Skaggs Family Records has begun posting video clips of Cadillac Sky from the recording sessions earlier this year for their upcoming CD, Gravity’s Our Enemy. A new video will go up each week until the album hits the street on August 19.

Skaggs Family is running a special promotion for pre-orders received online prior to August 16. When you place an order, you’ll be entered to win an iPod Nano pre-loaded with both Cadillac Sky recordings, plus all pre-orders will receive a free download card for exclusive C-Sky digital content.

Full details on the Skaggs Family web site.

This first clip has mandolinist Bryan Simpson and fiddler Ross Holmes discussing the new project and the “secrets” within.

Bryan Simpson of Cadillac Sky just shot us a note with news about one of the songs on their upcoming CD, Gravity’s Our Enemy, set for an August 19 Skaggs Family release.

It’s not really a single release, but one of the tracks from the new project is now available online at reverbnation.com. You can also give the song a listen in the player embedded below.

Says Bryan of this track…

“The tune’s called Inside Joke and it’s about a crazy dream I had one night. It serves as therapy for the band everytime we play it.”

Back in March we shared a few words from Cadillac Sky mandolinist and vocalist Bryan Simpson as the band got started on their next CD.

Well, it’s all finished and Gravity’s Our Enemy is set for an August 19 release on Skaggs Family Records.

We hooked up with Bryan once again last week to find out a bit about the new project.

“The title of the record is lifted from the lyrics of a song on the record called Carousel. We thought it was appropriate based on several things. With the last record referencing ‘walking,’ and with us attempting to really make this thing ‘fly’ with the new record, we thought Gravity’s Our Enemy was kind of cool.

But I also think of the ‘gravity’ in the title as sort of like the ‘gravity’ of our situation. I mean, we’ve got wives and kids now and they deserve our attention and that sort of prevents constant touring which would probably be the best thing for the band (maybe not for our lives but for the band), and there’s gravity to that. And just simply coming from the reference point of bluegrass - with our instrumentation,etc - and trying to take our music to more diverse audiences - that certainly can work against you at times - sort of the stereotypical presumptions that occur before you’ve even played a note. So there’s gravity to that.

But the record name chooses the ‘gravity’ of our situation as an adversary - because, be not fooled, we have no plans for defeat- we plan on rising above and getting our feet off the ground - very soon!!”

On this album, the band enlisted the aid of an outside producer, noted mandolinist and producer Mike Marshall.

“Blind Man Walking we produced ourself - so this new producer was a lot easier to work with - not such a hot head like the last. No, honestly, we co-produced this record with our new musical guru, Mike Marshall! And it was awesome. (more…)

With gas prices making festival attendance more doubtful, for many, bluegrass on television perhaps becomes more attractive than hitherto.

Recently, I was alerted to the appearance on Kentucky Educational Television’s Jubilee stage of California’s High Country, one of the West Coast’s premier traditional bluegrass bands. Being partial to their music, I thought I would investigate. I found a series of airings with sufficient interest to enthral fans of a variety of bluegrass persuasions for weeks to come.

Starting on Wednesday (6/25) with Lonesome River Band there’s a different band featured for each week through to the end of August, with each showing being available through to the weekend, Friday excepted in all cases.

A quick scan of the schedule reveals appearances on the programm by the aforesaid Butch Waller and High Country (commencing July 2), Foghorn Stringband (July 9), Berline-Crary-Hickman (July 16), Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper with Audie Blaylock (July 23), The Rascals (July 30), Adrienne Young & Little Sadie and Cadillac Sky (August 6), Danny Paisley & Southern Grass (August 13), The Fairwell Drifters and Blue Moon Rising (August 20) and Timberline Drive paired with Jake Quesenberry & The MacRae Brothers (commencing Thursday, August 28).

Each of these bands were recorded at last year’s River of Music Party in Owensboro, Kentucky.

The Jubilee series is a KET production, distributed to public television stations nationwide. The series is directed by Nick Helton and produced by Duncan Hart. Nancy Carpenter is executive producer.

More information about Jubilee is available online.

