When the Fox TV show Next Great American Band was airing in late 2007, we covered the show each week. Right from the first episode, there were two bluegrass/acoustic acts in the running for this American Idol-style competition, and Casey Henry provided us with updates on how they fared in the audience voting after each show.

Though The Clark Brothers won the title - and we celebrated them doing so as a primarily acoustic string trio with bluegrass roots - it was Cliff Wagner & Old #7 that captured the interest of bluegrassers. They performed throughout as a five piece bluegrass band and entertained the judges and the audience with their humor and good natured efforts to fit with the more pop-oriented structure of the show’s music.

Wagner and crew made it through week 5 before being dropped by viewer votes, but built a sizable following online in the process.

Cliff plays banjo and fiddle and sings lead, Craig Ferguson is on guitar, mandolin and resonator guitar, Devitt Feeley is on mandolin and vocals, Lucas Cheadle plays bass and Stephen Mugalian is on drums.

We had a chance to interview Cliff recently about their appearance on NGAB, and how it may affect them as a band going forward.

What led you to enter the Fox competition?

“I was watching American Idol and they advertised the show with an address to send in a video of your band. I had a video that my bass player had made and we sent it in as sort of a joke. That video put us in the top 60 out of 8,000. Once they flew us out to Vegas for the audition we figured out it wasn’t a joke anymore.”

Had your band been together long?

“I’ve had this band going with different line-ups for about 6 years. Devitt and Craig have been with me for about a year. Steve and Lucas joined when we started the show. My original bass player didn’t have the time to participate in the show, and my original drummer went to the audition but later decided he didn’t want to do the show. Enter Steve and Lucas.”

How did you and the guys react when you learned that you had been selected?

“Sort of.. ‘uh oh, now we did it.’ We were nervous about being on TV and how we might be portrayed. Plus it was a big time commitment. All of our lives stopped for about three months.” (more…)

This report comes from Casey Henry, a banjo player and writer living in Nashville, TN. She performed the past few years with her brother, Chris, in The Two Stringers, now disbanded.

The Clark Brothers delivered another truly outstanding performance on last night’s Next Great American Band. Their version of Rod Stewart’s You’re In My Heart was a stripped-down, acoustic beauty. They sat on stools with Ashley on guitar, Adam on mando, and Austin on dobro and harmony vocals. Their moving, sensitive performance judge brought Sheila E to tears. She literally couldn’t say anything after hearing them play. John Rzeznik said, “I’m really moved. You guys take a song and attach all the emotion to it.” A song like that will, “make guys hate you and make women love you.” And Dicko added, “You brought something magical. You always do.”

We got to see a little segment of the boys talking about their musical influences. What they said sounded so familiar to me, and probably to anyone else who grew up in a bluegrass family. Ashley said he didn’t hear the Beatles until he was sixteen and was surprised to find that they were really good, since his dad had always dismissed them for not having a banjo. Austin said the first time he saw Jerry Douglas play he bought every one of his CDs, even though he didn’t have a CD player at the time! There were a couple of clips of the Clark Family playing, with all the other brothers and their dad, when the boys were younger. They looked so familiar to me because that’s what they looked like back when we used to play at some of the same bluegrass festivals.

I think the Clarks have a good chance of moving on to next week. I just hope all the people who are voting agree! You can watch Cliff Wagner and the Old #7’s final performance online now, as well as all the other bands songs.

This report comes from Casey Henry, a banjo player and writer living in Nashville, TN. She performed the past few years with her brother, Chris, in The Two Stringers, now disbanded.

Bluegrass got the boot last night when Cliff Wagner and the Old #7 got voted off Next Great American Band. The Clark Brothers made it into the top six, though, delivering a standout performance of the Rolling Stones’ Gimmie Shelter.

Everyone seemed disappointed to see Cliff and the band go. The judges had some parting words, all on a positive note. John Rzeznik said that he really appreciated their sense of humor and the chemistry between the band members. Sheila E. deemed them “so real, so genuine,” and said “we love you very much.” Dicko praised them for “bringing some real variety” to the show and asked what their plans for the future are. Cliff eloquently said that they’ve gotten “new inspiration” from being on the show and have expanded musically from where they were before. They are now able to play more “outside the box.”

Cliff said, to the television audience, “Thanks to everyone who voted. We had a great time on the show,” and he wished, “good luck to all the other bands.” And even the final band to play, Dot Dot Dot, said as they took the stage, “We love you, Cliff Wagner!”

The NGAB site now features Cliff’s Green Room acoustic performance. Hopefully, even though he didn’t win the show, this national exposure will benefit Cliff’s career and help keep his playing schedule full for years to come. Maybe they’ll add their take on Brown Sugar that we didn’t get to hear to their shows…

The Clarks version of Gimmie Shelter was stunning. They started out sparse and low and built up the tension. By the end, according to Dicko, they’d “turned it into a blind panic.” Ashley’s singing continued to impress, Austin rocked on a black, flying-V electric dobro, and Adam even got a short mandolin solo. All three judges gave them a standing ovation and Sheila deemed them “the band to beat.”

