Lonesome River Band and Rural Rhythm Records are pleased to announce that the band’s next project will be released on the Arcadia, CA based label.

Though the new CD, No Turning Back, won’t be released until September 9, 2008, a new single from the album is expected in mid-July. The band will celebrate their 26th year by releasing their updated version of Them Blues, a song originally recorded by LRB back in 1984 on their very first album for Rebel Records.

LRB bandleader Sammy Shelor tells us how that song came to be chosen as the single…

“For years I’ve heard Them Blues played in jam sessions and at festival campgrounds based on the original LRB arrangement. It hadn’t been in our show for years, but we put it back in and the audience reaction was so strong that it seemed like an obvious way for us to connect the storied history of the band with our new, re-invented lineup for the next CD.”

Look for Them Blues as the first track on the second edition of Rural Rhythm’s Fresh Cuts & Key Tracks, a radio sampler due to be sent to show hosts and PDs in the next two weeks.

No Turning Back is the first recorded effort by the current edition of this hard-hitting band, featuring Sammy Shelor on banjo, Brandon Rickman on guitar and vocals, Andy Ball on mandolin and vocals, Mike Anglin on bass and Mike Hartgrove on fiddle.

Sammy is happy to see a new direction and a new business partnership in place for this new project.

“I feel like we have re-invented the LRB sound with this band, and I’m really excited about working with these guys - on stage and in the studio.

With a reinvented sound, it seemed like the right time to go a different direction with distribution and marketing, and we couldn’t have made a better choice than Rural Rhythm. All the Passamano family has shown the same seriousness and dedication about their end of the business as we do about ours, and I look forward to what we can accomplish together.

It’s amazing that the band has gone on for 25 years, but you can’t simply rest on your laurels in the music business. We are always looking to the future with Lonesome River Band and can’t wait for all our fans and friends to hear these great new songs on No Turning Back.”

Audio clips will be available soon on the Rural Rhythm site.

Gary Ferguson tells us that he is heading shortly for Ireland, his fourth consecutive July visit to the Emerald Isle.

He’ll have Colin Henry in tow on guitar and resonator guitar, joining Gary on guitar and vocals for the 11 day tour, running July 18-29. Irish vocalist and songwriter Janet Holmes will also perform with Gary and Colin for several shows.

Gary is excited for his Irish fans to get a chance to hear the music from his latest CD, Gary Ferguson and Friends - Live at Podunk, recorded at the Podunk Bluegrass Festival in Connecticut.

The tour stops are as follows:

• July 18 - Seamus Ennis Centre - Naul (w/Mick Hanly)
• July 19 - Saturday Connection with Charlie McGettigan
• July 19 - Bog Lane Theatre (w/Charlie McGettigan)
• July 20 - Ardara Bluegrass Festival - Ardara
• July 21 - McGrory’s - Culdaff
• July 22 - Rodden’s Bar- Buncrana
• July 23 - The Cobblestone - Dublin
• July 25 - Phil Murphy Weekend - Carrig on Bannow
• July 26 - Phil Murphy Weekend - Carrig on Bannow
• July 28 - McDaids - Midleton
• July 29 - Tadghin’s Bar - Ballylinan

Regular readers of The Bluegrass Blog should be accustomed to reading rave reviews here of the work of Ron Stewart. Ron has established himself as perhaps the premier session player in and around bluegrass - on both fiddle and banjo - and a highly sought-after producer as well.

Over the past ten years, he has been a member of The Lynn Morris Band, JD Crowe & The New South with high-profile fill in work with Lonesome River Band. He was the subject of two popular instructional DVDs for AcuTab (banjo and fiddle) and released his own solo CD, Time Stands Still.

Ron is featured on two current CDs, Longview’s Deep In The Mountains where he plays fiddle, and Wheels, the just-released project from Dan Tyminski, on banjo. He has also developed a reputation as a first rate set up man on both instruments, and has long been a go-to-guy for folks looking for restored fiddles for sale.

I have heard Ron expound on banjo set up and construction many times, a knowledge he developed over many years of studying the classic pre-war flatheads, and refined through both examination of and discussion with JD Crowe and his collection of fine flatheads. Now, he has taken his banjo experience to the next step, pairing with builder Warren Yates in the development, set up and marketing of a new line of instruments, the Ron Stewart Signature Series banjos.

