Here’s another new entry in the bluegrass blogging community - The Australian Bluegrass Blog.

The site is managed by Greg McGrath, a serious Aussie bluegrass enthusiast who I met last spring when he was visiting in the US. Greg also maintains Gippsland Bluegrass, a blog for pickers and bluegrass fans in his part of Victoria.

During a recent discussion, Greg shared the story of how he came to be involved in blogging, and it demonstrates the sort of missionary zeal that has kept bluegrass music active and growing for so many years - and especially how it manages to extend its reach so far from where it was born sixty years ago.

“I was inspired to do something after my big trip to the USA last year. I wanted a medium to show my pictures and tell the stories of the many wonderful people I had met in North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky. I was also taken by the work that Pete Wernick was doing through his Jam Camps; I was invited to attend the one in North Carolina last year and spent four days there in awe of what Pete and Joan were achieving with otherwise ‘closet pickers.’

I got home and explored some web site options, but did not have the immediate technology to take advantage of them. I tried building websites, but as a frustrated perfectionist I was not happy with the results and I could not afford software to build them or the cost to host them. After a several months of frustration I virtually gave up trying to get what I thought were some great stories up on the web.

One of the folks I met during my time in the USA was Ted Lehmann who spends his days traveling to festivals and reporting on them on his blogsite. I did not readily understand what a blog was then, but it was always there in the back of my mind.

More months passed and I happened across Ted’s blogsite once again and spent some time there, trying to understand the mechanics of how he made it work and what might be involved for me. (more…)

For all you tech-heads and home recording enthusiasts out there, this one’s for you.

Each month, Mix magazine prints articles about recording and post production techniques, gear, studios, interviews with engineers and producers, etc. It seems they end up with extra material that just didn’t make it into the print edition each month. These extras are often published online in the form of Mix Online Extras.

This month being bluegrass month (I wonder if the publishers knew that?), it seems highly appropriate that their online extra is an article covering the topic of Recording Bluegrass Instruments.

The format of the article couldn’t get much better. The author tracked down four of bluegrass music’s top engineer/producers and asked them how they go about recording the various bluegrass instruments. Those interviewed were: Gary Paczosa, Bil VornDick, Randy Kohrs (and by extension, Michael Latterer), and Steve Chandler.

After introducing each of these engineers, they offer a brief introductory section where each is allowed to talk about their general philosophy of recording bluegrass tracks. Page two is where the specifics hit the page. The article tackles each instrument in turn: mandolin, fiddle, banjo, guitar, bass, and dobro. Again, each engineer gives their specific choices for mic, mic placement, pre-amp, compression, etc.

If you have an interest in recording bluegrass, this is an article you should take the time to read.

Cherryholmes will be appearing on tonight’s Tuesday Grand Ole Opry, in the initial segment that airs from 8:00-8:30 p.m.

The Opry broadcast is available over the air in the Nashville market on WSM AM 650, and simulcast worldwide via online streaming at wsmonline.com. It can also be heard live on XM channel 11 (XM Nashville).

The band has continued to offer some sneak peeks from their next CD on YouTube. Throughout the video clips posted so far, they have refered to the project as Cherryholmes III, but that may just be the working title for this next Skaggs Family project.

In this clip, we see guest artist Rob Ickes preparing to track his part on the uptempo bluegrass song, Traveler.

And this latest clip is of Cia Cherryholmes recording vocals for the song, This Is My Son.

You can see all of the video clips on the Skaggs Family YouTube channel.

Cherryholmes also has a UK tour scheduled for this summer, doing shows in both Wales and England prior to their big show at the Cambridge Folk Festival at the end of July. You can see a list of their UK dates at ukbluegrass.com.

Here’s the second installment of the video content we’re bringing you as part of our Infamous Stringdusters promotion.

The album The Infamous Stringdusters, will be released on June 10, 2008. See our original post for information about the pre-order special.

This video is provided in cooperation with The Infamous Stringdusters, Sugar Hill Records, and Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival.

