If you’re interested in something different, here it is. This is not for you purists - you know who you are. I would go so far as to say this is not for most bluegrass fans. It is not something I myself would listen to, as I do find the lyrics offensive at times, as many of you are sure to as well. It is of interest from the standpoint of observing the dissemination of bluegrass sounds and instrumentation into other musical forms.

It was not that many years ago that the banjo and mandolin began to be accepted instruments in the country music world. Now they are quite at home in that world, and almost expected at certain times.

I would never have imagined though that these instruments, along with the dobro and fiddle, would find there way into a hip-hop mix!

So here’s the deal. Producer/mashup artist…ok, I’ll explain that last term.

A ‘mashup’ is a song created by combining two, or more, songs of differing genres (usually). Typically this is done using the lyrical content from one song and the instrumentation from another. This is widely popular in European pop. It is called a ‘mashup’ because you are basically mashing two thing together that wouldn’t normally find their way to the same space. There can be some legal issues involved in this practice and the entire genre (if you can call it that) has adopted a rather punk rock attitude and is considered part of the culture jamming movement.

Ok, back to the creator of this album. Rench is a singer/songwriter/producer/mashup artist who has recently released an mashup album of bluegrass and hip-hop. He’s calling the work Gangstagrass. The recording is available for free via download. It includes 22 tracks total. The tracks are basically hip-hop lyrics laid over a track that includes drums and bass along with original banjo, dobro, fiddle, and mandolin riffs.

The results are unique and have gained Rench some attention via posts on sites like boingboing.

Like I said, it is of interest to us as bluegrass fans because our sounds have found their way into a world most of us will never enter. Curious as to how that happened, I contacted Rench and had an email conversation with him about the recording.

What follows are some questions I put to Rench, and his very thoughtful and well articulated replies. (more…)

The folks with the Central Florida Bluegrass Association have put together a special session for this weekend where amateur pickers and jammers will have the chance to participate in a studio recording.

Anyone who attends the event will have an opportunity to record with others on hand. They are calling it the Circle Unbroken Recording Session, named for the landmark triple album from Nitty Gritty Dirt Band that featured a hodge-podge of top flight bluegrass and country artists in a jam-like session.

A professional audio engineer will be on hand to track the sessions, who will also mix and master the results. A modest fee of $20 is requested for each participant, which will entitle you to a final, mixed CD will all of the songs recorded over the weekend.

The sessions will be held in Plant City, FL on May 17-18, starting on Friday evening at 6:00 p.m. Further details can be found by contacting Jeff Jones by email.

The Great American Country cable televison network (GAC) is seeking submissions for their upcoming talent competition, The Next GAC Star.

GAC is partnering with Music Nation and their Original Signal Recording label, to manage the competition. Their goal is to select the next American country music star, first from among video and mp3 entries submitted by July 14, and then among six finalists selected to appear in a two-part live TV elimination September 3 and 10.

The finalists will be chosen through a series of head-to-head online votes, with entrants randomly pitted against another. From May 23 through July 21, two winners will be chosen each week - one by online ballot, and the other chosen by the show’s staff.

The 16 semi-finalists will be winnowed to six by a celebrity panel of judges when The Next GAC Star premiers on June 1, with these six moving on to the live finals in September.

The winner, chosen by the television audience, will receive a recording contract with Original Signal and a music video to be aired on GAC. Of course, all six finalists will receive exposure on the two final episodes of the show, and selected submission videos will be aired during the semi-final shows.

Amanda Pitts with Music Nation told us that bluegrass artists are encouraged to enter! Video or audio submissions can be uploaded on the Music Nation site.

No matter where you find yourself in the world, a bluegrass jam is sure to lift your spirits. We often take for granted the availability of jam sessions here in the US, while our overseas contemporaries are somewhat harder pressed to find a picking. Imagine the difficulty if you’re a soldier stationed in Iraq.

This morning a story came to my attention of a regular bluegrass jam at Camp Victory in Baghdad. A group of US soldiers calling themselves alternately The Baghdad Bad Boys, or The Stained-Glass Bluegrass, meet regularly in the camp chapel for bluegrass night.

