The company is the brainchild of Ken Caulkins, who has modified the concept of the player piano for a variety of other stringed instruments and percussion. He has also created full-sized MIDI music boxes with actual instruments that perform upon command.

Ken is obviously a bluegrass fan, as he offers several versions of his automated music players in a Bluegrass Special line. The lovely conversation starter pictured above is his Grade 3 model, complete with banjo, guitar and bass, selling for $37,950 in cherry.

Here’s a look at one in action.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Hollender forwarded me the following video, which gives a great look at his robot banjo in operation, this time in clawhammer style.

What do you get for the bluegrass picker who has everything? You can see more and get full details on these fascinating machines at www.ragtimewest.com.

One interesting new group to emerge from this primordial ooze is Folk Arts Quartet, a group that mixes elements of bluegrass, old time, Celtic and Canadian fiddle music into the traditional string quartet format. Their self-titled CD has just been released and they are getting very positive feedback for their live performances.

Folk Arts Quartet was formed by four young women who met while studying at the Berklee College of Music, where the string department faculty took an interest in the group and provided mentoring and coaching as their sound and repertoire were being developed. The music on their CD is drawn from traditional fiddle music in a number of styles, plus original compositions from the quartet’s members, in a m?©lange they call Chambergrass.

The current group consists of Ivonne Hernadez and Hannah Read on violin, Julie Metcalf on viola and Emma Beaton on cello. All have quite an impressive list of accomplishments for such young musicians, including solo CDs and competition wins to their credit.

The original group included Liz Davis Maxfield on cello, who is featured on the CD. Liz has just graduated from Berklee (as have Hernandez and Metcalf), and she has accepted a Fulbright Scholarship to study in Ireland for a year.

Beaton also performs with Joy Kills Sorrow, a young Boston-based progressive bluegrass band which highlights Emma’s voice and the several band members’ original material.

Here’s a taste of the music from the Folk Arts Quartet CD, a medley they call For the Boys, which includes Cold Fish, Eric’s and Cincinnati.

They perform with a far more relaxed persona than is typical for a string quartet, as this YouTube video from Folk Alliance ‘09 in Memphis demonstrates:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sierra Hull, the 18 year old fret wizard from central Tennessee will also soon be packing her grip for the long, long trip to New England, where she will study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Like most high school seniors, Sierra spent a lot of time this past year pondering college, but unlike most of her contemporaries, she was also considering the trade-offs between furthering her education and pursuing an already burgeoning career as a performer and recording artist. Her debut CD, Secrets, was released in 2008, she fronts her own band (Highway 111), and maintains a very active touring schedule all over the US and Canada.

Recently, Sierra shared some of the thoughts that passed through her mind during the decision-making process.

“Berklee was really the only school that made me think very much about actually going on to study music at a college level. Prior to thinking about Berklee, I really didn’t imagine going to college due to the fact that I really want to tour a lot and do what I love – be on the road, make records, play with a band, etc.

They first contacted me when I was a sophomore in high school and at that point I’d never even heard of Berklee. They wanted to let me know that if I was considering studying music after high school that they’d love to have me come to school there. I didn’t think all that much about it then, until people starting saying… ‘Berklee! Wow… that’s a great school!’ So when my senior year of high school rolled around, I really started thinking that it was probably a good idea to at least have options, and that I should pursue the idea a little more and see what all Berklee had to offer. Alison Krauss really encouraged me to at least go check it out.

So… in February, I spent 3 days in Boston touring the college, meeting instructors and students, and discussing my situation. I was amazed to see how supportive Berklee really was of musicians that already have careers going and my current situation. After all – isn’t that the whole idea? For a music school to uplift and support musicians who choose music as a career? I guess it just took a while for me to realize just how supportive they were going to be. I immediately realized upon my visit in February that I was going to be very supported whether I decided to come to school at Berklee, or whether I decided to just go ahead and play music full time.

That really helped the pressure level along the way, and made me respect the staff and faculty very much.”

Berklee was indeed very interested in Sierra. At IBMA 2008, Berklee President Roger Brown was lobbying her hard – not unlike a coach recruiting a standout ball player they hoped to sign. Wherever she was, Brown or Berklee professor David Hollender was sure to go.

I’m sure that the attention was flattering, but moving to New England proved to be the biggest hurdle for her to leap.

“With all of these things pending with Berklee, I still hated the fact that Boston is such a long way from home. That in itself made the decision harder than you’d probably know. Having traveled a lot in the last few years, I’ve not been one to get homesick very much, but I imagine moving that far from home will bring a great deal of that along the way. With that in mind, I started thinking – ‘you know, if Berklee was in Nashville, there would be no question! I’d just go to school there.’ It was then that I started looking into Belmont University.

Claire Armbruster set me up with a visit there and we went to check it out. Belmont is such a beautiful and highly respected school and one that I would have enjoyed going to as well. Being in Nashville would have been so ideal also. However, it is not a fully focused music school and the music scholarships available there are much lower than Berklee, so that also influenced my decision.”

Sierra told us that she hasn’t yet decided where she will focus her studies at Berklee.

