Look for Donna Ulisse on XM Satellite Radio’s Bluegrass Junction today between 3:00 and 6:00 p.m. (EST).

She will join host Kyle Cantrell for an in-depth interview and a debut airing of music from her CD, When I Look Back. They will talk about her contributions to the project as a songwriter and the stories behind the songs.

The CD was produced by Ulisse and Keith Sewell and features a backing band that includes Scott Vestal on banjo, Randy Kohrs on dobro, Andy Leftwich on fiddle, Byron House on bass and both Jesse Cobb and Andy Leftwich on mandolin.

Bluegrass Junction can be found on XM track 14.

This post comes as a contribution from Dixie Hall, one half of the songwriting powerhouse Tom T. and Dixie Hall, who manage both Good Homegrown Music and Blue Circle Records.

Several years ago, we were enjoying a visit to Bluebird Hill (our Clinch Mountain home in Hiltons, VA) and received news of a mysterious fire at the church. A candle had somehow self-ignited and smoldered for many hours creating much cleanup work of smoke damage.

As hard as I tried, I could not get Tom T.’s interest in this subject as a song idea until later that week when we received a phone call from Linda Lay & Stony Point requesting a Christmas song p.d.q.

Although a totally different story, the candle thought came through for us and we worked out Oh, Christmas Candle. Since then it has also been recorded by Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Whisperin’ Bill Anderson may not be among the first names which come to mind when you start talking bluegrass. His success came as a country singer and songwriter, and he has managed to thrive as a songsmith in the modern era of mainstream country music when many of his 1960s contemporaries can’t get a meeting on Music Row.

Earlier this year, Bill released a bluegrass recording, Whisperin’ Bluegrass, with 8 of the 16 tracks being Anderson originals. The instrumentation is bluegrass all the way, and the material and arrangements show how closely modern bluegrass and old school country music are related.

On Monday, The Post Star newspaper in Glens Falls, NY ran a lengthy interview with Bill which covers a wide range of topics. He offers a good bit of commentary on where the music business is headed, and how he has stayed viable as the music market has changed.

Post Star writer Doug Gruse also brought up Anderson’s bluegrass CD, which prompted this exchange:

This year he released ‘Whisperin’ Bluegrass,’ a CD and DVD featuring tracks with Vince Gill, Dolly Parton, Jon Randall, Willie Nelson and Jan Howard. Anderson is glad to see the recent interest by younger generations in the bluegrass tradition.

“A lot of these young kids are learning to play guitars and mandolins. They’re bringing a whole new interest to the genre,” he said. “Mainstream country music has drifted pretty far from the shore, and bluegrass music is somewhat of an alternative.”

For Anderson, who was born in Columbia, S.C., and spent his youth in Atlanta, the msuci has always been a part of his life.

“When I grew up, the music wasn’t even called bluegrass. It was called hillbilly music then,” he said.

The new recording is a way for Anderson and his Nashville friends to reconnect with their roots.

“For me to go back and do a bluegrass album, it’s going back to where I started,” he said.

You can read the entire article online, and find audio samples from Whisperin’ Bluegrass on Anderson’s web site.

We hear from Hadley Music Group that Donna Ulisse was recently back in the studio with producer/guitarist Keith Sewell and Andy Leftwich on fiddle and mandolin laying down some basic tracks on new songs she had written.

Ulisse discussed this in a recent interview…

“I like to do pre-production work on everything I write that I am considering for a future project - just to get a feel for all of the possibilities of the song with more instrumentation. Sometimes a song will take a whole new direction with the creative energy of the musicians involved. Plus, it gives my publisher a good demo for our song plugger Matt Lindsey to pitch to other artists because as a songwriter, it is a thrill for me to have other artists record my songs.”

Donna is currently promoting her first release, When I Look Back, to bluegrass radio, and has been writing for her second bluegrass project, which will get underway early next year. Hadley Music Group says that a summer ‘08 release is expected.