The soldiers love this gathering because it relaxes the tensions of the work place, which for them might be a tad more tension than any of us are used to day in and day out! And in the words of Lt. Col. Greg Rawlings from Fort Bragg,

It keeps me from choking people during the week.

The Fayetteville Observer ran the story, and has even posted a YouTube clip of the soldiers jamming on Will The Circle Be Unbroken. Be sure to stop by the YouTube site and leave a comment encouraging these brave soldiers and letting them know we appreciate them.

We’ve talked about RSS before here on The Bluegrass Blog. I know I don’t use RSS as I should for the most efficient use of my time. So when a reader pointed me to this video yesterday, I thought it was worth sharing with the rest of the family.

The video is from CommonCraft.com and explains the advantages and how-to of using RSS.

Here are the buttons for subscribing to our RSS feed, as he describes them in the video.

The Los Angeles Times had an article about the famous LA club, Ash Grove, in Sunday’s edition of that newspaper. This comes as a prelude to the forthcoming 50th Anniversary celebration planned for April 18 - 20 at UCLA.

The Ash Grove first opened in LA July 1, 1958, originally at 8162 Melrose Avenue, and remained open for a period of a little over 15 years, before having to close due to fire damage. Established by Ed Pearl with the help of friends and family, it was far more than a coffee house or night club as it staged a whole range of music, with flamenco, folk, blues and rock’n'roll among other styles of music. The 250-seat auditorium, built in a former furniture warehouse, was the venue for the first west coast shows by Flatt & Scruggs, Bill Monroe and Doc Watson.

It was a real hotbed of music and the list of acts that performed there included the Mother Maybelle Carter, Elizabeth Cotton, Country Boys, Country Gazette, Country Gentlemen, Hazel Dickens, The Dillards, The Greenbriar Boys, Richard Greene, John Hartford, John Herald, Kweskin Jug Band, New Lost City Ramblers, Peter Rowan, Mike Seeger, Peggy Seeger, Pete Seeger, Kilby Snow, Rosalie Sorrells and Mac Wiseman.

From 1974 through to 1995 concerts were staged at various venues in locations in the Los Angeles region. During the following year the club was located at Santa Monica Pier and it was there that other bluegrass and related acts appeared, such as Ralph Stanley, Laurie Lewis, Del McCoury, Chris Hillman, Mark O’Connor, Kathy Kallick, Peter Rowan, Kate Mackenzie, Nashville Bluegrass Band, Laurel Canyon Ramblers and Herb Pedersen.

Since 1998 music productions have taken place in San Pedro under the a non-profit foundation named Ash Grove Music

Details for the 50th Anniversary concerts and workshops can be found on the Ash Grove site. Of particular interest is the Hillbilly Fever workshop, which takes place at Noon on Saturday, April 19. Subtitled From Old Timey to beyond Bluegrass, the concert will include a special tribute to Clarence White. It features Roland White, Mike Seeger, Phil Boroff, Herb Pedersen, Leroy Mack and Peter Feldmann (moderator).

To read the full story from the LA Times go to their website.

A new festival has been announced for November of 2008, which the promoters describe as the first of its kind. The Thailand Country Bluegrass Music Festival will be held in Pakchong, about 100 miles northeast of Bangkok, November 1-3.

According to the festival organizer, Thanit Tanitapanee, there is a growing interest in country and bluegrass music - and “cowboy culture” - throughout Thailand, and he is hopeful of finding 1,000 people or more in attendance when the festival debuts later this year.

“Me and my friends are working to make it happen. Because we love country and bluegrass music and we like all the musicians and the bands to get their show on stage.

The Festival would be held in Pakchong (well known for the Khao Yai World Heritage Park) 160 Kms. from Bangkok. Pakchong now names ‘Cowboy Town.’ “

Tanitapanee invites any bands or musicians who would like to perform on the festival to either contact him by email, or post a note on the blog he has set up to promote the event. He is also eager to hear from potential sponsors for the festival.

Lets hope this is only the beginning for bluegrass fests in Thailand!

