I caught up with Lonesome River Band banjo picker Sammy Shelor today, and he filled me in on their next CD.

Sam said that they have finished recording (14 tracks) and he will start mixing later this week. 13 tracks are vocals, with one banjo instrumental, and Sammy said that it is strong, in your face bluegrass.

This will be the first project with the current version of LRB: Sammy Shelor on banjo, Brandon Rickman on guitar/vocals, Andy Ball on mandolin/vocals, Mike Anglin on bass and Mike Hartgrove on fiddle.

As soon as the mixing is finished (end of February), Sammy will shop the completed master to a number of labels and hopes to see it released sometime this spring.

When a 16 year old bluegrass prodigy enlists some of the biggest names in the business to help record her debut project for a major independent label, it’s fair to presume that we are looking at something special. Such is the case with Sierra Hull, whose upcoming project is already generating some serious buzz in the biz.

Sierra is more veteran performer than newcomer, having several years behind her performing, on top of winning mandolin and guitar competitions. She has shared the stage with Alison Krauss, Ralph Stanley, Ricky Skaggs and Mountain Heart, and has an appearance on the Grand Ole Opry to her credit while still in high school.

Her Secrets CD is due for a May 6 release on Rounder, which features this talented teen on mandolin and vocals, with support from bluegrass heavyweights like Dan Tyminksi, Barry Bales, Ron Block, Jerry Douglas, Tony Rice, Jim Van Cleve, and Rob Ickes. She will also be performing this week in a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York on a show put together by improvisational vocalist Bobby McFerrin, which also includes Alison Krauss and bassist Edgar Meyer.

We had a chance to discuss the new CD recently with Sierra, and found out a bit about Secrets, and the exceptional young woman it showcases. Though this new project is not her first recording, it is being viewed in the industry as her debut.

“I would definitely consider this my first ‘real’ recording. I made a CD when I was 10 years old called Angel Mountain which included all instrumentals, but I feel like I’ve really had the chance to grow up and mature as a musician and singer since that time, and would think more of this as being my debut so to speak. It’s also my first record through a label, which changes things as well.”

Folks who had seen Sierra at places like the annual IBMA or SPBGMA conventions might think of her primarily as a picker, but she takes front and center as a vocalist on Secrets.

“I sing lead on all the of the vocals, but we had some of my favorite people to sing harmony as well. Dan Tyminski, Clay Hess, and Ron Block sang with me on most the songs, and I sang harmony vocals as well on a couple cuts.”

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Our friend Bob Yonke over at Appalachian Studio (and his blog The Bluegrass Painter) was commissioned last year to create a piece of artwork for this year’s (2008) IBMA World of Bluegrass event. He emailed over the weekend and sent along an image of the completed artwork, including the textual graphic components.

You’ll be seeing this art a lot more as IBMA sends out their promotional materials throughout the year. Nice work Bob!

As they have done several times in the past, The Infamous Stringdusters have made a number of live tracks available for free download from their MySpace page.

The five songs were recorded at a show three weeks ago at Miami University in Hamilton, OH where the ‘Dusters opened a concert featuring Uncle Earl.

Anyone can access the tracks and listen but you must be a MySpace user and logged in to download the tracks.

In the latest edition of the County Sales Newsletter, #290, David Freeman, the founder of the longstanding and illustrious retail outlet “for bluegrass, old-time and authentic rural music”, is in a nostalgic mood, telling his readers how it used to be when County Sales, then based in New York City, was started in 1965. Those were the days of vinyl folks! Warm, analogue music! And there wasn’t very much of it about!

Here’s what David Freeman has to say in his Newsletter ………….

“As we enter our 43rd year of selling Bluegrass and Old-Time music, we thought it was a good time to reflect back on some of the changes that have occurred since we put out our first few Newsletters back in 1965 and 1966. At that time—when it only took a 6 cent stamp to mail our Newsletter, and just 15 cents postage to mail 2 LPs anywhere in the USA!—there were hardly enough new releases (vinyl LPs) to fill up even two or three pages of space every couple of months. We can’t recall the existence of any significant books about the music at the time, and there were no such things as DVDs or VHS tapes. We scrambled to find news about Fiddlers’ Conventions and even word of future LP releases—there were probably not more than 25 or 30 Bluegrass LPs on the market then, and the revival of interest in “Old-Time” music was in its infancy.

