Bluegrass Unlimited has been a staple of the bluegrass industry for over 40 years. I’ve browsed back issues and eagerly read new issues right along with the rest of the bluegrass world. Until today, I didn’t know the backstory of how the magazine came to be.
The Fauquier Times-Democrat newspaper, in Warrenton, Va, is running a story in today’s paper detailing the story of how/why Pete Kuykendall began the magazine all those years ago as a newsletter, whose annual subscription rate was $3. Considering the increased content and the inflation over 40+ years, I’d say the current subscription rate of $25 is a bargain indeed.
With the world changing drastically around us, bluegrass music continues to thrive, and so has Bluegrass Unlimited.
“If you had asked me 10 years ago about the future of Bluegrass Unlimited, I would have said it would be dead by now,” said Kuykendall. “But we are still healthy, and bluegrass music continues to grow.”
Thanks Pete for helping the music grow, and for keeping us all reading for all this time.
With the merger of Sirius and XM, some folks seem to have lost track of their favorite show, Wichita Rutherford’sGrand Old Timemachine.
Wichita’s Timemachine has a new time slot on the combined satellite radio provider.
My new time slot at SIRIUS/XM is 9 PM Eastern every Friday and then at 12 on Saturday nights on Channel 14’s Bluegrass Junction and Channel 65 for those with SIRIUS recievers.
That’s tonight for those of you who want some music in the background if you’re still having parties with friends and relatives.
When Rhonda Vincent introduced the new members of her band earlier this week, a good many bluegrass fans recognized the name of her new banjo player, Aaron McDaris, from his time with The Grascals.
Fewer, perhaps, knew the name of her new guitarist, Ben Helson. Though he had been a member of Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder for nearly a year, his role in that band kept him in the background, and many Vincent fans are just learning about this talented young man.
Fortunately, The McKenzie Banner newspaper in Carroll County, TN has a lengthy feature on Ben which was published in 2007. Interestingly, this article discusses how Ben had auditioned for the Rage in November ‘07, but failed to win the job.
It seems that good things do come to those who wait, as evidenced by this excerpt from the article, which focuses in large part on Helson’s time as a member of Renaissance, a student musical group at Bethel College.
“Performing with Rhonda has been my dream ever since I started playing bluegrass,” he says. “Singing harmony is something I really like doing and it’s great singing harmony with her because she’s perfect; she sings very well.”
The lanky, 21-year-old Kentucky boy had already proved a standout at Renaissance shows across the country. That’s what Renaissance does: it takes talented young people from diverse regions of the country and molds them into a dynamic musical force that energizes audiences with expertly orchestrated performances. Individually, its members work hard to achieve common goals, mixing fun and friendship with a hands-on musical education directed by some of the best in the business. That, plus the experience they get performing before audiences that range from a few members to thousands, prepares them for opportunities otherwise beyond reach.
There are a number of bluegrass acts performing this weekend on the Grand Ole Opry. If you will be near your radio - and are within the huge WSM radio footprint - or close to your computer, you can catch some top bands live tonight (11/28) and tomorrow as well.
Tonight’s show will include performances from Dailey & Vincent, The Whites and Bobby Osborne & The Rocky Top X-Press. On Saturday night, The Whites are back, along with Melonie Cannon (with Randy Kohrs), and Jesse McReynolds & The Virginia Boys.
The Friday Opry is broadcast from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. (EST) and the Saturday show runs from 8:00 p.m. until 12:30 a.m. Both shows are available over the air on WSM AM 650, on XM channel 11 (XM Nashville), and simulcast worldwide via online streaming at wsmonline.com.
There are many things to be thankful for on this day of national celebration. Here at The Bluegrass Blog we’d like to express our thankfulness for a great year of bluegrass music. 2008 gave us some incredible music.
Below we’ve included a poll allowing you to contribute the bluegrass recording you’re most thankful for this year. Please limit your entries to recordings released during the 2008 calendar year.
We’ll let this run for a week or two then we’ll take the top 25 vote getters and present another poll where we can narrow it down the Bluegrass Blog Top Ten Bluegrass Recordings of 2008.
UPDATE: Please submit recordings, not just artist names. Dailey & Vincent is both the artist name and the recording name. Grascals is just the artist name, Keep on Walking is the recording, and should be the submission.
posted by John on 11.26.08 @ 3:38 pm Tag: mandolin
The LM-700 is a new hand carved, limited-edition F-style mandolin model from The Loar.
The top is made from high quality spruce and hand graduated for thickness. The back and sides are flame maple and the neck is made from a single piece of straight grain maple. Each instrument is finished with a hand-rubbed lacquer finish.
