Rural Rhythm Records has announced plans for an early 2009 release of a new CD from Audie Blaylock & Redline. A single from the new CD, Lonesome Weary Heart, has already been released to radio and is currently charting. All future radio requests will be handled by Rural Rhythm. The single is also available via RadioSubmit.com.

Audie’s current band has been putting out some great sounds this year. Their tour schedule has been pretty full this year, and looks to continue that way into 2009. The band consists of Audie on guitar, Patrick McAvinue on fiddle, Evan Ward on banjo and vocals, Matt Wallace on bass and vocals, and Jason Johnson on mandolin and vocals.

If you haven’t heard them yet, you might be interested to hear how syndicated bluegrass radio DJ Terry Herd described their sound.

No holds barred, take no prisoners, hard driving’ bluegrass, just the way I like it.

That’s an apt description of this driving band that lives up to its name, Redline.

The band will be making an appearance this Friday, August 29, 2008, on WorldWideBluegrass.com. Gracie Muldoon will be interviewing the band at 1 PM EST. I’m sure some music will be played as well!

Audie Blaylock was featured on the front page of the Auburn, IN Evening Star this past Friday (6/20) - but the article had nothing to do with his heralded career in bluegrass music.

It turns out that Audie is not just serious about traditional bluegrass, but classic cars as well. He had driven his pride and joy to the cruise-in in Auburn, IN on Thursday evening, and it caught everyone’s attention.

From the article by Dave Kurtz…

The sound of well-tuned engines was making music to Blaylock’s ears.

“I’m 45. I’ve loved Mustangs since I was 4 years old,” he said, explaining why he chose his car four years ago. “I was looking for a red ’65 … but I really like this one.

“It’s called Acapulco Blue. It’s different, it’s not red or black.”

Read the full piece online.

Audie Blaylock and Redline will be guests on today’s (5/30) noontime edition of Blue Plate Special on WDVX.

They have been hard at work on a new CD, which Audie promises will be chock full of hard-driving, traditional bluegrass music. They are sure to preview it on the show today.

Joining Audie in the band are Evan Ward on banjo, Patrick McAvinue on fiddle, Jason Johnson on mandolin, and Matt Wallace on bass.

The show originates before a live audience from Knoxville, TN, where it airs on 102.9 and 105.9 FM. You can also catch Audie and the guys online via the WDVX streaming broadcast over the Internet.

Knoxville folk/Americana artist Marc Jeffares is also on the bill.

Banjo players - and fans of Jimmy Martin - know Chris Warner for his driving style and hard hitting approach to the five string. Chris worked twice for Martin as a member of his Sunny Mountain Boys, from 1967-69, and again in the late 1980s.

During that second stint with Martin, Chris recorded two albums for Webco, All Original and Chris Warner & Friends, released as LPs and now out of print. He has recently compiled them both as a CD, Back Again, with 24 tracks featuring Warner as both banjoist and vocalist.

The tracks from All Original have Chris singing all lead vocals, with Del McCoury on tenor, and those from Chris Warner & Friends, have singing duties shared among Warner, Dudley Connell and Audie Blaylock.

But don’t think that banjo tunes get short shrift here. Chris knocks out 11 instrumentals mixed with 13 vocal tracks.

Newly minted bluegrass fans may not be aware of Warner’s top flight picking - and even long time listeners may not know him as a vocalist. Kudos to Chris for making this material available again, and to Pinecastle Records for their assistance in making it happen.

Audio samples for each track and online ordering are enabled on the Tom Adams web site, where Tom addresses the rumor that he and Chris are starting a band.

“With no official band name, no dates booked, and a disagreement over whether or not to wear matching shoes, I’d have to say yes, I believe there is a rumor that Chris and I are starting a band.”

I guess that settles that.

Audie Blaylock and his newly reformed Redline have released their first single, Lonesome Weary Heart.

The track will be distributed shortly to bluegrass radio, but Audie sent us an audio sample so that folks can hear his new group, and as he put it, that they have the same “hard drivin’ traditional bluegrass sound” that has become his trademark.

Listen now:

Redline now features Rodney Worley on mandolin and vocals, Matt Wallace on bass and vocals, Evan Ward on banjo, Patrick McAvinue on fiddle and Blaylock on guitar and vocals.

You can hear the full track in the media player on Audie’s web site or on his MySpace page. It will be included on Audie’s next CD release.

Tom Adams has just published a new book of banjo transcriptions taken from his playing on Audie Blaylock’s Trains Are The Only Way To Fly CD. The book contains tabs for all Tom’s breaks and multiple backup sections in this 34 page spiral bound volume.

Adams came to the attention of the bluegrass world as a member of Jimmy Martin’s Sunny Mountain Boys in the 1980s - which is also where he first met Audie Blaylock, who was on mandolin with Martin at the time. The two mens’ paths would continue to cross as Adams and Blaylock later worked together with both Lynn Morris and Rhonda Vincent.

