Our Grasstowne buddies, Alan Bibey and Phil Leadbetter, both contacted us earlier this week mentioning the big doin’s in Bristol, TN on Saturday (1/26).

It’s the 3rd annual Pickin’ at the Paramount all star show where top bluegrass artists get together for two shows, performing together in round robin-type groupings quite different from the way fans are used to seeing them.

Artists involved in this year’s show include Mike Bub, Tim Laughlin, Ron Stewart, Adam Steffey, Jim Hurst, Dale Ann Bradley, Bradley Walker, Alecia Nugent, Terry Baucom, Phil Leadbetter, Alan Bibey, David Talbot, Missy Raines, Ricky Wasson, Kenny & Amanda Smith and Josh Williams. Cindy Baucom will be the emcee.

If you live within a comfortable drive’s distance of Bristol, this show would be well worth the trip. Shows are at 3:00 and 7:30 p.m. at the Paramount Center for the Arts, a restored art deco movie house from the 1920’s.

More details about online ticket purchasing can be found on The Paraount site.

Recording King has introduced the latest in their growing line of affordably priced tone ring banjos, a signature model for Sonny Osborne.

This new model is called The Scout, and is a maple banjo with nickel plated parts. The peghead has “The Osborne” inlaid in mother of pearl script, and Sonny’s signature is engraved on a block in the 12th fret.

The neck is made from figured maple and the one-piece resonator is flamed maple, both finished in a sunburst. Sonny has long been known by his nickname, “Chief,” and both the peghead and the fingerboard inlays are styled in an arrowhead design.

Sonny also markets a high end, professional grade banjo of his own, known as The Chief. It is made in the US from what Sonny deems to be the best materials available, and sells for nearly $5,000. The Recording King banjos are made in China, though designed by US banjo experts like Greg Rich and Scott Zimmerman.

No pricing information for The Scout is given on the Recording King site, but we will update here as soon as we obtain that information. The RK banjos typically sell between $1,000 and $2,500.

Detailed specs can be found online.

UPDATE 10:00 a.m.: The Osborne Scout retails for $2295, with hard shell case and limited lifetime warranty.

Our friend Cindy Baucom wrote in to tell us about a new festival she’s a part of this year. The 1st Annual FarmFest will be held at the Farmington Dragway in Farmington, NC. The dates set for the festival are April 11-12.

The festival is more than just bluegrass music, it’s a celebration of traditions of the Carolinas. In addition to some great bluegrass music, there will be food, displays, a children’s area, craft show, merchandise vendors, open mic, jam sessions, camping and more.

The line up of bluegrass acts for the festival are:

• Steep Canyon Rangers
• Cadillac Sky
• Lou Reid and Carolina
• Kenny and Amanda Smith Band
• Carrie Hassler and Hard Rain

Besides all these great bluegrass groups, there will also be a special Allstar Bluegrass Super Jam featuring Terry Baucom and Special Guests-including Wes Golding, Josh Williams, Lou Reid, Wayne Winkle and more.

Tickets for the weekend, if purchased in advance, are $40.00. At the gate, the tickets will be $25.00 per day. Children 10 and under will be admitted FREE. Rough camping is available for $5.00 per day.

Tickets will be available at ETIX.com (not yet listed) and a number of businesses across the region

Vendor spaces cost $20.00 per day until 3/31/08, after 3/31/08 they will be $25. Vendor space includes one comp admission.

For additional information, call 1-800-891-0350, or visit farmfestnc.com

Edward Morris has a piece up on the CMT Country Music Blog about Rhonda Vincent and her… shall we say, décolletage.

The tongue-in-cheek article is titled Deep In The Bosom Of Bluegrass, and discusses the writer’s favorable impression of Ms. Vincent’s choice in clothing - and the reaction that the cover of her 2003 CD, One Step Ahead, generated within the bluegrass community.

As one who is pure of heart, I barely took notice of Vincent’s stylistic swashbuckling until it came up at the 2003 International Country Music Conference. There, on a panel called “Country Music and Gender,” banjo player and magazine columnist Murphy Henry grouched about Vincent’s recent epidermal revelations and then flatly declared, “You don’t show cleavage in bluegrass!”

Read the full piece at CMT.com.

Josh Williams recently appeared at Music from A Front Porch, the annual Murray State University fund raiser concert in support of the college station WKMS. Josh was there to introduce the Peter Rowan/Tony Rice Quartet. With more than 1,000 people in attendance, Josh took the opportunity to make a little announcement of his own, The Josh Williams Band.