“There are so many options, that I almost feel like it’ll be hard for me to know until I get up there and actually experience it on some kind of level. Of course it would make sense for me to study mandolin, but I’d also really love to take some vocal classes and really learn to improve my singing as well.

I don’t know how to read music either, so I’d love to learn how to read as much as possible.”

She is also the recipient of Berklee’s Presidential Award scholarship, offered to only 3 or 4 incoming students each year. It is a “full ride” scholarship, never before offered to a bluegrass musician.

“I never imagined that they would give me of all people this scholarship, but I’m really grateful that they did. In fact, it’s probably the deciding factor in why I have decided to go to school. As you would imagine, Berklee is a really, really expensive school. With this scholarship, I am able to go to school completely free. It covers all of the tuition, the registration fees, housing and food as well as a free laptop.”

Having discussed this question with her at some length last year, I was curious what led her to to choose school and gigging over focusing full time on performing.

“There were a lot of factors that made me finally decided to give Berklee a try. I certainly put a lot of prayer and tears into the decision and still feel a little nervous about it all, but I do believe that God will lead me in the right direction. After all, He’s really the only one that knows what’s best for me in the long run.

Anyone that knows me, knows how much I love playing music, and how much I have longed to get out of high school and play music full time. There’s no way for me to try to put playing festival and gigs on the back burner completely to go to school, and I would never do that because that is where my heart truly is.

I was able to maintain a pretty busy tour schedule being in high school through working hard and having teachers that really understood my situation. I really feel like Berklee is going to be a similar environment. They all know where I am coming from and understand my situation and desire to continue touring and playing with the band.”

We also asked Sierra what she values in a music education, even as her professional career is taking off.

“The things you can learn with music are completely endless. I don’t believe that anyone could ever learn everything there is to know. So, in my opinion, just going to school doesn’t mean that you will learn everything you need to know in order to have a good career. I believe everything I have learned about music so far to be from personal experiences throughout the past 9 years. I’d still feel positive about just deciding to put school on the back burner and touring full time.

However, I really feel like God is giving me such a great opportunity to hopefully have the best of both worlds. Going to a school like Berklee will certainly just broaden my musical visions and open a lot of doors that I might not get to experience otherwise.

I’m not a believer that college is for everyone. For myself, I am totally someone who would enjoy going to college. I’ve always been one to study hard in school and do my best to make good grades. But if someone doesn’t have the drive it takes to actually go to college and soak in as much as they can, I think it can be a waste of time and money.

I’d definitely encourage it to those who have a hunger for learning and want to musically be all that they can be.”

We wondered whether Sierra had any Boston networking in place, and what her parents thought about he move so far from home.,

“I don’t know a whole lot of people in Boston to be honest. I kind of feel like I am just totally about to take on this journey with only God by my side!

However, I know that isn’t the case. I do have plenty of people that I know will be supportive and helpful as I go along. All the folks at Berklee have already made me feel like part of the gang and are just wonderful people. Rounder Records is just around the corner as well, so I’m lucky to have some friends up there too!

As far as my folks go – I know they really love me and will hate to see me go, but they are really happy for me. They totally left this decision up to me and have supported me in deciding to go which means a lot to me.

I’m lucky to have the parents I do.”

The Bluegrass Blog congratulates Sierra Hull on her scholarship, and Berklee on landing her as a student. I suspect that the simple fact of her attendance will get more young bluegrass musicians looking at Berklee next year.

He was in Boston as a part of the publicity tour for his documentary film, Throw Down Your Heart, a date which coincided nicely with the official kickoff of Berklee’s new American Roots Music Program. B?©la, along with program director Matt Glaser, spoke with a group of students at the school.

From the Berklee report by Danielle Dreilinger:

Fleck started off by giving them practical advice. “There’s a lot more to being a good musician than sitting in a room by yourself,” he said. Even practicing should be tuneful, he said: “Play scales in a musical way.”

He soon segued to bigger questions, urging players to follow their instincts. He cited his old friend Andy Statman, who turned from bluegrass mandolin to klezmer clarinet.

“When you hear something that really turns you on, that’s a cue,” Fleck said. “It’s probably something you’ll be good at. Because usually your inner voice is right.”

Fleck’s inner voice has led him to bluegrass, progressive fusion, jazz, classical and, now, African genres.

“I’m a bit of a dabbler,” he said. Because few forms of music use the banjo, he said, “I feel there are some opportunities I have to do some things that haven’t been done.”

You can read the full reoprt at berklee.edu.

As a young man he recorded and performed with other acoustic string crazies like Tony Trischka, Marty Cutler and Andy Statman as a part of the Wretched Refuse String Band. He received a masters degree in music from Tufts University and was involved in the transcription and authoring of a number of fiddle books for Oak Publications.

Matt always had an interest in a wide range of fiddle styles, from the old time music that first caught his ear as a young boy, to the wide ranging world of jazz violin. He continued to perform and record across these genres, even as he became known as an authority on American fiddle music and a first rate educator.

In the 1980s, two events occurred which changed the direction of his musical life. He was asked by Bob Share, then provost of Berklee College Of Music, to help them launch a string department at the rapidly-evolving college in Boston. He was the lone instructor when the department was announced, and has served as its chairman this past twenty eight years, overseeing a faculty of 8-10 instructors.

