Their latest CD, One Lonely Shadow, was released almost exactly one year ago on Lonesome Day Records, but did not receive a lot of publicity when it first came out. The music, much of it written by Garrett and West, is soulfully played and beautifully recorded – surely one of my very favorite records of ‘08.

If you haven’t heard it, be sure to catch them on Track-By-Track this morning (8/19) at 11:00 a.m., or toorrow (8/20) at 9:00 p.m. It will air one last time on Sunday (8/23) at 11:00 a.m. All times EDT.

Bluegrass Junction can be heard on Sirius Channel 65 or XM track 14.

You can find audio samples from One Lonely Shadow in iTunes.

The show will also include a performance from Chris West and Keith Garrett, the creative locus – and singing/songwriting power team – of Blue Moon Rising.

WDVX broadcasts from Knoxville, TN on 102.9 FM and can also be heard live online via audio streaming.

Blue Plate Special typically airs at noon during the week, but this Saturday edition is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. (EST).

The new album has been getting strong airplay from bluegrass radio, and the band is hoping to meet a lot of fans and friends at this evening’s show.

There are no audio samples up on the band or the label (Lonesome Day) web sites, but they have created a video to introduce the guys and the music from the new CD.

The East Tennessee based band, whose name is derived from the title of a newspaper article commemorating the life of the Father of Bluegrass Music, Bill Monroe, has three previous albums and One Lonely Shadow is the second for the Lonesome Day Records label.

The CD consists of 13 songs and was engineered by Mike Latterell and jointly produced by Latterell, Cody Kilby, Randall Deaton, and Blue Moon Rising. Guitarist Chris West contributed five songs; the evil murder song, The Hanging Tree; I Grew Up Today; Five More Days of Rain; the Gospel song, Revival [co-written with Steve Gulley] and Good Time for Going Home. Mandolin player Keith Garrett wrote the love song, Angeline.

The remaining songs are from a diverse group of writers; the eloquent Bruce Springsteen (contributing Youngstown), the late Townes Van Zandt (Marie), Canadian Fred Eaglesmith (Freight Train), Bill Castle (Stone Cold Loneliness), Ronnie Bowman (Blue Moon Rising), Verlin Thompson (I Will Come Back Again) and Robbie Fulks (Where There’s a Road).

A couple of the songs have already enjoyed some radio play around the nation from a special pre-release sampler sent out by Lonesome Day Records and Where There’s a Road has reached No. 4 on the Sirius Bluegrass countdown.

West can’t wait for the release date ‚Ķ‚Ķ.

“In my humble opinion, this is the best recording by Blue Moon Rising to date. There’s a lot of songs on there that fans of ours would immediately recognize as our style of song, but there’s also several songs that were outside our normal realm of music that will hopefully endear some new fans and help to build a much broader fan base. The production is high with guest musicianship and vocals provided by Randy Kohrs, Tim Crouch, Mike Bub, Cody Kilby, Steve Gulley, Ron Stewart and Dale Ann Bradley.”

The current members of Blue Moon Rising are Chris West (vocals and guitar), Keith Garrett (vocals and mandolin), Justin Jenkins (vocals and banjo) and recent recruit Harold Nixon, formerly with J.D. Crowe & the New South, (bass).

Performers include Blue Moon Rising, Gary Waldrep, Nothin’ Fancy and hosts White Sands Panhandle Band among others.

Just visit the festival web site, and you’ll see the link to launch the streaming video.

HT: Mike Kelly, WDVX

The new project is due for release in January 2008 on Lonesome Day Records.

Where There’s A Road is being released as a single to bluegrass radio, and both of the tracks mentioned above were included on a Lonesome Day sampler distributed at the IBMA convention earlier this month.

UPDATE 3:30 p.m.: We just picked up a bit more info on this new project. The title will be… Blue Moon Rising.

Interestingly enough, the title comes not from the band name, but from one of the songs on the CD, Blue Moon Rising, written by Ronnie Bowman. When the guys first heard the song, they contacted Ronnie right away to see if they could cut it, and both he and they were delighted to find it as the title track of the new release.

From what I’ve been told, this new project sounds quite different from their previous CD, and there are some high expectations for it upon release next year.

The band is currently in the studio working on their second release for Lonesome Day records. It is being produced by Cody Kilby, flatpicking gunslinger with Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, and should be released sometime this summer.

Their first Lonesome Day release, On The Rise, was released in 2005.

