On October 28, 2006 The Daughters Of Bluegrass took home the coveted Recorded Event of the Year award for their second CD release, Back To The Well. The evening before the awards were announced, they also performed at an official IBMA showcase, and video from that show is now posted on YouTube.

Songs available from that show include:

All seven of the videos can be found on the Hope River Entertainment YouTube page.

Each year during the annual IBMA World Of Bluegrass Business Conference, a variety of educational seminars are offered for the benefit of the professional membership. Topics are varied, and are geared towards the needs and interests of artists, event producers, bluegrass associations and songwriters.

Topics this year included getting radio airplay for your CD (led by several prominent bluegrass broadcasters), health insurance issues for performers, and a business mentoring session with Mac Wiseman.

The seminars are also recorded for wider distribution, and this year’s are available now through IBMA. They are available on either CD or cassette, and are offered for $15 each, with discounts in quantity.

Though attendance at the seminars was restricted to the IBMA membership, the audio recordings are available to members and non-members alike.

You can find the ordering details, and a list of the seminars which are available, on the IBMA web site.

We have made a few references here on The Bluegrass Blog to the various reactions that have been generated by the “patriotic theme” of last month’s International Bluegrass Music Awards in Nashville. The IBMA Executive Committe made some changes to the content of the show a few days prior to its staging to both alleviate the possibility of offending their non-US members, and to keep the show’s presentation within the guidelines that have existed in the past.

The Board’s requests were ultimately not honored, and then-President David Crow resigned to demonstrate his acceptance of responsibility.

You can find our earlier posts if you would to review what transpired, and what has been said about it.

The IBMA Board of Directors has just issued a statement to the membership which includes their assessment of what happened, and what they mean to do to ensure that the producers of the annual Awards Show have the sort of guidelines and oversight to avoid such occurences going forward.

Speaking just now with IBMA’s Executive Director Dan Hays, he nicely summed up the Board’s position as saying that it “was ‘what do we do about the future?’ and not ‘what do we do about the past?’ ”

As such, the Board statement focuses not on placing blame, but on conciliation and a focus on those things about which everyone in IBMA agrees is important - the continuing furtherance of the music, in the US and throughout the world.

IBMA members will each receive a copy of the statement from the Board by email, and it can also be viewed online.

That’s the question that’s answered in the final installment of Wichita Rutherford’s IBMA video clips. It’s one of Wichita’s great True or Rumor podcasts. If you just can’t stay out the personal life of a bluegrass celebrity and have to know what Alison called her grandmothers, then you’d better click over to Wichita’s Blog, watch the video, and find out the truth from Alison herself.

Sadly, Wichita is saying this is the last of the video clips in the series. That saddens me because I was cheering him on in his Ricky Skaggs impression and really wanted to see him nail it. I just know he can do it.

To watch him try, and fail, a couple times you might want to watch those clips as well while you’re on his blog.

IBMA has been on our minds, and on this blog a lot recently. Most of that due to the recent World of Bluegrass event held in Nashville, TN recently. Some of the discussion of IBMA though has sprung from the controversy surrounding this year’s award show. Hit the tag for IBMA 2006 Awards above to see those posts. In light of all that attention I thought it might be a good idea to do a little run down of the Board of Directors, who they are, and who they represent.

Remember these people represent us, the membership of IBMA, and should be representing our desires and concerns on the issues the board faces. If you are concerned about the direction IBMA takes in the future, I would strongly urge you to consider joining the IBMA. If you are already a member, I would urge you to find the board member(s) that represent your portion of the industry, contact them and let them know your thoughts. I’m sure they all welcome and appreciate active participation from the membership.

The IBMA board consists of 16 members elected by the professional members of the organization. The board members are elected to 3 year terms on a staggered rotation so that only a limited number are up for election at once. Recently, 5 new board members where elected. The IBMA website describes the board and it’s duties as follows. (more…)

One of the events we discussed here on The Bluegrass Blog during IBMA week in Nashville last month was Jerry Douglas’ Keynote Address to the organization on September 25.

As I mentioned in that post:

His address seemed to focus on three basic themes: bluegrass music is in good shape, it is being noticed by the larger music industry, and we ought to be willing to share it with those outside our circle.

IBMA has obtained Jerry’s permission to make the entire address available online, and we heartily commend it to our readers. It is entitled What Does Playing Bluegrass for 30 Years Do for You, and it can be found on the IBMA web site.

The recent IBMA Awards Show in Nashville resulted in some controversy surrounding the performance of some patriotic material performed by the US Navy Band, Country Current. You’ll find all the details in our previous posts here and here. There is also a very popular post in The B on the topic.