Each episode (5 in total) will be accompanied by either a streaming track or an mp3 download from the new CD. Access to the tracks will be limited to registered users of The Bluegrass Blog, and accessing the track will enter you in a promotional giveaway to win one of three autographed copies of the CD.

We also have one other contest for you - there will only be one winner in this contest, but it’s big. We’re giving away a pair of tickets to this year’s Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, a meet and greet with the band at the festival, and some merchandise the guys will autograph just for you on site.

Enjoy the video, download this week’s track, and enter to win free festival tickets!

This second installment includes episode two of the video, and a streaming mp3 of a track from the new CD, .

Enter to win an autographed CD (and listen to the streaming track)

Enter to win a pair of tickets to the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival

We posted last month about the scholarship fund established by Steve Huber (Huber Banjos) to raise money for the college education of Latham and Will Calveard.

The two boys are the sons of Sam Calveard, a former Huber employee and friend to the acoustic instrument world who left his position at Huber when his wife, Beth, was nearing the end of her battle with cancer, an intractable foe against whom she was unable to prevail. The fund was established to help Sam to recover from remaining medical bills without worries about the boys college costs.

Steve made a startup donation of $2500, and tells us that a number of other sizable contributions have been received, along with many more smaller ones.

Now, Huber has joined forces with The Banjo Hangout to offer a new Jim Mills model Huber banjo valued at just under $5,000 in a raffle to further benefit the Calveard Scholarship Fund. Raffle tickets are only $10 apiece, with no limit to the number any individual can purchase.

Tickets can be purchased online until June 15, and the winner will be announced on June 30. All proceeds will go to the Scholarship Fund.

It sounds to us like a great way to support a worthy cause in our own backyard - and maybe even grab a $5000 banjo for only $10!

Finding bluegrass music content on television is always a challenge, but that challenge just got a whole lot easier. BlueHighways TV announced today that it has signed a multi-year distribution agreement with Comcast Cable. This will make BlueHighways’ linear and Video On Demand services available to all Comcast subscribers.

Stan Hitchcock, Chairman and CEO of BlueHighways TV commented on what the agreement means to the company.

Our agreement with Comcast is an important affirmation for BlueHighways TV. We are confident that our Americana roots music, back roads travel and cultural programming will resonate with Comcast subscribers, and we are excited about the opportunities our new relationship with Comcast presents.

Spearheaded by Hitchcock and bluegrass legend Ronnie Reno, BHTV includes programming featuring American roots music such as bluegrass, blues, folk western, gospel and traditional country. It also has programming that revolves around rural American lifestyle.

A number of programs the network offers include bluegrass music.

• Heart To Heart - BlueHighways TV Founder Stan Hitchcock draws upon his musical heritage in this 30-minute conversation program where he sits with the stars and old legends of country, gospel, western and bluegrass to talk and play the music that has shaped their lives.
• Old Country Church - An inspirational tribute to American roots told through traditional, country and bluegrass gospel music and stories from church elders and historians.
• Reno’s Old Time Music Festival - Bluegrass music is enjoying an American renaissance, and this 30-minute program celebrates that rebirth with riveting live acoustic performances featuring Ronnie Reno and the Reno Tradition and a variety of guest music legends.
• Woodsongs - Live from the Kentucky Theater in Lexington, this 60-minute program features the best in Bluegrass and Folk music.

If you are already a Comcast subscriber, look for BHTV to soon be available in your area.

In an interesting twist of fate, we found a connection between two recent stories that had run on The Bluegrass Blog earlier this month.

Faithful readers will recall the story from May 7 about North Carolina mandolinist John Santa and his new book of nonfiction, Bluegrass Is My Second Language. On May 8, we had a piece about The Baghdad Bad Boys, a group of US servicemen stationed in Iraq who get together regularly to pick some bluegrass.

Not long after that pair of stories were posted, we heard back from Santa that Lt. Col. Greg Rawlings - who is quoted in the piece about bluegrass in Baghdad - had become a new friend of his, and further, that a group with whom John is affiliated was partly responsible for getting musical instruments and accessories into the hands of the G.I.s in Iraq. To make the coincidence complete, Santa told us that he and Rawlings had become acquainted through his book.