Harry Smith began collecting early recording of folk music in the 1940s. During the War (WWII) many old recordings were melted down so the shellac could be used for the war effort, and many old recordings were lost forever. Smith’s collection preserved a legacy of American music.

In 1952 Folkway Records released a 6-album set titled Anthology of American Folk Music. The tracks for this release came from these old shellac recordings in the collection of Harry Smith. The release contributed greatly to the folk revival of the 1960s, and continues to influence popular music even today.

Old, Weird America is a documentary film project that tells the story of Smith’s collection. The project has recently been aired on satellite tv, and includes new performances of many of these old folk tunes, by contemporary artists such as Beck, Elvis Costello, Lou Reed and Sonic Youth.

The show was aired earlier this month on Ovation TV, the Fine Arts and Entertainment channel on both Direct TV and Dish Network.

Here’s a preview clip from YouTube that will give you a taste of what the program is all about. Elvis Costello performing The Butchers Boy isn’t something you see every day. Hopefully they’ll re-air the program sometime soon.

I’m sure many of you are already familiar with iLike, and most with iTunes, but for those who aren’t I thought I’d share.

iLike is a social networking site that revolves around music. But the site isn’t where the magic is. It’s the iLike Sidebar that makes the music happen. The iLike Sidebar is an application enhancement for both iTunes and Windows Media Player. Since I’m on a Mac I’ll just tell you how it work in iTunes.

Once installed, the iLike Sidebar will become visible in iTunes and fulfill it’s purpose in life, helping you find new music. When you’re listening to something, the Sidebar will show the current track at the top. Beneath that it will show related music that you already own and have available in your library. Next up it will show you related music you don’t own, but can purchase from iTunes. It generally shows about 6 potential tracks for your interest. And finally, it will actually show you related music you can download for FREE from new artists wishing to connect with an audience.

Right now I’m listening to the new Longview CD and it’s showing me tracks from Del McCoury, Jim Lauderdale, Alison Krauss, Gibson Brothers, Laurie Lewis, and The Nashville Bluegrass Band. Those sound like pretty good matches to me.

There are other options with the iLike Sidebar. What I just explained above is just the “Related Music” tab. Other options include a tab for recent activity from artists you’ve selected as being favorites. These updates include new music, tour dates, and other events.

And then there’s the social part of the network. Just like MySpace or Facebook, you can invite friends in iLike and when you select the “Friends” tab in the Sidebar, iLike shows you the most recently played song by each of you friends. And this includes a link to listen and potentially purchase that music for yourself.

How well does iLike accomplish it’s purpose of connecting you, the listener, with new music? According to this study from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, it works extremely well.

* Long-term users of iLike added nearly 250% more music to their personal music libraries within a month of registering on iLike versus the month before.

* Five months later, active iLike users continue to add nearly 30 to 50% more music per month than before joining.

* It is indicated that the iLike Sidebar may account for this dramatic increase in music purchasing among iLike users.

I don’t know if I’ve added THAT much music to my library because of iLike, but I have discovered a few artists I wouldn’t have otherwise. Check it out and see if you like, I know iLike.

Each day John and I receive a great many emails and phone calls reporting stories of interest to the bluegrass community. We write them up and report them here on The Bluegrass Blog. In addition to the news that is given to us though, we also regularly scour the back alleys of the internet looking for bluegrass stories that maybe we didn’t get a direct notification of.

In our searching we often run across stories that have little, or absolutely nothing, to do with bluegrass music, but give us a good little chuckle because of the use of a “bluegrass” word. I’ve saved a few of these headlines over the last couple weeks and thought it would be fun to share them with you.

Bluegrass Army Depot Passes International Inspection
Story: Army Ammo Depot in Kentucky

Grab Your Banjo and Head for the Hills
Story: Forest Fire Museum in Oregon

Boosting voltage levels will keep lights on for Banjo
Story: Injection molding facility in Indiana needs more voltage to plant

Flu Sickens The Bluegrass
Story: The Flu Bug makes its rounds in Kentucky

IBM Launches Project Bluegrass
Story: Integration of IBM’s Jazz platform with a 3D environment to facilitate collaboration.

