Casey Henry has agreed to send us occasional updates from The American Revival Tour, where she is performing with Dixie Bee-Liners. Also on the tour are Sierra Hull & Highway 111 and headliners Uncle Earl.

Here is Casey’s first report.

I’m composing this email while backstage at the Birchmere, waiting for our sound check. Week 2 of the American Revival Tour is about to commence, starting with gigs in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia – and I’d just like to point out that some of them are not that far from Charlotte and Waxhaw (hint, hint).

• Wed. Nov. 4th – Newberry, SC – Newberry Opera House – 7:30 p.m.
• Thurs. Nov. 5th – Morganton, NC – Municipal Auditorium (CoMMA) – 7:30 p.m.
• Fri. Nov. 6th – Greensboro, NC – Carolina Theater – 8:00 p.m.
• Sun. Nov. 8th – Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel – 8:00 p.m.
• Mon. Nov 9th – Atlanta, GA – Red Light Cafe – 7:30 p.m. —NOTE—This show was originally supposed to be at the Variety Playhouse and has been MOVED!! If you’ve already bought tickets, they’re still good!!!!! (Though the Red Light Cafe website hasn’t been updated yet.)

Our complete tour schedule can be found on The Dixie Bee-Liners website.

If you want to see how the tour is going so far, I’ve been blogging every day over on The Murphy Method blog. And I must say, we had some pretty awesome halloween costumes.

Hope to see some of y’all at the shows!

Steve Martin performed this past Sunday (10/11) at The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, the first stop in his Fall tour with Steep Canyon Rangers to promote his banjo CD, The Crow. John McEuen opened the show, which also included cameo appearances from Dan Tyminski, Rhonda Vincent and Earl Scruggs.

Martin had a good week at IBMA earlier this month, being warmly embraced by the membership, and the audience at the IBMA Awards show.

There are two reviews of the show that may be of interest, starting with one from Casey Henry, who posted on The Murphy Method blog.

The whole show, from start to finish, was top-notch. Steve demonstrated his love and respect for the banjo and for bluegrass, while simultaneously managing to convey his excitement at actually getting to go on tour playing banjo. He also displayed a canny understanding of the bluegrass touring business: “If all goes according to plan, I’ll only lose $12,000.”

All the songs they performed were Steve’s originals, with the exception of the two that the Steep Canyon Rangers got to do solo: “Turn Up The Bottle” (from their new CD Deep In The Shade) and the a cappella “I Can’t Sit Down”, which the crowd absolutely loved.

Read Casey’s full review online.

CMT.com also has one by Calvin Gilbert.

Between songs, Martin delivered a generous helping of the humor he’s famous for, but music is at the forefront of the current tour showcasing material from his album, The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo.

Judging by his self-deprecating comments onstage, Martin obviously understands that some people may be skeptical of his desire to play bluegrass music. And who could blame them? Not to name names, but there’s a fairly lengthy list of movie stars who proclaim they would have been singers and musicians if only they hadn’t been sidetracked by Hollywood’s fame and fortune. They want to be taken seriously, but the unfortunate reality is that most of them record albums that leave you wondering if they ever had any serious musical chops to begin with.

It can also be read in full online.

Brance and I will soon be packing our grip, and all the rest of it…

We are heading for Nashville and the IBMA World Of Bluegrass, where we will report on the very many activities that occur during this brief span of days. It can be overwhelming to even fathom the sensory and intellectual overload, not to mention the stress that results from trying to “take it all in.” That is what led to the now-somewhat stale joke that IBMA stands for “I’ve Been Mostly Awake.”

With the near impossibility of covering such a wide-ranging event, we have enlisted some extra help for the 2009 festivities.

Brance’s wife, Lauren Gillihan will also be working IBMA with us. She is a talented videographer and we expect that her presence will allow us to get more videos posted, and sooner, than we have been able to do in the past.

Casey Henry will serve as a roving reporter, posting news and impressions based on her multiple responsibilities next week. In addition to her work for The Bluegrass Blog, Casey will have official duties as an exhibitor with The Murphy Method, and as a performer with The Dixie Bee-Liners. She is also able to stay up later than I can, so I look forward to her coverage of what goes on in the wee-wee hours.

We will also have news photographer Dean Hoffmeyer working IBMA, posting frequent galleries of the people, places and sights from World Of Bluegrass. We are especially excited about Dean’s participation during Thursday’s Awards Show. If all goes according to plan, he will be able to post photos from the show while it is occurring.

I should mention that Brance and Lauren’s daughter, Haddie, will also be with us, though her contributions are expected to be limited to pre-verbal expressions of glee.

Our Thursday coverage is our most comprehensive to date for the Awards Show. Brance and I will be live-blogging the show from the press area at The Ryman. I am convinced that we have resolved our issues with page loads from prior years, and will be able to announce the award recipients as they are announced in a single post that refreshes itself automatically.

We will also expand our Red Carpet coverage, with both Katy Daley from WAMU’s Bluegrass Country and Doug McKelway of WJLA serving as co-hosts. They will do brief interviews with the many award nominees just before the show, which we will edit and post on The Bluegrass Blog as soon as possible – hopefully by the weekend. Katy tells us that she has found a “killer dress” – I can’t wait.

There will be all sorts of news that breaks at IBMA, and you can be sure that we will be on top of it all. Artists, labels and festivals regularly schedule major announcements during IBMA week, and we will be following several that have already been scheduled.

Keep your eyes on The Bluegrass Blog all week.

Colorado guitar picker Robin Davis has joined forces with the Dixie Bee-Liners. Former guitarist Jonathan Maness left the group in June, and the Bee-Liners had been touring with fill-ins until Robin came on board.

Buddy Woodward, mandolinist and co-manager of the group, says that Davis only recently popped up on their radar.

“We met Robin a few months ago when he was living in Nashville. Jeremy our bass player ran into him somewhere and suggested we keep an eye on him.”

Maness is now playing mandolin with The Watkins Family.

Casey Henry has also joined the Bee-Liners on banjo. Casey has performed with a number of bluegrass groups, and toured recently with Michael Martin Murphey. She is a featured instructor on several videos for The Murphy Method, and is a regular columnist for Banjo NewsLetter.

Bee-Liner Brandi Hart tells us that…

“Casey is a Scruggs-style player who learned to play banjo at her mother’s knee.  A well-respected member of the bluegrass community, Casey has a knack for writing nifty instrumentals.”

The band now consists of Brandi Hart on guitar and lead vocals, Buddy Woodward on mandolin, and Rachel Renee Johnson on fiddle, with Davis on guitar and Henry on banjo. Robin and Buddy are now officially outnumbered in the band.

You can find Dixie Bee-Liner fall tour dates on the band’s web site.

UPDATE 9/5: Oops! Buddy Woodward just sent this via a post comment…

Hey guys, thanks so much for the press, but you forgot to mention our awesome bassplayer Jeremy Darrow…which means the boys & the girls are evenly matched in the Bee-Liners, three of each, enough for an Intramural dodgeball team.