Carrie Hassler and her fine young band have been touring in France this past week, and are blogging about their Gallic adventures online. They have already posted a bunch of photos and several videos with more to come before they head home.

They report that the trip has gone well, performing before 15,000 (with 2 encores) at the Country Rendez-Vous Festival in Crappone-Sur-Arzon, but it hasn’t been all fun and games.

Visit the Carrie Hassler & Hard Rain blog to see all the highlights from their French trip.

Mandolin legend Herschel Sizemore may be retired from active touring, but he hasn’t stopped writing and the recording the sort of clever instrumentals that have so endeared him to the mandolin world.

His latest CD, B-Natural, has just been released. It’s a self-produced project with 12 new Sizemore compositions with Terry Baucom on banjo, Jimmy Haley on guitar, Ron Stewart on fiddle and Mike Bub on bass. Alan Bibey also adds some lead guitar and harmony mandolin parts.

The CD title comes from the lead track, a sly reference to the stylistic innovations that Herschel introduced to bluegrass mandolin some years ago. The mandolin style that Bill Monroe developed quite commonly involved playing in the key of B, but Monroe’s playing was position-based and often relied on stock licks and phrases. Sizemore found a way to play complex melodies in B, an unforgiving place for uncapoed stringed instruments, and it won has him quite a stable of admirers among his peers.

What Herschel introduced is now standard fare in the bluegrass mandolin repertoire, and it’s a sad fact that many young 8-stringers have little awareness of the straight line that runs from Herschel Sizemore through Sam Bush, Alan Bibey and Adam Steffey.

Of course, he plays comfortable in most any standard bluegrass key, and his new tunes demonstrate a variety of the breakdowns, reels and waltzes for which he is known. The sound here will be quite familiar to long-time Sizemore fans, with straightforward, no frills arrangements and crisp, clean playing all around. Here are a few audio samples:

Monroe’s Dream is one Herschel wrote a few years ago, reflecting on his old friend Bill Monroe. Big Mon was always a supporter of what Herschel was doing with teh mandolin, and Herschel has always believed it was because he wasn’t copying Monroe’s music, but making his own statement with teh instrument.

Derrington Express is dedicated to another dear friend, Charlie Derrington, formerly with Gibson in Nashville. Charlie was killed by a drunk driver almost exactly 3 years ago (8/1/06) while he was riding his motorcycle near his home.

B-Natural was produced with support from The Virginia Foundation For The Humanities. Ordering in enabled from Herschel’s web site.

With August 1 on the horizon, the airwaves are once again inundated with back to school advertisements. For recently-graduated high schoolers, plans for college are well underway, fraught with that bittersweet mix of anticipation and uncertainty.

Next week we’ll have stories about two prominent young grassers who are making that transition.

Sierra Hull and Sarah Jarosz, string prodigies both of them, are headed to school in Boston this fall. They each had a major independent label debut while still in high school, and both have a bright future in bluegrass/acoustic music. We’ll have interviews with both of these talented young ladies, where they explain why they chose to attend college, and how they settled on the schools they picked.

Here’s a clip of Sarah and Sierra from Grey Fox earlier this summer, laying down a solid version of Bill Monroe’s Old Dangerfield.

Yep… the future of our music is in good hands.

Ralph Stanley is to publish his autobiography, Man of Constant Sorrow: My Life and Times on October 15.

The book covers Stanley’s entire musical career, from his start in 1946 as the younger member of the Stanley Brothers through to his emergence in 2000 as a solo superstar following the release of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack album.

The forthcoming book has already caused a stir in Nashville with some criticism of country singer Tim McGraw. CMT News published a piece earlier today, which has now been taken down, that carried the following paragraph:

He takes on Tim McGraw, both for his music (”He wouldn’t know a real country song if it kicked him in the ass”) and for being disrespectful toward him when he beat out McGraw and others in 2002 for the Grammy for best male country vocal performance. Stanley also admits he still holds a grudge against the late John Duffey of the Seldom Scene for playing demeaning pranks on other bands. Oddly enough, the 82-year-old singer has nothing but fond memories of Bill Monroe, one of his early idols, even though he acknowledges Monroe quit Columbia Records in protest when that label signed the Stanley Brothers. His book is full of colorful details, such as the fact that the late Keith Whitley, while in Stanley’s band, used to style his boss’ hair before they went onstage.

CMT said that Stanley also reflects on what some might view as his own shortcomings, including his failed first marriage, his tendency to treat music primarily as a business and his refusal to hire Yankees to play in his the Clinch Mountain Boys.

Man of Constant Sorrow was written with Eddie Dean and will be published by Gotham Books. We will have many more details about this book shortly.

Pre-orders are already enabled at Barnes & Noble.