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.
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.
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.”
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.
posted by John on 07.04.08 @ 9:18 am Tag: Grascals
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.
Mark your calendars and set your TiVos if you aren’t accustomed to stay up this late. The Late Late Showtypically 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.
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.
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.
posted by John on 05.27.08 @ 9:43 am Tags: CMT, Dan Tyminski
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.
posted by John on 05.24.08 @ 1:33 pm Tag: Del McCoury
Our friend Doug McKelway, who anchors the local news broadcasts for WJLA TV in Washington, DC, was invited to The Del McCoury Band’s sound check yesterday prior to the start of DelFest in Cumberland, MD.
Doug is also a fine banjo picker, and he got a chance to jam with the band some in the news segment he prepared from his visit.
You can watch the roughly four minute clip (after a brief advertisement) at WJLA.com.
Last month we told you about a PodCast on UNC-TV that provided a glimpse of the work that goes into making a fiddle.
Now we learn of another instance where television has highlighted the craftsmanship associated with the building of musical instruments. In this latest view of the life of luthiers Nashville Public Television visited Crafters of Tennessee at their workshops in Old Hickory. What they found there was aired in a recent Tennessee Crossroads programme.
Crafters of Tennessee is run by Mark Taylor, legendary resonator guitarist Robert ‘Tut’ Taylor’s son.
I asked Mark about the programme …..
“Tennessee Crossroads TV show contacted me a few years back and heard of my building musical instruments here in Tennessee. They approached me about doing a story on me. They came and filmed about 5 hours, and then aired the TV show. It has enlightened many people of our existence, since I have building for almost 40 years. They just recently re-aired the show this past week, and I also have that TV show on YouTube.”
The Crafters of Tennessee website has a product listing, picture gallery and a history page among its features. They build a variety of banjos, resophonic guitars, guitars and mandolins.
Word had reached us about a banjo player being featured in a number of recent episodes of The Jerry Springer Show - the notorious “reality TV” show based in Chicago. The banjo picking was intended not as a performance, but to add a flavor to a hillbilly-themed episode.
When we further learned that the banjo player in question was Greg Cahill, founder of Special Consensus, President of the International Bluegrass Music Association and long-time Chicago resident, I knew there had to be an interesting story behind the Springer appearances.
When I reached him a few days ago, his first reaction was “I was hoping to keep this under the radar, but it seems the word is definitely out.” Knowing Greg to be a serious musician and a truly dignified gentleman, I asked him to fill us in on the back story, which he has graciously agreed to do.
“I have been involved in the Chicago studio scene for about 30 years – which is a primary reason for not moving to Nashville years ago (in addition to having family here). I have played on countless commercial jingles, recordings and radio and television shows in Chicago studios over the years, but the majority of commercial studio work began moving to Los Angeles at the beginning of the New Millennium (as it had moved from New York City to Chicago in the 1990s). There remain a small number of quality studios in Chicago and I am very fortunate to continue to maintain my position as a first call banjo player (in spite of spending about 150-160 days a year on the road with The Special Consensus). My studio connection has afforded me the opportunity to play the banjo on various television show soundtracks (including the Oprah show); it is because of this connection that I was contacted to play the banjo on the Jerry Springer Show, which appears on the NBC network.
I was very reluctant to accept the offer at first because I find it extremely offensive when people make fun of people publicly (and I never watch the show for that reason). But a producer of the Springer show contacted me personally to assure me that the folks who appear on the show are fully aware of the presentation of the show and are happy to be part of it; the purpose of the show is simply to have fun. My primary concern was that I would jeopardize my studio connections, especially with NBC, if I refused to appear on the show so I agreed to make an appearance. Part of my agreement with the producers was that I would wear a hat and that my name would not be listed in any show credits. (more…)
Finding bluegrass music content on television is always a challenge, but that challenge just got a whole lot easier. BlueHighways TV announced today that it has signed a multi-year distribution agreement with Comcast Cable. This will make BlueHighways’ linear and Video On Demand services available to all Comcast subscribers.
Stan Hitchcock, Chairman and CEO of BlueHighways TV commented on what the agreement means to the company.
Our agreement with Comcast is an important affirmation for BlueHighways TV. We are confident that our Americana roots music, back roads travel and cultural programming will resonate with Comcast subscribers, and we are excited about the opportunities our new relationship with Comcast presents.
Spearheaded by Hitchcock and bluegrass legend Ronnie Reno, BHTV includes programming featuring American roots music such as bluegrass, blues, folk western, gospel and traditional country. It also has programming that revolves around rural American lifestyle.
A number of programs the network offers include bluegrass music.
Heart To Heart - BlueHighways TV Founder Stan Hitchcock draws upon his musical heritage in this 30-minute conversation program where he sits with the stars and old legends of country, gospel, western and bluegrass to talk and play the music that has shaped their lives.
Old Country Church - An inspirational tribute to American roots told through traditional, country and bluegrass gospel music and stories from church elders and historians.
Reno’s Old Time Music Festival - Bluegrass music is enjoying an American renaissance, and this 30-minute program celebrates that rebirth with riveting live acoustic performances featuring Ronnie Reno and the Reno Tradition and a variety of guest music legends.
Woodsongs - Live from the Kentucky Theater in Lexington, this 60-minute program features the best in Bluegrass and Folk music.
If you are already a Comcast subscriber, look for BHTV to soon be available in your area.
posted by John on 05.16.08 @ 9:49 am Tag: Blue Highway
MiND TV, based in Philadelphia, PA, is an independent public television initiative with an interesting twist. All of the content which is broadcast on TV (Channel 34 in Philly) or streamed online is made up of 5 minute segments.
Four segments have recently been produced that feature Blue Highway. Each begins with a portion of the short documentary on the band produced by Craig Havighurst - which can be viewed in its entirety here on The Bluegrass Blog - followed by a live performance of one song from a live concert.
There is no link that will take you to all four Blue Highway clips, but you can follow the four links below to watch them online.
GAC is partnering with Music Nation and their Original Signal Recording label, to manage the competition. Their goal is to select the next American country music star, first from among video and mp3 entries submitted by July 14, and then among six finalists selected to appear in a two-part live TV elimination September 3 and 10.
The finalists will be chosen through a series of head-to-head online votes, with entrants randomly pitted against another. From May 23 through July 21, two winners will be chosen each week - one by online ballot, and the other chosen by the show’s staff.
The 16 semi-finalists will be winnowed to six by a celebrity panel of judges when The Next GAC Star premiers on June 1, with these six moving on to the live finals in September.
The winner, chosen by the television audience, will receive a recording contract with Original Signal and a music video to be aired on GAC. Of course, all six finalists will receive exposure on the two final episodes of the show, and selected submission videos will be aired during the semi-final shows.
Amanda Pitts with Music Nation told us that bluegrass artists are encouraged to enter! Video or audio submissions can be uploaded on the Music Nation site.
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).
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With gas prices making festival attendance more doubtful, for many, bluegrass on television perhaps becomes more attractive than hitherto.
The 