The National Association of Broadcasters is launching its next salvo in their ongoing battle with the Recording Industry Association of America. This latest campaign is in response to an RIAA-backed effort to levy what NAB calls a performance tax on local radio stations for the airplay of music broadcast over-the-air.

This proposal is being promoted in Washington by The MusicFIRST Coalition, formed recently for just this purpose - collecting performance royalties from broadcast radio in addition to songwriter royalties. A story on the RadioINK web site describes a MusicFIRST draft document being circulated in lawmakers’ offices.

According to the document obtained by Radio Ink, the coalition is proposing changes to the law that would do away with broadcasters’ royalties exemption and have small commercial stations — “small” is not defined — pay a flat royalty rate of $5,000 per year, while noncoms and college stations pay $1,000 a year.

In addition to an advertisement that will run in several Washington, DC political publications tomorrow (11/13), suggesting that the new rates are in fact a new tax on local radio, the NAB is sending a stuffed duck to all Congressional offices today, along with a copy of the ad.

The NAB ad text reads:

If it walks like a duck, and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck… well, you know…

The big international record labels are asking for a congressional mandate to force local radio stations to pay for promoting the labels’ artists, music and concerts. But they’d rather you not call it a tax, because no one likes to pay taxes.

You can’t change the facts.

By levying a new fee on radio stations – which some analysts estimate could reach $7 billion annually – Congress would be taxing the stations in their backyards to line the pockets of international record label executives. Taxing radio for promoting their music free of charge? That’s one idea that just won’t fly.

No performance tax on local radio.

Rep. Gene Green and Mike Conaway have introduced a resolution in the US House of Representatives (HCR 244) opposing such a tax, which has more than 50 co-sponsors from both political parties.

Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs were honored last night as they were inducted into Nashville Songwriters Association International’s Hall Of Fame at their 38th Annual Hall of Fame Dinner and Induction Ceremony.

Marty Stuart inducted Flatt & Scruggs, recalling how he joined Lester Flatt & The Nashville Grass when he was 13 years old. The Del McCoury Band performed a number of Flatt & Scruggs compositions (If I Should Wander Back Tonight, Earl’s Breakdown, Little Cabin Home on the Hill, Don’t Get Above Your Raisin’ and The Martha White Theme) and were then joined by Stuart for Scruggs’ classic Foggy Mountain Breakdown.

From the NSAI press release:

Joining Scruggs to accept the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Manny Award (short for manuscript) were Flatt’s widow, Gladys Flatt, and granddaughter Tammy Brumfield. “It’s been a wonderful ride,” Scruggs said. “Thank you all very much.”

Also inducted last night were Bob DiPiero, Mac McAnally, Dottie Rambo and Hank Williams, Jr.

The Nashville Songwriters Association International has announced its 2007 nominees for induction into its Hall of Fame.

The list is divided into two categories, songwriter and songwriter/artist. The songwriter category is for persons who do not have a career as an artist, but have achieved a measure of commercial success or recognition at least 20 years ago. The songwriter/artist category is for those persons who do have a career as an artist and have also achieved success as songwriters.

This year’s list includes the names of bluegrass legends Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs. Of course, they are in the songwriter/artist category along with four other nominees. One of the five nominees in this category will be chosen for induction into the Hall of Fame at a dinner scheduled for October 14, 2007.

The group of nominees was recommended to the board by the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Foundation (NaSHOF) Nominating Committee, which is comprised of Hall of Fame members and Music Row historians. Votes are cast by Hall of Fame members, Professional Songwriter members of the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), and the boards of the NaSHOF and NSAI.

In addition to Flatt & Scruggs, Paul Craft and L.E. White are both nominated in the songwriter category. Both of these writers have had ties to the bluegrass community over the years.

The complete list of nominees, along with biographical information on each one, is available here.