After his hasty departure from Rhonda Vincent’s band, The Rage, prior to the IBMA award show last October, speculation swirled as to what Josh would do. Some said he should start his own band, and he took their advice to heart. The Josh Williams Band will begin touring this summer, and Josh has announced the band line-up, short a mandolin player.

Josh is an accomplished player on almost every instrument in the bluegrass line up, but he has chosen to stick with the guitar in his new band. Tim Dishman will be playing bass in the band. Dishman and Williams know each other from their days together as members of the Special Consensus, Greg Cahill’s Chicago based band. Josh is calling on two boyhood friends for the fiddle and banjo slots in the band. Clayton Campbell will play fiddle and Jason McKendree will be picking the banjo. Both of these young men are western Kentucky natives and long time friends of Josh.

The band will make it’s debut appearance at the world famous Station Inn in Nashville, TN next month on February 23, 2008. Josh expects to announce a mandolin player before that show. He tells me he is still actively looking for the right player to fit the band’s style and personality.

I spoke with Tony Williams yesterday, Josh’s dad, who will be booking the band through Awsipro Music. Tony tells me the band is planning to record almost immediately.

This new group is already planning to step into the studio to record an initial project. Josh has been gathering material ranging from seldom done golden oldies of the first generation bluegrass repiture to original material he and others are writing. The band will be working these songs up for performance in addition to the material from Josh’s other projects on Pinecastle records, including the still unreleased third project.

And what about that unreleased CD? Josh says it only lacks a few vocal parts here and there and he plans to have it finished and released sometime early summer of this year.

Keep an eye on Josh’s website, JoshWilliamsMusic.com, for updates about the band and tour schedule information.

Randy Kohrs was at the NAMM Show in Anaheim over last weekend to unveil his latest triumph - a signature, metal-body resonator guitar from Amistar Guitars.

The guitar’s body is made of brass, with a dark finish which allows the intricate etching show through. It is fitted with Amistar’s tri-cone system made by hand of an aluminum/magnesium alloy with a stamped radiating spiral pattern. The square neck is mahogany with a sunburst finish.

Each Randy Kohrs model also has Amistar’s Duotone pickup system installed. This features a mini humbucking pickup located at the neck and a T-bridge piezo pickup with an element attached to each of the cones. The player can blend the output of the two pickups for fine tone control in live settings.

Amistar is based in the Czech Republic (Prague), where the guitars are made. Randy first met them at the 2003 Dobrofest in the Slovak Republic and is delighted to be working with them as an endorser.

“It’s a classy instrument with the exact modern blues sound that I’m incorporating into to my progressive sound that hopefully distinguishes me from my contemporaries. Everybody wants their own style and sound and this instrument has really helped me get my own.”

Randy has been using the new guitar in sessions at his Slack Key Studio in Nashville, and is looking forward to taking it with him on the road.

Amistar Guitars are distributed in the United States by Vagabond Instruments, and by a number of dealers in Europe.

We got a note from Mark Schatz about his soon-to-be new gig playing bass with Claire Lynch.

Mark had been unable to get back with us when we posted recently about him coming aboard, and wanted to share a few thoughts about the move with everyone here.

“After four exciting and formative years with Nickel Creek I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be joining up with the Claire Lynch Band as of February 1st. As most of you know, Missy Raines has decided to step down after a long, musically and personally fulfilling association with Claire in order to devote her full time and attention to her own solo project. I’m a big fan of Missy’s - she toured with Mark Schatz and Friends and played on my Steppin’ in the Boiler House CD. I think she always sounded great with the CLB and I’m going to do my best to fill those talented, groovin’ shoes.

I had my first rehearsal with the band just this past week and was well pleased and encouraged by the wonderful range of material and the versatility of fellow band members Jim Hurst and Jason Thomas. Of course I’ve always been a huge fan of Claire’s singing since my earliest days on the bluegrass trail - I think she’s a world class talent to whom I’m proud to bring the skills that I have honed in my own acoustic/bluegrass experience. Count on seeing some of my flatfooting and clawhammer banjo playing as well as we embark on this new and exciting phase of our musical journey.”

Chris Thile has been touring in the UK this week with his band, Punch Brothers, in tow. They did several shows during Glasgow’s Celtic Connections festival, which runs for two and a half weeks in January of each year. Shows, workshops, dances and talks are held at 14 venues in Glasgow, with more than 300 events taking place over 19 days.