Glaser also became acquainted with filmmaker Ken Burns, then not so much a celebrity as he is today, and played on the budding director’s first documentary film, The Brooklyn Bridge in 1980. When work began on The Civil War, Burns’ epic mini-series for PBS, Matt was asked to be a musical consultant, and was a featured artist on the award-winning soundtrack.

His fiddle, and that of Jay Ungar, was heard in the film on Ungar’s gorgeous tune, Ashokan Farewell, which may be the most widely heard piece of fiddle music in the past 100 years. He and Jay also performed together as Fiddle Fever for several years.

Now, with twenty eight years under his belt at Berklee, Glaser found that the job he had so cherished all these years was taking him farther and farther away from what excited him about the position when the string program was first established – that being actually teaching the violin. Realizing that administrative work had nearly removed him from the classroom, Matt approached Berklee president Roger Brown about a role change at the college, with the result being the American Roots Music Program, with Glaser at the helm.

Matt explained a bit about how this all came to be…

“Since he first arrived at Berklee, Roger Brown has been vocal about his desire to create a home for all kinds of American music that feeds into rock and pop – classic country, old time, bluegrass, blues, polka, western swing, gospel…. what have you. When I met with him to share my interest in possibly relinquishing the string chair, we began discussing the idea of creating the American Roots Music Program.

We talked about how the institutional structures of academia don’t always allow for us to accommodate new ways of thinking about music education. This new program will be outside the school’s structure of divisions and departments, and my duties will include designing curricula, developing theories of improvising in other genres besides jazz (roots music), faculty development, and facilitating discussion among the faculty about these things within the Berklee community.

I have always recognized that old time musicians, blues artists and swing musicians approach improvisation in ways that are different from jazz soloists, and we want to find a way to analyze and quantify these ways of improvising so that we can expose our students to this other way of thinking.”

Glaser says that other roots music faculty specialists – like Mark Simos, David Hollender and John McGann – will play a part in the various activities of the American Roots Music efforts. He plans to travel a good deal, to speak at and with other institutions, and with the media.

“This sort of thing is hard to codify and talk about, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t worth talking about. There is a ton of great indigenous American music worthy of study and I look forward to this opportunity to help Berklee explore and explain how its great practitioners go about playing it.”

He will also spend more time teaching violin, something that will redound to the benefit of the many string students at the school.

Glaser’s title will be Artistic Director, and he will have at his disposal a Board of Advisors made up of artists recognized for their mastery of these many idioms in Berklee’s broad definition of “roots music.” Grassers Ricky Skaggs and Don Rigsby are on the board, along with progressive string musicians David Grisman, B?©laFleck, Darol Anger and Edgar Meyer, western swing stalwart Ray Benson, Memphis roots rocker Doug Wamble, Irish fiddler Liz Carroll, Cajun fiddler Michael Doucet, fingerstyle guitarist Leo Kottke, old time artists Bruce Molsky, Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, champion fiddler Fletcher Bright, former Nickel Creekers Sara and Sean Watkins, jazz/bluegrass/old time fusionist Charlie Haden, and – inexplicably – yours truly, John Lawless of AcuTab and The Bluegrass Blog. More are expected to be named soon.

With Matt stepping down, Melissa Howe has assumed the chair of the Strings Department at Berklee, effective June 1.

The ARMP will have its official rollout this December. Mark O’Connor will be at Berklee for a week and the new initiative will be presented to the media and the Berklee community at that time. This summer and fall will involve mostly preparatory work, with more visible undertakings starting to pop up next year. Glaser expects to see the new program producing concerts and hosting visiting artists in addition to designing and implementing seminars and symposiums.

“We are planning a symposium for sometime in 2010 to examine similarities and dissimilarities between jazz and country music. I am thinking of calling it ‘Jazz and Country: Kissing Cousins or Hatfield and McCoys.’ “

We hope to hear news about the Berklee American Roots Music Program for many years to come.

Written by Christopher John Treacy, and entitled Out Of The Shadows, the article serves as an introduction to the modern acoustic string music scene for the non-initiated, and an explanation of how Berklee developed a instructional program for banjo and mandolin, recently added as principal instruments for study at the college.

“There is no ’simple music,’” says Professor Dave Hollender, an accomplished bassist and five-string banjo player who also leads Berklee’s bluegrass ensemble. “You can’t learn to properly play bluegrass instruments in three months, six months, or a year. I liken it to the skills required to play classical compositions. I’m troubled by the lack of understanding of what bluegrass really is. O Brother isn’t really bluegrass, and what Alison Krauss does isn’t really bluegrass. But if these pop hybrids get people interested in investigating further, that’s fantastic.” True bluegrass is a gritty, rustic musical sport requiring an instrumental mastery that many nonmusicians find surprising. That said, it’s not nearly as big a stretch as one might assume to include bluegrass and related hybrids in a curriculum that built its reputation by incubating jazz dynamos.

The piece also discusses Boston’s emergence as an epicenter for young, progressive string musicians, and how the school has given a further nod in the direction of Americana music by appointing Mark Simos, a recognized old time musician and songwriter, to the Berklee Songwriting Department.

Read the full article online.

