Songs available from that show include:

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Elected or appointed from the active professional membership of IBMA, the board serves as a policy making body that meets at least twice each year to consider proposals and projects to carry out the organization’s mission. The board is also responsible for appointing officers of the organization and has the authority to delegate work to staff and committees. Board members may also serve and/or be a liaison to committees. Board members are volunteers and bear the full expense of attending meetings and IBMA functions.

Here is the list of current board members with the new additions coming at the end of the list. These new board members began their three-year term on September 25, 2006.

Greg Cahill serves as our Vice-Chair, and our acting president in the wake of David Crowe’s resignation. Greg is an active member of the bluegrass community having fronted the band Special Consensus for the last 31 years or so. You can read Greg’s bio here.

Peter D’Addario representing the Merchandisers & Luthiers serves as the IBMA Treasurer. Peter, of course, is involved in the music via his families business, J. D’Addario & Co.

Lee Michael Demsey serves as the IBMA Secretary and represents the Broadcast Media constituency. Demsey hosts a 3 hour bluegrass show on bluegrasscountry.org as well as hosting Bluegrass shows on WAMU 88.5 FM in Washington, DC for the past 20 years. Demsey’s bio is here.

Eddie Adcock represents the Artists & Composers. Fans of bluegrass music should need no introduction to Eddie but here’s his bio just in case.

Paolo Dettwiler represents the International bluegrass music community. Paolo is involved in both the print publication Bluegrass Europe and the European Blugrass Music Association.

Stephanie P. Ledgin is an author and photographer who serves on the board representing Print Media & Education. Her bio is available here.

Alan Munde, banjo player and bluegrass professor at South Plains College, serves on the board as an At Large board member. This simply means that he represents us all. Read Alan’s bio here.

Tim Stafford of the band Blue Highway represents the Artists & Composers. Tim’s bio here.

John Stiernberg is another At Large board member. John runs his own consulting business, John Stiernberg Consulting. You’ll find John’s bio here.

Jon Weisberger is a bass player and writer serving At Large on the board. His bio is here.

Stan Zdonik represents the Associations. Stan is involved with the Boston Bluegrass Union.

New board members are:

Alison Brown of Compass Records serves on the board representing the Record Companies, Publishers & Recording Services. Brown’s bio can be found here.

Mike Bub is a five time recipient of the Bass Player of the Year award from IBMA and represents the Artists & Composers. I couldn’t find a bio as such for Mike, but you can visit his myspace page for more info.

Neil Rosenberg is a distinguished author/historian and performer from Newfoundland serving as another At Large representative. Here’s a short bio about Neil.

Don Light of Don Light Talent in Nashville and one of the music industry’s most respected managers represents Agents and Managers.

Stephen Ruffo, producer of Wintergrass and Bluegrass by the Bay in Washington state, is representing Event Producers on the board.

John adds:  Let me reiterate Brance’s suggestion that, if you are eligible to become a voting member of IBMA, and have not joined, you certainly should make the minimal effort to do so. Regardless of where you may stand on recent IBMA controversies, you can’t have an impact if you don’t join and vote!

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.

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

Sea2Sea

Disgusting…. this “tolerance” crap is just the pits.

Sista Smiff

Seriously, there are like 2 people who thought it was wrong. I think they were Canadians.

The Dry Spot

And in a spasm of hypersensitivity, the president of the IBMA, David Crow, immediately resigned…this move comes across as petulant and pouty.

How dare they display American Patriotism at IBMA!

Festival Preview

the salute was clearly meant as a statement of support for our government’s policy of war in Iraq

Cybergrass

The International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) calls itself an International organization and their awards show this year was an American patriotic presentation.

Just the facts ma’am.

String Theory Media

Nashville Is Talking (News 2)

Eliza’s Music News

John adds: The comments we have received here on The Bluegrass Blog to date have tended to be from US readers who object to IBMA requesting that the US Navy band not play their medley of service anthems on the Awards Show. My own personal contact with non-US IBMA members has suggested that the patriotic American theme was a non-issue. Other IBMA members, however, have indicated that they collected strong negative impressions from acquaintances who traveled to IBMA from outside the US.

We would be very interested in hearing from our readers on this question: was it appropriate for the IBMA, who present themselves as an international organization, to prominently feature such displays of American patriotism in their major, annual show?

All our readers are encouraged to contribute (either with comments, or by starting a new post on The B), but we are especially interested in hearing from our international readers, who currently make up about 20% of visitors on The Bluegrass Blog. In particular, we wonder whether non-US readers (and/or IBMA members) find such an Americanized program by IBMA to be offensive, and whether it would affect your support of the organization.

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

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

The tag reads 2006 IBMA Awards.

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.

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.

Distinguished Achievement Awards were also given to:

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