Our friends at BluegrassCountry.org have launched a new feature as part of their 40th Anniversary celebration of bluegrass programming on WAMU. It’s called Musician Tips and will be a weekly audio segment with prominent bluegrass artists sharing advice on a wide range of topics that will be of interest to those seeking to improve their own songwriting, stage presence or performance.

Each tip will be run for a week in BluegrassCountry.org’s 24/7 bluegrass programming, and then be archived on their web site. You can hear the first in this series, from noted songwriter Chris Stuart, on the Musician’s Tips site, where you can also subscribe to the series as a podcast.

BluegrassCountry.org’s Katy Daly says that they have quite a lineup of artists in the pipeline.

In weeks to come we’ll feature tips from Bill Emerson, Jaime Daley, Sonya Isaacs, Joe Carr, Alan Munde, Ralph Stanley, Honi Deaton, all the Stringdusters, all the Steep Canyon Rangers, Mike Auldridge, Missy Raines, and Randy Kohrs, just to name a few.

With all the support the bluegrass world has received from Tom T. and Dixie Hall this past few years, many have wondered when Tom T. might release a bluegrass project himself. Not only had the songwriting duo contributed dozens of songs for bluegrass artists - and recorded and released a good many bluegrass projects on their Blue Circle label - they also made a generous donation to the International Bluegrass Music Association last year, when they bequeathed the royalties from their publishing company, Good Homegrown Music, to IBMA upon their deaths.

Well, today’s the day for the Tom T. bluegrass project. Blue Circle has released Tom T. Hall sings Miss Dixie & Tom T., a collection of 12 songs they wrote together, sung by Tom T., and featuring a superstar gathering of bluegrass pickers. The concept for the CD began as a Christmas gift from Tom T. to Dixie.  He presented her with a card that read:

“To Miss Dixie. This is good for a c.d. We’ll record in our studio; you choose the songs and the pickers. You produce and I’ll do songs we have written together. Local and Pal will handle (canine) security. We will call the project TOM T. HALL SINGS MISS DIXIE & TOM T. Merry Christmas! Love, T.”

Guest performers include Earl Scruggs, Kristin Benson and Tim White on banjo, Wayne Benson on mandolin, Mike Bub and Ben Isaacs on bass, Tom T., Robert Bowlin and Terry Eldridge on guitar, Glen Duncan on fiddle and Randy Kohrs on resonator guitar. Assisting Tom T. with harmony vocals are Don Rigsby, Sonya Isaacs, Josh Williams and Rebecca Isaacs Bowman.

Radio promos have been sent and July 3 marks the official release date. A couple of audio samples are available on the Blue Circle site, and samples for all the tracks can be found on CD Baby.

Country music superstar Kenny Chesney is climbing the charts right now with a song written by bluegrass favorite Ronnie Bowman.

Never Wanted Nothing More was written during a marathon writing session that took place between Ronnie Bowman and proven country writer Chris Stapleton. The two wrote a number of songs together during one extended informal writing session. The thing is, it was the first time the two had ever worked together. Ronnie remembers it this way.

Chris came over to the house and we started writing. A day later we had a handful of good songs, but this one just really stood out. We went right in and recorded a demo!

Ronnie tells me the demo was just the basics, the two songwriters with their guitars, that’s it. No frills, no fancy arrangement, just the song.

Ronnie writes for Sony Music Publishing and they took the song and started pitching it. It was just a short time later that Ronnie discovered Chesney was interested in the song. Then Chesney’s producer, Buddy Cannon, called and asked if Ronnie would like to stop by the studio and hear the track as they worked on it.

After I got off the phone, I just asked myself “Am I dreaming or is Kenny Chesney recording my song today?” As soon as I came back to my senses, I headed right over to the studio to check it out.

Once he got in the studio, Ronnie was in for another surprise. (more…)

Jeff Weaver of The Rarely Herd will surely be among the millions of TV viewers glued to their sets tomorrow night when American Idol is broadcast on Fox. Arizona, a song he wrote and which The Herd recorded in 1992 on their Midnight Loneliness project, may be included during the Homecoming segment of the May 15 broadcast.