UPDATE 2:55 p.m. Dave Hollender asked that we include this comment, feeling that his quote in the original Berklee Today article was subject to misinterpretation.

“I’m afraid that the quote attributed to me isn’t what I actually said. I’d like to clarify. I pointed out that although SOME of Alison Krauss’ music is not what purists would consider bluegrass, I don’t really care. Clearly a lot of her music is bluegrass and either way, I happen to like most all of it. If new listeners are not completely knowledgeable about the music when they first discover it, that’s only to be expected. Eventually they will learn about the roots of the music and various sub-styles.

Thanks again for covering what we a are doing at Berklee.”

Now the college is taking their recruiting efforts to Ireland.

Berklee College of Music is investing in Ireland to bring young talent across the Atlantic to its Boston campus. Ireland, though rich in musical heritage, is underrepresented at Berklee, a multicultural melting pot that includes students from more than 70 countries. The college’s means of investment is two-fold: First is Berklee in Dublin, April 13-17, a series of improvisation workshops that allow students to study with Berklee’s world renowned faculty. Second, April 18-19, is a visit by admissions representatives and professors to audition and interview students for scholarships for summer and full-time study at Berklee in Boston.

More information concerning these workshops and auditions can be found in the press release on the Berklee College of Music website.

HT: The Bluegrass Ireland Blog

For several years they have held a String Fling each year for students of violin, viola and cello, primarily focused on developing improvisational skills in multiple stylistic disciplines.

The program will be held again this year (July 18-21,2009), but renamed as the Acoustic String Festival in recognition of Berklee’s recent inclusion of an Acoustic String principal for mandolin and banjo.

From the Berklee web site…

The program will build on the core curriculum of past String Fling programs, teaching improvisation to violin, viola, and cello players, but expanding that teaching to admit other instruments traditionally found in a bluegrass band such as acoustic mandolin and guitar. Players will have the opportunity to study with and be coached by world-renowned mandolinist John McGann, and be trained in musical elements necessary to perform at a high level in a wide range of roots music styles.

The faculty will include:

• Eugene Friesen – cellist with the Paul Winter Consort and one of the world’s greatest improvising cellists.
• Matt Glaser – chair of Berklee’s String Department, author of four books on contemporary string styles, and well-known teacher and performer.
• Chris Howes – versatile violinist/composer who has performed and/or recorded with Randy Brecker, Jack DeJohnette, Les Paul, Lenny White, and others.
• John McGann – mandolinist and member of the Wayfaring Strangers, Rust Farm, and Boston Edge. He has performed with Darol Anger, Yoshihiro Arita, John Blake, the Boston Pops, Celtic Fiddle Festival, Seamus Connolly, Paddy Cronin, S?ɬ©amus Egan, Bill Evans, Bruce Gertz, David Grisman, Martin Hayes, the Time Jumpers, Utah Symphony, and Stefan Wrembel.
• Rob Thomas – fantastic modern jazz violinist and bassist who has performed with the String Trio of New York and the Mahavishnu Project, among others.

The program is open to students high school age and above, and limited space in Berklee’s residence hall is available during this session. Tuition runs $760 for the four day event, with housing costs another $420 if needed.

More information and application details can be found on the Berklee web site.

Bobby spent about three hours playing with and coaching Berklee students who attended the master class on 2/12. The main focus was on how to play fiddle on bluegrass songs – breaks, backup, etc. He emphasized the importance of playing in tune, knowing the melody really well, and the fact that it is the bow that really gives players their own voice.

He demonstrated some great twin fiddling with Mike Barnett, a student who studied with Bobby before enrolling at Berklee.

It was clear that Bobby had a great time and the session ended with he and a large group of students playing some fiddle tunes he had recorded years ago with Bill Monroe – with Bobby and everyone else grinning from ear-to-ear.

        

We posted a report in May 2006 when Joe was still a student at the Berklee College Of Music, and performed with other Berklee bluegrassers at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. When he joined up as a member of The Gibson Brothers this past November, we covered that as well.

In the meantime, Walsh has released his debut solo CD, Saturday Night Waltz, which showcases his mandolin playing and his skills as a composer and arranger. Joe has been a prominent picker in the Boston area, and throughout New England since he moved there from Minnesota to study, and it is from this pool of musicians that he draws his accompanists.

Not all of the names will be immediately familiar, but these are very talented young musicians who stand leave a mark on bluegrass and progressive string music before they are finished with them.

Joe shared some thoughts with us recently about Saturday Night Waltz, the songs and tunes included, and the people who performed on it with him.

“When I set out to make the record, I of course wanted to try and find material that wasn’t all worn out and overly familiar.  Obviously original tunes take care of that, and I tried to tried to write as many tunes as possible prior to starting that project.  A lot of them just didn’t seem to fit the scope of the project when it came together: as a whole it’s not a strictly bluegrass’ record, but it didn’t seem right to be tossing in tunes that at weren’t at least peripherally related to bluegrass.

Filling in the gaps with some of the other tunes was one of the funnest things about the whole project. Boston (and New England in general) is home to an amazing collection of acoustic musicians and singers, and in choosing tunes and songs like The Good Part, I’ll Go On Downtown, and Fall and I’m Not Falling, I got to share what I liked most about some of my friends writing, playing and singing. These were the folks that I worked with on any number of gigs, and these tunes were the ones I’d always try to get on the set list.  It’s a pleasure getting to share them.