“When Greg went over to Baghdad he complained that the instruments there were in terrible shape so my group, The RDU Session Players went to work.”

I asked Santa to tell me a bit more about this group, and how they had contributed to bluegrass in Baghdad, and he shared this wonderful story - in the same roundabout, narrative style as he tells the many others in Bluegrass Is My Second Language.

“The RDU Session Players is a group I started many years ago, and which is described in more detail in my book.

I write music for films and commercials, and as I got more successful I was able to bring in some of the better local players to work on projects with me. We would knock out the music for the client pretty quickly (like I said, these players were the best of the best), and then sit around and play and always end up saying (as they were packing up their gear) we need to do this more often.

So I started inviting them over once a month and as we got older and they found better ways to make a living in music rather than constantly being on the road, more and more of them came to play. For a long time I didn’t allow spectators on the grounds that the best music played was played FOR musicians and BY musicians at three in the morning. Then one late spring night my neighbors down the street rolled in about 2 AM and saw us outside on the car port and walked up and sat down in the middle of a long jam. (more…)

Earlier this year Old Wilkes, Inc. and The Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame (BRMHoF) committee announced the initial induction of several prominent musicians from the Blue Ridge region.

The charter inductees to be honored at the first annual Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony, to be held at the Walker Center on the campus of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro on Friday, June 13, 2008, are: Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs, The Carter Family, Tommy Jarrell, Dolly Parton, David Johnson, Ralph Rinzler, Ralph Epperson, Wayne Henderson and Sam Love Queen, Sr.

Each of these individuals is well noted for their considerable contributions to the special cultural and musical heritage of the Blue Ridge Mountains, with many having world-wide influence.

The Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame, created in 2006, will be housed on the second floor of the Wilkes Heritage Museum (in the restored, famous old Wilkes Courthouse) located at 100 East Main Street, Wilkesboro, NC. Wilkesboro is located less than twenty miles from milepost 235, or the halfway point on the Blue Ridge Parkway, easily allowing a visit the Hall of Fame or Museum.

Tickets for the June 13 concert and induction ceremony, to be emceed by Mike Cross, are on sale now and may be purchased from the Walker Center box office (336-838-6260). A limited number of dinner tickets are available with a cost of $75 that includes seats for the ceremony. Tickets for the Concert and Induction Ceremony are $25.

Rhonda Vincent’s 10th career video, I Gotta Start Somewhere from her latest album, Good Thing Going, has been added in medium rotation to CMT’s main television channel. It premiered May 1 on CMT’com’s Country Music Blog and debuted on CMT Pure in heavy rotation on May 5.

The video, filmed in Bryson City, NC in the heart of the Smokey Mountains with Los Angeles director Dallas Henry, features Vincent trying to get over a broken relationship by retreating to the mountains. The piece is Vincent’s first Hi-Def video. The Hi-Def format brings into sharp relief the beauty of early spring in the Smoky Mountains as well as the beauty of the seven time IBMA female vocalist of year.

The video can be viewed here at CMT.com.

Released in January, Good Thing Going has topped Billboard’s Top Bluegrass Albums Chart (currently #8), Bluegrass Unlimited’s Top 15 Bluegrass Albums Chart (currently #2), and Bluegrass Music Profile’s Top 10 Bluegrass CDs Chart (currently #1).

The Dallas Morning News says this of Rhonda …..

“She has everything it takes to appeal to the masses: the pedigree, the pipes, the chops and the looks.”

If you’ve taken a look at student model and mid-range musical instruments of late, chances are you have seen some of the many instruments distributed by Saga Music.

Their brands include the Kentucky, Rover and Trinity College mandolins, Blue Ridge and Regal guitars, Gold Star, Rover and Saga banjos and the Cremona violins and basses. They also distribute popular instrument accessories by Shubb, Golden gate, National and Anton Breton, all familiar to bluegrass pickers.