IBM has a software development platform called Jazz. They are now launching this new program to encourage workers from various generations and locales to collaborate and learn from each other. Primarily using technologies such as a 3D collaboration interface reminiscent of Second Life, IBM’s goal for Project Bluegrass indicates that the project is aptly named.

While Project Bluegrass provides a workspace full of stimulation with instant messaging, presence awareness and project tasking that appeals to Generation Y, it also provides the ability to integrate these technologies with current IBM technology that Baby Boomers and Generation X are comfortable with.

That’s what Bluegrass music does. It combines innovation and a fast paced environment with tradition and thoughts of home. And a visit to IBMA will reveal the cross generational nature of the music. Beginning with IBM’s Jazz platform, and expanding to its Project Bluegrass, it seems apparent there is someone at IBM with some musical sense.

Our friend Ted Lehmann has just celebrated his 1st anniversary as a blogger, posting at Ted Lehmann’s Bluegrass, Books, and Brainstorms.

To celebrate, he has posted several portfolios of the photos he has taken at festivals and concerts over the past year. He has images of Béla Fleck, Larry Sparks, Lynn Morris and a great many others.

Ted also offers previews and reviews of live shows and bluegrass recordings.

Congrats, buddy, on a full year online!

Joe Tennis is a weekly features writer for the Bristol Herald Courier, but he’s also a published author. His newest book was just recently published by Overmountain Press.

The book, titled Beach to Bluegrass: Places to Brake on Virginia’s Longest Road, is all about places of interest close to U.S. Route 58. Tennis takes the reader on a 760 mile journey along Route 58, giving you not only the places of interest along the route, but also the stories behind them. Each site is covered in text and photos.

The book covers such musical sites as the Crooked Road and Johnny Cash’s connection to Southwest Virginia.

For those interested in history, rural routes, and appalachia, this book would make a fine Christmas gift. The book is available at Barnes & Noble bookstores.

This post was originally submitted in The B, but we felt it would be of wide enough interest that we chose to move it to the front page

Hi,

Scott Atkinson here. Some of you may know me from my time at Sing Out! Folk Music Magazine (I was there from 2000-2006. I was the Managing Editor and manned the booth at IBMA, Winfield, Merlefest, and other places.)

I’ve been out of the scene for a year or two, but am getting back in. I am now publishing roots music songbooks as World Street Press and just released my first volume: The Essential Bluegrass and Old-Time Songbook.

It contains 50 traditional songs: rare gems and old favorites alike. (Melodies, chord charts, lyrics, song origins.)

I hope you’ll take a few minutes to check out the site: there’s a copy of the Table of Contents and song examples. (Plus a special offer to celebrate the book’s release.)

I’m excited about getting back into the scene and look forward to running into some of you online and elsewhere. Please visit us at WorldStreetPress.com.

The New York Times cityroom blog recently featured a story about a banjo playing Santa from New York. The story is complete with a short video showcasing Santa’s banjo skills, and asking him a few questions about the gig.

Warren McKnight lives in Riverhead (on Long Island), N.Y. and works as an automotive parts salesman. In December he dons his Santa outfit, straps on his banjo, and hits the streets to play some holiday music on his favorite instrument.

He has a full beard and an undeniably jolly disposition, and when he pulls on his red Santa cap, he resembles Kris Kringle from “Miracle on 34th Street,” and when he lays open his banjo case for small change and sings and finger-picks holiday ditties like “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” he embodies a certain country Christmas spirit.

I like the idea, but I may have to disagree with McKnight on one point. He was asked which instrument he thought Santa would play, of course he said it would be the banjo. I don’t necessarily disagree with that. It’s his reason I’m not sure I can embrace.

It has to be the banjo for the simple reason: you cannot play a sad song on the banjo.

Tell that to Ralph Stanley!

For the last ten years, the state of Virginia has been without a state song. This proves to be a confusing situation for those in charge of sporting events and public inaugurations. The search for a new song has continually stalled because the delegates involved in the search process can’t seem to find any common ground to agree on when it comes to musical tastes.