The produers of American Idol were looking for a song about the home state of finalist Jordin Sparks, who hails from Glendale, AZ. Weaver said that the call came from out of the blue.

“AI’s producer/music director called me Friday evening with an urgent request to get the rights to use the song Arizona. They were on the hunt for songs about Jordin’s home state, and ours came up…they liked it because it was uptempo and lively. At that time, the producer also stated that (so far) it was the only song that they had complete clearance to use, but did intended to use more than one (as background) during her feature.”

At this point, Jeff isn’t 100% sure that his song will be used on tomorrow night’s show, but will be watching with high hopes. You can find the lyrics and an audio sample for Arizona on The Rarely Herd web site.

“The lyrics had no particular or personal meaning. I just pointed a finger at a map, and wrote a song about it. In many of my songs, I just let the story evolve while writing. Another song titled Arizona John (on our Return Journey CD) was written the same way.”

It would be a fine thing to hear bluegrass music on such a popular program, so let’s hope the banjos ring out tomorrow night on American Idol.

Eric and Leigh Gibson will return to The Bluegrass Guide’s Songwriter Chat on Monday, May 14 at 8:00 p.m. (EDT).

This online chat forum is hosted monthly by Rick Lang, and is designed to give songwriters an opportunity to interact with successful bluegrass writers from the comfort of their computer screens.

There is no fee to participate, and only a very brief registration is required to join in.

You can find transcripts from previous Songwriter Chat sessions by scrolling to the bottom of The Bluegrass Guide Chat Room page.

The Gibson Brothers were also the featured artists in the 2007 print edition of The Bluegrass Guide, an annual listing of festivals and bluegrass events.

Bluegrass singer/songwriter/guitarist Gary Ferguson and resonator guitarist David Miner are set to tour in Ireland from July 13-29, 2007. The tour will include concerts as well as workshops on Dobro and songwriting.

You can find dates, info and links to their Irish tour dates on Gary and David’s MySpace page, where promoters and venues can contact them about available dates during their visit.

Next Tuesday (4/24), Belmont University will host the 3rd annual Leadership Music Digital Summit, an intensive one day conference “dedicated to the business, creative and legal issues of digital music.”

Conference sessions will include discussions and presentations on such timely issues as intellectual property, licensing, digital rights management, use of mobile phones for licensed content, and music use on social netowrking sites such as MySpace. Terry McBride, a co-founder of Canada’s powerful Nettwerk Music Group, will give the keynote address.

All events will be held at Belmont’s Curb Center in Nashville.

A full event schedule and registration details can be found on the official Digital Summit site.

Tonight (March 20) will find bluegrass singer/songwriter Bob Amos as the guest on The Bluegrass Guide’s monthly Songwriter Chat. Bob is a founding member of Colorado’s Front Range, and has a new CD with his Bob Amos Band, Reels Of Life, recently released.

This will be an interactive online conversation, where songwriters are encouraged to ask questions and discuss their craft with each month’s featured guest.

To participate in tonight’s Songwriter Chat, simply visit the Bluegrass Guide Chat Room at 8:00 p.m. As always, the chat will be hosted and moderated by Rick Lang.

Paul Craft has long been known as one of the premier songwriters in bluegrass music, and he has enjoyed tremendous success in pop and country music as well. His song, Midnight Flyer, was a hit for The Osborne Brothers in 1974, but became a mega-hit for The Eagles a few years later. His song, Teardrops Will Kiss The Morning Dew, was included in Alison Krauss’ platinum compilation, Now That I’ve Found You.

Paul has written a number of country hits like Dropkick Me, Jesus, It’s Me Again Margaret, Keep Me From Blowing Away, Brother Jukebox and Come As You Were.