The band also asked us to pass along a bit of news about a special show they are doing this Friday (4/27).

Blue Moon Rising is holding a benefit concert this Friday night for their former Fan Club President, Linda Watkins. Due to the heath crisis of Linda and some of her family members all at one time, Blue Moon Rising will host this benefit, Friday, April 27th at Vonore Elementary School, Vonore, TN. It begins at 7:00 pm. Only $10 pp and kids 12 and under are admitted free. All proceeds go to Linda and her family.

We are very excited to announce that next weekend the fun in South Georgia continues. Saturday 3/17, we will present Michelle Nixon and Drive, Live in the Bluegrass Radio studios. on Sunday 3/18, we will present Blue Moon Rising. Both bands will do a complete set live and we will record each for playback later each day. This is a wonderful time for BluegrassRadio.org considering that every effort is being made to kill internet radio. We will not let the music stop.

You might want to go read these posts here, here, and here if you don’t understand what Clyde is referring to with his last two sentences. Make sure you read the comments on that first post as well.

If you have any trouble connecting to BluegrassRadio.org during the shows, be patient and continue trying. Clyde has mentioned that due to this recent ruling he will be limiting the number of connections to the stream.

If you are not already a JamBase member, you’ll need to create a free membership in order to enter the contest. The two tickets have a value of $100, and the festival includes performances by Lonesome River Band, Blue Moon Rising, Cadillac Sky, New Found Road and many more.

KFYR channel 5 TV in Bismarck, ND ran a story 4 days ago about Blue Moon Rising playing in a local school and promoting bluegrass music. The band not only performed for the kids at the school, but also donated 10 guitars to the school’s music program. The story is here, and at the bottom there is a link to a two minute video clip of the news story, including comments from students and teachers, and performance shots of the band. Very nice!

Then 3 days ago KXMB TV, the CBS affiliate on channel 12 in Bismarck ran a story about the band’s appearance at Bismarck State College. The band performed Saturday at the school including not only a concert, but also workshops on fiddle, mandolin, and songwriting. This story also includes a video clip. I was unable to get the video to play on my Macbook, it probably works on a Windows PC though.

I’m excited to see bluegrass bands performing at high schools and colleges and spreading the music to a new generation. Thanks guys!

For those of you not familiar with the band, the members are Dave Carroll (guitar), Ronnie King (mandolin), and Jerry Chaney (resonator guitar), Mike Parker (bass) and Josh Hymer (banjo). Dave Carroll might be a name you’ve heard, if you keep up with bluegrass songwriters. Dave wrote the song Old Martin Box that is currently doing well on the charts for IBMA Emerging Artist of the Year Nominee, Blue Moon Rising. He also wrote the song The Game Is Over, which was recorded by Lonesome River Band on the album Carrying The Tradition.

Ron Stewart produced the project and contributed fiddle parts to many of the tracks.

The band has mp3 samples available on the front page of their site at this time and the CD can also be purchased there using PayPal.

Then, later this afternoon, BMR dobro and fiddle man Justin Moses will join Gracie Muldoon on WorldWideBluegrass.com for a live interview during her Muldoon In The Afternoon show, streamed live over the Internet between 4:00-6:00 p.m. Gracie usually does her interviews around 4:30 p.m.

You can listen to WWB online via streaming audio.

If you miss Blue Moon Rising on XM this morning, you can catch it several more times over the next five days. Airtimes for the Studio Special broadcasts are:

All times shown are Eastern.

XM subscribers can listen online when away from their XM receives, and non-subscribers can register online for a free, 3 day online trial subscription to sample XM’s service.

You can find some audio samples from On The Rise on the band’s web site.

Keith Garrett, Steve Gulley, Bryon House, and Andy Leftwich are all guests on Justin’s self produced and arranged album.

From the press release:

In addition to playing mandolin, banjo, fiddle, guitar, Dobro and bass, Justin also composed seven tunes on the CD. He makes his lead vocal debut on two cuts, One More Hill and He”ll Be with You, both featuring Mountain Heart”s” Steve Gulley on exceptional tenor vocals. The emotional story told in Heart of Alabama is one of the two cuts featuring the phenomenal lead vocals of Keith Garrett of Blue Moon Rising. Garrett comments, “Justin is one of the best multi-instrumentalists I”ve ever known. He”s put together a great collection of tasteful tunes and it was a pleasure to be a part of this album.”

Audio clips are available on Justin’s website. He also has a myspace account.