Brance and I are here in Nashville, and will begin posting news (and photos) as our IBMA schedules allow. We had intended to pass along a few bits last night, but apparently the folks at the hotel were flummoxed by the notion of any guest needing to have two computers online at the same time.

That’s now resolved, and we will start assembling and erecting our trade show exhibit shortly.

I’ll try to post photos of the many exhibit vendors setting up if the opportunity allows.

Brance and I are heading to Nashville, arriving Sunday afternoon at the scene of the upcoming IBMA World Of Bluegrass and Fan Fest.

We’ll post with whatever news we pick up on the ground, as well as any photos we are able to take and/or obtain on site.

Our comprehensive list of IBMA and IBMA-related events will be available all week on The Bluegrass Blog, and we’ll keep a link near the top of the left hand sidebar throughout the week. This list is searchable by keyword (arrtist name, sponsoring agency, etc), by day, and by event type. Your search results can be formatted to print - if you have a printer with you.

We encourage anyone who is attending the various IBMA-week events to post their impressions on The B, our user-dominated section of The Bluegrass Blog. Likewise, if you want to highlight something you think readers/attendees might want to catch during the week.

You’ll need to be a registered user to post on The B, but that is a free, quick and painless process. Once you are registered/logged in, you’ll see the “Add A Post” link in the navigation at the top of the page.

If you will be attending IBMA, please stop by and visit us at The Bluegrass Blog booth in the Exhibit Hall. See you there!

Just as we did last year, The Bluegrass Blog will offer live-blog coverage of the International Bluegrass Music Awards next Thursday (9/29) from The Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville. If you aren’t able to attend, or listen to the show live on XM, you can spend the evening here and find out who wins each award as it is announced.

We’ll post the results in real time, and will have photos available shortly after the conclusion of the show.

Now that commenting is enabled on all posts, you’ll also have the ability to share your thoughts about the IBMA members’ choices, or start your own discussion thread on The B.

The problems we experienced last year that prevented some visitors from reaching the site during the Awards Show live-blog have been precluded by some recent server changes. We anticipate no difficulties this year, even with greatly increased traffic on 9/29.

Mark your calendar, set a To Do prompt, and spend next Thursday evening with us - live from The Grand Ole Opry!

We posted last month about our plans to involve a number of intern bloggers on The Bluegrass Blog during IBMA week in Nashville. We have a few folks lined up, who will help us provide a variety of vantage points and impressions of the many World Of Bluegrass activities, but can bring a few more into the fold if there is an interest.

Please contact us if you will be attending and would like to participate - as a blogger, or a photographer. You can read a few more details in our original post.

The B. It’s here. Let me tell you about it.

The Bluegrass Blog will continue to be your source for bluegrass news. John and I will bring you the news daily here on The Bluegrass Blog as always. But while you’re here you might as well check out what other bluegrassers have to say about things. Instead of trying to keep up with a bunch of sites, just come in and sit down. You’re a Bluegrasser. You belong here.

The B is a new addition to The Bluegrass Blog that will allow you to read what others are saying, and contribute yourself. You see, The B is YOUR blog. That’s right, you get to blog in The B. If you are a registered user here at The Bluegrass Blog you can just login and start blogging. When you write a new post and submit it, John and I will read it over, add keyword tags as needed, and then publish it - unless we feel that it is not germane to bluegrass or acoustic music, or would be offensive to our readers.

Once we publish your post, it’ll show up in The B, with your picture next to it if you’ve registered for a gravatar. Other people will then be able to comment on what you wrote, and of course, you can respond to them.

We’ve also added a prominent link to The B in the header navigation at the top of every page on The Bluegrass Blog, so you should have no problems getting there. The Home link will always take you back to the front page - where you are now.

A word about comments. (more…)

We’ve been working hard behind the scenes and we’ve got something new for you today. The B is now live. Let me tell you about it.

The B is a dedicated section of The Bluegrass Blog where you can contribute. All users are now Contributors with the ability to draft posts for The B. You can write about anything you want to talk about in the bluegrass world. John and I will review all the submissions, take care of some back end stuff like adding keywords, and then publish them. If a submission is especially well written and thoughtful we may even upgrade it to the front page of The Bluegrass Blog.

