His good friend, and fellow banjo picker, Larry Perkins tells us that everything went well.

“I’m pleased and grateful to say Charlie came through his surgery just fine, and is in recovery. There was no damage to his heart detected during the procedure, and the doctors expect a full and complete recovery for him.

Charlie and his family are so very appreciative of all the thoughts and prayers – thanks!”

The CD features Johnny Warren playing a superb collection of old-time fiddle tunes that he learned from his father, the legendary Paul Warren, and banjo playing partner Charlie Cushman. The elder Warren spent many years performing with Flatt & Scruggs, and later with Lester Flatt & The Nashville Grass.

The Station Inn CD release party will feature Johnny Warren on fiddle, Charlie Cushman on banjo, Kent “Superman” Blanton on bass, and special guest Curly Seckler. Further special guests are expected to join the quartet as well.

Earl Scruggs, Marty Stuart and Tim Graves are featured on the CD in addition to Johnny Warren, Cushman, Blanton and Seckler.

The new CD will be available at the show and can also be ordered from Charlie Cushman‘s website.

Now Paul’s son Johnny – a fiddle player in his father’s style – assisted by banjo ace Charlie Cushman, has reminded us of the finesse that is captured on recordings with those great names in country and bluegrass music by reprising some of the tunes that Warren Sr. played, plus a couple of original compositions.

Johnny Warren shared his observations about A Tribute To Fiddlin’ Paul Warren (no label or number) ‚Ķ‚Ķ‚Ķ‚Ķ.

(There are) "17 fiddle tunes on the project, lead instruments being fiddle and banjo only, cut in the old time tradition of my dad and Earl Scruggs. I can tell you that we got the sound we were after. I felt a strong presence of my dad while cutting the tunes, all of which I learned from him. Four of the tunes I learned off a home recording done around 1964 by my dad, Charlie Collins and Larry McNeeley. Seven others from a home recording done in 1977 by dad, with me accompanying him on guitar at our old home-place in Madison, Tennessee, only a short time before his passing in January of 1978.

Charlie Cushman did an awesome job on banjo. We have known each other since our late teenage years and have played a lot of music together. He really captured the Scruggs style on these recordings, probably because he truly loves their sound as much as I do. There are a lot of really good fiddle players out there but nothing stirs me inside like my dads style. The energy and precision in which he played stands alone. Unfortunately, he was never allowed to record on his own while he was still at his best.

However, I hope that some of the new Flatt and Scruggs DVDs that are being released by the Country Music Hall of Fame will help those that never got to see Paul Warren play see that he deserves to be inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame.

I am very honored that Earl Scruggs helped me on one of the fiddle and banjo tunes. Charlie played banjo on all the other tunes including five other fiddle and banjo tunes. He also doubled on guitar. Curly Seckler (rhythm mandolin) played on one of the tunes. My good friends Marty Stuart (mandolin rhythm on all band tunes except one), Kent Blanton (upright bass) and Uncle Josh’s nephew Tim Graves (dobro riffs on three tunes) round out the musicians."

Eleven of the tracks are with the band, including Sugar Tree Stomp, which features Seckler, and the remaining six tracks are simple banjo/fiddle duets, including Buck Creek Gal, which features Scruggs.

Ten pieces are under two minutes in length.

As well as notes from Cushman and Warren, Marty Stuart and Eddie Stubbs pen their own tributes to Paul Warren.

You can get a taste of the music in a series of videos posted on YouTube. Each features Johnny Warren and Charlie Cushman on one or more banjo/fiddle duets from A Tribute To Fiddlin’ Paul Warren.

Such is the case with country hit maker Aaron Tippin, who is finishing up a bluegrass project now for a 2007 release on his label, Nippit Records. When I spoke with him about it earlier in the week, he was genuinely excited about the CD, both artistically and because he was eager to let his fans and the country music media know that he had been a bluegrass guy from way back.

Aaron said that he was a country music fan growing up in the South Carolina mountains, but once he was exposed to live bluegrass, he knew he had been bitten by the bug.

“I had a high school teacher who would take a bunch of us guys out to hear bluegrass, and I fell in love with the sound. I started learning to play banjo, and before long, we had put together a little band. We called ourselves The Dixie Ridge Runners. We weren’t great by any means – most of the time we were just plain bad – but we had a bunch of fun.”

All of the rhythm tracks are finished, and with only Aaron’s vocals left to be tracked. Pickers featured on the CD include Charlie Cushman on banjo, Ward Stout on fiddle, Danny Roberts on mandolin, Mike Bub on bass and Jeff White on guitar.