Ron shared his thoughts with us recently, explainng what brought him to work with Yates, and describing these new banjos that carry his name.

“I first met Warren Yates in July of 2006 at a show in Morganton, NC, while working with JD Crowe. I was also filling in on banjo with Kenny and Amanda Smith that same day. Warren introduced himself, and showed me a couple of his Rattlesnake banjos. I was impressed with the craftsmanship and the tone of the banjos, so we exchanged contact info, but aside from a couple of emails and a phone conversation or two, didn’t get to know each other really well until the next summer (I had a baby boy due in August, so as many of you know, that first year is, well, really intense and busy!).

I was once again playing in the area in July of ‘07 and Warren and Joel Marley (who works at Yates banjo, inlay) came out to our show, and brought a Studio model Yates for me to play. It blew me away, and we started talking about doing a Ron Stewart model Yates at that time. The Studio model was the banjo I played at IBMA on the Dan Tyminski Band showcase in’07, which I sold to a gentleman in NC when I got my Maple model, which I used to record the new Dan Tyminski Band CD. (more…)

Bluegrass artists are having an increasingly difficult time finding retail outlets for their recorded works. Wal-mart is all but inaccessable, and the brick and morter record shops are closing faster than a lick from Johnny Butten’s banjo.

Could Cracker Barrel become a viable retail outlet? One group of artists thinks so. Bob Everhart, president of the National Traditional Country Music Association, recently announced an opportunity for upper midewest country and bluegrass artists to place their music for sale in area Cracker Barrel Restaurants.

July 12, 2008 will see the kickoff to Cracker Barrel’s Rural Roots Music Fest. From 10am to 7pm area artists will perform on the front porch of the Crackerbarrel store at the Lake Manawa Shopping Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

The 9-hour show is a means of ’supporting’ the Cracker Barrel’s decision to place local recorded product in-house. The ‘impetus’ of this first-time approach to independent recording artists, from Cracker Barrel’s point of view, is ‘great down-home country food in the dining room,’ and ‘great down-home country music on the front porch.’ This same theme will be hopefully carried through with ‘great down-home music CD’s in the store.’

If successful, this may lead to an expansion of the program to other stores. Cracker Barrel has had an interest in country and bluegrass music for some time, even starting their own label. This program will provide Cracker Barrel with music to sell and no overhead to produce it, and provide a much needed retail outlet for smaller independent groups. It sounds like a win-win situation.

More information is available on the NTCMA website.

Ricky Skaggs has covered bluegrass heroes Bill Monroe and the Stanley Brothers. Now, he has covered himself.

Skaggs, who had a dozen #1 hits as a country singer before returning to his bluegrass roots in 1997, re-recorded his country hits to give them a bluegrass spin for a new project with Cracker Barrel restaurants.

The CD, The High Notes, will be released exclusively through Cracker Barrel on July 1. Among the songs he reworks are Crying My Heart Out Over You, Honey (Open That Door), Cajun Moon and Highway 40 Blues. All were originally from his illustrious Epic Records period and nine were #1 hits on the Billboard charts.

Skaggs said he has been wanting to do this for a while. “This was the perfect time and the perfect audience for it. It’s so great to sing these hit songs again. Many of these I haven’t sung since the 1990s,” he said in a statement. “I think many of the tracks came out better than the originals,” Skaggs added.

The complete track listing is as follows ..

1. Crying My Heart Out Over You
2. Heartbroke
3. Highway 40 Blues
4. I Wouldn’t Change You If I Could
5. You’ve Got A Lover
6. Cajun Moon
7. Honey (Open That Door)
8. Cat’s In The Cradle
9. Uncle Pen
10. Country Boy
    
11. Lovin’ Only Me
12. Somebody’s Prayin’

Skaggs, 53, has won several awards for his country and bluegrass recordings, including 13 Grammy Awards. His most recent album, Honoring The Fathers of Bluegrass: Tribute to 1946 and 1947, is currently No. 4 on the Billboard chart.

Based in Lebanon, Tennessee, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store operates 577 restaurants in 41 states. The chain has offered exclusive recordings from Alison Krauss & Union Station, Stony Point Quartet, Merle Haggard and others.

