The Grascals will be performing live today (8/29) on the News at Noon program on Chicago’s WGN TV. WGN is carried on most US basic cable packages and many satellite packages as well.

They will be highlighting songs from their new CD, Keep On Walkin’ which has been a fixture on the Billboard bluegrass chart since its release.

Look for The Grascals on WGN at noon central time on Friday, August 29. WGN posts many video clips from the News at Noon show online, so keep an eye out there if you miss them live.

We posted a couple of months ago about The Wright Kids, a trio of young bluegrass pickers who have been selected to compete in the third season of NBC’s hugely popular show, America’s Got Talent.

The Wright Kids are just that - Sage (mandolin/fiddle) is 12, Baruch (guitar) is 9, and Levi (bass) is 6.

After being invited to audition for the show’s judges, the Wrights are set to appear on tonight’s (8/27) program, where they will perform live. Viewer voting this evening will determine whether they return to perform again on next week’s show.

You can hear audio samples from their new CD, Playing On The Job, on The Wright Kids web site, along with some video of them live on stage.

Far be it from us to suggest that you all tune in and cast a vote for the cute young grassers. Let your conscience be your guide, tonight at 8:00 p.m. (EDT).

We’re just saying…

The Grascals are scheduled to perform this Saturday (8/16) on The Grand Ole Opry, not only on the radio, but on the televised portion as well. They’ll be offering songs from their latest CD, Keep On Walkin’, and celebrating the two IBMA nominations they received yesterday.

An hour of Saturday’s Opry show is carried live on GAC TV, on Opry Live, which airs from 9:00-10:00 p.m. (EDT). The show will re-air on Sunday (8/17) at 1:00 a.m., again at noon and 7:00 p.m., and then again on Tuesday (8/19) at 8:00 p.m.

Catch the Opry radio show over the air from 8:00 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. at WSM 650 AM, broadcasting from Nashville, on XM channel 11 (XM Nashville), or via live streaming at wsmonline.com.

We mentioned yesterday that Rhonda Vincent was being considered in the second round of CMA voting for her duet with Gene Watson, an it turns out, The Gracsals are candidates in this last vote as well, in the Vocal Group Of The Year category.

Wouldn’t it be great to see several bluegrass acts among the CMA nominees?

WTTW channel 11 in Chicago recently aired a brief (7:30 in length) news story about Noam Pikelny of Punch Brothers. The piece ran as part of their Chicago Tonight programing.

The piece is essentially a short biographical work about Noam. It begins with Noam as a young child, his first experiences with the banjo, his first banjo teacher is briefly interviewed, and follows his career through the latest recording by Punch Brothers.

Chris Thile is interviewed as well and my favorite line from the news piece is uttered by Chris in regards to his writing of The Blind Leaving The Blind knowing that Noam was the banjo player he intended to perform the piece.

I didn’t really have to take what I perceived as the limits of the banjo into consideration.

I’ve embedded their video piece here on The Bluegrass Blog for easy viewing.

Singer/songwriter Donna Hughes was among the featured performers at last weekend’s Ossipee Valley Bluegrass Festival in Portland, ME.

To help promote their appearance, Donna and her guitarist, Rebecca Frazier, did a television spot for WCSH on July 26, which has been posted online. Donna did a version of Where Are You Darlin,’ from her Gaining Wisdom CD, and talked with the show hosts for a bit before singing Little Bluebird from her Same Old Me release.

In this clip, Rebecca shows why she has been gaining the attention of flatpickers since her days with Hit & Run Bluegrass.

Donna normally performs with a full band, but she and Rebecca went duo for this TV segment. Maybe the rest of the band had some trouble getting it together for a morning show?

I crossed paths with Cherryholmes a few days ago, and found time for a nice chat with patriarch, Jere Cherryholmes. He filled me in on what the band has been up to this summer, and what they have planned for the coming months.

Jere told me that the new band CD is nearly finished, with only the approval of the last few mixes required before it goes off for replication. Most of the material will be original, though he said that the band had wanted to include at least a couple of older songs.

“BJ had one that he had been wanting to record for a couple years, but it had never seemed appropriate to me. Now that he is 19, I guess it’s OK.”

The song is Devil In Disguise, which was recorded by JD Crowe & The New South back in 1973, and I heard BJ’s version on Sunday’s show at Grave’s Mountain in Virginia. It’s a fine tribute to the original, and will be featured on Cherryholmes III when it is released on Skaggs Family Records on September 30.