Saga founder Richard Keldsen has been doing business with Chinese companies for more than 25 years, and is among the most successful importers of Chinese-made musical instruments in the US.

Keldsen is interviewed in a recent video segment for BNET.com where he discusses the challenges of outsourcing to China. The piece doesn’t have any specifically bluegrass content, but should be of interest to anyone who owns one of their instruments.

Watch the full 8 minute interview on BNET.com.

In today’s changing music market, artists, songwriters and producers are all looking for new revenue streams as established ones diminish or dry up. One venue that may not pop up for most bluegrass musicians is the thriving video game market, but that is just where popular Irish grasser Niall Toner finds one of his tunes featured.

His tune, Nuns Island Reel, is included in the audio track for the new edition of the Grand Theft Auto franchise (Grand Theft Auto IV), which has been setting sales records since its release in April.

Niall gives us the run down on how this came to be…

“I composed the tune in the normal course of my song-writing and tune-composing, and it was recorded in a demo session at Paul Ashe-Browne’s studio in Dublin’s Canal Street in the mid 90s. On that day we recorded four tunes, The Belles Of Aer Rianta, Dodder Valley Waltz, Elancyl’s Hornpipe and Nuns Island Reel. [So-called because my Dad was born and raised on Nuns Island in Galway City]

These tunes are all part of my Publishing deal with Bardis Music in Dublin, and my Publisher, Peter Bardon, would have been ‘pitching’ this material, and my other country and bluegrass songs, to producers, artists and other publishing houses around the world. Several of my songs have been recorded in the past 15 years or so, most notably, from a bluegrass perspective, There’s A Better Way by the Nashville Bluegrass Band, and Josie’s Reel by Special Consensus - plus Mood Swing by Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones, and Working On Love by Albert Lee.

In early 2000, Peter did a sub-publishing deal for about 40 of my compositions with Crucial Music in Los Angeles, a Company run by Tanvi Patel. Tanvi works with Movie makers and a whole variety of music-using Industries in Silicon Valley. In 2005, Tanvi made a pitch to Rockstar, who were beginning to work on GTA4, and they choose Nuns Island Reel for a scene in an Irish Pub in the game. My piece was re-named A Real Real, and the rest, as they say, is history.”

Niall tells us that he has not yet played the game, though he has seen a brief extract of the scene that features his tune.

A Real Real will be included as a bonus track on NTB3, the third all-original CD release from The Niall Toner Band. It is a live version recorded on Niall’s My Roots Freeway Radio show.

The new CD is due for a May 25 release, and will be available on that date in iTunes.

Fiddler Jeremy Abshire, who has been featured as a member of Dale Ann Bradley’s band of late, has been announced as the newest member of The Grascals, replacing original fiddler Jimmy Mattingly, who is leaving to work with Dolly Parton full time.

Mattingly has been a member of Dolly’s band for 20 years, but her dates had been sporadic enough for him to juggle them with The Grascals schedule. Her more active current schedule has made that impossible, hence the fond adieu to his Grascal pals.

Jeremy had filled in with The Grascals earlier this year when Jimmy was away, and they all agreed that he was the perfect fit when the fiddle spot opened up.

The guys will be performing on The Grand Ole Opry on Saturday night (5/17) in the 9:30-10:00 p.m. and midnight to 12:30 a.m. slots if you want to catch Jeremy in his new gig.

The Opry is broadcast over the air in the Nashville market on WSM AM 650, simulcast live worldwide via online streaming at wsmonline.com, and on XM Track 11 (Nashville).

MiND TV, based in Philadelphia, PA, is an independent public television initiative with an interesting twist. All of the content which is broadcast on TV (Channel 34 in Philly) or streamed online is made up of 5 minute segments.

Four segments have recently been produced that feature Blue Highway. Each begins with a portion of the short documentary on the band produced by Craig Havighurst - which can be viewed in its entirety here on The Bluegrass Blog - followed by a live performance of one song from a live concert.