We just received our summer (July/August) issue of Bluegrass Music Profiles and found, in addition to a cover feature on Longview, that the magazine has graduated to a full color, glossy stock publication.

BMP debuted in the spring of 2003 as black & white on newsprint, with spot color, and remained as such until the Nov/Dec ‘07 issue where the cover went full color. They went to gloss stock for the March/April ‘08 cover, and now the entire magazine is color on gloss.

Congratulations to publishers Kevin and Lori Kerfoot for finding a niche for this new publication during a time of declining print circulation. It seems that their catalog of personality-based features on bluegrass artists and industry figures has found favor with bluegrass readers.

You can find subscription, single and back issue information on the BMP web site.

Rounder Records has announced the forthcoming release of Night Flyer: The Singer-Songwriter Collection, due on August 5.

The 17-track album assembles a wide range of material from Rice’s catalogue of covers of the work of the many singer-songwriters with whom he has been associated during his long career. Night Flyer: The Singer-Songwriter Collection actually begins with the previously unreleased Rice original Never Meant to Be, a venting of his feelings in the aftermath of the break-up of a long-term marriage with a sad, bitter tone that is completely real in its sense of unresolved hurt and anger. From other sources is a version of Gordon Lightfoot’s Changes, which opens with a sublime guitar introduction with perfect counterpoint by the Dobro ®of Jerry Douglas. Also included are covers of Joni Mitchell’s Urge for Going, James Taylor’s Me and My Guitar, John Mayall’s Night Flyer, Bob Dylan’s Sweetheart Like You and Tom Waits’ Pony.

As illustrated, this compilation contains a broad selection of Rice’s engaging songs taken from several of his albums – as well as three previously unreleased tracks – demonstrating the wide range of non-bluegrass material that he incorporated into his signature sound.

Tim Stafford, co-author of a forthcoming Tony Rice biography and an ace guitarist himself, is looking forward to the release of the CD ….

“For me, the really interesting stuff is the previously unreleased tracks, including Never Meant to Be, a beautiful Tony original originally scheduled to appear on the ‘Me and My Guitar’ project, About Love, which was written by Tony’s late brother Larry, and the poignant Pony, which was recorded during the ‘Rice, Rice, Hillman and Pedersen 2′ sessions.”

Alison Krauss who not so long ago shared the staged on tour with Rice has this to say about Tony …

“To me, his music was never built on anything but emotion. That’s what’s so addicting – the pictures and the feelings it brings to you. Everything is played so beautifully…even though he’s so technically amazing, the reason you put those records on, at least for me, isn’t because of that. It’s emotional, and that’s why those records last. He just happens to be technically beautiful, at the same time, beyond anybody else.” (more…)

Here’s a video that’s simply too precious for words…

Our friend Dave Hollender found this on Dailymotion.com. It’s a clip of Donna and Ronnie Stoneman from 40 plus years ago.

Here how the clip is described at Dailymotion…

“Here’s a Bluegrass-Hullabaloo crossover performance: Donna Stoneman of the Stoneman Family shredding it on her electric mandolin to Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Stomp while her sister Ronnie yelps, gyrates and beats her tambourine, from an unknown 1960’s TV show. The lecherous gentleman wandering into the recording session is none other than Spike Jones sideman Doodles Weaver. This clip may be from the Marty Robbins movie Road To Nashville.”

Update 4:15 p.m. - Richard Thompson tells us that that clip was most assuredly from The Road To Nashville.

We have commented twice in recent weeks about the forthcoming McCoury Music release Moneyland. Now I can report that Del McCoury flies to New England this week to appear on the popular A Prairie Home Companion radio program to further promote the hard-hitting, multi-artist Moneyland CD.

Heard by more than four million listeners each week on some 580 public radio stations and abroad on America One and the Armed Forces Networks, the appearance by The Del McCoury Band will be broadcast live from Tanglewood – the Koussevitzky Music Shed in Lenox, Massachusetts, at 5:45 pm (EST) on Saturday, June 28.

