The Blue Ridge Parkway is a venerable institution in our part of the world. This scenic drive runs 469 miles, from Shenandoah National Park (south of Charlottesville, VA) to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina (southwest of Asheville).

The road winds through the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests in Virginia, and the Pisgah and Nantahal in North Carolina. Almost every mile avoids population centers of any kind, and with easy access off and on along the way, is a tourist favorite for its spectacular mountain vistas of the Blue Ridge region.

Of course this region has been home to a great deal of bluegrass and old time music, and the seminal artists who defined it. The National Parks Service and the National Council for the Traditional Arts jointly operate a venue near Galax, VA to acknowledge the musical history of the area, The Blue Ridge Music Center.

The Parkway is celebrating 2010 as their 75th Anniversary with a full year’s worth of special events along the way. Things kick off this Saturday with a benefit show near Asheville, NC featuring what will surely be a memorable musical aggregation.

Billed as The Blue Ridge All Stars, this one-time grouping of musicians born and bred in the VA/NC mountain region includes Doyle Lawson on mandolin, Sammy Shelor on banjo, Bryan Sutton on guitar, Jim Van Cleve on fiddle and Tim Surrett on bass.

Jim told us that Bryan Sutton put the group together.

“Bryan Sutton called me back in April or May about this show, and it’s something I’ve been looking forward to ever since then! It’s a big honor to be involved in a BIG SHOW of this nature, and the band Bryan has assembled will be a BLAST to play with!!!”

Singer/songwriter Nanci Griffith is also on the show, which will be held in the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium at the Asheville Civic Center. Proceeds from the show will go towards the funding for the 75th Anniversary events during 2010.

You can find full concert details on the BRP 75th site.

Almost Live, the latest CD from flatpicker supreme Bryan Sutton, is out today (7/14) on Sugar Hill Records.

It is a set of ten songs and tunes featuring Bryan in the studio with many of the artists with whom he has performed in recent years. Punch Brothers make an appearance (sans regular guitarist Chris Eldridge) along with Béla Fleck, Sam Bush, Hot Rize, Stuart Duncan, Jerry Douglas and several other notables. The intention was to capture the music live in the studio, with minimal overdubs or tweaking.

The CD’s vibe is nicely captured by Nate Chinen in a mini-review in the New York Times’ Playlist column on July 8:

The contemporary bluegrass style upheld by the flat-pick guitarist Bryan Sutton has a lot to do with high-polish whimsicality. There’s no room for raggedness on his crisp new album, “Almost Live” (Sugar Hill), but as the title suggests, looseness is a priority.

You should be able to find Almost Live for sale wherever you like to purchase bluegrass CDs, or in iTunes where you can hear audio samples as well.

It looks like this one may do well, as it is the #1 selling bluegrass CD at Amazon.com today.

Bryan Sutton is on everyone’s short list of top flatpick guitarists, something that has made him Nashville’s #1 call for recording and short term tour work. This has given him a stable career and a fairly normal home life, by most professional musicians’ standards.

But it also means that his many admirers have precious little opportunity to hear him out front, performing his own music.

Sugar Hill has another of those rare glimpses into Sutton as a spotlight artist with a new CD, Almost Live, due for release on July 14. The title comes from the concept for the album – to get together in the studio with the several groups with whom Bryan has toured in recent years, and capture the informal and sometimes extemporaneous character of a live show.

These include the occasional Hot Rize reunions, Punch Brothers, and Béla Fleck (and his Acoustic Planet band). Each is featured on at least one track, along with a trio of duets with Fleck, Russ Barrenberg and Chris Thile. Not too shabby, eh?

As always, Sutton’s tone is gorgeous – large and round – and while it is clearly his album, the tunes (and songs) dictate the arrangements. In other words, it’s not a “guitar album.” Most of the materials falls squarely within the bluegrass/newgrass/Americana category, with one track that showcases Bryan’s more recent fascination with gypsy swing music.

Sutton wrote the bulk of the tunes, with a Norman Blake classic (Church Street Blues with Hot Rize) and a Delmore Brothers chestnut (Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar with Thile) included for a bit of vocal relief. Choosing standouts is a daunting chore given the high caliber of music and musicianship throughout, but here are a few that grabbed my attention.

Big Island Hornpipe is a co-write with Thile which Bryan says the two of them finished while he was touring with Chris’ How To Grow A Band. Sutton filled in with them on shows when their ultimate guitarist Chris Eldridge was still working with The Infamous Stringdusters. It’s quite a romp!

Rye Straw Suite finds Sutton in duet with B?©la Fleck, with whom he wrote the tune.

Loretta’s Waltz is a lovely melody which Bryan wrote and named for his wife. The execution, with Dennis Crouch on bass, Aubrie Haynie on fiddle and Jeff Taylor on accordion, is restrained and quite powerful.

Be on the lookout for Almost Live folks – if you care about virtuosic instrumental acoustic music, that is. And why wouldn’t you?

Sugar Hill Records has announced a number of new albums set for release during the spring and summer of 2009.

Already this year, they have a solo project from The Infamous Stringdusters’ Jeremy Garrett, I Am A Stranger, which hit on March 31. Next week, they have a new CD from The Greencards, Fascination, with a number of others on deck.

Here’s a partial 2009 Sugar Hill release schedule (with more to be announced soon):

• 5/19: Chris Pandolfi – Looking Glass
• 6/16: Sarah Jarosz – Song Up In Her Head
• 7/14: Bryan Sutton and Friends – Almost Live