Tom describes his picking on the Trains CD as emblematic of the style he used when he played with Jimmy Martin - aggressive and hard-driving - with much of the material coming from the Martin repertoire.

The book is available from Tom’s Adams County Banjo web site, along with his three other banjo tab books.

I had a chance to talk this afternoon with Audie Blaylock, who has reformed his band, Redline, and is accepting dates for 2008 and beyond. His split with Michael Cleveland came too late in the year for Audie to make arrangements to perform during IBMA week, but he is excited about the reaction he is getting to his newly renewed band leader status.

Audie says that he has put together a strong new group, and feels like he has the best vocal trio now he has ever had. I was especially taken by his passion for maintaining a distinctive personal style, while preserving the core of the traditional bluegrass sound that has formed his musical identity.

They plan to get something down in the studio soon, as soon as the full complement of the reformed Redline is in place. Count me among those who are eager to hear what’s next for Audie Blaylock.

When we reported over the weekend that Audie Blaylock had left Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper, Audie had not made a statement regarding his future plans.

It turns out that he is reassembling his band, Redline, and is now accepting dates for the remainder of 2007 and beyond. He wants to ensure everyone that he will continue to perform and record the hard driving, traditional bluegrass music his many fans have come to expect.

For the short term, Audie is handling dates for Redline himself, and information on how to reach him can be found on his web site, where you can also find audio samples from his recordings.

The unwieldy band name “Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper featuring Audie Blaylock” has become a bit less of a tongue twister for emcees everywhere. Michael announced yesterday (8/25) that Audie has left the group, and that singer/guitarist/songwriter Todd Rakestraw will step in to take his spot.

Rakestraw has been performing with Timberline Drive, and was an original member of Alison Krauss & Union Station, back in the day. Three of his songs (Gentle River, I’m Alone Again, Lord Don’t Forsake Me) were included on her early releases.

No word yet on Audie’s future plans. We’ll post when we hear more.

The debut band CD from Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper, featuring Audie Blaylock, is being recorded now in Nashville. Jeff White is producing, and while no official announcement has yet been made, Rounder Records is expected to release the new project early next year.

At this point, the band is laying down some rhythm tracks while they continue to choose and arrange material. We’ll pass along whatever further details we can pick up as the work progresses.

The band is Michael Cleveland on fiddle, Audie Blaylock on guitar and vocals, Jesse Brock on mandolin and vocals, Barry Reed on bass and vocals, and John Mark Batchelor on banjo.

Should be a good’n.

Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper featuring Audie Blaylock have a 10 day Canadian tour in the works for next month. Their first show is on April 20 in Ontario, where they will spend the largest part of their time in Canada.

All the Canadian dates are listed on the band’s tour schedule page online.

On another Michael Cleveland note: The April issue of Strings Magazine has a brief feature on Michael. It is the back page Encore column by Robert L. Doerschuk.

The April issue will be on newsstands soon, and the Strings web site will update when the cover date arrives. Many articles from each issue are posted online. The piece they did on Jason Carter in the March issue can now be read online.

Listen now: (IE users click to activate)

This episode of The GrassCast features an interview with Michael Cleveland. Michael was nominated for several awards at the recent IBMA and won two of them. The interview was recorded before the awards show so he didn’t know he was going to win. He did win Fiddle Player of the Year for the fourth time and also won Instrumental Album of the Year for his most recent CD, Let ‘Er Go Boys.

Michael and I discuss the awards nominations, the Flamekeeper band, Michael’s history with the fiddle and learning bluegrass. Michael also engages in a very interesting discussion of learning to play tastefully. It’s great stuff and should be of interest to any aspiring fiddle players or Michael Cleveland fans.

Michael also makes mention of the Roanoke Bluegrass Weekend coming up in November where he’ll be serving as a fiddle instructor.

Direct Download: ep49_michael_cleveland.mp3 (It’s a big one - 18MB)

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Additional links:

mikecleveland.com
audioblaylock.com
myspace.com/audieblaylock

Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper, featuring Audie Blaylock will be featured on The Grand Ole Opry this Saturday, August 19.

They will appear during the 7:30-8:00 and 10:30-11:00 p.m. segments, eastern daylight time. This new group has attracted a great deal of attention in a very short time, including a nomination as Emerging Artist Of The Year from IBMA for 2006.

The Grand Ole Opry Live program on GAC TV is running a repeat this week, but you can hear the Opry program live over the air (650 AM out of Nashville) or via online streaming. The Opry broadcasts between 7:30 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. Saturday evening (EDT).

The International Bluegrass Music Assocaiation has announced the nominees for the 17th Annual International Bluegrass Music Awards.

The nominations are more evenly spread among prominent acts this year, with no one running away with the lead. Repeating as last year’s most nominated artist, Alison Krauss & Union Station leads the pack with 7, followed by Blue Highway with 6. Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver and Rhonda Vincent & The Rage each garnered a total of 5, followed by last year’s surprise Entertainer Of The Year Cherryholmes with 4.