Just as with choosing the songs, I got to choose from amongst my favorite musicians in the Northeast to pick with me. It seems like Boston is a continually changing and continually amazing music scene, and this is a like a snapshot of who was singing and playing at the time I recorded it.  (I started tracking two years ago, but it took a while to get it released)  Some of the folks from the record have moved elsewhere, and a number of phenomenal musicians have since moved to Boston, but the collection of folks on this record was and is, for me, the cream of the crop.

Wes Corbett is playing the banjo, and quite capably.  He worked with the Biscuit Burners for a year, and splits his time between Joy Kills Sorrow and a band called the Bee Eaters, who just recorded an insturmental record that I think of as our generations’ Strength in Numbers.

The guitar playing is covered by Lincoln Meyers, Matt Arcara, and Flynn Cohen.  These three are amongst the finest guitarists you’ll hear in the Northeast.  They’ve all got different takes on acoustic guitar playing, but are each hugely creative and inspired players.  The guitar well is deep up here.

As is the fiddle well: Mike Barnett covers most of the fiddling on the record, with a couple of cameos by Tristan and Tashina Clarride.  These three are on the short list of my favorite living fiddlers, and it’s amazing to get to play and record with them.  Mike is a prodigious bluegrass monster, having logged tours with Tony Trischka and Jesse McReynolds while not yet twenty, and the Clarridges have both won national fiddle contests, including Weiser, and are both in the Bee Eaters with Wes.

Bass duties are split were split between Ashleigh Caudill and Karl Doty.  I expect we’ll hear a lot more from both of them.  I felt lucky to get to record a tune with cellist Natalie Haas, who plays with scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser and who brings a deep rhythmic palette to any musical situation.

Though he’s only on two tracks, Roger Williams adds a lot with his exceptionally tasteful dobro playing.  He’s a force, and New England is better for his presence.”

I also asked Joe to give his impression of his time studying at Berklee…

“Berklee was great for me. Though there weren’t a huge amount of bluegrassers at the school while I was there, just being surrounded by people who took the craft of music so seriously was hugely inspiring. At Berklee there’s always someone who can play circles around you, no matter how good you are, and that just made me want to work harder. Now there’s a quite a few really talented bluegrass players at the school. To me it just seems to be getting better and better. I really enjoyed the presence of so many other styles, too. I think it made me step back and examine what’s unique about bluegrass, and it also was a great way to find other things for inspiration.

The New England scene is great… really great! And it just keeps getting better. The level of playing is high, and there are a lot of players around. I really appreciate the degree of risk-taking and creativity amongst acoustic musicians up here, too. People are willing to try out new combinations and try to invent new genres (like banjo rap), and that energy is a wonderful thing to be around.”

You can hear audio samples from Saturday Night Waltz on CD Baby, or on Joe’s MySpace page.

Eric and Leigh Gibson are happy to welcome young mandolinist Joe Walsh in Rick’s stead. Joe is a recent graduate from The Berklee College Of Music and has been performing with several bluegrass and acoustic bands in the northeast, and teaching mandolin and guitar in Portland, ME.

Joe was Berklee’s first mandolin student and moved from Duluth, MN to Boston to study there. One of his professors at Berklee, David Hollender, shared a few thoughts.

“Joe has great time, beautiful tone and he really knows how to connect with other players and make a band groove. His playing has contemporary elements but retains a deeply rooted, down to earth quality that not that all young players have. When Joe is in the band you can be sure the music will just feel good.

I think everyone who knows Joe knew it was just a matter of time until he’d land a gig like the one he has now. It’s said that success comes mainly from motivation, determination and perseverance. Joe exemplified this when he was a student at Berklee. He had to struggle to stay in school. You’d see him on his bike on cold winter days with his mandolin on his back headed to class after getting up to drive a bread truck at 4:00 am every day. Later you’d see him at night heading off to jam. Nothing would stop him and it’s great to see all that work starting to pay off.”

He will do his first show with The Gibsons on January 2, 2009 at the New Year’s Bluegrass Festival in Jekyll Island, GA. Joe joins Eric (banjo and guitar), Leigh (guitar), Mike Barber (bass), and Clayton Campbell (fiddle) to make up the band’s new look.

His speech addressed two main themes: that the period when bluegrass music emerged was a time of uncertainly in the music business, and that many parallels could be drawn between the development of bebop jazz and bluegrass music in the 1940s and ’50s.

An ASCAP strike in 1941 meant that radio and TV were prohibited from using most compositions and the composers were not being paid royalties. An AFM strike in 1942-43 meant that instrumental musicians were largely out of work. The jukebox was seen as a disruptive technology that might well destroy the market for live performance. Some estimates are that as many as half the working musicians quit. Big bands which had been ascendant took a body blow and never fully recovered.

Out of the rubble of this period the vocalists (who were not covered by the AFM strike by the way) got the upper hand on the bandleaders and have ruled popular music ever since—Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee and Nat King Cole sold an unprecedented number of records in the immediate post-war period.