All new posts from this point forward, including posts on both The Bluegrass Blog and The B, are now open to comments. Comments are no longer moderated, you can say whatever you want. There is only one rule. No obcenities. Your first comment will be moderated, to make sure you’re a real person, and after that they will be published as soon as you hit the submit button.

This is a new approach to blogging and discussion in the Bluegrass world. All you have to do is login to The Bluegrass Blog and you’ll be right where you need to be. There are some more details and instructions for drafting posts available once you login. Let’s hear what you have to say…

If you’ve signed up for a gravatar for use on The B you may have noticed that it takes a while for them to be approved. I know that a number of you have signed up for them, so I thought I would encourage patience. It took nearly a week for my own gravatar to be approved and rated.

Here’s how this works. You go to Gravatar.com and sign up for a free account. Be sure to use the same email address you used when registering for this site. Once your account is set up with Gravatar.com, you can upload a picture to use as an icon next to your username everytime you post a comment here on The Bluegrass Blog. You’ll also want it for use on The B. The good folks over at Gravatar.com will take a look at the photo you uploaded and give it a rating, much like a movie rating G, PG, R, etc. We have decided to only allow G and PG rated gravatars here on The Bluegrass Blog. But his way we don’t have to police it, they do.

Another nice feature is that if you belong to any other sites that use gravatars, your gravatar will automatically display if your user account at that site matches the email address you used at Gravatar.com.

We’ll enable the gravatars in comments when The B launches, which will be very soon.

Thank you to everyone that has responded to our request for reader feedback. We’ve gotten some great responses and we’ll share some of them with you below. Some of the ideas that you guys had were really good and we’re looking at ways to incorporate them in the near future. We’ve decided to keep the Feedback Form open for one more week, so if you haven’t yet told us what you love or hate about The Bluegrass Blog, please do so.

So let’s hear what some of you have said so far:

I like all the latest info fast. I am a subscriber to the bluegrass magazines, and I usually know the latest information before I get my latest subscription. ~ Cody

The one thing that I really don’t care about is that IBMA thing. You know, banjo player of the year etc. I don’t care about that stuff. ~ Ken

I also love all the IBMA information updated as quickly as it is. A lot of the times you have it posted before they do. ~ Christy

More…’Debate’ opportunities. The “Live Recording/Downloading Debate” was enlightening as to how different bluegrass folks percieve this issue. ~ Joe

Absolutely awesome, I am addicted to your blog!!!! ~ Ken

We have a 60g iPod and very much enjoy the podcasts. It’s a nice break from music, on a long trip. ~ Jenny

I love the ability to download the GrassCast. That way I can listen to it at my convenience, and again, and again. ~ Philip

And here’s my personal favorite:

It’s blog-a-licious! ~ Casey

We’ve been blogging for a little over a year, and you’ve been reading for all that time. Now we’d like to know what you think. We’ve put up a Feedback Form and we’re asking for you, the reader, to help us make The Bluegrass Blog even better by telling us what you like and dislike about it.

Three comments is all we’re asking of you. Tell us you love something, tell us you hate something, give us an idea for something you’d like to see, we want to hear it all.

We have a limited about of time so we’re going to limit the feedback to the first 100 responders. We’ll turn it off after that and absorb what you tell us. So if you have something you want to tell us, hurry over to our Feedback Form and make your voice heard!

This morning you may notice a new image in the upper left corner of the blog. The B…coming soon. The B is what we’ve been working on, it’s a whole new approach to blogging that involves you. We’ve got some exciting things planned here at The Bluegrass Blog and you are a big part of what’s happening. So let’s get ready.

The first step is this. If you’re not a registered user, you’ll need to get registered before any of this applies to you. If you are a registered user then login to your account and you’ll notice a few changes. What you’ll want to do is fill out all the information about yourself. Make sure the About Yourself section is filled out. It’s a little bio about who you are, you might want that soon.