More information about KET programming and education services, as well as how to support KET, can be found at www.ket.org.

We posted back in January that Cadillac Sky would be headed into the studio this month to begin work on the next CD. The guys just sent along a photo they shot in the studio, plus word that more details about the sessions can be found in recent blogs on their MySpace page.

Bryan Simpson shared this news there last week:

So six tunes have been thrown down to this point. “Wouldn’t Put it past Love”, “Inside Joke”, “Goodbye Story”, “Everybody’s Favorite”, “My Precious Waltz/I Hate How Happy She is”, and “Bible by the Bed”……. In the process of recording, somebody from our label came into get some multimedia stuff for the web site- and to expose how we are getting more toasted by the minute - we stood perfectly posed without saying a word for several minutes in front of a VIDEO CAMERA!?….

This morning he reports that the basic tracks have been completed, that vocals will be recorded shortly and that a late summer release on Skaggs Family Records is expected

We’ve posted several times previously about the release of the music video Born Lonesome by Skaggs Family Records artist Cadillac Sky. The video aired on both CMT and GAC.

The good folks at Skaggs Family were kind enough to send us a copy and give the go ahead to post it here for our readers.

Enjoy…

Our friend Cindy Baucom wrote in to tell us about a new festival she’s a part of this year. The 1st Annual FarmFest will be held at the Farmington Dragway in Farmington, NC. The dates set for the festival are April 11-12.

The festival is more than just bluegrass music, it’s a celebration of traditions of the Carolinas. In addition to some great bluegrass music, there will be food, displays, a children’s area, craft show, merchandise vendors, open mic, jam sessions, camping and more.

The line up of bluegrass acts for the festival are:

• Steep Canyon Rangers
• Cadillac Sky
• Lou Reid and Carolina
• Kenny and Amanda Smith Band
• Carrie Hassler and Hard Rain

Besides all these great bluegrass groups, there will also be a special Allstar Bluegrass Super Jam featuring Terry Baucom and Special Guests-including Wes Golding, Josh Williams, Lou Reid, Wayne Winkle and more.

Tickets for the weekend, if purchased in advance, are $40.00. At the gate, the tickets will be $25.00 per day. Children 10 and under will be admitted FREE. Rough camping is available for $5.00 per day.

Tickets will be available at ETIX.com (not yet listed) and a number of businesses across the region

Vendor spaces cost $20.00 per day until 3/31/08, after 3/31/08 they will be $25. Vendor space includes one comp admission.

For additional information, call 1-800-891-0350, or visit farmfestnc.com

Cadillac Sky is this week’s featured artist on CMT.com’s Unplugged at Studio 330. The show offers live in-studio performance and interviews of country artists in an internet-exclusive format. Part of the concept is that these artists perform acoustically for this program, which of course isn’t an issue when they feature bluegrass acts.

We spoke with C-Sky’s Bryan Simpson about getting to record this show…

“The two things I remember about shooting under the ever-attentive eye of the CMT cameras was the never-ceasing war the touch up gal waged with the sweat on our brows and the struggle we fought within ourselves to not say something stupid during the interview.

We did five songs for the show: Born Lonesome, You Again, Homesick Angel (Sonya Isaacs came in to help us on that one-awesome) Basket Case (A Green Day cover that we did once for fun and haven’t been able to stop doing for a year and a half now) and an instrumental, Neighborhood Bully’s Long Look in the Mirror (which landed on the cutting room floor I’m told- only 4 songs were needed).

In the interview we discussed ourselves a lot, and then we spent a little more time on ourselves.”

Watch all the songs and the interview at CMT.com.

The C-Sky boys are using some down time early this year to prepare for their second Skaggs Family CD. They’ll be working with Mike Marshall producing, and are scheduled to start recording in March.

“We’ve basically assembled all the material in our grimy little hands for the new project and we’re thrilled with that part of it, but it will be hard to bid farewell to Blind Man Walking. He’s been a good compadre to us, and it’s gonna be weird giving all our attention to someone new… but time does march on Blind Man Walking, and we both knew it would come to this at some point……?!”