The Mike Harding Show on BBC Radio 2 will be broadcasting live from the festival today (1/23), with Thile and his brothers scheduled to appear. The show airs from 7:00-8:00 p.m. local time, which puts it at 2:00 p.m. eastern US time.

The show will be available live wherever BBC Radio 2 can be heard, and is also streamed live from their web site. There is also an audio archive of previous shows on the Mike Harding site.

Cadillac Sky is this week’s featured artist on CMT.com’s Unplugged at Studio 330. The show offers live in-studio performance and interviews of country artists in an internet-exclusive format. Part of the concept is that these artists perform acoustically for this program, which of course isn’t an issue when they feature bluegrass acts.

We spoke with C-Sky’s Bryan Simpson about getting to record this show…

“The two things I remember about shooting under the ever-attentive eye of the CMT cameras was the never-ceasing war the touch up gal waged with the sweat on our brows and the struggle we fought within ourselves to not say something stupid during the interview.

We did five songs for the show: Born Lonesome, You Again, Homesick Angel (Sonya Isaacs came in to help us on that one-awesome) Basket Case (A Green Day cover that we did once for fun and haven’t been able to stop doing for a year and a half now) and an instrumental, Neighborhood Bully’s Long Look in the Mirror (which landed on the cutting room floor I’m told- only 4 songs were needed).

In the interview we discussed ourselves a lot, and then we spent a little more time on ourselves.”

Watch all the songs and the interview at CMT.com.

The C-Sky boys are using some down time early this year to prepare for their second Skaggs Family CD. They’ll be working with Mike Marshall producing, and are scheduled to start recording in March.

“We’ve basically assembled all the material in our grimy little hands for the new project and we’re thrilled with that part of it, but it will be hard to bid farewell to Blind Man Walking. He’s been a good compadre to us, and it’s gonna be weird giving all our attention to someone new… but time does march on Blind Man Walking, and we both knew it would come to this at some point……?!”

We did a show with Mike in Florida about a year and a half ago. He was down there playing with his first group (The Sunshine Boys, I do believe that was it - sort of a reunion thing) and he happened to hear our set and dug it. He came up on the side of the stage and professed that he wanted to produce us. We were like ‘yeah… but our first project hasn’t come out yet’ …well, when it came time to start the process of the new record, his name came bursting forth from our mouths. We’re all big fans of Mike - the person, and the projects he’s been involved in - and the fact that he’s a little crazy, made it an easy decision.

We have spent time discussing the project with Mike on a untraceable phone line to some extent and will be doing a little boot camp action at an undisclosed location very soon (doesn’t that make it more exciting?).

So everybody start marking your calenders. We are gonna tackle that 500 pound gorilla they call ‘the sophomore slump.”

Swedish grassers G2 performed Monday on Nyhetsmorgon (The Morning Show), the highest rated morning television program in Sweden. The show airs from Stockholm on Swedish national televsion, TV4.

They played two songs from their debut CD, Where The Tall Grass Grows, and sat for an interview segment. The songs they chose were What Would I Say and Where The Tall Grass Grows.

Banjo player Jens Koch tells us that the publicity people with their label, Cosmos Records, arranged for them to perfom on TV4, a major coup for a young band.

“This was a great experience for us! Loads of fun! It’s a big thing to get to play on this show. Some bands would do anything to get the gig.”

Video clips of their guest spots can be found on the TV4 web site. Unfortunately, the TV4 video player does not seem to like Macs, though some Mac users can play them with the latest Flip4Mac plugin.

Asheville, NC paper, the Asheville Citizen-Times, ran this story over the weekend about Woody Platt. The story, concerned with fishing as the main topic, appeared in the Outdoors section of the paper.

Woody is best known to bluegrass fans as the lead singer in the popular Steep Canyon Rangers. Apparently he also loves to fly-fish. In fact, so much so that he started his own business selling fly-fishing gear and serving as a part-time fishing guide.

When he isn’t touring with the band, Platt guides one-person fishing trips on area streams and rivers. He also owns The Open Fly, a fly-fishing equipment booth in a downtown Brevard mall called Gravy.

I know many people in bluegrass who have an interest in fishing, myself included. Maybe Woody should think about expanding his business to include being a fishing advisor to bluegrass musicians!

Judy Thompson, widow of banjo legend Bobby Thompson, has released a second CD featuring Bobby on banjo. Thompson Picks Some More includes 11 previously released tracks taken from various artists’ projects, plus two on disc here for the first time.