Now, from Strictly Country Records comes a new CD from Paul Craft, Too Bad You’re No Good, featuring a number of his new and older compositions, performed by some of Nashville’s hottest pickers. Ronnie McCoury, Robbie McCoury, Jason Carter, Mike Bub, Bobby Bare, Thom Bresh, Shawn Camp, Jack Clement and Kenny Malone all lend their talents on this new release.

Strictly Country is based in The Netherlands, and there will surely be distribution of Paul’s new CD in the US. Two previous CDs, Raised By The Railroad Line and Brother Jukebox are both available through CDBaby, so perhaps this one will appear there as well.

Radio hosts and potential distributors can reach Strictly Country by email, or find contact information on their web site.

Noted tunesmith Jerry Salley will the guest in this evening’s Songwriter Chat at The Bluegrass Guide. Jerry will be online to discuss his career and the craft at 8:00 p.m. (EST) on Tuesday, February 20.

He has been writing in Nashville since 1982, with more than 300 songs recorded, many by country hit makers like Reba McEntire and John Anderson, with 10 songs that have reached the Top 20 on the gospel music charts.

Jerry has released a bluegrass project this year, New Songs, Old Friends, with contributions from such stellar artists as Vince Gill, Doyle Lawson, Bryan Sutton, Adam Steffey, Jamie Johnson, Rob Ickes, Del McCoury, Rhonda Vincent, Carl Jackson, Stuart Duncan, Larry Cordle, Alecia Nugent, Ricky Skaggs and Sharon White.

To participate in tonight’s Songwriter Chat, simply visit the Bluegrass Guide Chat Room at 8:00 p.m. As always, the chat will be hosted and moderated by Rick Lang.

We received a note recently from Niall Toner, who hosts Roots Freeway on RTE Radio One in Dublin, Ireland. His show runs on Tuesday at 9:00 p.m. (GMT/WET) and features a mix of bluegrass, old time, traditional country and blues. It is also available online via live streaming from the Radio One web site.

Niall wanted to let any artists or independent labels know that he is eager to receive promo copies of your new releases for airplay on Radio One. They can be sent to the station address:

Niall also performs with his own group, the Niall Toner Band. They have two CDs of original music, with songs having been cut by Nashville Bluegrass Band, Special Consensus and Albert Lee.

UPDATE 2/19/07: The Bluegrass Ireland Blog is reporting that Niall is at work on his third CD with The Niall Toner Band, again featuring all original material. It is expected to be released in the summer of ‘07.

Larry Cordle will the guest on Tuesday evening’s songwriter chat at bluegrassguide.com, the web site for the Bluegrass Guide, a print periodical published by Mountain High Bluegrass Association.

The format is intended to be one where songwriters have an opportunity to pose questions and interact with prominent practitioners of the craft. While everyone is encouraged to participate in the discussion, lurkers are welcome as well.

Cordle, of course, has seen success as a songwriter in both the bluegrass and country music worlds, penning hits for Ricky Skaggs (Highway 40 Blues) and Alan Jackson (Murder On Music Row). He has had a long career recording and performing his own compositions with his band, Lonesome Standard Time.

The chat starts at 8:00 p.m. (EST) on January 23, and you can find a link to the chat room on the Bluegrass Guide web site.

Entries are now being accepted for the 2007 Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk contest for emerging songwriters. The contest was instituted in 1972 at the suggestion of Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul & Mary), and has been held each year since.

The final competition will take place during the 36th annual Kerrville Folk Festival (May 24-June 10, 2007), one of the largest folk music events in the southern United States.

The first 800 entries received prior to March 15, 2007 will be entered in the competition, and there were 225 entrants as of this morning. 32 finalists will be chosen and invited to perform at the festival on 5/24, with six winners selected to perform again on the 25th.

The contest is for new material, so only songs written after January 1, 2005 are eligible.

Entries can be submitted by mail, or via sonicbirds, and a $20 entry fee is required. There is an additional fee of $29.95 to register with sonicbirds, which also includes a six month subscription to their electronic press kit service.