While the controversy had its beginning on sites and email lists dedicated to bluegrass music, the story has now moved into the larger blogosphere. Following coverage in The Tennessean over the weekend, it has now been picked up by sites that don’t normally dedicate much, if any, time to covering bluegrass. Predictibly these bloggers have all taken a stand on the issues involved.

The US Navy Bluegrass band asked not to play service anthems? What was IBMA thinking?

The Sheep’s Crib

…if all 300 international members are offended because the IBMA’s annual event has an American patriotic theme, TOO BAD!

Vanishing American

IBMA, keep PC and leftist politics out of bluegrass

(more…)

GAC was present at IBMA’s World of Bluegrass last month taping interviews that will begin running this week on Edge of Country, hosted Kylie Harris. The interviews were taped at the Awards Show and in the Exhibit Hall. John and I were there watching and snapping a few photos while GAC conducted interivews with both Cherryholmes and Mountain Heart.

GAC interviews Cherryholmes in the Exhibit Hall

Here’s the schedule beginning this afternoon.

Monday, October 9
1:00 p.m. EST, 11:00 p.m. EST, 3:00 a.m. EST
The Grascals
Del McCoury
Steep Canyon Rangers
Tim O’Brien
Tom T. Hall
Claire Lynch
Instrumentalist Award Winners: Jim Mills (banjo), Rob Ickes (Dobro), Missy Raines (bass), Bryan Sutton (guitar), Michael Cleveland (fiddle) & Adam Steffey (mandolin)
Curley Seckler

Tuesday, October 10
1:00 p.m. EST, 11:00 p.m. EST, 3:00 a.m. EST
Sonya Isaacs
Doyle Lawson
Vince Gill
Rhonda Vincent

Wednesday, October 11
1:00 p.m. EST, 11:00 p.m. EST, 3:00 a.m. EST
Darryl Adkins (proder, Album of the Year, Celebration Of Life, Musicians Against Childhood Cancer)
Marty Stuart & Connie Smith

Thursday, October 12
1:00 p.m. EST, 11:00 p.m. EST, 3:00 a.m. EST
Cherryholmes
Mountain Heart
Carmel Sheerin and The Ravens
Randy Kohrs and The Lites

Friday, October 13
1:00 p.m. EST, 11:00 p.m. EST, 3:00 a.m. EST
Keith Sewell
Doyle Lawson
New Found Road
Cadillac Sky

Saturday, October 14
1:00 p.m. EST
Mark Newton Band
Rhonda Vincent
Alecia Nugent
Infamous Stringdusters
Tripping Lily
Ronnie Bowman
Nashville Bluegrass Band
Casey Driessen
Bradley Walker
Shawn Camp

This morning’s edition of The Tennessean, Nashville’s primary daily newspaper, has a story about the turmoil that has erupted inside the IBMA leadership over the performance by the US Navy band Country Current during last week’s International Bluegrass Music Awards.

I suppose that any hopes that this story would stay out of the mainstream press are now irrelevant.

The story (by Peter Cooper) can be found on The Tennessean web site.

The internet is all abuzz right now talking about the voice of Cyndi Wheeler. Cyndi played the pre-awards party at IBMA. The party was sponsored by BMI. Cyndi performed with Blue Highway, along with Sam Bush’s rhythm section, as her band. She covered standards like September Song and What a Difference a Day Makes.

Ed Morris at CMT wrote a piece about the awards and mentioned Cyndi’s performance at the pre-show party.

The highlight of that event was a performance by singer Cyndi Wheeler, who, backed by Blue Highway, beamed out irresistibly jazzy incarnations of such pop standards as “Dreamer’s Holiday,” “September Song” and “What a Difference a Day Makes.” She is produced by Scott Rouse, who also produces Blue Highway. An album of these tunes is due out soon.

John over at The Sheep’s Crib is also talking about Cyndi and had this to say.

You’re a hard-hearted meanie if you don’t like this voice.

Cyndi has been singing duets with bluegrass artists for some time now. Her fist, as far as I am aware, was a duet with Del McCoury on the tune I’ll Be Home For Christmas from the CD Christmas On The Mountain. She also joined Charlie Daniels for a duet rendition of Softly and Tenderly on his CD Songs From The Longleaf Pines. More recently she joined Blue Highway on their latest CD, Marbletown, for a duet with Tim Stafford on the song Quarter Moon.

Her upcoming album, which producer Scott Rouse tells me will be out sometime in the spring, features a duet with Ricky Skaggs on the title track, Tonight You Belong To Me. The song features the two voices with accompaniment from Ronnie McCoury’s mandolin.

You can hear several cuts from her upcoming CD on her website at CyndiWheeler.com.