McCoury will bring more than new music to the stage of A Prairie Home Companion, he will bring a new attitude destined to shake up the right, left and center. He doesn’t claim to have the answers to America’s problems, just hopes that “Somebody a lot smarter than us will hear a song that moves them and decide to take action.” The producers of the project add in the liner notes. “Not only do we believe it un-American for Washington to be blind to the problems of small towns and rural areas, we believe it to be immoral.”

Noted music journalist Craig Havighurst has written, “I think when this album hits for real, it’s going to shock lefties and righties alike with its candor and its understated moral outrage.” The Austin Chronicle adds, “The album is equal parts empathetic consolation and political outrage at a government that has left the common folks behind.”

Moneyland is to be released on July 8 and features songs by The Del McCoury Band, Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, Bruce Hornsby, Chris Knight, Patty Loveless, Marty Stuart, Dan Tyminski and Mac Wiseman and includes special guest appearances by Rodney Crowell, The Fairfield Four, Tim O’Brien, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.

For more information, please visit www.mccourymusic.com.

Editor’s note: It will be interesting to see if Del explains on PHC just what sort of governmental inaction has contributed to the plight of small town and rural America. PHC host Garrison Keillor is a well-known advocate of an interventionist federal government, so a discussion between he and Del could be enlightening, both as to how they see that such problems came to be, and how they might be addressed.

The Chapmans are hoping to use the leverage of viral marketing to help promote their next recording project.

They have a new single release, which is being offered as a free digital download online. The track is a remake of Redwood Hill, the Gordon Lightfoot song made into a bluegrass classic by the Country Gentlemen in 1972.

They don’t yet have a new CD on the horizon, but Jeremy Chapman tells us that they wanted to remind everyone that they were still kicking with a new song.

“The main reason for the single was that we have been hearing a lot from fans and DJ’s wanting to know if we had anything new since Simple Man in the works. With the time we took off in the early part of the year to allow John to be home for the birth of his first baby, we decided to get into the studio to cut a few tracks while we were building a new team on the business end, as far as agent, management, and record label. One of the tunes we cut was Redwood Hill, which is one that we had grown up listening to the Country Gentlemen do. We thought we would keep pretty close to their arrangement to kind of pay homage to them.

Then as well as mailing it to a number of bluegrass radio stations, we wanted to make it available to all our fans through our new website for free. Just to hold them over until we have a full project finished.”

Listen to the new track on the band’s reverbnation site, where you can also download it for free.

Flatpicking Guitar Magazine has entered the digital domain. The magazine has been producing a CD for many years now, to accompany each issue. But now the magazine content itself is being offered in digital form.

Flatpickdigital.com offers subscribers the opportunity to purchase an online subscription to either the print content (magazine), the audio content (CD), or both. The magazine is available for online viewing as jpg images, or as a pdf download. Similarly, the audio CD is available for download in mp3 format. Users may download the entire audio library for an issue, or only the tracks that interest them.

The subscription prices for the digital version are significantly less expensive than the traditional print subscription rates, especially for international subscribers. A single year of the magazine only is $20 online, $24 for the audio, or $42 for both.

If guitar is your thing, take a minute and check out the new Flatpickdigital.com

Despite his age, 88 and looking very well too, Curly Seckler continues to be professionally active.

Recently he has appeared on the public TV affiliated Song of the Mountains show, firstly with the Steep Canyon Rangers and then with Larry Sparks.

Song of the Mountains is an hour-long program, hosted by Tim White at the Lincoln Theatre in Marion, Virginia, that airs weekly on over 160 PBS affiliates nationwide. (Check local listings for the air date in your area.)

This coming weekend (June 26 to June 28) Seckler and a number of other bluegrass pioneers, including his long-time friend, Ramblin’ Tommy Scott, will be present as the International Bluegrass Music Museum (located in Owensboro, Kentucky) celebrates the premier of several new oral history documentaries. The film festival will be part of the River of Music Party activities with some events taking place at the Museum itself. Other events take place at the RiverPark Center downtown and at nearby Yellow Creek Park. For a full schedule of events and ticket information, visit their web site.

On Saturday, August 2, Seckler, along with Willis Spears, his old friend, singing partner and Lester Flatt double, will perform at the historic Carter Family Fold, as part of The 34th Annual Carter Family Memorial Festival & Craft Show, Hiltons, Virginia. The duo will perform an afternoon and an evening set. Tentatively scheduled to back them is the fantastic Virginia band, Big Country Bluegrass. The festival commences on the Friday, August 1, and scheduled show times for each day are from 2:00pm through to 11:00pm.