We did a show with Mike in Florida about a year and a half ago. He was down there playing with his first group (The Sunshine Boys, I do believe that was it - sort of a reunion thing) and he happened to hear our set and dug it. He came up on the side of the stage and professed that he wanted to produce us. We were like ‘yeah… but our first project hasn’t come out yet’ …well, when it came time to start the process of the new record, his name came bursting forth from our mouths. We’re all big fans of Mike - the person, and the projects he’s been involved in - and the fact that he’s a little crazy, made it an easy decision.

We have spent time discussing the project with Mike on a untraceable phone line to some extent and will be doing a little boot camp action at an undisclosed location very soon (doesn’t that make it more exciting?).

So everybody start marking your calenders. We are gonna tackle that 500 pound gorilla they call ‘the sophomore slump.”

The new Born Lonesome music video from Cadillac Sky we posted about earlier this month will be featured this afternoon (11/30) on the CMT Pure cable channel.

If your cable provider includes this new music channel in their digital lineup, check them out at 1:45 p.m. (EST).

It’s an eerie, shadowy video - directed by Roger Pistole - that perfectly fits the dark mood of the song. C-Sky’s Bryan Simpson had suggested that several viewings might be required to catch the story being told in the video, and after seeing it just the once, I can readily concur.

The video is also available for viewing on CMT Loaded online.

Kyle Cantrell at XM Satellite Radio’s Bluegrass Junction (track 14) tells us that he has a number of interesting interviews airing over the next two days.

Later today (11/20), Cadillac Sky will be featured in the 3:00 p.m. hour. On Wednesday (11/21), Kyle will have IIIrd Tyme Out, discussing their new Footprints CD, and spinning a few cuts. That IIIrd Tyme Out feature will run sometime between 3:00 and 6:00 p.m.

Then at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Kyle will replay his visit with legendary bluegrass singer Curly Seckler.

Speaking of Cadillac Sky…

Their first music video is set to debut tomorrow (11/18) on GAC TV. It’s for the song, Born Lonesome, from their current Skaggs Family release, Blind Man Walking.

C-Sky’s Bryan Simpson said that working with director Roger Pistole was a great experience.

“Yeah… working with Roger was awesome. He’s done videos as varied as Del McCoury’s My Love Will Not Change and Limp Bizkit’s Sour.

This video is a little bit different from what we’ve seen from other bluegrass bands. The story is a bit abstract, and you may need to see it a few times before you catch the whole thing.”

The video is set to air for the first time on Sunday at 11:30 (EST) on GAC’s Edge Of Country show. Simpson said that they hope to have the video available for viewing online by sometime next week.

The band will be heading back into the studio early next year to start on their next CD, also slated for a Skaggs Family release.

3:00 p.m. - Updated with response from Cadillac Sky.

This past weekend Mountain View Arkansas was thriving with bluegrass during the annual Fall Bluegrass Festival. Cadillac Sky was one of the featured bands, and controversy was the order of the day after their first performance Thursday night. Here are the plain facts as I understand them.

Cadillac Sky was contracted to play 5 sets over the course of three days at the festival. After their first set a confrontation took place between the band the promoter. The confrontation resulted in the band being sent home.

Cadillac Sky soon released their side of the story on their MySpace blog. In their post they accused the promoter, Andy by name, of being a “Bluegrass Nazi” and firing them for not being bluegrass enough. And this after playing a set of traditional bluegrass gospel music. The post sparked outrage among the band’s fans and resulted in many comments, both on the band’s MySpace page and on other bluegrass discussion groups, suggesting a boycott of the Mountain View Bluegrass Festival, and bringing up issues of ethics and integrity.

Being alerted to the controversy, and aware that there are two sides to any story, I contacted Andy and had a lengthy telephone conversation with him. He tells a slightly different version of the tale. (more…)

Cadillac Sky’s recent performance on the WoodSongs Old Time Radio Hour is now available online. WoodSongs is hosted weekly by folksinger Michael Jonathon, and is carried by more than 450 radio stations worldwide.