Bobby is a hero to a great many banjo players, especially those who embrace more progressive music on the 5 string. He is widely regarded as being as influential as Bill Keith in the development of melodic banjo playing, though he never received the same degree of recognition. Many folks will recall Thompson as the bearded banjo picker on the old Hee Haw television program; he also played on the opening and closing themes.

Thompson retired from music in 1987 when multiple sclerosis took away his ability to control his hands. He passed away in 2005.

Thompson Picks Some More begins with a four and a half minute recitation, The 5-String Banjo According To Bobby, where he discusses and describes his beloved instrument in a thumbnail overview of the banjo and its various playing styles.

The remainder of the disc covers Thompson’s long career in bluegrass, from cuts with Carl Story (Fire On The Banjo, Banjolina), Jim & Jesse (Dixie Hoedown, Border Ride, Sugarfoot Rag), and his subsequent work as a session player in Nashville.

The settings range from traditional bluegrass bands to a pops orchestra supporting a banjo on Foggy Mountain Breakdown. In between are pop country arrangements (Smokey and the Bandit movie theme) and one track with Area Code 615 (Lady Madonna). All feature Bobby on banjo, except for the closing track, Hoka Hey, Lakotas by Chris LeDoux, which was one of his favorite songs.

A few of these tracks were clearly taken from LP recordings, which merely adds a special charm to the project, making all the more clear that the project is a labor of love for Judy Thompson - and a gift to Bobby’s many remaining fans.

You can read more about Bobby Thompson on the web site which Judy maintains in his honor, where you can also order a copy of the CD.

Here’s something fun for you. Someone set up a quiz on GoToQuiz.com that will test your knowledge of bluegrass music. It’s not terribly tricky or anything, only ten questions and I got 100%. If you’re a hard core bluegrass aficionado you shouldn’t have any trouble with it at all. If you’re a newcomer to bluegrass music though, you might find it more challenging.

Once completed I was told my results, and given the following message.

Wow Bluegrass in your blood can mean only one thing your a tall dark 5 string picking irish banjo picker who listens constantley to uncle Billy Dunbar,s WWB radio show

Tall, yes. “dark 5 string picking irish banjo picker,” not exactly. And I don’t know that I would describe myself as listening “constantley,” or even constantly, to Billy Dunbar’s show on WorldWideBluegrass.com. Although, I am listening to the station now via iTunes, maybe that does have something to do with it.

Andy Hall’s new solo project, Sound Of The Slide Guitar, is released today on Sugar Hill. As the title suggests, this recording focuses on Andy as a resophonic guitarist and is heavy on original tunes he has written of late.

He is joined by his bandmates in The Infamous Stringdusters for most of the tracks with special guests David Grier, Tim Stafford and Rob Ickes making appearances as well. You can read more about the new CD - including some comments from Andy - in our earlier post about this release.

Sound Of The Slide Guitar is available for download in iTunes or on Andy’s MySpace page, and CD copies can be purchased from Andy at ‘Dusters shows.

The February ‘08 edition of Acoustic Guitar magazine includes a new gear report about the Blueridge BR -40AS guitar. This particular version of the Blueridge, the Saga Music brand guitar, continues the pattern of the range that mixes affordability with quality in the shape of an Adirondack top.

The Adirondack spruce is, in part, the reason the pre-war Gibson J-45 and the Martin D-28 are both so very popular and are demanding premium prices when they become available for sale. Taking cues from the pre-war dreadnoughts the sound and feel belies the guitar’s more modern origins.

The reviewer concludes that the guitar is a pleasure to play, citing the BR -40AS as “playable, good looking” despite blurred overtones when the guitar is driven hard.

A video review can be seen on the Acoustic Guitar web site, where you can also read the full text review

The specifications are ….

• Solid Adirondack spruce top with hand-carved parabolic forward X-braces
• Mahogany back and sides
• Vintage late-30’s style sunburst high-gloss finish
• Black 5-ply body binding (B/W/B/W/B) (more…)

Homespun Video has released two new instructional DVDs for mandolinists taught by Mike Marshall.

The two releases each carry the title Mike Marshall’s Mandolin Fundamentals for All Players, with DVD #1 subtitled Building Technique Through Exercises and Melodic Studies and DVD #2 Mastering Chords and Theory.

The subtitles accurately describe what is covered in each package, and both are presented in a step-by-step fashion so that each new exercise builds on what has been presented to that point.

Both DVDs include a printed booklet with tab and standard notation, and a discounted price is offered when they are purchased together.