A number of people have contacted us, asking about the controversy during last week’s International Bluegrass Music Awards, or wondering why we haven’t covered it on The Bluegrass Blog. Both Brance and I were at the show (live blogging backstage), and had the chance to watch the controversy develop, before, during and after the show itself.

There have been strident and emotional reactions to the inclusion of a patriotic-themed presentation during the Awards Show, and it has led to some upheaval within IBMA’s leadership. We have contacted many of the folks directly involved to get their comment, but feel that we need to address it here now.

In a nutshell, what happened is this:

The producers of the show had included two numbers with what was described in an official press release about ten days prior as having a “patriotic theme.” This was to include a song by Rhonda Vincent, and a performance by the US Navy bluegrass band, Country Current. A number of non-US members of IBMA felt that this was adding an inappropriately political tone to the show, and that a salute to the US military was a slight to the notion that IBMA was an international organization. Several US members shared this assessment.

These concerns were conveyed to the IBMA Board, who met with non-US members just days before the show, and amongst themselves to address these concerns. A decision was reached by the Board that the Navy band would be asked to change the song which they had originally been asked to perform - a medley of US military service anthems - and instead perform one of Chief Wayne Taylor’s original songs.

Rhonda’s performance was to go on as planned, with a tribute offered to US service men and women. Several representatives of the various military branches were to join her on stage, standing silently stage left and right, to be spotlighted for recognition during the song.

At the show, Country Current performed the newly-inserted song as per their new agreement with IBMA, but then launched into the service themes as per their original agreement. There is dispute among the principals - chiefly Wayne Taylor and former IBMA President David Crow - over the conversation that followed this performance, and whether the Navy Band had been authorized to include the second song. Crow resigned immediately following the performance.

In a letter to the IBMA membership, he indicated that his resignation should be seen as his assumption of responsibility for having “lied” to the membership in saying that the military anthems medley would be removed, but a subsequent letter suggested that a desire to dedicate more time to his family and legal practice - both rapidly growing - also played a large part in his decision.

There has been no official statement from IBMA about this as yet, but we have asked Executive Director Dan Hays to speak with us about it when he feels it is appropriate.

We are also seeking comment from the show’s producers, Rhonda Vincent’s management and the Navy band. I can’t swear that we can get all the details, but we’ll try, and will report what we can find out.

UPDATE 11:20 a.m.: Jon Weisberger emailed to correct an error he found in this post, to wit that IBMA had made no official statement about this controvery. He passed along a statement that he had sent on Monday to the IBMA member discussion list on behalf of the Executive Committee, posted as coming from Greg Cahill, Stan Zdonik and himself.

“Since the staging of the IBMA’s annual Awards Show on Thursday night, members of the Board of Directors’ Executive Committee have conferred both in person and by telephone to discuss aspects of the show that contravened the Committee’s and the Board’s prior decisions. The Committee views the failure to implement these decisions with deep concern, and is undertaking a timely review of events to establish responsibility for the failure. The results, along with recommendations for appropriate actions, will be communicated as rapidly as possible to the Board for consideration.”

With the passing of Uncle Josh still fresh in our recent memories, artist/photographer Adam Carlos sent us this photo from the tribute performance that occurred last Saturday evening at the IBMA Fan Fest. Please remember his family during this difficult time.

This morning I thought we’d take a look at the IBMA 2006 Awards and compare the actualy winners with the winners of our unofficial poll. Our poll was open to all registered users of The Bluegrass Blog. We’ll start at the top and work our way down.

This year it looks like we only got 7 out of 17 correct in our poll. It’s interesting to see how our readership compares to the voting membership of IBMA. Visit the IBMA website to find out more about IBMA membership.

Now we return to your regularly scheduled programming.

Here is one more gallery of photos from Saturday at IBMA. I took these in the exhibit hall.

Cherryholmes	Jim Van Cleve	Casey Henry	Steve Huber
Megan Lynch	Reno and Rigsby	Sizemore and Lawless	Dan Miller
Murphy Henry	Tony Williams	Fank Solivan II	Joey Cox

For those of you who weren’t there, or those who were and just want to watch it again, Wichita Rutherford has posted one of the video clips he did for IBMA over at his blog. He actually did several and they’ll be made available one each week for the next month.

This first one shows Wichita playing cards with Three Ring Circle and doing impressions of bluegrass stars. If you need a good laugh, check it out.

If you want to check all the coverage of the 2006 IBMA Awards here on The Bluegrass Blog, you can click on the tag with that name that appears just below the title of any related post. This will display the various posts about the Awards show, including photos, on the main page.

The tag reads 2006 IBMA Awards.

Brance and I are getting ready to pack it in and put Music City in the rear view mirror. We had a blast here during IBMA week, though it may take several days to get our eating and sleeping schedules back in synch.