In contrast, there is a wealth of great items available today: more good records than we can keep up with, a bunch of amazing DVDs, and in the last two issues alone, 3 or 4 excellent books (in short, more items in one month than we had to offer in the first 2 or 3 years of COUNTY SALES’ existence combined!). What has accounted for the rise in popularity of this wonderful rural American art form that we love? A music that was once mostly associated with sleazy bars and honky tonks, and dismissed by many as inferior, low-life “hillbilly” trash has finally gained a significant measure of respect, and is now a healthy, family type pursuit. The early Bluegrass Festivals, “Dueling Banjos”, “Bonnie & Clyde” and “O Brother Where Art Thou” all have helped greatly in gaining exposure for Bluegrass, but we owe special thanks to the early pioneers who brought respect to the music through their writing & promoting: people like the late Ralph Rinzler, Bill Vernon, and Charles Wolfe, and those still involved today like Bill Malone, Neil Rosenberg, Lance Leroy and Mike Seeger. And a special thanks to all those festival promoters who have insisted on keeping their events clean and family oriented, after a flurry of ill-conceived, rock-based “peace, love, & Bluegrass” fiascos in the early 1970s almost brought an early end to what is now a very healthy phenomenon.”

I thought that this was a subject that warranted further discussion ……….

You mentioned vinyl (LPs) …. what about 45rpm discs? Were you selling many of those in the early days?

In the early days we did sell a few 45s, and some EPs that some Bluegrass artists had out before they could afford to do a full LP or find some label willing to do that for them. I do recall selling quite a few of some EPs that were put out on the Jalyn, Jewel and Rem labels (Esco Hankins & Jackie had some really nice sides on Jewel), and there was Jimmy Murphy and Molly O’Day (as well as others) on Rem. We also sold quite a few Blue Jay (J.E. Mainer, Joe & Janette Carter) and MKB label items, as I had got to know the owners of these labels pretty well (Mr. Butner of MKB in North Carolina, and EP. Williams of Blue Jay in Salisbury, NC. And there were also some nice fiddle EPs out of Missouri & Texas by artist like Lonnie Robertson, Pete McMahan etc.

What were popular items (LPs) ? (Singles/45s) ? in the early days?

Some of the first really big sellers we had were the “budget” LPs that started coming out on the Camden and Harmony labels (Carter Family, Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, Molly O’Day, etc). As I recall, we bought these for $ 1.,25 and sold them for $ 1.75 each—they were great value & great music. Some of the early full price records that we sold really well in our first couple of years were the Decca “Knee Deep In Bluegrass” and Instrumentals LPs, along with the Decca Uncle Dave Macon and Carter Family LPs. (Full price LPs we sold for $ 3.75 each)

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That’s how Katy Daly titled an email to us recently which included this photo of a young Carl Jackson jamming at the Bean Blossom festival in 1973.

It was taken by her fellow show host on BluegrassCountry.org, Hubie King.

Katy’s show airs Monday-Friday from 7:00-10:00 a.m., and Hubie’s (Old Time Jam) airs on Mondays at 6:00 p.m., repeating on Thursdays at 6:00 a.m. All times EST.

A recent edition of the How It’s Made program, broadcast on The Science Channel, focused on the banjo - and how it’s made.

To film this segment, the producers and crew visited First Quality Musical Supply in Louisville, KY where The Sullivan Banjos are made. This led to a roughly five minute piece on the show which follows the construction of a banjo from rough wood cutting to final assembly and set up.

The First Quality folks have made the video available on YouTube for anyone who missed the show last week.

The Gospel Music Association has announced the nominees for the 2008 Dove Awards, and their bluegrass categories are chock full of familiar names.

The awards will be announced at the 39th Annual Dove Awards on April 23 in Nashville, TN.

The Bluegrass Recorded Song of the Year nominees are:

• He’s In Control from Austins Bridge by Austins Bridge; Justin Rivers, Mike Kofahl, John Ramsey (writers); Daywind Records
• I Will Find You Again from Lifetimes by Little Roy Lewis, Earl Scruggs, Lizzy Long; Wayne Haun, Joel Lindsey, Cindi Ballard (writers); Vine Records
• Love Will Be Enough from Salt of the Earth by Ricky Skaggs & The Whites; Janis Ian, Paul Overstreet (writers); Skaggs Family Records
• Salt of the Earth from Salt of the Earth by Ricky Skaggs & The Whites; Jim Rushing, Ronald Scaife (writers); Skaggs Family Records
• The Key To Heaven from Flyin’ High by The Lewis Family; Caleb Collins, Lyn Rowell (writers); Vine Records