For a full list of the artists performing and ticket information, you may call: 276-386-6054 or by email.

Our friend Katy Daley sent along this report from this past weekend’s Open House event for WAMU’s Bluegrass Country in Washington, DC.

On Sunday, June 22, the station offered live music and hosted listeners for station tours at WAMU, and Katy passed along this run down of the day’s event.

WAMU’s Bluegrass Country Open House was very successful. First of all the weather cooperated. All forecasts had called for rain or thunderstorms and it turned out to be a pretty nice day. The bands were on a small stage nestled in the flower gardens out on our front lawn and there was some shade for most of the audience most of the day.

Speaking of the bands — they did a great job, starting with ALL4Hym kicking the Sunday morning off right with gospel. We also had Washington-area favorites, Andrew Acosta and the New Old Time String Band, featuring the fiddling of 90-year-old Speedy Tolliver. Then a couple of bands headed up by two on-air hosts: Hubie King and the Old Timers and the Lisa Kay Band. And the afternoon was rounded up by a kicked-up Celtic group from Washington, Scythian.

We told our listeners we would show them how the magic of radio worked and we did. An estimated 400 people toured the studios and saw where and how the hosts work, using CDs, LPs and a computer program with a library of about 25,000 titles.

Our engineering staff answered technical questions and many of the tours went right into the air studio and talked with Lee Michael Demsey, Bill Foster, Fred Bartenstein, Tom Cat Reeder, Bob Webster, Echo Propp, Trevor Whitney and me about how shows were put together.

We had a large display of HD tabletop radios and several staff members parked their cars with HD radios out front so listeners could hear how great they sounded.

Of course, it’s not a party without refreshments and party favors. We had those, too. Visitors went home with goodie bags with bumperstickers and CDs. And three lucky people won HD Radios.

We didn’t want anyone out of the Washington area to feel left out so the web team kept updating a virtual tour of the station with day-of-the-event photos.

We posted back in April that fiddle master Bobby Hicks had broken the ring finger of his left hand, and had undergone surgery to repair the damage.

Imagining how devastating such an injury could be to a musician, we were delighted to hear this week from Bobby’s daughter, Melissa Holland, that her dad was on the mend, and back to playing while continuing with twice weekly physical therapy.

Melissa says that Bobby taught last week at Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Kamp last week, and did fine, though he still doesn’t feel like he is back in top form.

“I know Dad was worried about how much movement he would get back on that finger. Luckily, he knows how to make accommodations until it’s back at 100%.”

Look for Bobby back on stage doing shows with Earl Scruggs in July.

The nominees for the 2008 Americana Music Association Honors and Awards have been announced, and as is usually the case, a number of bluegrass or bluegrass-related acts are in the running.

Alison Krauss and Robert Plant are nominated for Album Of The Year for their duet project, Raising Sand; Jim Lauderdale for Artist Of The Year; Chris Thile and Sam Bush for Instrumentalist Of The Year; Steeldrivers for New Emerging Artist Of The Year; Gone, Gone, Gone by Plant and Krauss for Song Of The Year; and Plant and Krauss for Duo/Group Of The Year.

Read the complete slate of nominees on the AMA web site.

The award winners will be announced on September 18, 2008 at the 7th Annual Americana Honors & Awards Show at The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.

The show will be broadcast live on XM Satellite Radio, and taped for a later rebroadcast on Sirius Satellite Radio and BBC2 Radio.

The folks at McCoury Music have come up with an interesting special pre-release offer for their Moneyland CD, sure to appeal to the most extreme Del heads among us.

Due July 8, Moneyland is a concept project, using songs to make a statement about the state of rural America, which they see as in need of special attention. The CD was initially produced to be a campaign item for the now suspended presidential campaign of former NC Senator John Edwards, which will be released to the general public instead.

Most of the tracks are previously released recordings from Mac Wiseman, Merle Haggard, Patty Loveless, Dan Tyminski, Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Tim O’Brien, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. The Del McCoury Band is also featured on a number of newly recorded tracks, including a remake of The Beatles’ When I’m 64.