An ebony fingerboard is installed with simple dot inlays, and the headstock overlay features an floral pattern made from both abalone and mother of pearl. The bridge is ebony and the tuners are vintage style Gotohs.
The LM-700 carries a retail price of $1399.99, with a deluxe hard shell case. Only a limited number of these instruments will be made, but no specific number has been announced.
A prototype was displayed at the 2008 IBMA trade show in Nashville, and production models will soon be available through dealers.
posted by Brance on 11.26.08 @ 10:19 am Tag: Eddie Adcock
By any tradition, Christmas is a season of giving. It is a time when charities seek to raise funds to help those in need, especially during a colder time of the year when many are without a warm meal and place to sleep for the night.
A group of bluegrass musicians in Nashville, spearheaded by Eddie and Martha Adcock, are putting pick to string in an effort to help. The Adcocks have assembled an impressive line up of Nashville based musicians who will gather for a performance at the Station Inn on December 14 to raise money for a Nashville area, faith based charity that provides food and shelter to homeless persons during the coldest part of the year.
Musicians slated to perform include:
Ned Luberecki
Larry Stevenson
Roland White Band
Tim Graves & Cherokee
Dale & Don Wayne Reno
Jimmy Bowen & Santa Fe
Gene Johnson of Diamond Rio
Jack Hicks & Summertown Road
Sam Jackson & the Jackson Gang
Dr. Terry Comer & the Best In Town
Alan Sibley & the Magnolia Ramblers
Randy Waller of the Country Gentlemen
and…
Eddie & Martha Adcock
Suggested donation at the door is $15. Larger amounts will be gratefully accepted. Attendees are encouraged to bring items that individuals and families can use, such as: soap, shampoo, toothbrushes and paste, deodorant, razors, shave cream, combs, personal-size tissues, new socks & underwear, washcloths, sewing kits, pens, pencils and small notebooks.
All proceeds and gifts will be distributed through Room In The Inn.
Anyone who wishes to contribute can make a check out to Room In The Inn and send it to:
Eddie & Martha Adcock
P.O. Box 219
Lebanon TN 37088
posted by John on 11.26.08 @ 8:36 am Tag: mandolin
iPhone users are accustomed to having a world of information at their fingertips.
Need to find the closest quick-copy center when your out of town on business? No problem. Lost on the highway? Directions are just a click away.
But what if you are in the studio or in a jam, and need to find a voicing for an unfamiliar mandolin chord?
Well, thanks to Charles Dumont, developer of the new iPhone app MandoChords, you can access a mandolin chord speller on your phone. It offers over 1,000 chord diagrams with multiple voicings show across all 12 tones with fingerings. It will even play the chord for you if you aren’t sure about the sound.
MandoChords sells for $1.99 and will work with with iPhone and iPod touch (iPhone 2.1 software). Available in iTunes.
His show, Bluegrass On The Bay, debuts tonight (11/26) at 6:00 p.m. and will air every Wednesday evening from 6:00-8:00.
Jay has hosted a show by this name on terrestrial radio in Pennsylvania for many years on AM1510 WWSM, and is looking forward to broadcasting live weekly on WWB as well.
To catch Jay and the rest of the WorldWideBluegrass.com crew, just visit the WWB site and click on the Listen button to start their live, 24/7 bluegrass feed, available in several different streaming formats for either high speed or broadband connection.
Junior Sisk has announced that mandolin player Chris Harris will be leaving Rambler’s Choice in January and a replacement is being sought.
Junior is specifically looking for someone with a strong traditional bent, who can both play mandolin and sing tenor. A close proximity to Roanoke, VA would be preferred.
The band has about 40 dates already booked for 2009, and plans are underway to head back in the studio something in 2009 to begin work on a new recording project.
Dubber shares a lesson from history, in which musicians and composers in the early 20th century were worried that recordings would ruin the music business and put them all out of work. After all, if people could listen to recordings for free on the radio, why would anyone hire a band, or buy sheet music? The truth is, the business didn’t die, it just changed.
The industry changed. People learned how to make money, lots of it, from the new recordings. It seems we are facing a similar restructuring of the music business now that the physics of the media have changed, and I’m sure some savvy people will discover ways to profit in the new environment.
Dubber’s conclusion bears repeating.
But more people listen to, engage with and enjoy more music than ever before. It’s not only valued, but prized. Personal identity, association with a sub-genre ‘tribe’, clothing style, use of language, socialisation and a great many other cultural factors are now entirely predicated on music. Far from being devalued, for a lot of us - it’s pretty much the most important thing.
