The September edition of Acoustic Guitar magazine includes a review of seven dreadnaught guitars.

In an eight page section the feature article assesses the merits of seven different makes of the cherished Dreadnought guitar, varying in price from $350 to $4,000 and across the range of manufacturers such as Morgan Monroe, Epiphone, Larivee, Taylor, Breedlove, Martin and Santa Cruz.

The reviewers, who include magazine Senior Editor Scott Nygaard, provide a narrative comment on the characteristics of each guitar, added to which are basic specifications, prices and contact details. Whether it is an entry-level or a professional-quality modern guitar that you are seeking, the general opinion is that all of them are well worth consideration.

While specific models are discussed, comparables from the same price range are mentioned also, bringing attention to 42 dreadnoughts in all.

The complete article can be found at the Acoustic Guitar website, where there is access to two videos which allow a good view of each of the seven guitars, and a sonic appreciation of their tonality.

Another interesting feature of the September edition of Acoustic Guitar is Cross-Cultural Picking in which Nygaard discusses with Italian ace guitarist Beppe Gambetta the latter’s new cross-picking technique, and the poetry of flat picking.

Recently, the West Virginia Music Hall Of Fame announced the names of those to be inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall Of Fame this year. Among them are the Clear Creak, Raleigh County, bluegrass trio the Lilly Brothers and Don Stover.

Also named are Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper, but more of them another time.

Michel Burt ‘B’ Lilly (born December 15, 1921, died September 18, 2005) and Charles Everett Lilly (born July 1, 1924) began performing together as a brother duet act, Everett playing mandolin, banjo and fiddle, and ‘B’ playing guitar. While still only teenagers they made their radio debut in 1938, playing a guest spot as the Lonesome Holler Boys on the Old Farm Hour on Charleston’s WCHS.

In 1939, they began performing regularly at the newly-established WKLS Beckley, where they performed together and with other musicians, such as ‘Speedy’ Krise. In the summer of 1945 they moved to WNOX Knoxville where they worked with Lynn Davis and Molly O’Day for a while and then formed the Smiling Mountain Boys with fiddler Burk Barbour and Paul Taylor, a banjo player who was also from West Virginia.

Three years later the Lilly Brothers moved to Wheeling’s WWVA where they were the star turn in Red Belcher’s Kentucky Ridge Runners group. Everett and ‘B’ cut a single for Page Records and ‘B’ and the recently befriended fiddler ‘Tex’ Logan helped Belcher do a couple of sides for the same label. Also, at about this time the brothers cut four songs for the Cozy label.

They remained in Wheeling until 1950, when a dispute with Belcher led to Everett and ‘B’ to leave Belcher and, eventually to return home. In the early 1950s, Everett spent about two years playing mandolin and singing tenor with Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs, participating in two recording sessions that produced 14 songs in all.

Early in 1952 the brothers were persuaded by Logan to move to Boston where they were joined by banjo player Don Stover (born March 6, 1928 - died November 11, 1996). They got their first job playing on WCOP’s Hayloft Jamboree and from there the Confederate Mountaineers, as the quartet was known, worked at various clubs such as the Hayloft Jamboree and the Boston Jamboree, but most notably at the Hillbilly Ranch. For 18 years, with only a brief interlude when Everett re-joined Flatt & Scruggs and Stover toured with other bands, they played constantly in Boston area. As a result they have been credited with bringing bluegrass to New England and with influencing such future bluegrass artists as Peter Rowan, Jim Rooney and Bill Keith, among others. (more…)

Mountain Heart is scheduled to play three shows with southern rock legends Lynyrd Skynyrd in September.

Fiddler Jim van Cleve tells us that show promoter Kent Martin was so impressed with the band that he started talking with them about performing in other venues.

Martin knew Mountain Heart vocalist Josh Shilling before he joined the band, and Jim said that he was blown away when he saw Josh with them on stage.

“The promoter saw the high energy presentation of their show and ‘had to have us’ on these shows in front of Skynyrd.”

All three concerts are in the southwest VA and northwest NC areas in mid-September.

• September 11 – Danville, VA - Carrington Pavilion – 8:00 p.m.
• September 12 – Boone, NC – Appalachian State University – 8:00 p.m.
• September 13 – Elizabeth City, NC – Coast Guard Support Center – 7:00 p.m.

Shilling is especially excited about having this chance to open for such industry legends so close to his hometown of Martinsville, VA.

“These shows are going to be a blast! Lynyrd Skynyrd has always been a huge influence on us as musicians and in general, Skynyrd is just a huge group in these areas. Jason Moore and I know this first hand because the Danville show is right in our backyards. We couldn’t be more excited to share the stage and meld our acoustic sound with these southern rock icons!”