You’ll also notice that we’ve included support for gravatars now. If you don’t have one already, you’ll see the default. Click on that image and you’ll be taken to the gravatars website where you can sign up for a gravatar. Be sure to use the same email address you use here on The Bluegrass Blog. Then when you post comments in the future, you’re gravatar will show up next to your name.

Keep an eye out here for more updates as we get closer to launching The B.

Our apologies to anyone who tried to visit The Bluegrass Blog on Sunday, and was unable to reach us. Those issues have been resolved. We are still finishing some major software and domain upgrades, however, and may be a bit late in getting new posts up today.

We have a terrific GrassCast interview with Rhonda Vincent that will be posted later today, so be sure to check back and listen.

Thanks, everyone, for your patience.

Folks I’m working hard on some website maintenance issues. The GrassCast this week will be late in coming as I probably won’t get to it till tomorrow morning.

I’ll working on the site this evening and making some fairly major changes, all on the back-end. I don’t expect any interruptions in service for you, but I wanted to warn you up front that this would be taking place.

The changes I’m making require that I temporarily disable user registration, so if you haven’t registered yet and you want to, you’ll need to wait till tomorrow.

Thanks

A quick note for any organizations, associations, artists, agencies or companies sponsoring events during the IBMA World Of Bluegrass in Nashville next month:

We will again this year be compiling and posting the full IBMA week schedule on The Bluegrass Blog. This will include the official IBMA events (seminars, workshops, meetings, exhibit hours, after hours showcases) as well as any being sponsored by individuals or other organizations, during the day or in the evenings. This schedule will be accessible from The Bluegrass Blog during IBMA week, and will be searchable by day, sponsoring organization, performer, location, time, etc. If you will have a computer with you that week, you’ll be able to see what’s on tap anywhere, anytime.

If you will be hosting any special events that week, either on site at the Convention Center/Renaissance Hotel, or at an off-site venue in the immediate vicinity, we would like to include it in our schedule. Please send us the date, time and location of your event, the name of the sponsoring organization, and any performers who will appear. If there will be multiple performers, please also include performance times.

It will greatly assist us in setting up this database if you can send information as soon as possible. It is far more efficient for us to edit or update listings as changes are made than to be faced with adding dozens of events a few days before things get cranking in Nashville.

We will have access to this database while we are at IBMA, and can enter last minute changes at almost any time. This allows us to provide the most accurate, complete and user-friendly schedule of events available to attendees at WOB. Of course, we will depend on the folks hosting these many events to contact us, both with their initial schedules, and with on-site updates as well.

Please use our Contact Form to initiate communication, and we will respond with an email address where you can send your schedule(s) and any updates that may be required.

Brance and I are motoring back to VA from Nashville today, so posting will be a bit light. That means we will also be slow to respond to email or approve comments, but we will attend to it as soon as we can late this afternoon or evening.

We hope everyone enjoyed our coverage of the IBMA Awards nominations announcements from Nashville this week.

When we first got to Nashville on Monday afternoon, Brance and I were able to stop by the studios of XM Satellite Radio’s Bluegrass Junction at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and meet with host Kyle Cantrell. We have corresponded many times with Kyle, and enjoyed having a chance to meet face to face, and speak in person for the first time.

If you were tuned in to Bluegrass Junction on Monday afternoon, you may have heard us on XM with Kyle - a number of readers have written to say that they did. He was kind enough to play several tracks from the new Acoustic Endeavors CD, On A Farm, which he has featured a good bit on XM this year. Kyle also talked with Brance and I about The Bluegrass Blog, and prompted us to decribe the site and what we do here us to his listeners.

Thanks to Kyle and XM Nashville Executive Producer, Joyce Rizer, for their hospitality. See you guys next month at IBMA!

This morning as I was browsing the comments I realized it would be difficult to refer to a specific previous comment. To assuage this I modified the way comments are displayed. Now when viewing comments you will notice the comment author’s name along with the date and time posted have been moved to the top of the comment rather than the bottom where they were before. I also added an identifying number to each comment. So now you may refer to comment #whatever when referencing someone else’s comment in your own.

Enjoy…

Yesterday afternoon I made a couple little changes to the site and things got funny for a few minutes. Here’s what I changed.