So - to take what might be seen as a provocative stance, I propose the following:
1) Claiming that ‘music has been devalued’ is both entirely defeatist and a complete cop-out;
2) Blaming everything and everyone else for the problems you may be facing as the world changes around you makes you come across, like Sousa, as a miserable old sod;
3) Recognising the fact that you haven’t yet found a way to tap into the ways in which people now consume music (but that such a way does exist) might just be the key to solving the problem of extracting commercial value out of the immense cultural value everyone’s getting out of music - more than ever before.
Nonesuch Records has announced that the debut solo project for former Nickel Creek fiddler and vocalist Sara Watkins will be released in April 7, 2009. The CD was produced by John Paul Jones, and will include guest spots from former NC bandmates Chris Thile - who also records for Nonesuch - and her brother Sean.
From the label’s description, it appears that her new album will hew closer to the Nickel Creek mold than Thile’s more adventurous acoustic direction, mixing folk, pop and fiddle music.
Watkins segues gracefully from the lighthearted country and western swing of Jimmie Rodger’s Any Old Time, to the world-weariness and spiritual yearning of Norman Blake’s Lord Won’t You Help Me, to the romantic wistfulness of Jon Brion’s Same Mistake. Though she still considers herself a neophyte as a songwriter, her own work is as evocative as any of the material she’s chosen to cover. Her wordless fiddle tunes are exuberant, foot-stomping pieces, while the songs for which she wrote both music and lyrics have a heart-meltingly lovelorn quality.
Jones, who made his name as the bass player with Led Zeppelin in the 1970s, has been actively involved in folk and acoustic music of late. He produced the most recent project from Uncle Earl, Waterloo, Tennessee.
posted by John on 11.25.08 @ 9:52 am Tag: Grascals
The Grascals will perform this morning (11/25) in Ft. Campbell, KY for the soldiers, prior to an address by President Bush. The President will also bestow a Volunteer Service Award to a local hero.
Jamie Johnson speaks for the band about this opportunity…
“What an honor to be a small part of something so huge. The troops are coming back from serving our country, and we intend to do an upbeat show and put a smile on each and every face as we all welcome them home!”
We are hoping to get some photos from this event, and will post them as soon as we get them.
There is more presidential news from the band…
The Grascals will have a second meeting with the president next Tuesday, December 2, as they travel to Washington D.C. to perform during a special reception, dinner and party honoring the President and Mrs. Laura Bush and the Vice President and Mrs. Lynn Cheney. The band will receive a private White House tour and be there to meet the president and first lady when they arrive.
We have learned that Martie Maguire, of Dixie Chicks fame, is working on an instrumental, fiddle-based bluegrass album.
Serious Chix fans know that Martie and her sister (and fellow Dixie Chick) Emily Robison started out as bluegrass performers. They played together as teenagers in a band called Blue Night Express, which also featured Sharon Gilchrist, in Texas during the 1980s.
Martie also fared well in fiddle competitions in her younger days, and there is every reason for bluegrass fans to expect some fine music with her return to the fold. Not to mention the media scrutiny and attention bluegrass will receive as a result.
No word yet on where they are tracking, who may be producing, or who else is tracking with her. We’ll post any further news we can pick up.
The music video for Bradley Walker’sA Little Change has been running on CMT and GAC for the past two weeks, and came in at #1 in the CMT Pure 12 Pack Countdown for the week of November 21.
We had a chance to discuss the song and its video rendering with Bradley, and it turns out that it is one that touched him deeply - and is especially relevant during this week when those of us in the US take time out to reflect and give thanks for our good fortune.
“It touches on something that has probably happened to most folks these days, and how we could all stand to live our lives a little bit better. We’re all guilty of only seeing what’s on the outside sometimes, and not always taking the time to see someone’s real heart. What they’re really made of. The video just brings that all to life even more. When Mr. Jack pulls out that Bible, looks up and gives that big smile, it’s over! We should all realize how blessed we really are, and where those blessings come from.”
If you’ve not had a chance to watch the video, here it is.
Bradley explained a bit about how the song came to be included on his most recent CD, Highway Of Dreams.
“A Little Change was written by Carl Jackson, Mike Ward, and Jared Ashley. I had good timing on my side, because Carl and I were picking songs for Highway of Dreams not long after it was written. When I heard the song, the first time with Carl just playing acoustic guitar and singing it for me, its message struck a deep chord with me, and I knew it would do the same for anyone else who heard it. When we were tracking this tune in the studio, it sort of took on its own little feel – different than I think we’d even imagined it would be, and we knew right away we had something extra special.” (more…)
posted by Brance on 11.24.08 @ 11:47 am Tags: guitar, mandolin
If you’ve ever purchased a vintage instrument and wondered about the story behind the strings, then you’ll understand what Case Notes is all about.