Be sure to tune in next week bands tackle the Rod Stewart catalog. You can watch all the past weeks’ performances on the NGAB site.

This report comes from Casey Henry, a banjo player and writer living in Nashville, TN. She performed the past few years with her brother, Chris, in The Two Stringers, now disbanded.

Next Great American Band on Friday night held the first big surprise of the show. Franklin Bridge, the band that judge Sheila E. had predicted would win the contest, got voted off. The judges were shocked; I was shocked. But in my heart of hearts I was glad because it meant that both Cliff Wagner and the Old #7 and the Clark Brothers made it through to play another night.

Cliff chose the Lieber and Stoller song Poison Ivy to sing and adapted it very well. Cliff was back on the banjo, though there was no banjo break in the song. He looked quite dapper in a suit with an ascot. In the pre-song clip about the group we learned that Cliff does everything from booking to promotion to writing the songs for the band. If the band was a kingdom, one of the guys said, “Cliff would be the emperor.”

The Clark Brothers chose Lieber and Stoller’s Saved, and delivered an absolutely amazing performance. Ashley sang the fire out of it with a truly passionate lead vocal; Austin wailed on the dobro, and Adam pounded out the rhythm on the guitar. The judges were practically beside themselves with praise. John Rzeznik said, “I’m questioning everything now…” meaning, I believe, that before he thought a drummer necessary to a rockin’ performance. Shelia deemed it “Magnifico,” and the dour Dicko said, “Even a wretch like me feels closer to salvation” after hearing that song.

Next week bands tackle a Rolling Stones cover. As I said last time, the competition is truly fierce now and it all depends on the stamina of Appalachian-America’s thumbs (dialing those phones) to determine if our bands make it through another round.

Unfortunately last week’s performances are not up on the show’s site, but you can still see songs from weeks 1, 2, and 3.

This report comes from Casey Henry, a banjo player and writer living in Nashville, TN. She performed the past few years with her brother, Chris, in The Two Stringers, now disbanded.

They made it! Both Cliff Wagner and the Old #7 and The Clark Brothers got enough votes to keep them on Next Great American Band for another week. Friday’s show was only an hour long, so the eight remaining bands each played one song from the catalog of Billy Joel.

Cliff Wagner and the Old #7 chose You May Be Right from “the old Kentucky fox hunter Billy Joel” and gave it a laid-back country shuffle treatment, with Cliff trading the banjo for a guitar. Two judges loved in, but Dicko, reliably cantankerous, deemed it a “soporific, sleepy” arrangement.

The Clark Brothers played seventh (a little nail-biting going on by that time) and did a slow beautiful rendition of She’s Got A Way, with Ashley on fiddle, Adam on guitar, and Austin, as usual, on dobro. All three judges proclaimed their song the best of the night.

Now the stiff competition begins as all the bands left are quite good, have excellent musicianship and vocals, and are improving all the time. Next week bands tackle the songs of early rock & roll writing team Lieber and Stoller. Be sure to tune in Friday the 16th and phone in those votes!

You can watch previous weeks’ performances on the NGAB site.

If your Friday evening plans will find you in front of a television screen, perhaps you will want to tune in to tonight’s edition of The Next Great American Band on Fox.

Casey Henry has been keeping us up-to-date as this American Idol spin-off competition rolls along, as two of the eight remaining contestants are bluegrass or grassy acts. If you want to see The Clark Brothers and Cliff Wagner and the Old #7 move on to next week, be sure to tune in and vote!

Tonight’s show airs at 8:00 p.m. (EST), and the bands will each perform an original song, and a Billy Joel cover.

Go bluegrass!

This report comes from Casey Henry, a banjo player and writer living in Nashville, TN. She performed the past few years with her brother, Chris, in The Two Stringers, now disbanded.

I’m happy to report that both bluegrass representatives made it to round three of Next Great American Band. But the show couldn’t have unfolded more suspensefully. All twelve of last week’s bands were gathered together, then called up to play one at a time, so the two left at the end were the ones who didn’t make it. The bands each played one original and one cover by the songwriting team of Elton John/Bernie Taupin.

The Clark Brothers played fourth, long before the nail-biting suspense set in. Their original, Country Time, had a very catchy hook and a cute story about living in a little country town. Their John/Taupin song was Country Comfort, a slower ballad that gave them a chance to play prettily, not just all-out, nail-it-to-the-wall fast. The judges had nothing but positive comments for the boys.

Cliff Wagner and the Old #7 played seventh (appropriate…). They good naturedly dedicated their original to “Britney Spears and her first husband.” It was titled Little White Chapel on the Strip. Their cover was called Honky Cat and for it the guitar player switched to dobro, leaving them guitar-less. But they pulled off the unorthodox instrumentation with ease and the judges unanimously proclaimed them “The funnest band in the whole competition.”