In the Bluegrass Album of the Year category, we have:

• God’s Masterpiece - The Marksmen; Mark Wheeler (producer); Rural Rhythm Records
• Lifetimes - Little Roy Lewis, Earl Scruggs, Lizzy Long; Wayne Haun, Kevin Ward (producer); Vine Records
• Salt Of The Earth - Ricky Skaggs & The Whites; Ricky Skaggs & The Whites (producer); Skaggs Family Records
• Tell Someone - Kenny & Amanda Smith Band; Kenny & Amanda Smith Band (producer); Rebel Records
• Where No One Stands Alone - Paul Williams & The Victory Trio; Paul Williams (producer); Rebel Records

Congratulations and best of luck to them all!

For some Kathy Mattea is to West Virginia what Patty Loveless is to Kentucky, although the former hasn’t embraced bluegrass music as has the latter - until now, perhaps.

Raised near Charleston, West Virginia, Grammy-award winning singer Mattea is to release a CD, simply entitled Coal, on the newly formed label, Captain Potato Records, on April 1. From what I can glean, it is one that is sure to attract some bluegrass fans - it’s her first album minus drums, even.

Being from the coal-rich hills of West Virginia, Mattea is readily aware of the nature of the industry. She is still haunted by memories of the Farmington Mine disaster of 1968 near Fairmont, West Virginia, and both her grandfathers were miners while her mother worked for the United Mine Workers Association. Nevertheless, it’s a project that wasn’t taken lightly. In fact, Mattea said the Sago Mine Disaster (also West Virginia) and the death of 12 of its miners made her realize it was time to tackle the Coal project, which, she says, has been on her mind since she was 19, when she first heard Dark As A Dungeon.

“This record reached out and took me. It called to me to be made. When Sago happened, I got catapulted back to that moment in my life and thought, ‘I need to do something with this emotion, and maybe this album is the place to channel it’. I knew the time was right.”

The album features traditional and contemporary songs, many of them by songwriters with Appalachian roots; Jean Ritchie, Billy Edd Wheeler, Hazel Dickens, Utah Phillips, Merle Travis, Si Kahn and Darrell Scott. Some of the highlights are Black Lung, The L & N Don’t Stop Here Anymore, Coal Tattoo, Green Rolling Hills [with Tim and Mollie O’Brien providing harmony vocals], Blue Diamond Mines [with Marty Stuart and Patty Loveless - background vocals], The Coming Of The Roads, Red-winged Blackbird and Lawrence Jones. As Mattea says, the songs were chosen because they articulate “the lifestyle, the bigger struggles,” and “speak to the sense of place and sense of attachment people have to each other and to the land.”

The backing musician includes names that are no strangers to bluegrass aficionados, beginning with Mattea’s hand-picked producer [who also plays guitar and mandolin], Marty Stuart, who plays guitar, mandolin and mandola on the tracks and joins Patty Loveless for background vocals on one song also. Bryon House (bass) and Stuart Duncan (fiddle, mandolin and banjo) are household names in the bluegrass world. Lesser known are Bill Cooley, who has been with Mattea for 20 years, handles the guitar duties, while John Catchings (cello), Randy Leago (keyboards and accordion) and guest steel player Fred Newell round out the album’s sound.

Kathy Mattea’s web site features an interview from her recent appearance on NPR’s Living On Earth that features some of the music from Mattea’s forth-coming album Coal as well as some personal insight into growing up, living in a coal mining community and the environmental effects of the coal industry.

It seems Marty Stuart has given quite a Valentine’s Day gift to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. On Wednesday, February 13, 2008, he donated Lester Flatt’s old 1950 D-28 to the museum.

History tells us Lester bought the guitar for $115 at a pawnshop in Charleston, WV, in 1956. He used the instrument for the better part of his career.

Home to Flatt’s world renowned G-run for nearly 25 years, the Martin was used on most of Flatt & Scruggs’s classic recordings and live performances, including Grand Ole Opry broadcasts and their appearances on the national television show Beverly Hillbillies and the Martha White-sponsored Flatt & Scruggs Grand Ole Opry.

This instrument is just part of a larger collection of items donated by Marty Stuart and Connie Smith. You can view the complete list of donated items on the museum’s website.

