Cherryholmes will be on WAMU’s Bluegrass Country for live music and conversation with Lee Michael Demsey this morning (7/19) at 10:00 a.m.

Listeners can hear the interview on bluegrasscountry.org or on HD Radio WAMU 88.5 Channel 2 in the Washington, DC metro radio market.

This afternoon’s (7/10) Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU will include a segment at 1:30 p.m. (EDT) on the African roots of our beloved banjo.

Kojo will welcome Malian musician Cheick Hamala Diabate and American banjoist Bob Carlin for a discussion, and perhaps some music from their recent CD, From Mali To America.

WAMU broadcasts at 88.5 FM in the Washington, DC metro market and via live streaming online. Audio files from the show will be available on Kojo’s web site approximately one hour after the segment airs.

Bryan Simpson of Cadillac Sky just shot us a note with news about one of the songs on their upcoming CD, Gravity’s Our Enemy, set for an August 19 Skaggs Family release.

It’s not really a single release, but one of the tracks from the new project is now available online at reverbnation.com. You can also give the song a listen in the player embedded below.

Says Bryan of this track…

“The tune’s called Inside Joke and it’s about a crazy dream I had one night. It serves as therapy for the band everytime we play it.”

As many may be aware already, Kentucky-born Dan Hays is the Executive Director of the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) and has been in that position since August 1990.

In a four-part collection of videos Hays discusses his career path, the history of the IBMA, and the future of this growing organization. The total viewing time is about 20 minutes.

The first segment is viewable below, and all four videos are available for viewing courtesy of DigiMusic Tv.com on the brightcove.tv website. Scroll down and select parts two to four in turn.

The website may be worth exploring; I have found videos on some of the ways of playing bass, a series about the Nashville Songwriters Association International, the legal aspects of entertainment law, artist development, a producers bootcamp and a series presented by guitarist Harold Bradley.

Thanks go out to our friend Bill Evans, west coast banjoist and renowned instructor of the five string, for pointing us to this fine review of a free show by Cherryholmes in New York City’s Madison Square Park this past Wednesday evening. As Bill had suggested, it was interesting to read this review of a band with whom we are well familiar, written by someone from outside of our bluegrass community.

Cherryholmes is an extremely flexible band, shifting arrangements, physical and vocal, several times per song. (At one point late in the show all the family members formed a line and jubilantly clogged.) And even though they are capable traditionalists — their self-titled fourth album is an excellent display of fundamentals — onstage they can be eccentric, especially Jere, the patriarch.

After a discussion of how to remain creative while touring the country with your family, he deadpanned, “The songs that I wrote happened to come out murder ballads.” “My True Love” was written by Sandy, he said, but not about him, because “she couldn’t find any words that rhymed with ‘short.’ Or ‘long gray beard.’ Or ‘bald head.’ ”

Sound familiar…?

It’s a brief review, but captures the spirit and style of the band’s live show quite well. Read the full article on the Times’ web site.

Dan Tyminski will be the interview guest on this morning’s (7/4) edition of Lonesome Pine RFD on WFDU-FM in the New York City market. Host Carol Beaugard caught up with Dan when he and his crack band were in NYC for a show on June 24. Dan stopped by the studio the day before and recorded the interview.

Carol offered a taste of their discussion…

“Dan talked about his early days as a mandolin player and vocalist with The Lonesome River Band. We spoke at length about the new album and Dan shared why he chose many of the songs included on the project and what the songs meant to him. We also reviewed his work in the movie ‘O Brother Where Art Thou’ and his experience working with George Clooney, the Coen Brothers and T-Bone Burnett.”

The show is broadcast from 9:00 a.m. to noon (EDT) on 89.1 FM in the NYC area, and streamed live online at WFDU.fm.

Carol also sent along a few photos she took at the band’s 6/24 concert at the Blender Theater in New York.

Rhonda Vincent fans can catch two of her new live performances online.

CMT.com’s Unplugged at Studio 330 features an episode with five live-in-the-studio songs and a number of interview clips with Rhonda. They play Gotta Start Somewhere, Good Thing Going, The Water Is Wide, Hit Parade Of Love and Bluegrass Saturday Night from her hew release, Good Thing Going.

During the interview, Rhonda talks about getting to sing with country superstar Kenny Chesney on the new release, and having teen pop megastar Miley Cyrus appear in her 2003 video for If Heartaches Had Wings (see YouTube clip below).

You can also see Rhonda and The Rage on the AT&T blue room in a pared-down presentation of Good Thing Going, I’m Leavin’ and I Will See You Again. Fiddler Hunter Berry wasn’t able to make this taping, and Daniel Grindstaff fills in for banjoist Kenny Ingram. There is also an interview segment with Rhonda in the blue room.

Here’s that video from 2003. Watch for Miley as the young girl, well before her Disney-fueled notoriety.

Brance posted a few weeks back about the online fan poll on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight web site to choose among nine new versions of the venerable diamond classic, Take Me Out To The Ballgame.

The competition was arranged to mark the 100th anniversary of the song’s first appearance, and the show’s producers asked nine popular artists to submit their versions.