“Once we named the last album Cherryholmes II (Black & White), it seemed like we might as well keep on naming the new CDs that way. It worked well for Chicago, who made it to #18, and I hope we get there as well.”

The band has had a very busy 2008 on the road, and Jere mentioned that they had especially enjoyed being part of a number of country legends shows with the likes of Hank Williams Jr, Alabama and The Oak Ridge Boys. A friendship with the Oaks has blossomed of late, in part due to Joe Bonsall constantly nagging Cia for banjo lessons.

An Australian tour with The Oak Ridge Boys is being planned for 2009, with hopes of a North American tour to follow.

They are heading overseas now for a week long tour in England, running July 27 through August 1.

Jere also enjoyed doing a show that included bearded rockers, ZZ Top. I wondered if his young progeny had any familiarity with the band before the show.

“All they knew was that they were the band that I was supposed to look like.”

The biggest news that Jere had to share regards the possibility that Cherryholmes might end up as reality TV stars. They recently had a television production company travel with the band for a weekend shooting a pilot that will be presented to a major cable network.

Now, that sounds like a hoot!

Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder will be the musical guests on tonight’s (7/22) edition of The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson, which airs on CBS at 12:30 a.m. (both Eastern and Pacific time).

They will perform Toy Heart from Honoring The Fathers Of Bluegrass. This CD, released earlier this year, is Ricky’s heartfelt tribute to the men who created bluegrass music in 1946 and ‘47 - Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, Chubby Wise, and Howard Watts - who comprised Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys during that period.

UPDATE 1:00 p.m. Thanks to reader Bret Young who reminded us that The Late, Late Show - like almost all of the late night talk shows - actually runs from 12:35-1:35 a.m. Though seemingly a minor difference, it can be very important if you use TiVo or some other video recorder to capture the show, as the musical guests typically appear in the final segment.

Online video of the SteelDrivers‘ performance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien this past Friday (7/18) can now be viewed on the NBC website.

To see their segment, click the July 18 show link, and then you’ll see a thumbnail image of the band in the video timeline.

NBC maintains these archives for about two weeks online, so the SteelDrivers’ set should be available until the end of July.

The SteelDrivers will be tonight’s (7/18) musical guests on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, which airs at 12:30 a.m. on NBC television.

Since their debut release earlier this year, the band has gathered one stellar review after another for their blending of blues-inflected original songs with bluegrass instrumentation.

The SteelDrivers consist of Mike Henderson on mandolin, guitar and vocals, Chris Stapleton on guitar and vocals, Tammy Rogers on fiddle and vocals, Richard Bailey on banjo, and Mike Fleming on bass.

Well… the vote is in and Punch Brothers were defeated in the ESPN Baseball Tonight band competition by country singer Gretchen Wilson.

The contest was in honor of the 100th anniversary of the venerable Take Me Out To The Ballgame, written by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilze in 1908. Several popular musical acts were invited to submit their interpretations of the song, and though Punch Brothers made it into the final three, they were unable to overcome the 9th inning rally by Gretchen Wilson fans in the online balloting.

Unfortunately, there is controversy brewing as Punch Brothers banjoist Noam Pikelny has suggested that a “swift boat” attack had been launched against them on the ESPN web site.

As he posted recently on the Punch Brothers site…

There has been a lot of buzz in inside circles that this campaign might go negative. The first round victory of Punch Brothers, the undisputed underdogs, with their primitive acoustic instruments and piecemeal wardrobes, sent shockwaves across the nation. People’s fears of negative smear attacks were unfortunately realized the morning of Tuesday July 7.

The first “Swiftboat” Style attack on Punch Brothers first surfaced on the ESPN.com messageboard:

“I remember the first time I heard about this… I was watching baseball tonight and the Punch Brothers came on. I remember thinking “man, who hired these circus freaks”… No offense too Punch Brothers fans, but do you really think you picked the right band????????? It isn’t that hard to do what they did. I mean I could probably pull some people off the street (”Hey homeless guys, do you have instruments, and also, do you know the lyrics to `Take Me Out To The Ballgame’?”) and no one would know the difference (again, no offense). ” -hockeyplyr99

As of 3:30 PM, EST, neither the Wilson or Ozomatli campaign have denounced the smear.