Tony Trischka will be the featured guest on tomorrow’s (2/15) edition of Lonesome Pine RFD on WFDU-FM, broadcast in the New York City metro area.

He will join host Carol Beaugard for a discussion about his upcoming CD release, Territory, and perform tunes live in the studio. Carol also plans to ask Tony about the success he enjoyed in 2007 with his Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular which involved Tony performing banjo duets with some of the most celebrated five stringers on earth.

Banjo players and bluegrass history buffs should be especially interested in this interview as Carol and Tony will place a phone call to Judy Thompson to talk about her late husband, banjo legend Bobby Thompson. She will discuss Bobby’s career with Tony and share details about the two posthumously released CDs of his music which Judy has produced.

The show is broadcast live on 89.1 FM in the NYC area, and streamed live online at WFDU.fm. The Trischka interview segment begins at 10:00 a.m. (EST).

The International Songwriting Competition is nearing the announcement date of its winners for 2007. The field has been narrowed to 15 finalists in each genre category. The winners will be announced in April, 2008.

Our friend Frank Solivan II is one of the finalists in the Americana category, which is the closest to a bluegrass category they have in the competition.

Frank is known to the bluegrass world as a mandolin player and singer, by his tenure with the Navy Bluegrass Band, Country Current. He’s also released a couple of great solo projects that feature him on mandolin, fiddle and vocals, with an occasional guitar part as well. In addition to his multi-instrumental prowess, he’s also a gifted songwriter, penning both scorching instrumental numbers and soul felt vocal tunes.

The song Frank has entered in the contest is Day to Day from his 2002 release I Am A Rambler. The song is currently available as a free mp3 from Frank’s website.

Be sure to visit Frank’s MySpace page for his touring and mandolin workshop schedule.

Banjoist Jayme Stone and mandolinist John Reischman each received a JUNO nomination from The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences last week. The awards, which celebrate the work of Canadian musical artists, will be announced at the 37th annual JUNO Awards gala on April 6, 2008 in Calgary, AB.

Stone is nominated for his CD, The Utmost, in the Instrumental Album Of The Year category and Reischman in the Roots & Traditional Album Of The Year: Group category for the Stellar Jays project with his group, The Jaybirds.

Congratulations and best of luck to them both!

Gibson has been posting free instructional videos on their web site of late. Most of them have reflected the larger size of their market that comes from the world of rock music, but two mandolin lessons were posted recently.

They are taken from How To Play Mandolin by Bert Casey, and show both a split-screen video and on-screen tab for the tune Blackberry Blossom.

Find the mandolin videos - and all the other free lessons - at Gibson.com.

Our friend Laura Leder from Cool Mandolin Company emailed recently to ask us to remind students of bluegrass and old time music - both here in the US, and in the UK and Europe - about Sore Fingers Week 2008.

The annual event will be held March 24-28 in Oxfordshire (UK), with classes offered in a residential setting over five days for fiddle, guitar, mandolin, banjo, resophonic guitar, bass, singing and autoharp. The faculty is drawn from top performers from both sides of the Atlantic.

A full instructor listing can be found on the Sore Fingers web site.

Ernie Thacker has signed with Pinecastle Records to release his next CD. The as yet untitled project is finished, and expected to hit sometime in August.

As many of our readers are aware, Ernie was seriously injured in an automobile accident in April 2006 and has been undergoing a difficult, but successful recovery since. The new CD was started prior to the accident, and has been completed over this past few months.

Two of the tracks (Detroit City Chill and The Hangman) have already been released to bluegrass radio, where they have been well received.

The National Four-String Banjo Hall of Fame Museum is soon to undergo an complete makeover, including a relocation and a name change.

Originally founded in 1998 as a museum for the public display of original four-string tenor banjos from the jazz era, the museum will soon expand its focus to include all types of banjos.

The museum started with 60 banjos on display, making it the largest publicly displayed collection in the world. Over the last ten years the museum has acquired over 40 additional banjos bringing it’s total number to over 100. Recently, the museum came into possession of more than 200 banjos from the private collection of a German businessman. The organization is in ongoing negotiations to to acquire the collection of Akira Tsumura in Japan. His collection consists of nearly 600 instruments, and is considered to be the largest collection ever assembled.

With all these new acquisitions to the collection, the museum was quickly running out of space in it’s current location in Guthrie, OK. Last year, the decision was made to move the museum to a new home in Oklahoma City. The real estate deal for the new building was just closed late last month and renovation is scheduled to begin this spring. The new location is the heart of Oklahoma City’s “Bricktown” district.