Among the contestants is an entry from Chris Thile and Punch Brothers, who offer a take on the song featuring the well-known bluegrass combo of banjo, mandolin, fiddle, guitar and bass.

Semi-final voting ends this weekend, and the top three videos will be announced on the Sunday July 6 edition of Baseball Tonight (7:00 p.m. EDT), with a final winner named on July 13.

Here’s the Punch Brothers video entry for your consideration…

Be sure to vote for Punch Brothers and help Baseball Tonight honor two traditions with their winner - baseball… and bluegrass!

Here’s a video that’s simply too precious for words…

Our friend Dave Hollender found this on Dailymotion.com. It’s a clip of Donna and Ronnie Stoneman from 40 plus years ago.

Here how the clip is described at Dailymotion…

“Here’s a Bluegrass-Hullabaloo crossover performance: Donna Stoneman of the Stoneman Family shredding it on her electric mandolin to Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Stomp while her sister Ronnie yelps, gyrates and beats her tambourine, from an unknown 1960’s TV show. The lecherous gentleman wandering into the recording session is none other than Spike Jones sideman Doodles Weaver. This clip may be from the Marty Robbins movie Road To Nashville.”

Update 4:15 p.m. - Richard Thompson tells us that that clip was most assuredly from The Road To Nashville.

The Chapmans are hoping to use the leverage of viral marketing to help promote their next recording project.

They have a new single release, which is being offered as a free digital download online. The track is a remake of Redwood Hill, the Gordon Lightfoot song made into a bluegrass classic by the Country Gentlemen in 1972.

They don’t yet have a new CD on the horizon, but Jeremy Chapman tells us that they wanted to remind everyone that they were still kicking with a new song.

“The main reason for the single was that we have been hearing a lot from fans and DJ’s wanting to know if we had anything new since Simple Man in the works. With the time we took off in the early part of the year to allow John to be home for the birth of his first baby, we decided to get into the studio to cut a few tracks while we were building a new team on the business end, as far as agent, management, and record label. One of the tunes we cut was Redwood Hill, which is one that we had grown up listening to the Country Gentlemen do. We thought we would keep pretty close to their arrangement to kind of pay homage to them.

Then as well as mailing it to a number of bluegrass radio stations, we wanted to make it available to all our fans through our new website for free. Just to hold them over until we have a full project finished.”

Listen to the new track on the band’s reverbnation site, where you can also download it for free.

Following John’s recent post concerning the upcoming release of Africa To Appalachia, the Los Angeles Times Music Blog conducted an interview with Jayme Stone recently.

The interview was published last Thursday. The primary focus is an exploration of the connections between American banjo/folk music and traditional African folk music.

An aspect of the interview I found particularly interesting is the discussion of how traditional African folk music is beginning to disappear due to the influence of more contemporary music forms.

…everyone wants to play electric guitar or drums and listen to rap. Those who have access to those things get affected by it. Sometimes the pop music that makes it over there is the more commercial, less musical stuff, and a lot of tradition is being lost. I met a 70-year-old elder musician in one village who put his hand on my heart and said, “The work you’re doing is so important, and young people aren’t doing it.”

Sounds very similar to sentiments I’ve heard expressed right here in the south-eastern US concerning the current state of bluegrass music in America. Small world…

If you’ll be near your computer, there are a number of online shows you might want to catch today (6/20).

At 11:00 a.m. this morning, Jimmy Gaudreau will join host Carol Beaugard on Lonesome Pine RFD, broadcast from 9:00 a.m. to noon on 89.1 FM in the New York City area. Jimmy is on tour now with Moondi Klein supporting their duo Rebel CD, 2:10 Train. They are opening for Emmylou Harris over the course of her summer tour.

You can find their tour dates on the duo’s web site.

If you aren’t in the NYC area, Lonesome Pine RFD is streamed live online at WFDU.fm.

At noon, The Lovell Sisters will perform live on WDVX’s Blue Plate Special. The show originates from Knoxville, TN and is broadcast in that market at 102.9 FM - and via live streaming online.

Blue Plate Special airs at noon (EDT).

For those who subscribe to Sirius satellite radio, here’s another one worth your attention.

The Infamous Stringdusters will be on Sirius Bluegrass tonight at 8:00 p.m. (EDT). The broadcast will feature a live set recorded last week at Nashville’s Station Inn where the guys run through all of the songs from their new CD, The Infamous Stringdusters, plus a couple of bluegrass favorites.

Should you miss tonight’s show, it will replay on Sirius Bluegrass on Saturday (6/21) at 10:00 p.m. and on Sunday (6/22) at 4:00 p.m. (all times eastern).

Sirius Bluegrass can be found at channel 65 on your Sirius Satellite Radio receiver. They also offer a subscription-based online service, Sirius Internet Radio, and free 3-day trials are offered to non-subscribers.

Chris Thile isn’t the only bluegrass picker with a pure love for baseball. Sam Bush is another, and his fondness for America’s pastime was recently chronicled on the Baseballisms site.

Sam’s video remembrances of growing up playing baseball are especially poignant, as the first was posted just after Fathers Day, and in it Sam fondly remembers his dad, Charlie, who passed away just last week.