Major news outlets are scrambling trying to come up with any ties between the Punch Brothers and “Circus Freaks.” An image of Punch Brothers banjoist, Noam Pikelny, has surfaced online where he is seen performing in a Chicken Suit.

Pikelny immediately issued a statement: “I will not apologize for my misspent youth. I also will not allow Carnies or Circus Freaks to become the new scapegoat of American Society. I believe Americans will see right through these vicious smear tactics, and the good name of Punch Brothers will be restored.”

Folks, this is not over.

The Punch Brothers have advanced to the final three in the ESPN’s Take Me Out To The Ballgame - Battle of the Bands. The Brothers are now competing against Gretchen Wilson and Ozomatli for the top spot.

You can still vote for their bluegrass version of the song in this final round (even if you voted previously). The winner will be announced during the July 13th episode of Baseball Tonight.

The video of their performance is available on that page, but I’ve embedded it below as well.

Punch Brothers front man, Chris Thile, will be online this afternoon with the ESPN SportsNation folks for a live chat at 12:30 PM EST. You can submit questions ahead of time , or join the chat live during your lunch break today.

Look for the Grascals on Saturday, July 5, appearing on the CBS Saturday Early Show. They will perform the title track from their upcoming Rounder CD, Keep On Walkin’, due for a July 15 release.

Mandolinist Danny Roberts is looking forward to the show.

“It’s always a great opportunity for us to be on TV and any time that you can get to be in front of a national audience it’s not only good for The Grascals but good for Bluegrass music.”

The guys will have one other song during the program, which airs from 7:00-9:00 a.m., but they haven’t decided which yet. Perhaps they are waiting to see how they respond to a 3:00 a.m. call time at the CBS Studio in New York?

Jamie Johnson doesn’t seemed fazed by the early hour.

“We’re looking forward to meeting the morning public for once, and can’t wait to wake them up – like a big cup of Grascals coffee!! It’s an honor, indeed!!”

The Grascals will also be on CMT several times over this holiday weekend. They will appear several times throughout the day today on CMT’s special Southern Fried BBQ July 4 programming with southern cooking icon Hazel Smith - who also happens to be Grascal Terry Smith’s mom.

Then on Saturday night (7/6) from 5:00-8:00 p.m., CMT will air an edition of Hazel’s Southern Fried Flicks with The Grascals as special guests.

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.

With gas prices making festival attendance more doubtful, for many, bluegrass on television perhaps becomes more attractive than hitherto.

Recently, I was alerted to the appearance on Kentucky Educational Television’s Jubilee stage of California’s High Country, one of the West Coast’s premier traditional bluegrass bands. Being partial to their music, I thought I would investigate. I found a series of airings with sufficient interest to enthral fans of a variety of bluegrass persuasions for weeks to come.

Starting on Wednesday (6/25) with Lonesome River Band there’s a different band featured for each week through to the end of August, with each showing being available through to the weekend, Friday excepted in all cases.

A quick scan of the schedule reveals appearances on the programm by the aforesaid Butch Waller and High Country (commencing July 2), Foghorn Stringband (July 9), Berline-Crary-Hickman (July 16), Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper with Audie Blaylock (July 23), The Rascals (July 30), Adrienne Young & Little Sadie and Cadillac Sky (August 6), Danny Paisley & Southern Grass (August 13), The Fairwell Drifters and Blue Moon Rising (August 20) and Timberline Drive paired with Jake Quesenberry & The MacRae Brothers (commencing Thursday, August 28).

Each of these bands were recorded at last year’s River of Music Party in Owensboro, Kentucky.

The Jubilee series is a KET production, distributed to public television stations nationwide. The series is directed by Nick Helton and produced by Duncan Hart. Nancy Carpenter is executive producer.

More information about Jubilee is available online.

More information about KET programming and education services, as well as how to support KET, can be found at www.ket.org.

Long time readers of The Bluegrass Blog may recall a story we posted two years ago about a then 7 year old Baruch Wright, who was a finalist - and eventual winner - in Oscar Mayer’s Sing The Jingle, Be A Star competition. But he isn’t the only member of his family with a talent for music.

Baruch performs with his younger brother and older sister as The Wright Kids, a family bluegrass band based in Rocky Mount, VA.

