Jim Steptoe, longtime banjo player with Patent Pending, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly over the weekend. He was found at his home on Sunday, August 30.

Jim was a founding member of the band, along with Eldred Hill, Rusty Williams, Leigh Taylor. The group started in 1979 and was a fixture in the Washington area during a time when the DC metro area was a hotbed of bluegrass and acoustic music activity.

He practiced as an attorney in Martinsburg, WV and it was while studying law in Morgantown that Steptoe and Williams met and started playing music together.

No word yet on arrangements, or where expressions of sympathy should be sent.

Surely they can be delivered to the Patent Pending mailing address:

Here is a YouTube clip of Patent Pending where Jim and the band play Alabama Jubilee.

Rest in Peace.

Rounder is preparing to release a compilation project of John Hartford’s music on September 22.

Entitled, Good’le Days: Essential Recordings, the new CD is part of Rounder’s budget-minded Perfect 10 Series, each of which includes ten tracks from an important Rounder artist. They show the selling price online as $7.99.

How would you like to pick just ten tracks to represent the music of such a legend? Well, here’s what Ken Irwin and Marian Levy came up with…

• Skippin’ in the Mississippi Dew
  
• Gum Tree Canoe
  
• Gentle on My Mind
  
• Lorena
  
• In Tall Buildings
  
• The Vamp from Back in the Goddle Days
  
• Wrong Road Again
• Good Old Electric Washing Machine — circa 1943
  
• Take Me Back to My Mississippi River Home
  
• Old Time River Man

The tracks were taken from recordings Hartford did for the Flying Fish label between 1976 and 1989. They include featured performances from guest artists and frequent Hartford collaborators Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Mark O’Conner, Roy Huskey Jr., Benny Martin, Norman Blake, Vassar Clements and Tut Taylor.

The unpleasant infighting among the children of Jimmy Martin over his estate, an open secret for years within the bluegrass community, has hit the mainstream media.

The Tennessean, Nashville’s hometown newspaper, has published a story on the ongoing legal battle over Martin’s reputed $2 million estate, and income from future royalties. As has happened so many times, a number of surviving siblings and an ex-wife are at odds over the terms of Martin’s will.

According to the August 30 piece by Kate Howard…

The case goes on because of an addendum he made two weeks before he died: scolding his children and adding two music business friends as co-executors with his son Lee “Buddy” Martin.

His children believe that the strong-willed musician was lied to about money missing from his bank account and that he was coerced into splitting the power of executing his will.

His four children are at odds over whether someone outside the family should decide who gets what. They have different attorneys and different perspectives on how it should all end.

“This is not what my dad worked all his life for,” son Ray Martin said.

You can read the full piece online.

We ran into this buzz saw a few years ago when we tried to get approval for a charitable venture that would have involved Jimmy Martin’s likeness. The attorney who represents the estate attempted to get this cleared through the many Martin survivors, but had warned us that there was not much agreement among them.

No luck in our case.

Don’t think we have forgotten about the Bill Monroe Stamp Campaign, just because we haven’t mentioned in a few months!

A great many folks are collecting signatures on a petition to have Bill Monroe honored with a commemorative stamp from the US Postal Service.

Peter Thompson, long time host of Bluegrass Signal on KALW in San Francisco, sent along these photos he took at the California Bluegrass Association’s Grass Valley Festival in June. Bluegrass Signal airs Saturdays from 6:00-8:00 p.m. on KALW, and is also broadcast several times each week on WAMU’s Bluegrass Country.

Here’s the report Peter sent along with the photos:

“Here’s Randy Pitts (late of Keith Case, previously of the Freight & Salvage and other venerable organizations) signing the Monroe stamp petition as Laurie Lewis looks on.

Laurie had already signed.

Then Randy watches Kathy Kallick sign the petition in front of the Vern’s Stage, where Kathy & Laurie had just finished a tribute to Vern & Ray.”

We can all get involved in this effort. Anyone can download a copy of the petition, collect signatures, and send them on to the Postal Service. There is a web site with information about this campaign at www.billmonroestamp.org, and here are links to the various resources you need to take part.

• Download the petition
• Contact your Senator
• Contact your Representative
• Get a Monroe Stamp shirt from Grassware

Completed petitions should be mailed to:

Get on board!

UPDATE 10:00 a.m. -  Cindy Baucom sent along this photo of hubby Terry Baucom signing the Bill Monroe Stamp petition at the High Country Bluegrass Festival in Boone, NC in July.

She told us that 10 pages of signatures were collected at the festival.

If you have news and/or photos of any efforts on behalf of the Bill Monroe Stamp campaign, please contact us.