In the second video clip, Sam discusses his passion for the St. Louis Cardinals and the mixed feelings he experienced when the Boston Red Sox, his dad’s favorite team, met them in the 2004 World Series.

I suppose I should admit that I also have a lifelong love for baseball. The start of spring training each April is always a happy time, and a reminder that both the baseball and the bluegrass festival seasons are just around the corner.

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle has put together a series of multimedia portraits of acts performing on the 2008 Rochester Jazz Festival. The act chosen as the highlight from Sunday’s (6/15) performance was the Alison Brown Quartet.

As many of our readers know, Alison is a former banjoist with Alison Krauss & Union Station who now fronts a jazz quartet with her husband, Gary West, on bass, John Burr on piano and Larry Atamanuik on drums. Brown and West also manage the label Compass Records, which focuses on alternative acoustic, Celtic and bluegrass music.

The Democrat and Chronicle piece includes a number of exceptional photographs of the band preparing for and performing a set at the festival with a running voice over by the band members. Each describes their entry into the music world with a few choice reflections on the music as well.

Watch it online (click on Alison’s photo, upper right).

Dan Tyminski will celebrate today’s (6/17) release of Wheels, his new Rounder CD, with an appearance on the Tuesday Opry in Nashville. Their set will be during the show’s first segment, between 8:00-8:30 p.m. (EDT).

The Tuesday Opry broadcast is available over the air in the Nashville market on WSM AM 650, and simulcast worldwide via online streaming at wsmonline.com. It can also be heard live on XM channel 11 (XM Nashville).

The new CD is in stores today, and available from online resellers. There are still no audio samples on the Rounder site, but two clips can be heard on Dan’s MySpace page, or samples from all 12 tracks in iTunes.

Once again, The Grand Ole Opry has some bluegrass to offer in this weekend’s broadcasts.

Friday night’s Opry (6/13) will feature performances from Mountain Heart, The Whites and Bobby Osborne & Rocky Top X-Press while Saturday (6/14) night has 3 Fox Drive and the Carolina Chocolate Drops on tap.

Kim Fox of 3 Fox Drive tells us that they will also be performing Saturday evening at the Opry Plaza Party, a free event just outside the Opry House that starts at 5:30 p.m.

“We’re really looking forward to the weekend as we’re flying our dad in for Father’s Day. Crossing our fingers that the weather holds out!!”

The Friday Opry is broadcast from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. (EST) and the Saturday show runs from 7:30 p.m. until 12:30 a.m. Both shows are available over the air in the Nashville market on WSM AM 650, on XM channel 11 (XM Nashville), and simulcast worldwide via online streaming at wsmonline.com.

Speaking of Claire Lynch…

She will be joining Carol Beaugard on Lonesome Pine RFD this morning (6/13) at 11:00 a.m. to talk about all things Claire.

The show airs on WFDU-FM 89.1 FM in the New York city metropolitan area, and over on the Internet via live streaming.

Today’s (6/12) edition of Blue Plate Special on WDVX will feature a live (in-studio) set from The Infamous Stringdusters. Surely the guys will be featuring music from their new, self-titled CD, released just this week on Sugar Hill Records.

Blue Plate Special airs at noon (EDT). The show originates from Knoxville, TN and is broadcast in that market at 102.9 FM - and via live streaming online.

Speaking of the ‘Dusters…

The winners in our Grey Fox/Infamous Stringdusters contest have been chosen, and we will announce the winners here as soon as we hear back from them.

The Gibson Brothers stopped in at the studios of WAMU’s Bluegrass Country on Monday morning (6/2) and recorded an hour’s worth of music for broadcast on BluegrassCountry.org. On-air host Katy Daley tells us that the guys were crowded into their cozy studio space for the session, and she had the front row seat mere inches from the band.

They performed music from their new Sugar Hill CD, Iron & Diamonds, and chatted with Katy about all things Gibson.

You can catch their show during the second hour of Bluegrass Country’s Open Mic show, starting Saturday morning at 6:00 a.m. (6/7). The first hour features a set from The Whitetop Mountain Band.

After this coming week, the Gibsons set will switch into the online radio outfit’s Special Programming slot. The complete schedule for both shows can be found on the BluegrassCountry.org web site.

Since we first posted about Bluegrass Is My Second Language - A Year In The Life Of An Accidental Bluegrass Musician, the new book by John Santa, we’ve heard from readers who have been deeply touched by its story.

Well, John will be Friday’s (6/6) guest on Lonesome Pine RFD with Carol Beaugard on WFDU-FM (streamed online) for folks who would like to learn more about John and his mid-life conversion to the ways of the mandolin and bluegrass music.

John will join Carol at 10:00 a.m. on Friday to read some excerpts and discuss the book. They will also preview some music from his upcoming CD, The Blessing Of The Strings, which features songs from his book.

The show is broadcast from 9:00 a.m. to noon on 89.1 FM in the NYC area, and streamed live online at WFDU.fm.

John shared one thought about his upcoming interview…

“The irony of songs written from a book about North Carolina by North Carolina songwriters premiering in NEW YORK CITY (!!) is not lost on me.”