We have a few more photos to share, and expect that we can get them edited and published sometime on Monday. We may have some further impressions of the World Of Bluegrass events to share as well.

Don’t forget that any of our registered users are welcome to share their own thoughts about IBMA over at The B.

Thanks to all the IBMA staff and volunteers for their dedication and diligence - not to mention hard work - to bring off such a complicated and lengthy event with nary a major snag.

Thanks as well to the many readers of The Bluegrass Blog who took the time to visit with us at our booth, and shared how much they enjoy the site. We hope that we can continue to earn your trust, and your time!

A great big thanks goes out to Sista Smiff for her blogging help this past few days. We heartily recommend her blog, A Whiff Of Smiff, especially for Grascals fans who might enjoy the “back story” to bluegrass fame.

See you all when we get back to Virginia.

After a week that has been non-stop activity, the Grascals topped off this most memorable week with a trip to the Grand Ole Opry and an appearance at Fan Fest.

The whole tv portion was devoted to bluegrass tonight and it was so electric backstage, you could hear the buzzin’ in the hallways. Had a bomb gone off in the Makeup Room before the show, three of the hottest acts in bluegrass would’ve been wiped out. 

Sitting in one makeup chair was Rhonda Vincent, resplendent in her red gown and red boots that she got in New York City; in another chair the Cherryholmes Sisters were getting curled and flat ironed;  in another chair, The Grascals were getting coiffed and make-upped while Daddy Jere Cherryholmes told a tale of getting pulled over by the cops while traveling this last week. Seems some Boys in Blue were a mite suspicious of a bus hauling musicians with a bearded leader, following Willie Nelson’s unfortunate run-in with the law a week or so ago. 

There may be some competition between all the various groups, but, at the same time, there is much camaraderie and brother/sisterhood between the groups. All are after a common purpose and that’s making great bluegrass music and taking it to the farthest ends of the earth.

Ricky Skaggs was the Host With The Most on the Opry. In case you missed the live Opry performance on GAC, it will run a number of times through the week.  You can see the schedule here.

Another memorable performance on the first show of the Opry tonight featured The Whites, with sister Rosie White Franklin singing lead on “A Violet and a Rose” with sisters Sharon and Cheryl singing harmony.  Breathtaking. Course, those girls are probably my favorite singers ever…and three of my favorite people ever. 

In between Opry shows, the Grascals hopped in their vehicles and went back downtown for their appearance at Fan Fest. 

One would think all those IBMA attendees would be wearing out after a week of pickin’, listening, visitin’…not hardly. I was totally mesmerized by a group of young pickers that appeared to be about the age of a couple kids at my house (13 and 14). In fact, I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of teenagers running around the Convention Center with instruments. Whoever these kids were having the impromptu jam session on the bottom floor, they were something else.  Even Ken Irwin was sitting down listening to them. Nobody needs to worry about the future of Bluegrass.

Speaking of Bluegrass Kids, Ryan Holladay has certainly had a growth spurt this last year. Neither Terry Eldredge or I recognized him at first. 

I’ve never seen so many dobros in one place as just about every dobro player you could name was tuning up to do a tribute to Uncle Josh Graves, who passed away earlier today. Charlie Cushman brought up an interesting point that how ironic that Josh had died on Marty Stuart’s birthday? Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder also paid tribute to Josh on the Opry with their rendition of “Foggy Mountain Rock.”

After the Grascals did their set at Fan Fest, they spent a little time at their table greeting people, then it was back over to Briley Parkway for their second show on the Opry. They appeared immediately behind Bobby Osborne and the Rocky Top Express. 

The Cherryholmes and Grascals were discussing how busy this week has been back in the dressing room. Both groups will only get a couple days rest before it’s back out again Wednesday for the Cherryholmes and Friday for the Grascals. I’m sure Rhonda’s week will be busy as usual.

We finally got in the car to head home to Hendersonville. We turned the radio on to the Ernest Tubb Midnite Jamboree and there was Rhonda and the Rage, hosting. That bunch sounded as sparkly and sharp. They are some kinda pros. I bet they’ll be glad to get in their beds tonight though.

Oops… We neglected to post the list of IBMA’s Special Award winners, which were announced and distributed at a luncheon here in Nashville on Thursday afternoon.

Distinguished Achievement Awards were also given to:

Here’s a nice group of photos from the Exhibit Hall.

Photos by Dave Carney © 2006

Lawson and Reno	Bull Harman	Dan Miller	Herschel Sizemore
The Huber Booth	Katy Daly	Bill Keith	Sewell and Leftwich
Reid and Baucom	Merriam and Bush	Ronnie Reno	Richard Gelardin
Danny Roberts	Roland White	The Smiths	Eberle and Vorndick