Case Notes is specially designed little diary for your instrument. It is sized appropriately (5 1/4″H x 4 1/4″W x 1/2″D) to be kept in the case with the instrument. The diary contains different sections for different kinds of notes:
Special section for detailed instrument description.
Separate sections for up to six owners.
Space for personal records, repairs, stories, noteworthy events and autographs.
Made with a soft flexible cover and 160 pages of archival quality paper, keeping a Case Notes diary could be the perfect way to catalog at least your part of the story behind a treasured instrument.
Danny Roberts, who recently acquired a 1922 Gibson Lloyd Loar mandolin has this to say about Case Notes.
I wish I had a Case Notes record of my Loar’s first 86 years.
I love knowing that my family will have a record of my history with it from now until I pass it down.
What a cool idea. I think I’ll have to start keeping some Case Notes on the Collings guitar given to me as a Christmas present from my parents 11 years ago.
As has been widely speculated this past few weeks, Rhonda Vincent has confirmed that Aaron McDaris is her new banjo player, and that Ben Helson is taking the guitar spot. Both take the job effective today (11/24).
McDaris had been performing as a member of The Grascals and Helson leaves Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder to join up with Rhonda. Both young men have been bluegrass performers since they were in their teens and bring many years of professional experience to the band.
The Vincent announcement indicates that this latest version of The Rage has already been at work with her in the studio, and that her next project will for the first time be recorded wholly by her touring band, with no special guests.
They join other current members Mickey Harris on bass, Hunter Berry on fiddle and, of course, Rhonda Vincent on mandolin and lead vocals.
Rhonda and her new team will spend more time in the studio this next few weeks, before hitting the road again in January ‘09.
He will join hosts Katy Daley and Lee Michael Demsey to pick some guitar and talk about his latest CD, Live at the Linda. Grier is one of the finest flatpick improvisers around, and his live performances are always a treat.
Banks of the Ohio: Music from the Homeplace of Bluegrass, the weekly syndicated radio broadcast produced by the International Bluegrass Music Museum in Owensboro, KY, has announced a new host.
George McKnight will take over the duties from founding host Fred Bartenstein effective November 29. George has a long history in both bluegrass music and commercial radio, serving as stage emcee on numerous festivals each year near his home in British Columbia, and has hosted the syndicated radio program Uptown Bluegrass since 1982.
Banks of the Ohio runs three hours each week, broken into 30 minute segments that focus on music from different periods in the brief history of bluegrass music. Their mission is to both educate and entertain, offering historical background to the songs and artists, geared to long-time fans and new listeners alike.
Bartenstein welcomes McKnight as he prepares to dedicate his time to other museum work.
“I am pleased and excited about George McKnight taking over the program, as I turn my attention to other projects at the International Bluegrass Music Museum. I hope you get a chance to tune in to my farewell show, airing the week of November 22, and to George’s maiden voyage the following week.”
Fred tells us that he has plenty on his plate moving forward…
“I’m already working with the International Bluegrass Music Museum on planning for the Bill Monroe Centennial in 2011, and also expect to be helping them with editing video oral histories of bluegrass pioneers. I will continue to be the facilitator for IBMA’s Leadership Bluegrass program. I’m participating in the Bluegrass Hotel project, celebrating the 40th anniversary of events in Kentucky which revitalized both traditional bluegrass and initiated newgrass.
In early 2009, I will be facilitating an all-Europe bluegrass music summit in Germany. All those projects are in the context of my ongoing organizational consulting practice, which goes beyond the music industry.”
Punch, the debut CD from Chris Thile’s Punch Brothers, is among the nominees in the Best CDs of 2008 listener poll at NPR.com. The band is encouraging their many fans and friends to register at the NPR Community site, and cast a vote for them in the poll.
Punch is certainly high on my list of 2008 releases, one to which I find myself returning again and again. It is fascinating to hear Thile among his musical peers, on material created especially for this ensemble.
You can hear audio samples from Punch on the band’s MySpace page, or in iTunes.
Cast a vote at NPR.com (quick/free registration required).
Bluegrass Unlimited has been a staple of the bluegrass industry for over 40 years. I’ve browsed back issues and eagerly read new issues right along with the rest of the bluegrass world. Until today, I didn’t know the backstory of how the magazine came to be.
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