The cover is a play on the classic Grant Wood painting, American Gothic, but with a figure dressed in red, white and blue stealing away in the background with a bag of money.

McCoury Music has pressed 1,000 collectors edition CDs with a alternate cover featuring Del himself as the farmer being fleeced by the crooked politician. Each of these will be signed and numbered, with a portion of the proceeds going to an unspecified organization to aid the homeless.

To order the collectors CD - and hear audio samples from the album - visit McCoury Music online.

In mid April we ran a poll asking our readers if they anticipated attending fewer festivals this season due to rising fuel prices. We had just over 500 readers participate in that poll with 58% saying that they would attend few festivals and 42% saying fuel costs would have no negative impact on their attendance this year.

Now that we’re in the middle of the festival season we thought it would informative to run that poll again, asking if you are, in fact, attending fewer bluegrass events this season.

With gas prices making festival attendance more doubtful, for many, bluegrass on television perhaps becomes more attractive than hitherto.

Recently, I was alerted to the appearance on Kentucky Educational Television’s Jubilee stage of California’s High Country, one of the West Coast’s premier traditional bluegrass bands. Being partial to their music, I thought I would investigate. I found a series of airings with sufficient interest to enthral fans of a variety of bluegrass persuasions for weeks to come.

Starting on Wednesday (6/25) with Lonesome River Band there’s a different band featured for each week through to the end of August, with each showing being available through to the weekend, Friday excepted in all cases.

A quick scan of the schedule reveals appearances on the programm by the aforesaid Butch Waller and High Country (commencing July 2), Foghorn Stringband (July 9), Berline-Crary-Hickman (July 16), Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper with Audie Blaylock (July 23), The Rascals (July 30), Adrienne Young & Little Sadie and Cadillac Sky (August 6), Danny Paisley & Southern Grass (August 13), The Fairwell Drifters and Blue Moon Rising (August 20) and Timberline Drive paired with Jake Quesenberry & The MacRae Brothers (commencing Thursday, August 28).

Each of these bands were recorded at last year’s River of Music Party in Owensboro, Kentucky.

The Jubilee series is a KET production, distributed to public television stations nationwide. The series is directed by Nick Helton and produced by Duncan Hart. Nancy Carpenter is executive producer.

More information about Jubilee is available online.

More information about KET programming and education services, as well as how to support KET, can be found at www.ket.org.

Long time readers of The Bluegrass Blog may recall a story we posted two years ago about a then 7 year old Baruch Wright, who was a finalist - and eventual winner - in Oscar Mayer’s Sing The Jingle, Be A Star competition. But he isn’t the only member of his family with a talent for music.

Baruch performs with his younger brother and older sister as The Wright Kids, a family bluegrass band based in Rocky Mount, VA.

The three of them, Sage, Levi and Baruch, have been selected to appear as contestants on the third season of America’s Got Talent, which airs on NBC television on Tuesday nights this summer. If they impress the judges in this round, they will move on to the semi-final round where audience voting will select the winner.

Sage is 12 and plays the mandolin and fiddle, Baruch is 9 and plays guitar, and Levi is 6 and plays bass.

The Kids have just released a new CD, Playing On The Job, which also features their older brother Mason, who is studying music in college. Audio samples can be found online.

In 2006, they won the youth band competition at the Galax Old Fiddler’s Convention, and their performance was captured and shared on YouTube.

Ricky Wasson, long-time guitarist and lead vocalist with JD Crowe & The New South, will soon have his own solo project on Rural Rhythm Records.

Entitled From The Heart and Soul, the CD is due to be released on August 12. Joining Wasson will be J.D. Crowe on banjo, Ron Stewart on fiddle and banjo, Adam Steffey on mandolin, Harold Nixon on bass, Randy Kohrs on resonator guitar and Don Rigsby, Sonya Isaacs and Ben Isaacs on harmony vocals.

The first single from this release, Merle Haggard’s Losin’ In Las Vegas, is included in the recent Rural Rhythm sampler, Fresh Cuts & Key Tracks, and we have a brief audio sample you can hear right now.

Listen now:

This one we will certainly be looking forward to hearing in full.