The Washington Times is reporting this morning that during a radio interview yesterday in Richmond, a caller asked Gov. Tim Kaine about the situation. The Governor’s response was to say that he preferred to stay out of that debate, joking that he didn’t have thick enough skin to deal with it.

He just couldn’t seem to follow his own advice though, and suggested that his pick for a new state song would be the bluegrass gospel tune Will The Circle Be Unbroken. After offering that suggestion he continued to joke, saying:

I’m sure my popularity will plummet even further after having waded into that.

The anticipated critisism has already begun, with one state legislator suggesting that Kaine’s comments couldn’t be taken seriously because,

he’s from Kansas, so what does he know?

(more…)

As we are now within the officially-recognized holiday season, one expects to find notices about Christmas concerts featuring bluegrass and acoustic music. It was something of a surprise, though a most pleasant one, to see news of a show scheduled next Tuesday (12/4) on the Millenium Stage of The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.

The Center will present a concert for the first night of Hanakuh featuring The Sinai Mountain Boys, from Silver Spring, MD. The band is composed of four Orthodox Jewish pickers who mix bluegrass with Hassidic and Jewish music for a melange they lovingly call Jewgrass.

Members include Gary Goodman on banjo, Michael Singer on bass, Robbie Zev Ludwick on mandolin, and Yoni Tyberg on guitar. You can hear audio samples of their music, and a couple of live performance videos on the band’s web site.

The Hanakuh show on 12/4 is co-presented by The Kennedy Center and the DC Jewish Community Center, and begins at 6:00 p.m. There is no charge for the concert, and it will also be streamed live over the Internet from the Millennium Stage web site. Should you miss the show, look for the video in the archives within a day or so of the concert.

A vintage Yamaha flat top guitar once owned by Charlie Waller is being offered on eBay to raise money for needy families this holiday season.

Its current owner, Christopher Ryan Jones of Bluegrass Mafia, has donated the guitar to benefit Operation Christmas Child. Jones has owned this guitar since Charlie gave it to him in 1999, and used it to record their most recent project - samples available on MySpace.

The auction, which closes on November 26, describes the guitar as a 30 year old FG-160 model, sold with a hard shell case.

Mopre details and photos can be found on the eBay auction page.

On this wonderful fall morning in Virginia, John and I would like to extend a hearty Thank You to all who faithfully read The Bluegrass Blog. We love what we do, and we’re thankful for the opportunity to pursue something we love, but without you we probably wouldn’t be doing this.

We’re also interested in letting you have a voice to express your bluegrass thanksgivings. What are you thankful for today?

Leave us your comment telling us what it is you’re thankful for on Thanksgiving 2007. A favorite band? A great CD? An instrument that feels like an extension of yourself? What are you thankful for in a bluegrass way?

Following up John’s earlier post, concerning the Associated Press story, claiming that:

Beyonce went bluegrass in a surprise performance with country band Sugarland at the American Music Awards on Sunday night.

As John pointed out, they also quote Beyonce as saying the bluegrass version of her song Irreplaceable “ain’t bad.”

Curiosity grabbed me and I had to see exactly what the AP, and Beyonce, thought bluegrass sounded like, so I went to YouTube looking for it. YouTube is amazing btw. Anyway, here’s a link to the clip. I won’t embed it here because it is most definitely NOT bluegrass.

Apparently if it has acoustic guitar and mandolin in it, it must be bluegrass. Hardly. The instrumentation is two acoustic guitars, a mandolin, electric upright bass, drums, and accordion. The performance and vocals are in no way bluegrass.

It seems the Associated Press has no idea what bluegrass is about. And stories like this one, trying to pass this kind of stuff off as bluegrass, sure don’t help the public figure it out either.

The Associated Press is reporting that last night’s American Music Awards on ABC featured an unexpected duet between country sensation Sugarland and pop mega-star Beyonce

Sugarland has been performing an acoustic version of the Beyonce song, Irreplaceable, in their stage show, and their publicist was able to arrange the impromptu duet for the AMA show.

AP quotes the pop star while watching a replay of their set backstage as remarking:

“The bluegrass version… It ain’t bad.”