Mountain Heart has a show with country act Diamond Rio this next weekend (8/29) and has also been scheduling a number of shows with Tony Rice. All the guys are looking forward to getting their brand of high energy bluegrass before some new audiences.

You can find details on all their live appearances on the band’s web site.

CMT will soon begin their 3rd annual Music City Madness, where artists compete in head-to-head video competition online. Video entries can be submitted until October 6, 2008 and in-person auditions will be held in several locations over the next few days.

The format follows very closely to the “bracketology” of the NCAA basketball tournament. 64 contenders will compete for viewer votes in subsequent rounds of online balloting until just four finalists remain, from which one will chosen.

The winner will be flown to Music City (Nashville, TN) to tape a segment of Unplugged at Studio 330 for CMT.com and a showcase with Warner Brothers A&R execs. A mentor session with country star Randy Travis is also included.

Bluegrass acts are specifically invited to enter, and have done quite well in the competition in the past, though not yet reaching the finals.

To submit a video online, or by mail, you need to submit your information online. Live local auditions will be held on August 23 in Pittsburgh and Atlanta, and in Nashville on August 27. At least one act will be chosen at each live audition site.

Full rules and competition details can be found at CMT.com.

Blue Moon Rising is celebrating last month’s release of their 4th recording, One Lonely Shadow, with a CD release party tonight (8/22) at The Shed in Maryville, TN.

The new album has been getting strong airplay from bluegrass radio, and the band is hoping to meet a lot of fans and friends at this evening’s show.

There are no audio samples up on the band or the label (Lonesome Day) web sites, but they have created a video to introduce the guys and the music from the new CD.

Carlton Haney, creator of the first series of multi-day bluegrass festivals, is to be inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame. The ceremony will take place during the final day of the 4th Annual Bluegrass Hall of Fame & Uncle Pen Days Festival, held September 24-27, 2008 at the Bill Monroe Memorial Bluegrass Music Park & Campground in Brown County, Indiana.

Haney, born September 19, 1928, produced the historic first weekend-long bluegrass music festival to be held at Fincastle, Virginia. The first such festival took place during Labor Day weekend, September 3rd to 5th, 1965 at Cantrell’s Horse Farm. It triggered a movement towards the wider production of bluegrass festivals bringing incalculable economic benefits to the industry and creating a larger and more diverse audience for the music.

The citation on the International Bluegrass Music Museum’s Hall Of Honor plaque continues:

“Subsequent annual festivals that he produced regularly included his innovative ‘workshops’ and his emotional narration of ‘the bluegrass story,’ dramatizing the genre’s history with appearances by performers who were part of its rich tradition. Haney’s most memorable and enduring festivals were those in Camp Springs, North Carolina and Berryville, Virginia, during an exciting era when most first generation players were in their prime. He was additionally a promoter of major country music concert tours and from 1969 until 1975 published an important early bluegrass magazine, ‘Muleskinner News.’ Haney began his colorful music career in the 1950s as agent and manager for Bill Monroe and later for Reno & Smiley. During the 1980s he entered private business in his hometown, Reidsville, North Carolina.”

Fred Bartenstein, host of Banks of the Ohio: Music From the Homeplace of Bluegrass and former editor of Muleskinner News magazine, can’t speak highly enough about Haney …..

“Carlton Haney was my primary mentor in bluegrass music. I spent seven summers working very closely with him in producing early bluegrass festivals and country music package shows. His love of bluegrass is pure; his knowledge and insight remarkable; and the innovations he put into action are still reverberating in the bluegrass world today. He is as eccentric and unforgettable as any character in bluegrass history, and totally deserving of recognition in the Bluegrass Hall of Fame.” (more…)

BluegrassCollege.org is now offering a series of free playing tips from their prestigious faculty, updated daily on the front page of their web site.

First up are two posts on warm-up tips for flatpickers from Tyler Grant and one for mandolinists from Matt Flinner. Next week tips are coming from Luke Bulla on fiddle, and Brad Talley on resonator guitar.

BluegrassCollege.org is a subscription-based online database of bluegrass music instruction. Members can join for less than $10 monthly, or purchase individual video lessons for a flat fee. Instructors include top bluegrass artists like Rob Ickes, Ron Stewart, Chris Eldridge, Jesse Cobb and many others.

After performing for the past 15 years under the tutelage - and the shadow - of his famous father, Ralph Stanley II is ready to establish his own musical personality. He has a new CD due for release in September, and is leaving The Clinch Mountain Boys to perform with his own group.