There is no link that will take you to all four Blue Highway clips, but you can follow the four links below to watch them online.

• Wondrous Love
• Little Maggie
• I Hung My Head
• Cold Harbor

Audio clips from their newest CD, Through The Window Of A Train, on their web site.

Williams & Clark Expedition will drop in on Katy Daley this morning at 9:00 a.m. to talk about their new CD, Brand New Set Of Blues.

Katy’s radio shows airs on WAMU’s BluegrassCountry streaming live online 24/7, and on HD Radio 88.5-2 in the Washington, DC market. They will spin a few tracks and chat with Katy about the songs.

A portrait of Ralph Stanley has been commissioned for the Ralph Stanley Museum, to be created by renowned portraitist Kenneth Hari. The finished painting will be unveiled this summer at the museum in Clintwood, Va where it will reside as a part of their permanent collection.

Hari is a long-time fan of country and bluegrass music, who has painted portraits of Bill Monroe, Chet Atkins and Hank Williams in addition to other celebrities like Dustin Hoffman, Salvador Dali and Norman Rockwell. He traveled to the museum in early April to do sketches of Dr. Ralph in a live sitting, Hari’s preferred and universal policy on creating portraits of living subjects.

We spoke with the artist recently, and he shared some thoughts about meeting the good doctor.

“I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Clintwood to see Dr. Stanley and create my sketches. The countryside is beautiful and the people were all terrific.

The museum itself is a jewel, and meeting Dr. Stanley was a great pleasure. I recall standing with him amidst the exhibits, and he looked up at me with a smile and said ‘Can you believe this? In my lifetime to see this?’

The man just has an aura about him… an elegance, and a wonderful way with people.”

Hari said that the commission was paid by an anonymous donor specifically with the condition that the painting be given to the museum. He hopes that he will be able to create several portraits from his sketches, and indicated that the museum portrait will depict Ralph with his signature Stanleytone banjo.

Larry Pierucci, Hari’s business representative, tells us that there are loose plans for poster prints from the Stanley portrait, which would be issued to benefit the Stanley Museum. Prints of a number of existing Hari portraits are available online.

An unveiling is planned for sometime in August at the Ralph Stanley Museum.

Museum director Aaron Davis is understandably eager to have the painting hanging on the wall.

“We are extremely excited to see the final product, as we’ve seen Mr. Hari’s work and know that this will be an incredible addition to his portfolio and a wonderful new item for the Museum & Center. Mr. Hari mentioned that this portrait will be here long after he and Dr. Stanley are gone, and that’s one of the great things about working with an artist of Mr. Hari’s caliber–this portrait will remain as a one-of-a-kind piece that helps to tell the story of mountain music for many years to come. The only difficult part of this process is waiting for it to be completed! We have some idea of the final version based on work we’ve seen, but it doesn’t make the waiting game any easier as we move towards the unveiling. We’re looking forward to being pleasantly surprised!”

The Dan Tyminski Band will be featured on CMT.com’s Unplugged at Studio 330, debuting on Tuesday May 20.

Dan and the boys will be performing material from his new CD, Wheels, due from Rounder on June 17.

There is a sneak peek video up now at CMT.com.

If you’re interested in something different, here it is. This is not for you purists - you know who you are. I would go so far as to say this is not for most bluegrass fans. It is not something I myself would listen to, as I do find the lyrics offensive at times, as many of you are sure to as well. It is of interest from the standpoint of observing the dissemination of bluegrass sounds and instrumentation into other musical forms.

It was not that many years ago that the banjo and mandolin began to be accepted instruments in the country music world. Now they are quite at home in that world, and almost expected at certain times.

I would never have imagined though that these instruments, along with the dobro and fiddle, would find there way into a hip-hop mix!

So here’s the deal. Producer/mashup artist…ok, I’ll explain that last term.

A ‘mashup’ is a song created by combining two, or more, songs of differing genres (usually). Typically this is done using the lyrical content from one song and the instrumentation from another. This is widely popular in European pop. It is called a ‘mashup’ because you are basically mashing two thing together that wouldn’t normally find their way to the same space. There can be some legal issues involved in this practice and the entire genre (if you can call it that) has adopted a rather punk rock attitude and is considered part of the culture jamming movement.

