Bill Nershi, he of String Cheese Incident fame, is embarking on a whirlwind tour along with Scott Law, starting on Monday (11/16) in Nashville. They’ll do 9 dates in 10 days covering Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan and Illinois.

They will perform as an acoustic duo, with both contributing on guitar and vocals. Nershi and Law recorded together in 2006 as Honkytonk Homeslice, along with Nershi’s wife Jillian.

Here is a taste of their show.

Van Ghost will open each show on the tour. You can details on all these dates on the Nershi-Law web site.

The Blue Ridge Parkway is a venerable institution in our part of the world. This scenic drive runs 469 miles, from Shenandoah National Park (south of Charlottesville, VA) to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina (southwest of Asheville).

The road winds through the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests in Virginia, and the Pisgah and Nantahal in North Carolina. Almost every mile avoids population centers of any kind, and with easy access off and on along the way, is a tourist favorite for its spectacular mountain vistas of the Blue Ridge region.

Of course this region has been home to a great deal of bluegrass and old time music, and the seminal artists who defined it. The National Parks Service and the National Council for the Traditional Arts jointly operate a venue near Galax, VA to acknowledge the musical history of the area, The Blue Ridge Music Center.

The Parkway is celebrating 2010 as their 75th Anniversary with a full year’s worth of special events along the way. Things kick off this Saturday with a benefit show near Asheville, NC featuring what will surely be a memorable musical aggregation.

Billed as The Blue Ridge All Stars, this one-time grouping of musicians born and bred in the VA/NC mountain region includes Doyle Lawson on mandolin, Sammy Shelor on banjo, Bryan Sutton on guitar, Jim Van Cleve on fiddle and Tim Surrett on bass.

Jim told us that Bryan Sutton put the group together.

“Bryan Sutton called me back in April or May about this show, and it’s something I’ve been looking forward to ever since then! It’s a big honor to be involved in a BIG SHOW of this nature, and the band Bryan has assembled will be a BLAST to play with!!!”

Singer/songwriter Nanci Griffith is also on the show, which will be held in the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium at the Asheville Civic Center. Proceeds from the show will go towards the funding for the 75th Anniversary events during 2010.

You can find full concert details on the BRP 75th site.

Casey Henry has agreed to send us occasional updates from The American Revival Tour, where she is performing with Dixie Bee-Liners. Also on the tour are Sierra Hull & Highway 111 and headliners Uncle Earl.

The second week of the American Revival Tour (The Dixie Bee-Liners, Sierra Hull and Highway 111, and Uncle Earl) started in the cute, cute little town of Newberry, SC. Since we had driven down from Virginia on Tuesday, we had all Wednesday morning before the show to do whatever we wanted. Hiking was what we Bee-Liners wanted to do, so we Googled a hiking spot and took off for Lynch’s Woods at the crack of dawn. (It’s funny how nine o’clock can feel like the crack of dawn…) After a refreshing couple of hours stomping through the woods in the crisp fall air we all felt refreshed and renewed.

The hotel in Newberry is directly across the street from the Opera House, and I cannot express how awesome it is to be able to walk from one to the other. We carried our instruments across the street, soundchecked, then came back to our rooms to change, so we didn’t have to haul all our suitcases into the dressing rooms. The Opera House is really old, has been beautifully renovated, and is the only theater I’ve ever seen that has individual chairs for the side seating. Someone commented, “It looks like a president could be shot here,” somewhat morbidly referring to its resemblance to Ford’s Theater. The crowd was disappointingly small, but it was a Wednesday night, after all.

I’m getting the feeling that this tour is a well-kept secret. Those who know about it and come just love it, but not that many people know! I talked to a local banjo-player friend of mine after we played the Orange Peel in Asheville and she said she only heard about the show two or three days before, when it’s been booked for months!

While on tour there are always unexpected things that need to be taken care of, errands that need to be run, fires that need to be put out (metaphorically speaking!). Sierra experienced a computer crash leaving her out of touch for a few days, and seriously hampering her doing her school work while on the road. She and her manager Claire Armbruster took off early one morning so that they could stop by a Mac store before load-in time. Her computer required a new hard drive, which the warranty covered, but it’s back up and running. (more…)

Rhonda Vincent had a concert this past Thursday (11/5) at The Ryman in Nashville, opening for Willie Nelson. The show was part of Willie’s current tour in support of his latest CD, American Classic, released in August of this year. It’s a collection of standards and show tunes in his inimitable style.

Rhonda posted a number of photos from the show on her Facebook page, and there is also a very nice slide show of images online, taken by Heather Byrd of The Tennessean.

Looks like it was a fun show.