This One Is II may come as a surprise to fans who have enjoyed his previous recordings, offering a stylistic departure as sudden as it is stark. I saw “II” only a few weeks ago with the Ralph Stanley show, and while he did perform one song from the new CD, there was no hint from the stage how much of a change he is pursuing.

Hopefully bluegrass fans will give this new project a fair hearing, as the music - if not strictly bluegrass - is very appealing, and well-suited to Stanley’s voice. The sound is a mix of bluegrass and acoustic country, and the instrumentation is all acoustic, without percussion. The most striking differences from his prior releases come in the song choices and the production (by Mike Latterell). Even using the standard bluegrass ensemble (and familiar bluegrass super-pickers), the arrangements are fresh and thoughtful, giving each song the treatment suggested by the melody and lyrics.

For example, the opening track (a cover of Garth Brooks’ Cold Shoulder) uses Tim Crouch’s twin fiddles and Randy Kohrs’ gritty resonator guitar much as a country producer might, and Ralph’s vocals are as reminiscent of Keith Whitley’s early Nashville sound as anything The Stanley Brothers ever cut.

Other strong tracks include a nice version of Lyle Lovett’s, L.A. County (a modern murder ballad), Tom T. Hall’s Train Songs, and Loretta, from Townes Van Zandt. That last - a paean to an idealized girlfriend - makes a very convincing grass tune, and Ralph’s mountain-edged vocals really sell the story.

Randall Deaton of Lonesome Day Records, who will be releasing This One Is II on September 23, tells us that Stanley started this project looking for a change, but wasn’t completely clear where he wanted to go.

“When I first spoke with Ralph on the phone I had never had a conversation with him in my life. The one thing I got from this first conversation was that he wanted to do something else. I didn’t know exactly what it was, and I don’t think he knew what it was either. There was a mix of restlessness, excitement, and fear all rolled into one.

The record evolved after the production began. I think that we all got more and more excited as the process went along because things were turning out better than we had anticipated.”

Stanley describes that evolution thusly…

“It started out as a record that would be half acoustic country and half Stanley sounding. The more we got into it, the more we realized we were making two separate records rather than two halves of one record. We continued in the acoustic country direction.” (more…)

Ten days ago we began a multi-week promotion to give away copies of the new Best of Del McCoury CD from GrooveGrass Records.

Last week’s winners have been notified and their CDs are on the way. Tomorrow we’ll be drawing 10 more winners to receive free copies of the CD. If you haven’t entered the giveaway, now is the time.

You can enter the promotion by going to this post. The entry form is at the bottom of the post.

Valerie Smith and Becky Buller have been playing together for some time now, but they’ve recently teamed up to release a duet CD titled Here’s a Little Song.

The CD will be released September 9, 2008 on Bell Buckle Records. Taking a page from the great brother duets of the past, Smith and Buller have created a “sister duet” sound on this new CD.

We certainly aren’t out to send the Bluegrass world spinning sideways. We just both happen to be big fans of classic duet acts such as the Louvin and Everly Brothers. Our goal was to channel their sound into these new songs with stark arrangements that make the melodies, harmonies and stories the focal points of our presentation.

The sound samples presented on Valerie’s website do showcase the sparse arrangements, which direct your attention to the lyrics. Even so, it’s not as if the two are unaccompanied on the recording. A full band is tastefully present, including a mouth harp on one track.

The accompaniment is provided by an all star cast, including Alan O’Bryant, Mike Compton, Dale Ann Bradley, Wayne Benson, Kristin Scott Benson, Larry Cordle and Lonesome Standard Time, Justin Carbone, and Liberty Pike band mates Chad Graves and Bobby Davis.

A highly esteemed songwriter and fiddle player, Buller took on a new role for Here’s a Little Song, that of producer. Her first effort was not an easy one, considering the health issues that Smith had to deal with during the process.

“In April of ‘06 just after we finished up recording Val’s Bluegrass Gospel album, Wash Away Your Troubles, she had to undergo vocal surgery,” said Becky. “Later that year she was healed up and singing great so we made all our plans to begin the duet record,” she adds.

“Then in February of ‘07, we found out she had to have a second vocal surgery,” she continued. “Our sessions were scheduled for April at Paul Hopkins’ Studio near Shelbyville, Tennessee and Valerie wanted us to go ahead. So, in crazy faith, we did just that, getting most of our music recorded without any idea if Val would ever be able to talk again, let alone sing.”

“But this January, less than a year after that second surgery, we were back in the studio recording our vocals,” said Val. “It was truly a miracle and I can’t begin to thank all the promoters and fans who hung in there with me during the grueling recovery process.”

