Billboard is reporting a couple of new bits of information about the upcoming Merle Haggard acoustic/bluegrass CD we had told you about late last year. We had reported that this new recording would feature Hag and some of Nashville’s top bluegrass players on a set of familiar bluegrass songs, along with some new and classic Haggard compositions, to be released on the McCoury Music label.

New from Billboard is a project title (The Bluegrass Sessions), a projected release date (October 2, 2007) and word of a duet with Merle and Alison Krauss on a new Haggard song.

Most encouraging is the following quote from the article:

“I really enjoyed doing it,” says the 70-year-old Haggard, “and I hope this is just Volume One.”

You can read the brief piece at Billboard.com.