Jim VanCleve, fiddler with Mountain Heart, has had quite a busy 2010 so far. As related in our recent communications, it appears that there is no rest in sight. But Jim wouldn’t have it any other way.

In addition to recording demos for the next Mountain Heart album in January, and touring with the band, he’s made a trip to Scotland with Alecia Nugent. She asked him to join her group for a show at Celtic Connections Festival which takes place in Glasgow, Scotland every year.

“It’s a HUGE event with well over 100 acts, who appear at various venues throughout the city over the course of three weeks.  The sheer magnitude of such an undertaking is mind boggling!! The intent of the festival, is to celebrate the extremely rich Celtic musical heritage while opening the ears and hearts of Glaswegians to various musical forms from across the globe. It is indeed an epic event, and it is a great thing that they include Bluegrass and Americana music among the many featured styles they feature each year!

The band Alecia had assembled was an extremely fun bunch of guys (and gals) who most bluegrassers are well aware of: Tim Stafford and Rob Ickes (both from the band Blue Highway, who were also appearing at the festival) on guitar and resonator guitar, respectively, Ashby Frank, the young mando monster who was most recently with Special Consensus, Chris Wade, a young banjo player from Ohio, Sonya Rutledge, who played bass for quite some time with Sweethearts of the Rodeo, and myself.

The shows were extremely well received. Blue Highway and Alecia Nugent both got wonderful standing ovations, and glowing reviews all the way around, so I’d say they enjoyed bluegrass across the big pond quite a lot! We obviously had a great time hanging with our Blue Highway buddies, but also made a lot of new friends- who were a hoot!

Rob Ickes, Ashby Frank, and myself found ourselves in a bona fide Celtic jam/dance session in our hotel lobby late one night with these new friends.  It was quite a time, and I must say, they really know how to do it up right over there! So, us bluegrassers come by it honest!  I really hope to be able to return to the festival soon, as it was certainly a treat!”

Jim also has a fiddle workshop coming up in Stockesdale, NC next weekend. They are billing the two 3 hours sessions as “Jam With Jimmy” – a morning class for beginning/intermediate players, and an afternoon class for advanced fiddlers. The fee is $65 and each student is asked to bring their fiddle and expect to play some for Jim.

Later that evening, from 7:00-10:00 p.m., Jim will host an open jam for area pickers. The fee for the evening jam is $20, and includes snacks. You can find more details about the fiddle workshops on the Stonefield Cellars web site, where they will be held. Pre-registration is required.

Thomas Wywrot is about to release a self-produced solo project, Every Time I Walk This Road. The album has a modern, in-your-face bluegrass sound with Wywrot’s banjo and guitar prominent in the mix.

A Canadian by birth, he grew up in Dryden, Ontario and came to the States to attend East Tennesse State University on a bluegrass scholarship. Since graduating, Thomas has worked in and around bluegrass in Nashville for the past few years. He played banjo with Alecia Nugent -  featured on several tracks on her terrific CD, Hillbilly Goddess – and has performed with The Isaacs this past year.

Joining him on Every Time I Walk This Road are Jim VanCleve on fiddle, Randy Kohrs on resonator guitar, Jason Chapman and Alan Bartram on bass, and Jeremy Chapman and Ashby Frank on mandolin. His CD won’t be available officially until January 5, 2010, but Thomas agreed to share a few words and some audio samples here on The Bluegrass Blog in advance of the street date.

“These are all songs I’ve thought about recording over the past five years or more, and I collected most of them and wrote a few of them while I was in college at ETSU.

I wrote three of the songs on the CD. Kayla Dear, which started as a bit of an inside joke, and still is, but it ended up making a good love gone wrong song.  F.T.L. is a slow guitar instrumental, and Meat Eater is an uptempo banjo instrumental that was named by Jamey Booher, winner of a MySpace contest I held in order to name the tune.”

Kayla Dear – Listen Now    

Meat Eater – Listen Now     

Most of the lead vocals on the CD come from Daniel Salyer, who also contributed two new songs, Lonesome Tonight and Running Through My Mind. Two others, 95 Years and Now Here Comes The Rain were written by Carter Moore.

“I met both of these guys while attending school at ETSU and they are both great songwriters.

Rounding out the CD are some of my favorite songs. Carolina In The Pines is a Michael Martin Murphy song I first heard by Gibson, Martin, and I, a band based out of Thunder Bay, Ontario. I was about 10 when I first heard them play it, and it has stuck in my mind the whole time, so I based my arrangement on theirs.

Till I See You Again is a Kevin Welch tune I first heard played by Chris Silver about 7 years ago.  I was very fortunate to have Alecia Nugent come in and sing the Tenor on this song, and it really turned out great. (more…)

The first video from Alecia Nugent’s Hillbilly Goddess CD has appeared online.

The video is for the song, Don’t Tell Me, written by Buddy and Julie Miller, and shot and edited by Glenn Sweitzer.

It’s a lovely song and a very attractive video, but I can’t help but wonder why they didn’t create a video for the hilarious and heartwarming title track.

But what do I know…

Alecia Nugent has announced the winner in her online Hillbilly Goddess contest where fans were invited to submit essays promoting the cause of their own better halves as the one, true Hillbilly Goddess.

The contest was born of the lyrics to the title track to Alecia’s latest CD, a clever and quite funny song she wrote with Sonya Kelly and Carl Jackson, describing a Hillbilly Goddess as the opposite of a high fashion, pop culture diva.

The winning entry came from W. Brent Woodal, and is titled My Hillbilly Goddess – My Wife Marie. Here’s just a taste:

On our first date we went to the edge of the woods near her home and picked polk salad. Then we went back to her place where she cooked it for supper. She knew exactly how much fatback to throw in for seasoning; I was hooked from the first bite. I hadn’t tasted polk salad that good since my grandmother died. After sopping up the last of the pot likker with the cornbread she had made I asked her to marry me. She told me that I was moving way too fast so I waited until our fourth date to ask her again. That time she said, “Yes.” Because of fond childhood memories she has of listening to the Louisiana Hayride, we got married at the Municipal Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana. After the preacher pronounced us man and wife I removed her John Deere cap before kissing her. We then went with family and friends to a local Waffle House where our reception was held.

How can you top that!

Brent wins a copy of Alecia’s CD plus a basketload of T shirts and other fun stuff from John Deere and Smith & Wesson. Something tells me they will be put to good use.