Mastershield Records has added two family bluegrass bands to their roster.

Lonesome Meadow features Anne-Marie, John and Gary Jackson, bluegrass-picking teen siblings from central Ohio. Anne-Marie plays fiddle and mandolin, John is on guitar and Gary on banjo. All three sing and their dad, Mark accompanies the band on bass.

The Jacksons have two previous, self-produced recordings and their Mastershield debut, Keepin’ The Music Alive, is expected in the near future.

The Wilson Family comes from Folkston, GA and is made up of parents Robert and Melissa with their son Clint and daughter Katie, along with nephew Blake Gowen. Dad is on guitar, and mom the mandolin. 12 year old Katie plays fiddle and her brother Clint (18) plays banjo. Cousin Blake is on bass.

Robert is an experienced bluegrass performer, and the Wilsons’ sound is strikingly mature and polished. Their upcoming release, Family Ties, is sure to perk up a few ears in the bluegrass world.

Audio samples from both CDs will be available soon on the Mastershield site.

Fast Paced World, the new CD from The Duhks, was released yesterday on Sugar Hill Records.

The Canadian band got its start in a string band format, but has since evolved into a far more eclectic and adventurous sound. Founder - and clawhammer banjo player - Leonard Podolak is still on board, as is fiddler Tania Elizabeth and guitarist Jordan McConnell, but The Duhks’ new vibe is largely defined by their newest member, vocalist Sarah Dugas.

Sarah and her brother, drummer Christian Dugas, joined the group in 2007 and her singing and songwriting are front and center on Fast Paced World.

Audio samples are available on the band’s web site, and Sugar Hill has created a video on the making of the CD which will serve as a fine introduction to the band and their music for the uninitiated.

The final ballots for the 2008 International Bluegrass Music Awards have been mailed to the voting membership, and as voters prepare their choices, they can refer to our complete list of nominees here on The Bluegrass Blog.

Along with the list of nominees in each category, we have links to their web sites, bios and audio samples (where appropriate and available). A link to the list of previous winners in each category is also provided.

See our 2008 IBMA nominees list here.

Smithsonian.com is the online companion for Smithsonian Magazine, the monthly journal published by The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.

The web site recently published a report from Kenneth R. Fletcher about the weekly jam sessions at the Floyd Country Store, a venerable institution in southwestern Virginia. The scene he describes may well be an unfamiliar one to the larger part of the site’s readers, and it’s nice to see our music so favorably reported in such a prestigious publication.

If you drive through Floyd on a Friday evening, you’ll have slow down when you pass the country store of this tiny town in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Crowds of people mill about the street, many carrying mandolins, banjos, basses and other instruments. In alleys and parking lots they form impromptu groups playing bluegrass and traditional country music. The jam sessions are fluid; a young guitarist backs up a group of old timers and then joins a fiddle player from the Midwest. Inside the spacious Floyd Country Store, bands from across the region play on a small stage and dancers fill the floor. Their tapping feet provide percussion to the music.

After describing his journey to Floyd from his home base in DC, Fletcher gets to the main attraction at the Friday night jams.

While the organized bands play inside the store, musicians of all stripes gather outside to learn from each other, jam and show off a little. The scene echoes musical gatherings that have been going on in the southern Appalachians for centuries. The sessions in Floyd started informally decades ago around the store’s potbelly stove. In the 1980s, it evolved into regular Friday night gatherings. The store itself has seen big changes since Woody and Jackie Crenshaw bought it in 2005. They’ve restored and enlarged the building, upgraded the stage and dance floor and expanded the store’s offerings and operating hours. Open Tuesday through Sunday, it sells everything from ice cream and barbecue sandwiches to overalls and CDs. Outside, new streetlights, sidewalks and benches create inviting nooks for musicians to play.

Read the full piece online at smithsonian.com.

The recently completed film about banjo ace J.D. Crowe is to have its first showing shortly at the J.D. Crowe Bluegrass Festival on Thursday night, 28 August.

The film entitled A Kentucky Treasure: The J.D. Crowe Story, has been produced by Russ Farmer with the invaluable help of long time Crowe fans Frank and Marty Godbey, both of whom provided their interviewing skills, photographs and general knowledge.

As we reported in March last year, Farmer is a former producer and director employed by Kentucky Educational Television (KET) and this is the first film that he has made since his retirement from that organization.

The film includes interviews with about twenty five former New South band members. Additionally, many others including Sonny Osborne, Mark Schatz, Ricky Skaggs, Bela Fleck, Tony Trischka, Earl Scruggs and Alison Krauss have provided comment about Crowe.