Find more details on the Homespun site.

When the Fox TV show Next Great American Band was airing in late 2007, we covered the show each week. Right from the first episode, there were two bluegrass/acoustic acts in the running for this American Idol-style competition, and Casey Henry provided us with updates on how they fared in the audience voting after each show.

Though The Clark Brothers won the title - and we celebrated them doing so as a primarily acoustic string trio with bluegrass roots - it was Cliff Wagner & Old #7 that captured the interest of bluegrassers. They performed throughout as a five piece bluegrass band and entertained the judges and the audience with their humor and good natured efforts to fit with the more pop-oriented structure of the show’s music.

Wagner and crew made it through week 5 before being dropped by viewer votes, but built a sizable following online in the process.

Cliff plays banjo and fiddle and sings lead, Craig Ferguson is on guitar, mandolin and resonator guitar, Devitt Feeley is on mandolin and vocals, Lucas Cheadle plays bass and Stephen Mugalian is on drums.

We had a chance to interview Cliff recently about their appearance on NGAB, and how it may affect them as a band going forward.

What led you to enter the Fox competition?

“I was watching American Idol and they advertised the show with an address to send in a video of your band. I had a video that my bass player had made and we sent it in as sort of a joke. That video put us in the top 60 out of 8,000. Once they flew us out to Vegas for the audition we figured out it wasn’t a joke anymore.”

Had your band been together long?

“I’ve had this band going with different line-ups for about 6 years. Devitt and Craig have been with me for about a year. Steve and Lucas joined when we started the show. My original bass player didn’t have the time to participate in the show, and my original drummer went to the audition but later decided he didn’t want to do the show. Enter Steve and Lucas.”

How did you and the guys react when you learned that you had been selected?

“Sort of.. ‘uh oh, now we did it.’ We were nervous about being on TV and how we might be portrayed. Plus it was a big time commitment. All of our lives stopped for about three months.” (more…)

The new Blue Highway CD, Through The Window Of A Train, won’t be officially released on Rounder until February 12, but the band now has copies for sale at their shows.

They’ll be hosting a CD release event at Nashville’s Station Inn this Thursday (1/24), and will have the new CD with them there - and at all future shows as well.

I’ve had a chance to listen to the CD several times, and as you might expect, the songs are clever and well-constructed, the arrangements are varied but always appropriate, and the performances are stirring and flawlessly executed. All the songs were written by band members, and this time out they produced the recording themselves, offering a look at how the band personally envisions this music.

My only complaint is that there is no Tim Stafford wild west ballad, though there is a fine cowboy song in My Ropin’ Days Are Done.

You can watch the video they prepared about the making of Through The Window Of A Train here, and read some of Tim’s comments about the songs and the recording process here and here.

There are still no audio samples online, but you can expect them to appear on the Rounder site shortly.

Michael Roux, publicist at the University Of Illinois Press, recently shared some exciting information about the forthcoming book about Hazel Dickens that is due to be published in June.Working Girl Blues: The Life And Music Of Hazel Dickens is a new volume in the University Of Illinois Press Music in American Life series.

The book is co-written by singer-songwriter Hazel Dickens and country music historian Bill C Malone, a professor emeritus of history at Tulane University and author of Don’t Get Above Your Raisin’: Country Music And The Southern Working Class, Southern Music/American Music and Country Music USA, as well as the writer of the biography and detailed notes for The Blue Sky Boys: The Sunny Side Of Life, the Bear Family Records 5-CD box-set.

Malone discusses briefly Hazel’s life, her musical career, and her development as a songwriter in the first written biographical study of the West Virginia native.

The core part of the 120 page book comprises a section, entitled Songs And Memories, in which Hazel Dickens comments about 40 of her original songs, explains how she came to write them and tells what they meant and continue to mean to her.

The songs in question are ………………..

The Tennessean, Nashville’s hometown paper, ran a story yesterday (1/18) that Gibson Guitar Corp. will merge with TC Group, a Danish pro audio firm.

The merger was announced at the NAMM Winter Show in California, and according to The Tennessean, the new company will remain headquartered in Nashville when the deal is finalized in February. No layoffs are anticipated and Gibson expects to hire new engineers and marketing staff this year.

TC’s chief Anders Fauerskov will serve as Gibson’s chief operating officer and remain in Denmark. Though not clearly stated, it appears that the new company will continue to do business under the Gibson name.

More details can be found in the joint press release issued yesterday.