Be-bop, with its radical harmonic and rhythmic complexity emerged from the work of Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonius Monk and others who had been creating this innovative new sound in New York City under the cloud cover of the recording ban.

At almost the same moment, Bill Monroe added Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs to his Blue Grass Boys, juiced up the tempos, tightened up the strings and let fly. And a new genre in American music was born.

You can read the address in its entirety online.

Brown also spoke with us just after delivering this speech on September 29, and the video of that interview is posted below. He condenses the content of his longer address, and discusses what Berklee has been doing with bluegrass music of late.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We caught up with Roger afterwards and he and John discussed the subject of his speech, with Roger serving up a condensed version of the speech for our interview.

The file is 12 minutes in length, but well worth the time it’ll take you to watch it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Read our July 2008 interview with Roger, which he references in the video.

We came away with three different looks at how this next generation might take the music, and a renewed respect for the skill and vision of these yong artists, and the determination of the bluegrass business community to nurture and promote their careers.

The first act we caught was The Farewell Drifters and while I was familiar with their debut CD, Sweet Summer Breeze I had never seen them perform in person. Their live show was different in many ways. They had the requisite instrumentation (banjo, mandolin, bass and two guitars) but they neither look nor present themselves like the typical young bluegrass band.

Their look and their original material are drawn as much from the singer/songwriter boom of the late 1960s as from the earlier legacy of the bluegrass founders. The songs are introspective and personal, and the playing is subdued and clearly secondary to the melodies and lyrics. Even their stage banter had a quirky and nervous energy, much in keeping with the band’s slightly oddball demeanor.

Next, we caught part of a showcase from mandolinist Dominick Leslie, a first year student at the Berklee College Of Music in Boston. Dominick grew up in Colorado and has been playing bluegrass since he was ten years old. He had taken the second place prize in both the Walnut Valley and Merlefest mandolin competitions before finishing high school.

Dominick performed with a number of young Boston musicians, fellow Berklee student Sam Grisman on bass, Jordan Tice on guitar and Wes Corbett on banjo. All were strong, adventurous soloists and the music they played was challenging both harmonically and technically. In the audience for this showcase were Berklee professor David Hollender, and college president Roger Brown, as well as Andy Falco from The Infamous Stringdusters who has hooting at hollering his encouragement with every hot lick.

The pickers not only had to impress their peers and industry types, but their teacher and headmaster as well! The influence of Chris Thile and his merry band was clear in the band’s music – not a band example at all for such talented young players. Remember their names.

We then wandered down the concourse to see Josh Williams perform with his new band. This time, the music was straightahead contemporary bluegrass from one of the certain rising stars in this business. Josh had memorable stints with Special Consensus and Rhonda Vincent before launching his solo career. He already has three CD projects under his name – not bad for a 28 year old singer and guitarist.

His band consisted of Tim Dishman on bass, Clayton Campbell on fiddle, Jason McKendree on banjo, Chase Johner on Mandolin, and Greg Blaylock on resophonic guitar. They ran through a brief set of songs Josh has recorded, all of which showcased his dynamic and very expressive voice. His vocal agility is reminiscent of Keith Whitley when he sang bluegrass, and Josh’s easy smile and sincerity on stage garnered him more than a few squeals from the female contingent in the crowd.

At least one major bluegrass label head was in attendance, and we hope that Josh can leave IBMA this year with a record deal.

Joe Dean had joined us to watch Josh, and we had an interesting discussion with him before the show began.

He was thinking back to just one year ago, when he first performed with Dailey & Vincent at their debut show at the 2007 Fan Fest. Joe had been doing road work with bands for at least the prior three years, but this was taking it to a whole new level.

“I had never been so scared on stage in my life. I knew this was a huge gig for the band, and when I made it to the stage, it was like I completely blanked out for 30 minutes, and then I woke up and the show was over.”

Now, with a hundred or more shows under his belt, those stage jitters are a thing of the past for Joe. He said that band has been in the studio recently working on their next CD for Rounder, and Joe is enjoying the attention he is receiving from his new visibility with the band.

“Steve Huber from Huber banjos called me up and offered to make me a banjo. That was really a cool thing, and I’m trying to decide now what to have him build. He’s given me two new Hubers to use on the new CD, and those both sound great.”

We may not know for a few years yet how far these various young musicians will go in their chosen profession, nor which directions they will pull the music. I find it very encouraging to see such talent arising, and such strong support for them by the existing bluegrass community.

Brown’s career had spanned the worlds of music, business, non-profits and philanthropy before taking over as president of the Boston-based music school in 2004. He will surely have much wisdom to share with the IBMA attendees, all of whom share Brown’s love of bluegrass music.

Berklee has recently started accepting students who have banjo and mandolin as their primary instruments and allowing them to pursue their degrees focusing on the bluegrass instruments. Even prior to that time, a good number of currently successful acoustic music artists have begun their careers studying at Berklee, including Chris Pandolfi and Andy Hall of The Infamous Stringdusters, and fiddlers Casey Driessen and Nate Leath among many others.

You can read our interview with Roger from last summer on The Bluegrass Blog, and find out more about the World of Bluegrass online.

