Salt of the Earth marks the first time that Ricky and The Whites have collaborated on an entire CD.

The Whites consist of sisters Sharron and Cheryl, along with their father Buck. Joining the Whites and Ricky on the CD are Mark Fain, Cody Kilby, and Andy Leftwich from Ricky’s band. Ricky’s daughter Molly, and a cast of Nashville session players accompany on various instruments.

The disc contains 13 tracks, most of them overtly gospel in nature. The first track is the only one that might not be considered an outright gospel song though it does speak of heaven and God’s love in the last verse.

Several old hymns, including Farther Along, Near The Cross, Blessed Assurance, and The Solid Rock, found their way onto this recording and they are perhaps some of my favorite tracks. These songs seem to be missing from many churches today, and it’s nice to have them here done in a straitforward manner, but with a bluegrass sensibility. Andy Leftwich’s tasteful fiddle really sweeten these old songs.

Lead vocals are shared more or less evenly between the four family members, with Ricky singing one or two more than each of the others. Tight family harmonies are heard throughout. The arrangements are all very appropriate and tastefull, even sparce at times, allowing the listener to connect with the lyrics and not get lost in fancy picking.

For fans of Skaggs, The Whites, and gospel music, this CD will be a welcome addition to the collection.

In a related note, we’ve learned that Skaggs and The Whites will be performing tomorrow, November 10, 2007 on A Prairie Home Companion. Their performance will center around songs from this CD with members of Kentucky Thunder providing accompaniment. Broadcast times vary depending on station so you’ll need to consult the station list for a broadcast in your area.

Alternately, you can tune in live netcast from 5-7PM CST.

We just received this photo from the opening ceremonies of the 25th Anniversary remembrance of The Wall at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC.

As Brance mentioned earlier this week, Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent were to perform More Than a Name on a Wall with Jimmy Fortune as a part of this four day remembrance this past Wednesday. The song, which Fortune wrote and recorded with The Statler Brothers, is among the selections on the upcoming debut release from The Dailey Vincent Band.

After the opening ceremonies, Jamie, Darrin and Jimmy were among the many volunteers who read the names of the fallen veterans inscribed on the wall. All 58, 256 names will be read over the course of the four ceremony, which concludes on Saturday (11/10).

The November/December issue of Bluegrass Music Profiles is out, and is their second annual Women In Bluegrass edition.

The cover story is on Roni Stoneman and includes discussion of her new book, Pressing On - The Roni Stoneman Story. The article also covers her many years as a cast member on Hee Haw, and what she has been doing of late.

Publisher Kevin Kerfoot describes this issue as chock full of bluegrass ladies.

“Other women featured include Rhonda Vincent, Donna Hughes, Amanda Smith, Laurie Lewis, Uncle Earl’s Rayna Gellert and Abigail Washburn, Ola Belle Reed, and MasterShield Records’ Verna Rodes. Other features include Shop Talk with Cia Cherryholmes, Carrie Hassler’s Bluegrass Favorites, a DJ Profile with Gracie Muldoon, a Promoter Profile with Shorty Jobe, and a Songwriter Profile with Louisa Branscomb.”

Kerfoot says that they intend to highlight Women In Bluegrass with their final issue each year.

If your Friday evening plans will find you in front of a television screen, perhaps you will want to tune in to tonight’s edition of The Next Great American Band on Fox.

Casey Henry has been keeping us up-to-date as this American Idol spin-off competition rolls along, as two of the eight remaining contestants are bluegrass or grassy acts. If you want to see The Clark Brothers and Cliff Wagner and the Old #7 move on to next week, be sure to tune in and vote!

Tonight’s show airs at 8:00 p.m. (EST), and the bands will each perform an original song, and a Billy Joel cover.

Go bluegrass!

One band that I did get to see at IBMA last month that really impressed me was G2, a young quintet from Sweden who won the 2007 European Band of the Year Award, announced at the EBMA European World of Bluegrass festival in May.

Brance and I caught one of their after hours showcase performances, and ran across them jamming with some of the Infamous Stringdusters on another occasion at the Sugar Hill Records suite. They are all impressively talented players, all the more so for the adeptness and intimate familiarity with the nuances of modern bluegrass given that they are all still in their twenties, and grew up far from where bluegrass festivals and fiddlers conventions are common.