Farmer spoke about the origins of the film and shared information about some of the trials and successes that have taken place along the two-year long path to completion …….

It was Labor Day weekend 2006, I was sitting at a table having cornbread and beans with the master of the five string banjo, J.D.Crowe. Thursday evenings at the annual Labor Day, J.D. Crowe Bluegrass Festival and jamming, cornbread and beans are mandatory. As we were sitting there talking mostly about golf, an idea popped into my head and it came out my mouth really before I had even thought it through.

“Would you mind my following you around with a camera for awhile,” I asked, “and maybe editing something together later as a ‘day in the life’ of J.D. Crowe?”

J.D. though for a minute and said, “yeah, I think that might be OK.”

Little did I know the next year and a half of my life would be pretty much consumed by all things J.D. Crowe. (more…)

If you want to learn more about the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA), and their upcoming World Of Bluegrass convention in Nashville, you can tune in to Katy Daley’s show tomorrow (8/20) at 9:00 a.m. when she interviews Dan Hays, IBMA’s Executive Director.

Dan is also sure to pass along congratulations to Katy who is nominated for IBMA’s 2008 Bluegrass Broadcaster of the Year award.

Katy’s show is broadcast on WAMU’s Bluegrass Country Monday-Friday from 7:00 until 10:00 a.m., where they stream bluegrass online 24/7. The signal is simulcast on HD Radio in the Washington, DC metro area at 88.5-2.

Catch the interview at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning at www.bluegrasscountry.org.

Longtime readers of The Bluegrass Blog will recall the story of Kylie Chapman which we covered earlier this year. She is the infant daughter of John Chapman and his wife Vickie, who was born on March 22, 2008.

John, Vickie and all of The Chapmans soon saw their joy turn to grave concern as when it became clear that Kylie had suffered complications that required an emergency C-section and a flight to a hospital where she could receive specialized treatment.

Fortunately, she came through just fine and is growing strong and healthy at home with her family.

A video has been posted on The Chapman’s web site, Chap-TV, which chronicles the family’s ordeal, and the final very happy ending. Mixing still and video footage, it offers a personal glimpse of the nearly two weeks between Kylie’s birth and her homecoming. Fans and friends of the band will find solace and comfort in this poignant presentation, as will anyone who can identify with this sort of family health crisis.

While visiting Chap-TV, check out a video on the opposite end of the emotional spectrum, the hilarious Chapmans Pretzel Challenge.

It stars former bass player Jamey Booher (now with Grasstowne) and is not to be missed.

To see the videos, just visit chapmansonline.com, click the Chap-TV link, and scroll horizontally to find the various clips.

Eric Schlange, who manages the very popular BanjoHangout web site, has recently launched a similar site for resonator guitar enthusiasts.

ResoHangout.com hosts an active discussion forum plus a tab archive, online video lessons, product reviews, chat rooms and myHangout home pages for registered users. There are already more than 450 users on the site since it went live earlier this month.

To celebrate the new launch, ResoHangout will be giving away a Paul Beard model Gold Tone guitar. Entries can be submitted online prior to 11/02/08 and one entry per day is permitted.

Schlange has also developed a Hangout site for fiddlers, FiddleHangout.com, and is hard at work on one for flatpickers as well. More details on that site will be announced soon.

The Sparrow Quartet will be kicking off this year’s Woodstock Film Festival with a concert. The concert will take place at the Bearsville Theater west of downtown Woodstock, on October 1, 2008.

The Sparrow Quartet is lead by Abigail Washburn and features banjo master Bela Fleck, along with Casey Driessen and Ben Sollee.

In addition to the concert, Bela’s documentary, Throw Down Your Heart, will also be featured with a special screening during the film festival.

Throw Down Your Heart won the Fan’s Choice Award at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, TX earlier this year.

Like most bands, Cadillac Sky has some special events lined up today to commemorate the release of their new CD, Gravity’s Our Enemy. Unlike most bands, however, they will perform on The Grand Ole Opry, and then host a CD release party live online.

Tonight (8/19) at 8:00 p.m. (EDT) the guys will be on the Tuesday Opry which airs in the Nashville market on WSM AM 650, on XM channel 11 (XM Nashville), and simulcast worldwide via online streaming at wsmonline.com.

Then, at 10:00, their official CD release party begins at The Rutledge, hosted by XM Satellite Radio’s Kyle Cantrell. Everyone in attendance will get a free copy of Gravity’s Our Enemy, and C-Sky fans outside of the Nashville area can watch the proceedings live online at skaggsfamilyrecords.com.

Sounds like a big day in store.