This morning (5/5), Berklee has posted a brief account of the clinic on the news section of their web site. The story by Danielle Dreilinger (Berklee’s Office of Communications) is entitled Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes and can be read online.

Dreilinger includes a few additional photos from the clinic, plus a number of brief excerpts from the band’s interaction with the students.

Though the songs were sad, the band seemed relaxed, joking about playing so early in the morning. (The clinic started at 2:00 p.m.) Pikelny asked for the Cubs score; Thile snagged a bottle of water from an audience member.

The attitude spilled over. One fan called out, “How do you get your hair so pretty? Is that just bed head?”

As Thile started to explain, Pikelny interrupted: “You just assume that he’s asking you.”

“How do you get your hair so pretty?” Thile countered.

Pikelny folded his hands. “It’s a gift,” he said.

Was the same true of the band’s spectacularly nimble playing? Pikelny’s fingers barely seemed to move. Still, when an audience member asked about picking technique, the band members self-deprecatingly presented themselves as works in progress.

“I can’t get good tone and play fast, which is something I’m working on,” Eldridge said. “Pick angle is important and so is staying loose, but I can only do it at slow speeds for a bluegrass guy.”

Pikelny warned against letting one-upmanship damage technique. When musicians start trying to outdo each other, “you’re just going to be overplaying.”

Read the full article at berklee.edu.

The concept of crowd funding is a relatively new, bottom-up sort of grassroots financing for new artists and/or projects that has been spawned in the Internet age. In a nutshell, it is one where artists appeal to fans to raise the necessary capital for recording, video production or tour support.

As record labels throughout the industry become more conservative when it comes to signing new acts and promoting second-tier acts, many artists – both new and established – have begun to consider alternative options. Spellman examines three web-based companies that were formed to serve this niche.

ArtistShare has been around since 2002 – old guard in today’s web world – and functions as a conduit between artists and fans, encouraging fans to make small investments (micro-funding) in artists’ work in exchange for special access.

Participating artists raise funding for recording projects by offering fans special interactivity options, such as the opportunity to download scores in process or to watch a recording session. An ArtistShare “participant offer,” for example, is similar to buying tickets to a live show; fans purchase incrementally priced packages that offer a glimpse of the artist’s work in progress, pre-release privileges, and, in some cases, credit on the final packaging or Web page.

Sellaband is a newer entry, launched in 2006 with the help of two former label executives.

It allows fans (dubbed “believers”) to invest $10 each until the goal of $50,000 is reached. The 5,000 believers provide funding for the band to record an album with professional producers and studios. Both parties earn money when it is released. At the moment, 6,355 artists are on SAB, and believers have funded six completed albums.

Lastly, he looks at Slicethepie, which functions as a sort of new music stock market.

The site’s Scout Room allows people to review artist tracks. Scouts don’t know the identity of the artist they review and rate. Reviews are multiplied and averaged out, and the 20 best artists go on to the Showcase. Scouts act as A&R personnel and earn about 10 cents per review, and they can earn up to 50 cents per review (with each listen taking about three minutes). If an artist is bought out by a record label (which happened to the band Gilkicker after being featured on Slicethepie), scouts and others involved benefit from the transaction.

After three weeks, the winner of the Showcase is guaranteed about $30,000.

You can read Spellman’s full article online.

These approaches strike me as creative, fascinating and innovative, though I can hear the question forming in your mind… But will it work in bluegrass?

A quick search of the three sites referenced above did not turn up any bluegrass music, so there doesn’t seem to be any track record there.

It occurs to me that the much smaller size of our market suggests that the labels dedicated to bluegrass probably do a pretty good job of snapping up the relatively few acts ready and able to commit to supporting a large-scale CD release. That being said, we have a great many acts that do not intend to pursue a full-time career in music, but may have something to offer that could generate fan support.

Bluegrass and related forms of string music have a much lower threshold of cost when it comes to producing a professional recording or video, and tour support isn’t nearly so costly as it is in the pop, rap, rock or country markets. Perhaps the smaller size of our fan base is sufficient to fund a new act in this way?

If anyone has some experience or information about this sort of Crowd Funding in or around bluegrass music, we would love to hear from you. Your comments are also welcome to this post.

The Punch Brothers made a return visit to Berklee College of Music last week (4/7) when they were in Boston to play at The Museum of Fine Arts. About 150 students filled David Friend Recital Hall at Berklee to greet Chris Thile, Chris “Critter” Eldridge, Greg Garrison, Noam Pikelny, Gabe Witcher on their second visit to Berklee during the past twelve months. The acoustics and size of the room allowed the band to play completely acoustically once again. This put the detail and delicacy of the band’s sound in a setting that I wish everyone could experience. Hearing these guys’ 100% pure acoustic tone in a small room is something special.

The band opened things up right away for requests. Along with music from their albums, Punch and How To Grow A Woman From The Ground, they played unrehearsed bluegrass standards ‚Äì Sittin’ On Top Of The World, Ninety-nine Years, Sled Riding ‚Äì and tunes from Chris’ solo albums ‚Äì Song For A Young Queen and Jessamyn’s Reel.

