Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road have a new CD out this year which they are currently promoting on the road.

Why Don’t You Give Jesus A Try, as the name suggests, is an all-Gospel release from Tom T. and Dixie Hall’s Blue Circle Records. It actually hit the street at the end of March, but only recently have audio samples appeared online.

Carolina Road features band leader Lorraine Jordan on mandolin and lead vocals, Jerry Butler on guitar, Ben Green on banjo and Josh Goforth on fiddle.

A complete track listing and several audio samples can be found on the band’s web site.

BluegrassCountry.org recently interviewed a number of bluegrass stars. Those interviews are now being aired on the Open Mic show. It’s a two hour show that will be repeating, in its entirety, through July 17th.

The first hour features interviews with Dr. Banjo (Pete Wernick), and Jamie Dailey of Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver. The second hour includes interviews with Tony Williamson, and three members of Carolina Road (Lorraine Jordan, Jerry Butler, and Ben Greene).

The show will air today at 12 Noon, and again several times this week at various times. You can visit BluegrassCountry.org and click on Schedule Changes for a full listing of show times.

Another interview that might be of interest is with the Cherryholmes family. That interview runs during a different show and airs today at 8:05 PM.

Downtown Nashville will soon become home to the 2007 CMA Music Festival. The event is held annually in downtown Nashville, TN and features over 70 hours of concerts in four days. Each year upwards of 160,000 country music fans attend the event to hear, meet, and interact with their favorite country music artists. This year’s event is schedule to be held June 7-10, 2007.

While the festival is mainly about country music, bluegrass does have a presence. One such presence is the Bluegrass Booth in the exhibit hall. Dave Burley hosts the booth and encourages all bluegrass fans in attendance to stop by for a shake and howdy.

The artist lineup for the event also includes a number of bluegrass performers. I looked over the list and plucked out a few names that caught my eye, but this is not meant to be an exhaustive list of bluegrass artists at the event, just a sampling. The complete list is available here.

• Alecia Nugent
• Cherryholmes
• The Grascals
• The Infamous Stringdusters
• Carolina Road
• Kassie DePaiva (more info here)

A ticket for the four day event will set you back $110 at least, with higher prices for better seats. Tickets are available online through TicketMaster.com or by calling the festival box office at 1-800-CMA-FEST (262-3378).

Here’s a CD release that slipped under the radar the end of last month. Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road have released a new self-titled CD, Carolina Road. The recording is on the Blue Circle Records label and was released on March 29, 2007.

The title cut on the CD was written by Dixie and Tom T. Hall and sung by new band member (guitar) Jerry Butler. Lorraine Jordan also contributes lead vocals and mandolin. Josh Goforth provided fiddle and vocals. Ben Greene played banjo and contributed vocals. Todd Meade holds down the low notes on the bass. Kim Gardner guests on dobro.

Tom T. Hall commented on the band:

We are proud and honored to claim Carolina Road, not only as Blue Circle recording artists, but as friends and heroes. Lorraine has made great choices with her selection of band members.

Audio samples are not yet available on the band’s website.