Like American musicians who dedicate themselves to styles associated with other cultures - like Celtic or Gypsy swing - and get to travel to where the music is native, the guys in G2 were all excited to visit the US this year for the first time as a band, and even more so to be attending the IBMA convention. They only had the opportunity to play a few small showcases this year, but will be an invited main stage showcase act at IBMA 2008, and could make a big splash next year in Nashville.

Their debut CD, Where The Tall Grass Grows was released this week (11/7), which not only demonstrates their technical prowess as bluegrass pickers, but also the songwriting skills of guitarist and primary vocalist Christoffer Olsson.

Olsson wrote all but three of the thirteen songs, with themes that will be familiar to people anywhere, but with a decided emphasis on rural and/or small town life that is so much a part of the bluegrass idiom. In a nod towards the American roots of this now truly international art form, one of his songs is Going Back To Georgia. At IBMA last month, I overheard someone asking if he ever wrote songs in Swedish, whereupon he responded that, no, he didn’t… “because you can’t rhyme in Swedish.” (more…)

Not long ago we brought you a story about Stephen Mougin playing in Slovakia. The tour is done, Stephen is back in the states and on the road with Sam Bush again, but he sent us some reflections on the state of the bluegrass scene in Eastern Europe.

Stephen tells us the concerts, in which he performed with Slovakian pickers, were a blast. He shared some thoughts about the various bands he came in contact with while there.

The band šSidlo played traditionaly oriented songs. They have a GREAT lead singer (apolgies for not remembering or knowing how to spell the names….) and a GREAT tenor vocalist. The young fiddle player is an extremely talented young man and he truly understands the bluegrass genre.

He also told us about a new, up and coming band, Grass Country Drive. (more…)

Larry Stephenson has brought 21 year old guitarist Ben Helson aboard as the newest member of The Larry Stephenson Band.

Despite his youth, Ben has been performing in bluegrass and country bands for many years, most recently as a part of the bluegrass band at Bethel College, where he is finishing a degree in Music Business. He did his first shows with Larry last month at the IBMA convention in Nashville.

You can find audio samples from Larry’s next CD, Thankful, on his web site. It is due on Pinecastle Records on March 4, 2008.

Tomorrow (11/9) banjo builder Tom Nechville will join Carol Beaugard for an interview on WFDU, broadcast in the New York City metro area at 89.1 FM.

Tom will surely discuss his work at Nechville Musical Products, where he has been in the forefront of pushing the boundaries of accepted methods of banjo construction. His solid body electric banjo, The Meteor, has been embraced by prominent progressive banjoist like Bela Fleck, and his Heli-Mount pot assembly design is a radical departure from the head-tensioning systems long employed in the banjo world.

Tom’s interview on WFDU will air at 11:15 a.m. (EST) on Friday, November 9. Folks outside the reach of the station’s broadcast range can listen live online at WFDU.fm.

Carol tells us that she also be interviewing Dolores Edgin on Friday’s show at 10:00 a.m. She was a former cast member on Hee Haw who sang backup on most of Porter Wagoner’s recordings. Dolores will share her memories of the country singer who passed away on October 28 between 10:00 and 11:00 with Carol.

Larry Keel & Natural Bridge have announced a number of shows in early December featuring very special guest Tony Rice.

Larry and Tony have performed together many times, and you can be sure that there will be some fiery flatpicking at each of these concerts.

• 12/5: The Birchmere - Alexandria, VA
• 12/6: Satellite Ballroom - Charlottesville, VA
• 12/8: Neighborhood - Charlotte, NC
• 12/12: Mountain Stage - Charleston, WV

More show details can be found on the Larry Keel web site.

Congratulations to resonator guitarist Jerry Douglas, who picked up his third Musician of the Year award from the Country Music Association last night in Nashville.

2007 marked Jerry’s 10th nomination for this CMA award, which was known as the Instrumentalist of the Year until 1988.

Last Friday we shared news about a Nickel Creek DVD which was to have been shot during the last two shows on their Farewell (For Now) tour at The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.

The folks at Sugar Hill were delighted when it seemed that the DVD would be released on their label next year, but it now appears that the plans for the video shoot at the end of November have been scrapped.