I updated the Hot Topics box in the sidebar (just below the second ad) to be automated. Instead of being manually updated it is now running off a script that determines which topics are Hot based on a number of factors including: page views, feed views, comments, and trackbacks. All from the last 30 days so it stays current.

The result of this is that you can now see which topics are being read and commented on the most by other readers. I hope this proves useful and interesting for you.

Following up on the recent post from Brad Harper about file trading of live show audio, in response to one by Megan Lynch, I want to add a few words about comments, and why we typically do not allow them on The Bluegrass Blog. I also want to explain a bit more about outside Guest Contributions, which we publish on occasion.

After Megan posted some strong feelings about trading live shows in her Guest Contribution on Wednesday (not in favor), we heard from readers who wanted to chime in, and were frustrated by the fact that, unlike many other blogs, we do not allow for comments. Brad Harper wrote in to share the fact that he had used his own blog to comment on her post (in favor of file trading), and agreed to allow us to re-publish his thoughts as a second Guest Contribution.

We continue to welcome Guest Contributions, both from folks working in the bluegrass/acoustic music industry, and from fans and amateur/semi-pro pickers who have something they want to share with our readers. Cogency, timeliness and the appropriateness of the subject matter will be crucial to them being accepted for publication, and prospective contributors are invited to contact us if they have an interest in composing a brief essay for publication.

We have generally eschewed comments for individual posts for several reasons. Initially, we wanted to avoid the sort of “Shut up!” and “What an idiot!!” responses that are too often a big part of blog commenting. We did try comments on certain posts where we felt like it would be appropriate, but required that commenters be registered as users on our site, use their actual names in any comments they wish to make, and that they be moderated by The Bluegrass Blog before they appeared on the site.

As it transpired, not many of our readers felt the compulsion to post comments, perhaps because of those restrictions, so we have gradually discontinued enabling them. In response to some reader requests, however, both of the posts referenced above have now been enabled to allow for reader comments, and anyone who wishes to chime in is welcome to do so, as long as you are willing to abide by our comment policies.

All comments are moderated and must be approved before publication, and anonymous comments will not be allowed. We want to foster conversation via opinion posts, but insist that it be open, civil and clearly credited.

In the past few months, we have also discovered that a pernicious spambot was able to penetrate our registration filter and post some plainly vile pornographic links as comments. Of course, since the comments require moderation, none of them get through to your eyes, but it both further soured us on comments, and got us thinking in a new direction where reader participation is concerned.

We are currently developing a major upgrade to The Bluegrass Blog that will allow our readers to be more active in discussions of posts we publish here. Look for more news about The B in the next few weeks.

Follow-up, 10:15 a.m.: Commenting has been enabled for this post as well, should anyone wish to add a thought.

Sorry folks… I have been unable to get this week’s GrassCast episode encoded and uploaded for delivery. The next three episodes have been recorded and edited, with the expectation that I could set them for delivery during Brance’s absence, Unfortunately, it seems there is a technical obstacle which I have been unable to overcome.

I’ll spare you the lengthy description of the file-corruption-during-ftp-transfer problems I have encountered, and simply say that if Brance is able to find Internet access when he stops over in Germany tonight, or when he arrives in Poland on Sunday, I will get the next few GrassCast episodes ready for distribution.

Failing that, we’ll make them available all at once when Brance is safely back in the studio - where I need him desperately!

Please accept my most sincere apology for the delay.

Well, I’m heading out this morning for about two weeks in Poland. I don’t expect to have much in the way of Internet access, nor much of a chance to keep tabs on the bluegrass news, so I’ll have to leave you guys in John’s capable hands. I know that he has his plate full right now, so please be patient if posts on The Bluegrass Blog are a bit lighter than usual, or appear a little later in the day while I’m away.

My wife, Lauren, and I will be escorting the youth group from our church to Lwowek Slaski in Poland for a mission trip, and should be back on August 3.

If I see or hear any bluegrass while I’m there, I’ll fill you all in upon my return.

John adds: We’ll see how capable my hands may be when I try to convert and post this afternoon’s GrassCast. I have the training, but not the experience. This is clearly Brance’s milieu.