Once again it is up to the American public to decide who moves forward after Friday night’s show. The votes have been cast but we won’t find out ‘til next week. In the meantime the bands will be working on a Billy Joel cover. And you can now watch bands’ week 2 performances online on the NGAB site.

Watching the show has been great fun, but has raised some questions. Like, do they get to choose their cover songs or are they assigned? Did they really have to sit through each band’s performance before the next band was called up? Because that would have taken a ridiculously long time.

And why did Cliff not get a better pickup system for his banjo? The way his pickup sounds is the reason most players hate pickups on banjos. But it’s possible for a pickup to sound decent. Bela Fleck and Alison Brown do it all the time. I don’t know who could answer these questions except for the people involved in the show, but inquiring minds want to know.

And why is there no official mention of the band involvement in the NGAB show on either Cliff’s webpage or his MySpace site?

Oh, wait. Being the bluegrass player that he is he probably handles his website himself and he’s been kinda busy the last three weeks…

This report comes from Casey Henry, a banjo player and writer living in Nashville, TN. She performed the past few years with her brother, Chris, in The Two Stringers, now disbanded.

Both Cliff Wagner and the Old #7 and the Clark Brothers did us proud on Friday night’s Next Great American Band. Twelve bands performed two tunes each for the judges and the live studio audience, and for the millions watching at home. Each band played one original tune and one Bob Dylan tune. The judges commented on every band, though at this point the decision is entirely up to the TV audience calling in their votes.

This week before each band’s performance a short video bio of the group was shown. (You can watch clips of these on the NGAB site.) The Old #7’s clip showed the guys picking (Lucas Cheadle – Bass, Devitt Feeley - Mandolin, Craig Ferguson – Guitar/Dobro, Stephen Aram Mugalian – Drums) and Cliff taking a long swig of moonshine from a mason jar, which was probably what prompted judge John Rzeznik (of the Goo Goo Dolls) to comment, “I want to party with you guys.”

Cliff’s Dylan selection was Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright, a song that lends itself well to a bluegrass arrangement. His original tune was called Old Fire, “a tender love song,” he said, “about tender love and diesel fuel” that had a catchy hook. Judge Sheila E. (who has played with Prince and Ringo Starr, among others) said of the song, “I could listen to that all day long.”

The Clark Brothers rocked Maggie’s Farm, their Dylan song, managing to sound like far more than just three people, with Ashley playing fiddle and singing simultaneously (always impressive). However judge Ian Dickson, who consistently finds something negative to say, commented they shouldn’t have messed with the simple melody. After an instant instrument trade (making it obvious that the show was pre-recorded) they rendered their original Billy the Kid, a gritty story song that they performed magnificently.

Now it’s up to the viewers to call in their votes. Phone lines were open for two hours following the show. We’ll find out when we tune in next week which two bands get the axe. In the meantime the bands, who are sequestered in a hotel somewhere, will be working up an Elton John or Bernie Taupin song.

I can’t wait to hear Elton John bluegrass style!

This report comes from Casey Henry, a banjo player and writer living in Nashville, TN. She performed the past few years with her brother, Chris, in The Two Stringers, now disbanded.

The new FOX television American Idol spin-off The Next Great American Band airs Friday nights at 8 p.m./7 p.m. central. Last Friday on the two-hour debut judges whittled a wide field down to twelve finalists. The field was wide not only in numbers but in genre as well. Bands played everything from metal to classical, from blues to bluegrass.

Remarkably the two bluegrass bands who competed made it to the second round, airing this Friday, October 26th. The Clark Brothers and Cliff Wagner and Old #7 couldn’t be more different as far as bluegrass bands go.

The Clark Brothers are three of eleven siblings from Virginia. As The Clark Family, they appeared at bluegrass festivals in the 1990s and were staples at the Galax Old Fiddlers Convention before the eldest six made the jump to country as the Clark Family Experience.

On NGAB Adam (mandolin), Ashley (guitar), and Austin (dobro) are playing as a trio. The judges really liked their musicianship, displayed to good effect on a brisk gospel medley including This Little Light of Mine and Jesus on the Mainline.

Cliff Wagner and Old #7 hail from California. Their fearless leader Cliff was raised in Greenwood, Mississippi, attended Berklee College of Music, and lived some time in New York City.

They have a traditional sound and played an original song on the show. The judges responded to the “natural” sound of the music but one did ask “Can you play a cover that wasn’t written by a 70-year-old raccoon hunter?” (Yes those stereotypes are still alive and well!)

So Cliff and Co. gave them a little of Madonna’s Like A Virgin, which seemed to satisfy the judges, who sent them on to the next round. You can watch their submission video on You Tube.

Tune in on Friday night to see how our bluegrass brethren fare in round two. Cliff seemed confident that: “Appalachian America will vote for us.” Let’s make sure he’s not wrong!