OK… I’ve been promising to try and catch up on a backlog of new CDs we’ve received (or picked up at IBMA) - and this time, I really mean it! Since major news is slow this time of year, I’ll make a point to try and cover one each day until we get caught up.

One that has been lingering quite some time in my pile is the debut, self-titled release from southeastern Michigan’s Lonesome County.

Those of us who live in that fertile country where bluegrass music first emerged are justifiably proud of our musical heritage, but while we enjoy being part of that culture, we may sometimes forget that bluegrass lives and breathes all over the world. Just because a band isn’t from VA, TN, NC or KY doesn’t mean they don’t play the music with passion and precision.

Case in point is Lonesome County, whose members are drawn to the music as an avocation, and produced their first project earlier this year. Their sound - and many of the song themes - pay homage to the music’s Appalachian roots despite being closer to Motor City than Bill Monroe’s homeplace.

The band has written the majority of the material for this CD, both instrumental and vocal, most of it contributed by guitarist Chad Jeremy. Other members include Paul Shapiro on bass, Kevin Frank on mandolin, Marty Somberg on fiddle, and Lee Kaufmann on banjo. Lee is the only band member who works full-time in music, teaching private lessons and running an online banjo instruction site, BanjoTrain.com.

Lonesome County has provided both audio and video samples on their web site so that folks who may be unfamiliar with their music can spend a few moments and decide for themselves whether they will enjoy the CD.

At this point, online orders are not supported on their web site, but will be available from CD Baby later this week. Visitors to the site are welcome to contact the band via the web site if they would like to order a copy of Lonesome County right away.

CDBaby has long been the entry point for independent artists longing for digital distribution. Creating a CDBaby account would give you the channel for getting your music in iTunes and other online digital download services.

Now CDBaby has launched a new feature that allows for all CDs distributed digitally through them to be available for download directly from them on the artist’s CDBaby page.

This new arrangement does not allow for individual track downloads however. Only full CDs may be purchased for download from CDBaby. The cost is variable depending on the price set by the artist. The download price is the same as the physical CD price.

Even with the lack of individual track downloads, there is much to recommend this new service. A digital CD is downloaded as a zip file containing all tracks in unprotected, high quality (200kbps) MP3 format, a high resolution cover image, and a text file containing the liner notes.

Even better, for the artist who is selling, is that CDBaby only keeps their standard 9% for digital sales. That means an album selling for $9.99 will net the artist $9.09 when sold on CDBaby.com. That same album distributed by CDBaby and sold via iTunes would result in an artist payment of only $6.37.

As an example of what this looks like on the CDBaby website, I’ve chosen On A Farm. It’s the latest CD from the band Acoustic Endeavors, of which our very own John Lawless is the banjo picker.

If you are itching to join the digital download game as an independent artist, CDBaby is making it easier than ever.