You can choose to watch streaming video of the program, or listen to streaming audio in either a high or low fidelity Windows Media stream.

Gretchen Peters also appears on this show.

Cadillac Sky is among the nominees for the 2007 IBMA Emerging Artist of the Year Award, so this is a great chance to see them perform live when contemplating a vote. Other nominees in their category are Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper featuring Audie Blaylock, The Infamous Stringdusters, Bradley Walker and Williams & Clark Expedition.

You can see the full list of ‘07 IBMA Nominees here on The Bluegrass Blog, with links to the various nominees’ web sites and audio files.

The latest issue of Bluegrass Music Profiles is in the mail, and subscribers should see it in their mailbox soon - if they haven’t already received it. The cover feature is an interview with Russell Moore of IIIrd Tyme Out, in which he covers his long career in bluegrass, starting with his days as a member of Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver.

Other items include an interview with Steve Gulley and Phil Leadbetter about their new venture, Grasstown. Paul Williams discusses his favorites off-stage pursuits, and Rob Ickes talks about his resonator guitars. Interviews with Cadillac Sky’s Bryan Simpson and The Grascal’s Terry Smith are found in the March/April ‘07 issue as well.

Publisher Kevin Kerfoot was especially proud of this announcement:

This issue also includes the debut of BMP’s Top 20 Hot Picks singles chart and its Top 10 Bluegrass CDs chart. Both charts are based on songs receiving the most radio play from BMP reporting stations.

Find out more about BMP on their web site.

Just Right Productions and JamBase are offering a chance to win a pair of VIP tickets to the Spirit of Bluegrass Music Fest - March 15-17, 2007 at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, FL.

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.

Cadillac Sky is Kyle Smith’s guest on XM Satellite Radio’s Studio Special this week, performing songs from their new Skaggs Family release, Blind Man Walking. They will also discuss the CD with Kyle, and their plans for 2007. The show runs on Bluegrass Junction (XM-14), the satellite radio provider’s 24/7 bluegrass channel.

The show debuted today (2/2) at 8:00 a.m., and per the Studio Special regular schedule, will be rebroadcast several more times over the next week.

All times shown are Eastern.

XM Radio Online is also available for subscribers who want to listen online when they are away from their receiver, or for folks who prefer to subscribe for online listening only.

Blind Man Walking, the Skaggs Family Records debut from Cadillac Sky, is officially released today. Their sound is decidedly modern, but grounded in the roots of both the early pioneers of bluegrass, and seminal newgrass artists as well.

The band is fronted by mandolinist, vocalist and songwriter Bryan Simpson from Fort Worth, TX. He started the band there in 2002 with young banjo prodigy Matt Menefee, guitarist Mike Jump, fiddler Ross Holmes and Andy Moritz on bass.

Skaggs Family has been high on this bunch since they were signed in May 2006, shortly after they placed second in the ‘06 SPBGMA International Bluegras Band Championships.

Audio samples from Blind Man Walking are available on the Skaggs Family site, on their MySpace page and in the iTunes Music Store.

Skaggs Family Records has just announced they have signed the Ft. Worth-based bluegrass band Cadillac Sky. The band consists of Bryan Simpson (mandolin, fiddle, vocals), Matt Menefee (banjo), Mike Jump (guitar, vocals), Ross Holmes (fiddle, vocals), and Matt Blaize (upright bass, vocals).

In addition to their band website, they also have a myspace account.

The press release that Skaggs Family Records sent out included this comment from Ricky Skaggs:

“When I heard Cadillac Sky for the first time, I heard some of the freshest new bluegrass I had heard in a long time,” says Ricky Skaggs, president of the label. “They write all of their songs. Their vocals just killed me, and they have a new sound. I wanted them for Skaggs Family Records. Anytime you sign a brand new group, you’re taking a chance, but with a CD like this, I was willing to go for it. They’re great!”

The winner of the 2006 SPBGMA International Bluegrass Band Championship was Billie Renee & Cumberland Gap, from central Kentucky. The top three finalists also includes Texas’ Cadillac Sky, and No Speed Limit from Galax, VA.

See the winner’s list here.