The three of them, Sage, Levi and Baruch, have been selected to appear as contestants on the third season of America’s Got Talent, which airs on NBC television on Tuesday nights this summer. If they impress the judges in this round, they will move on to the semi-final round where audience voting will select the winner.

Sage is 12 and plays the mandolin and fiddle, Baruch is 9 and plays guitar, and Levi is 6 and plays bass.

The Kids have just released a new CD, Playing On The Job, which also features their older brother Mason, who is studying music in college. Audio samples can be found online.

In 2006, they won the youth band competition at the Galax Old Fiddler’s Convention, and their performance was captured and shared on YouTube.

Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder are taping an episode of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson today, set to air on July 22.

Mark your calendars and set your TiVos if you aren’t accustomed to stay up this late. The Late Late Show typically airs following The Late Show with David Letterman on CBS at 12:30 a.m. local time.

When Kentucky Thunder banjo picker Jim Mills mentioned the taping yesterday, he suggested that he will be snoring by the time the show comes on. The rest of us can look forward to their appearance on 7/22.

Mandolin master Chris Thile has had a long love affair with America’s favorite pastime. Thile’s great-great-grandfather is Baseball Hall of Famer, Sam Thompson. Thile himself, at one time, hoped to be a ball player. His first solo CD, Leading Off, featured a baseball diamond as part of the graphic content on the cover. His second CD, Stealing Second, also bears out the baseball connection.

Just last week John mentioned to me that he happened to see Chris on Baseball Tonight. Chris was performing solo at the time, but he’s taking the band out to the ball game tomorrow night.

An avowed Cubs fan, Thile is surely aware that 1908 was the last year his beloved Cubs won the World Series. 1908 was also the year the baseball seventh inning stretch anthem, Take Me Out to the Ballgame, was written. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the song, Baseball Tonight is holding a “battle of the bands” event. Nine different musical guests were asked to record a version of the song to air during different episodes of the show. Once all nine have been aired, fans will be able to watch them online and vote for their favorite.

I’m not sure what the winning performance wins, but if you’re a baseball fan and you’re reading this (I’m assuming you’re a bluegrass fan), then make sure you vote for Chris’ band, Punch Brothers. Their performance will be aired tomorrow, Wednesday, June 18, after the Cubs at Tampa Bay game. Let’s hope the Cubs win that game, and Chris wins the contest!

Voting will begin on June 29th. It will be narrowed to three performances on July 6th, and the winner will be announced on July 13th.

Go Punch Brothers (and Cubs)!

2008 is shaping up to be a nice year for Randy Kohrs. He won a Grammy this year as a producer of Jim Lauderdale’s latest bluegrass recording. In February he was a featured guest with cooking star Rachael Ray. His music video for the single Who’s Goin’ With Me reached #1 on CMTPure’s fan-voted countdown.

Tomorrow, Friday May 30, 2008, the Randy Kohrs Band will make its debut on the Grand Ole Opry.

Randy, and several members of his band, have performed on the Opry stage before as sidemen with other acts, but this will be Randy’s first appearance fronting his own band.

The band will perform at 8 PM Central Time.

Congrats Randy! Show em how it’s done.

The live (in studio) performance by The Dan Tyminski Band on CMT’s Studio 330 Up Close which we mentioned a few weeks back will be aired on CMT Pure starting later this week.

The songs and interview clips from the show can be viewed now online. Dan and his crack band play four songs from his upcoming Rounder release, Wheels (Heads You Win, Tails I Lose, Wheels, How Many Times and Knock, Knock), and he spends several minutes discussing the project and his move from side man to solo artist on camera.

The Tyminski broadcast on CMT Pure will debut on Saturday, May 31, at 10:00 a.m. (EDT), with encore presentations over the course of the following week (all times eastern US).

• Saturday, 5/31 - 10:00 a.m.
• Sunday, 6/1 - 12:30 a.m., 11:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m.
• Monday, 6/2 - 7:30 p.m.
• Tuesday, 6/3 - 11:00 a.m.
• Wednesday, 6/4 - 3:30 p.m.
• Thursday, 6/5 - 11:30 p.m.
• Friday, 6/6 - 1:00 p.m.

CMT Pure is a sister digital television network to CMT’s primary feed, which offers all-day music videos, as opposed to the broader lifestyle programming on CMT. It is available on most digital packages from cable and satellite providers.