Ok, back to the creator of this album. Rench is a singer/songwriter/producer/mashup artist who has recently released an mashup album of bluegrass and hip-hop. He’s calling the work Gangstagrass. The recording is available for free via download. It includes 22 tracks total. The tracks are basically hip-hop lyrics laid over a track that includes drums and bass along with original banjo, dobro, fiddle, and mandolin riffs.

The results are unique and have gained Rench some attention via posts on sites like boingboing.

Like I said, it is of interest to us as bluegrass fans because our sounds have found their way into a world most of us will never enter. Curious as to how that happened, I contacted Rench and had an email conversation with him about the recording.

What follows are some questions I put to Rench, and his very thoughtful and well articulated replies. (more…)

Springer Mountain Farms is no stranger to bluegrass music. The company sponsors the Bluegrass Nights at the Ryman concert series. The company is located in the Blueridge Mountains of NorthEast Georgia.

Searching for a new jingle for the business, the company decided to partner with WSM to allow creative types to submit their creations for consideration. Here’s the deal.

You write, and perform, a jingle for Springer Mountain Farms Chicken and submit either an audio or video recording, by mail or electronically. Submissions are handled by WSMonline.com. Judges will choose 5 of the submitted jingles for the contest. These five will be posted on the WSM website and the public will vote on their favorite.

The submission deadline is June 13, 2008. The top five will then be posted for voting and the grand prize winner will announced on June 23, 2008.

The grand prize winner will receive the following.

• $1,000 Cash Prize
• A Year’s Supply of Chicken from Springer Mountain Farms
• A Season Pass to this year’s Bluegrass Nights at the Ryman (presented by Springer Mountain Farms)
• A Recording Session at 650 AM WSM’s studio

In addition to the prizes listed above, the winning jingle will, of course, be used in advertising on 650 AM WSM as the official jingle for Springer Mountain Farms Chicken.

For official rules, and submission instructions, please visit the contest page at WSMonline.com.

Chris Thile has found himself frequently tagged as something of a controversialist in bluegrass circles. As a teen, he was welcomed with open arms by the bluegrass world, who also cherished his role in the early work of Nickel Creek. As that band began to veer away from traditional string music, some saw Thile as a traitor of sorts, a view reinforced by his subsequent fusion of bluegrass instruments with pop and classical themes.

In interviews where he has discussed this - including his interview with Brance for The Bluegrass Blog - you don’t get the impression that he has sought this sort of notoriety, nor sees any reason for people to look at him in this way.

I found another Thile quote this morning in a piece published online in The Hook, an arts and entertainment magazine in Charlottesville, VA where Thile and Punch Brothers are performing this weekend. The article is prefaced on this notion that Chris was once hailed as the incoming saviour of bluegrass, and is now seen as a pariah by some traditionalists among the music’s fans.

At the end, the interviewer, Vijith Assar, suggests that the role of the young ambassador of bluegrass was his if he had wanted it.

“Ever since I was little, I’ve heard people saying that I was bringing bluegrass to the next generation and stuff like that, and I just never really cared. I don’t like the idea of spending my career allying myself so inseparably to something. I certainly get, after shows, young people saying ‘I never really listened to bluegrass until I found your music.’ I tell them, ‘Well, I don’t think you’ve really listened to bluegrass yet.’ I love bluegrass– I hope I don’t sound like I don’t– I’m just not personally concerned with its fate. I think it’ll be fine without me.”

Well said. Read the full interview on The Hook’s site.

McCoury Music and High Sierra Music have posted a YouTube video of Dierks Bentley rehearsing his hit song I’ve Got A Lot Of Leaving Left To Do with The Del McCoury Band in preparation for their joint appearance at DelFest next weekend.

The video shows them running through the tune, complete with an extended jam section - where Dierks even trades a few G runs with the Delster himself!