The as yet untitled project will include a few original songs, but it will mostly consist of bluegrass classics and songs that will be accessible for his manistream country fans.

“A lot of people who come to my shows may not be serious bluegrass fans, so we wanted to make sure to record songs that would be familiar to them. One that we had a lot of fun with was Petticoat Junction, the theme to the old TV show that Flatt & Scruggs recorded. We also cut a bluegrass version of Sonny & Cher’s, I Got You Babe, and I’m sure that bluegrass fans will recognize our cut on Brown Mountain Light, one of my favorite songs of all time.”

Tippin’s current album, Now & Then, is a departure in itself. It’s the first since he launched his own label, and it has more of a southern rock edge than his previous country projects, six of which went gold, with one platinum. Following this rockier release with a bluegrass CD shows that his newfound independence is something he takes seriously.

I joked with Aaron when he told me that he would be including songs from the bluegrass project in his stage show, suggesting that he might dust of the old banjo and strap it on once again on stage.

“I don’t think you’ll see that happen. I never got very far on banjo, and working in the studio with Charlie Cushman really made that plain to me. I just love bluegrass music, and am delighted to have a chance to be singing it again. I can’t wait to see what people think when the CD is released.”

He wasn’t sure when I asked if a video from the bluegrass project would be forthcoming, but he did say that they filmed a large portion of the recording sessions.

Aaron promised to keep us posted about the CD’s progress, and we’ll update when audio samples are available online.

Here’s a hearty “Welcome Back!” to Aaron Tippin from The Bluegrass Blog.

This new Cushman model will be a mahogany banjo, fitted with AMB’s Dannick tone ring, and featuring an ebony fingerboard with their Kel Kroydon Style 10 inlay, and the Style 10 resonator overlay. Charlie will set up each of these banjos himself, and sign them before they are shipped.

They will be built by Robin Smith of Heartland Banjo & Guitar.

No pictures of the Cushman model yet on the Kel Kroydon site, but they will surely show up there before long.

That CBA news posting elicited a response from Elida Ickes on the CBA message board that her son, Rob, was playing dobro on the Haggard bluegrass sessions.

Rob said initially they all sat in a circle and just jammed on a few tunes that Merle was interested in doing. (Other players are: Aubrie Haynie, Marty Stuart, Ben Isaacs, and Charlie Cushman) Hope I spelled everyone’s name correctly and remembered everyone that was there. Then Merle said he liked this and suggested that they record just sitting in a circle jamming!!! That is what they did so it will be mostly live taping!! Rob said the first song they did was “I Wonder Where You Are Tonight.”

Another song Rob really liked is a new one that Merle wrote called, “Pray.” Rob said the whole time he could not believe he was sitting in the circle “jamming” with Merle Haggard. Again, it was the highlight of Rob’s life. He goes into the studio again today to finish up. They did 8 songs yesterday and hope to do 4 or 5 more today.

You can read the news posting on CBA’s site, and the follow-up bulletin board discussion there as well. We will try to contact some of the players and find out more about this project, which I am certainly eager to hear.

Thanks to Megan Lynch who first alerted us to this story, and Rick Cornish and Craig Wilson with CBA for their help finding the original post in their archives.

We had mentioned in that earlier post that Gill was set to release a mighty ambitious project, a box set which will include four CDs (43 tracks), all of which are new recordings of songs which he had written or co-written. CMT explains that each of the four disks is themed, and one is entitled Little Brother – The Acoustic Record.

The tour, starting 10/16 in New York, will be segmented into four “acts,” matching the four themed CDs in the box set release, ensuring that multi-instrumentalist Charlie Cushman, who has been booked for the tour, will have his hands full on stage. Bluegrasser Jeff White, a regular member of Gill’s band, will be on guitar for this tour, which will also include fiddler Deanie Richardson, who has been touring with Dale Ann Bradley this season.

Read the story in full on CMT.com.

Long time bluegrass fans know that Vince got his start playing bluegrass, including stints with Bluegrass Alliance, Boone Creek, and Byron Berline’s Sundance before moving towards country rock as a member of Pure Prarie League. The new project indicates that the material will be a mix of styles, with bluegrass included. The Del McCoury Band are listed as guest performers, and with Vince’s own demonstrated ability as a picker and singer, one imagines that the bluegrass that’s featured will be solid stuff.

Gill recently announced a tour in support of the CD, and the press release also mentioned that bluegrass music would be featured on the show. When we learned last week that Nashville banjo man Charlie Cushman had been hired for the tour, there was no doubt that it was true.

The tour dates can be found on the Vince Gill website.