The 21,000 square foot historical building will be renovated for roughly two million dollars. The renovation is expected to be complete, and the museum moved in early 2009. At that time the name change to American Banjo Museum will be official.

When the relocation takes place, the Museum’s new name, American Banjo Museum, will better reflect the its desire to tell the entire story of the banjo’s colorful 350 year evolution in America, opposed to its previous exclusive focus on the instruments, artists and music associated with the relatively brief period known as the jazz age.

The renovated facility will include the original exerior features of the building, while the interior will be completed remodeled to include a state-of-the-art museum facility and more.

…the interior [will be] completely restructured into a state-of-the-art museum facility. In addition to instrument displays, preliminary interior plans call for an extensive interactive banjo history exhibit, a 60 seat performance theater, a replica of a vintage Shakey’s Pizza Parlor along with classrooms, offices, workshops, snack bar, catering kitchen, archives, storage, and gift shop.

Be sure to visit the museum online banjomuseum.org and prepare to spend some time reading their extensive historical notes on banjos, instrument manufactures, and musicians.

The Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville has just announced the list of this year’s inductees, all of whom have a bluegrass connection.

The honorees are selected annually in three chronological career categories: pre WWII, WWII to 1975, and 1975-present.

Ernest V. (Pop) Stoneman will be honored in the first (pre WWII) category. He was the patriarch of the Stoneman Family, one of the most prolific and infuential of the early country recording artists. One of his sons, Scotty Stoneman, is claimed as a primary influence by successive generations of bluegrass and old time fiddlers.

The next category (WWII to 1975) produced a tie. Both Tom T. Hall and The Statler Brothers will share this year’s honor. The Statlers have not done much bluegrass - though they belong in every hall of fame for giving us Roadhog Moran & his Cadillac Cowboys - but many of their songs have found their way into the bluegrass Gospel repertoire.

Tom T. Hall, of course, has dedicated his recent career to writing, recording and promoting bluegrass music, and with his wife Dixie, has left a legacy to the music in the form of a bequest to the IBMA upon their passing.

In the modern (1975-present) category, Emmylou Harris, gets the nod. Though she is more generally regarded as a country artist, her contributions to bluegrass are legion, from performing/recording with Seldom Scene to having hired, performed with and promoted the careers of artists like Ricky Skaggs, Tony Rice and Sam Bush.

Congratulations to this year’s inductees!

HT: Jon Weisberger

Blue Highway releases their new CD, Through The Window Of A Train today. You can find our post with links to the audio samples here.

We also previously posted video footage, provided by our friends at Lotos Nile, of the first track from the CD. Today we’ve got another video clip for you, from the same event.

This was filmed at the BMI offices in Nashville, several weeks ago. It was shot hand held from the audience while the guys were playing live with no sound system, but it should give you an idea of the material you’ll find on this new CD.

Here is the title track of the CD, Through the Window of a Train.

Bluegrass has always been a highly participatory genre, with a higher than average number of fans being amateur or part time players as well, something we share with jazz and folk music.

One of the surest signs of the continuing growth of interest in bluegrass music is the success of the many new instructional camps and workshops held each year. Some are instrument specific, while others offer classes for many or all bluegrass instruments at the same time. They are gaining in number and popularity all over the US and Europe as pickers seek to learn more about the music they love.

St. Louis Flatpick is one hosted by guitarist Bull Harman, who developed the concept and started the weekend workshop event to help boost interest in flatpicking in the Midwest.

My wife, Tammy, and I attend workshops throughout the U.S. and have noticed that our area was severely lacking in a weekend workshop type event. So based upon on our experience with others’ weekends, we decided to start St. Louis Flatpick. We are proud to say that this is our 4th year, of hopefully many. We planned the 3 day event months before it’s actual time to allow for preparation and advertising. Our Exhibit Hall hosts several of our sponsors throughout the weekend and our Saturday evening concert has become the highlight of the weekend. Students are thrilled at the opportunity to sit back and watch their instructors shine.

Our goal was to bring a workshop of this kind to the Midwest area, where there aren’t classes available of this type. We outgrew our first hotel after the first year moved to the Crowne Plaza Airport Hotel in St. Louis where we have lots of room to grow including a ballroom for the concert.

This year’s event will be March 7, 8 & 9th in St. Louis, MO. Featured instructors will be Clay Hess and David Grier