The awards will be presented on Thursday September 28 at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, TN, in an awards show and gala hosted by Marty Stuart. The IBMA is excited about finally being able to hold the awards show in a larger hall this year, and tickets should be far more widely available to the general public than had been the case in years past.

The Bluegrass Blog is providing expanded coverage of the nominations for these awards, with posts that include the names of each nominee, along with links to their web sites, bios and audio, in each of the 17 award categories. We hope that this coverage will aid members of the press who will be reporting on the awards, as well as IBMA members who want to do some research before casting their votes.

The list of nominees for the Special Awards will be posted shortly.

To view the nominees, click on the (more…) link at the end of this sentence, or click on the title of the post. (more…)

There has been a great deal of speculation, and a fair amount of misinformation, concerning the status of Audie Blaylock & Redline. We reported back in April that Michael Cleveland had launched a group of his own called Flamekeeper, when he announced that he would be leaving Dale Ann Bradley, which we also covered in the Spring.

At that time, Michael indicated that Audie would be a part of this new group, leaving many to wonder about Audie’s own band, Redline. I had a chance to speak with Audie about all this yesterday, and he gave me the straight scoop on the two groups, and where his attention would be focused.

At this point, both groups are active, but they will be folded into one starting in January of 2007. Currently, Michael Cleveland is playing mandolin and some fiddle with Redline, along with Patrick McAvinue on fiddle, Barry Reed on bass and Evan Ward on banjo. Both Evan and Patrick will be attending college full time next year, at which time Redline will morph into Flamekeeper.

Audie describes this switch as more of a name change than a new band, which will officially be booked as Michael Cleveland and FlameKeeper featuring Audie Blaylock. One imagines that this will eventually be abbreviated to Flamekeeper, once their identification is solidified in the bluegrass public’s mind.

Flamekeeper will move Michael to fiddle, and bring in Pete Kelly on banjo and Jeff Guersney on mandolin, according to current plans. Barry Reed will stay on bass, and Audie, of course, on guitar and vocals. He hopes that they will be able to start recording a new project as Flamekeeper later this year, though they don’t anticipate a release before late 2007 at the earliest.

He is excited about the possibilities, and the people he has been, and will be appearing with on stage.

“We’ve been having fun for the last several months. It’s been a great time, and it really helps when you have everyone on the same page musically. These guys all enjoy this kind of music, and are committed to working together to create our group sound.”

Audie’s schedule can be viewed on his web site, with shows booked as Michael Cleveland and FlameKeeper featuring Audie Blaylock posted in red for clarity. His expectation is that shows booked after February 2007 as Audie Blaylock & Redline will most probably be performed with Flamekeeper.

He mentioned that Patrick and Evan will be with the band for the ETA Bluegrass Cruise in February 2007, but otherwise, all shows next year will be with the new configuration.

The Richmond Times Dispatch website recently posted a story about Audie Blaylock. It’s a nice article with some good background info about Audie, including some great comments from him about Jimmy Martin. If you’d like some info about Audie, go check it out here.

Guitarist and vocalist, Audie Blaylock (former member of Jimmy Martin’s Sunny Mountain Boys and more recently Rhonda Vincent & The Rage), has signed with Lonesome Day Records to record and release the debut CD for Blaylock and his band, Redline.

Joining Audie in Redline is another Jimmy Martin alumnus, Chris Warner, on banjo along with Bobby Davis on bass, Stephen Mougin on mandolin, and young fiddle prodigy Patrick McAvinue. Could the band name be a reference to the hard shell cases used by the Gibson company in the 1930s, which feature a thin, red “pinstripe” along the outer edge of the case, and are generally described as “red line” cases? Or perhaps more a reference to pushing the limits, a la “redlining” the tachometer on a hot rod - as a look at the graphcs on their web site suggests? In either event, congratulations to Audie and the boys for coming up with a fine new bluegrass band name.

When we asked Audie for his reaction to this new partnership with Lonesome Day, he had this to say:

“We are very excited about our upcoming album on Lonesome Day Records. Randall Deaton and his team have done an amazing job of becoming a major label in the bluegrass industry in such a short amount of time. This is evidenced by their newest releases from Randy Kohrs, Lou Reid, Blue Moon Rising and more. We are proud to be associated with them.”

This first as-yet untitled Audie Blaylock & Redline CD on Lonesome Day Records is already being recorded, and a release date is being projected in early 2006.

Award for a group or individual, new to the national bluegrass scene, which has made considerable advances artistically and/or commercially during the eligibility period. The band or individual should be performing under its/his/her name on a regular basis and not have more than two previous finalist nominations for this award. (Award to each group member or individual):

The nominees for Emerging Artist Of The Year for 2005 are:

Review past recipients of this award.