The students asked great questions about the compositional and creative process that went into the recent album and heard highly articulate answers that gave them a good sense of how much careful thought and preparation went into the music the band is playing these days. Other questions focused on instrumental sound and technique. It was amazing and inspiring to hear a player like Chris, who most people would say possesses about the most fluid and musical sound of any mandolin player to have lived, speak in terms that suggest that he still considers his instrumental technique to still be a work-in-progress. Noam and Critter echoed this with their thoughts about tone, volume, speed, etc.

It all added up to a concentrated dose of education and inspiration from a group that is breaking new ground and setting new standards of musicianship for bluegrass-rooted players and composers. I’d like to personally express my appreciation to Chris, Noam, Critter, Gabe and Greg for the generosity they showed by spending their free time visiting Berklee again.

        

        

He writes following up on our earlier post on Spring Break in Nashville.

I just returned home from Nashville on a trip that takes place each year during spring break. Berklee Professors Pat Pattison and Stephen Webber led 125 students for six days and over two dozen sessions and events that featured top names representing every aspect of the music business – performers, studio musicians, songwriters, producers, engineers, record company executives, publishers, managers, song pluggers, you name it. By the end of the week those on the trip had received the benefit of decades of experience that will prepare many of them for a move to Nashville after graduation.

Bluegrass is just one part of the trip, however the presentation of an honorary doctorate to Ricky Skaggs Tuesday night was definitely a highlight of the week for everybody. In previous years Ricky has welcomed Berklee students to his recording studio, and now he joins a list of illustrious musicians who have received an honorary degree. The students attended the Tuesday night Grand Ole Opry where they heard, among other, The Whites and Del McCoury Band.

They were given a backstage tour during the show to watch players warming up in their dressing rooms, see television and radio production facillties, and watch part of the Opry from the wings of the stage. The last band of the evening was Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, who played four tunes before the ceremony. After a brief video in which President Roger Brown described the Acoustic String Principal at Berklee, the presentation was made by Lawrence J. Simpson, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, along with Trustee Jeff Davis, Pattison and Webber.

Following the ceremony Ricky, still wearing the robe, grabbed his mandolin and closed out the Opry show by playing Bluegrass Breakdown. After the Opry ended the students were treated to a two hour private session with Ricky and the band in the Opry television studio. There the band played and students got to come to the mic to ask questions of Ricky and the other players. Some of these students are involved in playing bluegrass at Berklee and some who were really hearing the music live for the first time. What was most striking was the pleasure the Ricky and the band took in spending time with everyone and how well they connected with the students. Plans are currently in the works to schedule a visit by the band to Berklee where they will give clinics, work with student players and bands and perform.

Other sessions and excursions of interest to bluegrass enthusiasts took place during the visit too. Everyone headed to the Station Inn on Sunday night for the jam. On Tuesday afternoon Grammy-nominated Berklee graduate Casey Dreissen, Grammy-nominated engineer Jason Lehning (Alison Krauss, Jerry Douglas, Viktor Krauss, Dreissen) and bassist Viktor Krauss spent two hours sharing insights with students in a panel discussion held at Warner Brothers Records. Other sessions were less about bluegrass but still were very interesting, inspiring and educational.

Wednesday afternoon 125 students filled The Tracking Room to watch Vince Gill record a new song. He was backed by Nashville’s first call session players including Eddie Bayers (drums), John Hobbs (keyboard), David Hungate (bass), J.T. Corenflos and Steve Wilson (guitars). Hobbs produced the session and Billy Sherrill engineered. The students filled the studio, listening through headphones while seated right beside the players in the isolation booths, and others in the control room. Vince played through the new tune a couple times for the players, who jotted down a chart in Nashville notation, talked briefly about the arrangement and put down the tracks. Most of the players on this session, plus Paul Franklin (guitar), and Brent Mason (guitar) also did a panel discussion earlier in the week.

Other presenters included Mark Montgomery of Echo Music, marketing whiz and music producer Scott Rouse, country artist Hal Ketchum and Dinse Sith of DS Management (Alison Krauss).

You can see photos from the Skaggs presentation online, as well as a recap of the sessions with Mark Montgomery on Mark’s blog.

Tonight at the Tuesday Night Opry in Nashville, they will also be on hand when Ricky Skaggs accepts an honorary doctorate from Berklee. The Boston institution notes that…

Skaggs’ virtuosity, his rich musicality, and his commitment to the deep roots of American music make him a deserving recipient of a Berklee Honorary Doctorate.

Berklee awarded a similar honor to Earl Scruggs in March of 2005 and to Loretta Lynn in 2006. They have also been awarded to jazz and pop luminaries like Duke Ellington, Billy Joel, Sarah Vaughn, Dizzy Gillespie and Paul Simon.

The presentation will be a part of the Tuesday Night Opry radio broadcast, which can be heard on WSM AM 650 and simulcast worldwide via online streaming at wsmonline.com. If you want to listen in, that segment is scheduled during the final half hour, from 9:30-10:00 p.m. (EDT).

GAC’s cameras will be on hand to record the ceremony, which they will air during this weekend’s edition of Opry Live.

Our friend Dave Hollender is in Nashville with the Berklee contingent, and he will try to get us some more details about the Opry event as well as the students’ various activities in town during their break.