As a young man just gaining an interest in bluegrass music, the bluegrass festival was almost heaven for me. One of the first festivals I can remember attending was at Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO. I grew up there in Missouri so it seems natural I would have fond memories of this festival. This is where I first encountered the mandolin playing of Danny Roberts, the flatpicking of John Chapman, and the thrill of excitement of being at a bluegrass festival.

Silver Dollar City has hosted a bluegrass festival since 1975. Back then it was called the Mountain Folks Music Festival. Over the years the festival has changed names and dates more than once. Four years ago it became Silver Dollar City’s Bluegrass & BBQ Festival. The festival is a long running one, starting on May 10 and continuing through June 1, 2008. During these 23 days, the park will be running a total of nine stages throughout each day, with over 60 bluegrass bands performing. Each performance is scheduled at 30 minutes and during the course of the festival there will be in excess of 1000 sets.

I had the chance to speak with D.A. Callaway, the festival coordinator, and he shared some interesting details about the event. With that many stages running for this length of time, the technical staff will be working hard. Callaway tells me they have 25 full time technical staff to run sound and lighting during the festival. The park hours are 9:30 AM to 7 PM each day. The shows begin in the morning and continue throughout the day.

Silver Dollar City is a large theme park that attracts a lot of tourists, but Callaway assures me that of the 10,000 attendees the park will average each day of the festival, 40-50% of them are there for the music. These are fans that might not be at the park if it wasn’t for the festival. Those are great numbers to contemplate on both sides of that equation. 4-5K people per day in attendance specifically to hear bluegrass music is a great turn out. But 5-6K people each day who aren’t there for the music, will surely hear it as they enjoy the other offerings of the park. Perhaps a few new bluegrass fans will be born next month in Branson!

With 60+ bands performing I was curious how artists are selected for inclusion in the festival. (more…)

Having spent 24 years in the U.S. Navy, 20 years and 7 months with Country Current, Wayne Taylor retired to civilian life on March 21, 2008. What does that mean for a bluegrass musicians?

Wayne is in Nashville this week at the IBMA leadership class, and says his plans are to get more involved with bluegrass music. And getting more involved he is.

He has a new CD out titled Dear Mom. He just recorded an interview with Kyle Cantrell for XM Radio, which I’m told may air next Tuesday. And he’s found a new musical home.

I am playing with Bill Emerson and the Sweet Dixie Band. We’ve played a few gigs and will be hitting the festival circuit this year. Our schedule can be viewed at Myspace.com/waynetaylor.

The guys in Country Current are going to miss Wayne’s presence for sure. I spoke to Frank Solivan II, who plays mandolin and fiddle in the band, and he shared his thoughts on Wayne’s departure from the band.

Wayne Taylor has been and is an inspiration as a musician, boss, and especially as a friend. Personally he has been there for me and my wife Leah from our start with the Navy Band. From helping us move two times and helping me install drywall in my new house to personal dilemmas. I’ve been able to count on his professionalism, honesty, and good natured attitude for almost 5 years without as much as a hiccup.

His retirement ceremony last Friday not only honored his service to our country, but his commitment to family, friends and coworkers. The masses that gathered was proof of this. Many people came to honor him… from childhood friends and his Father’s best friend to local musician, friends and family. The room was charged with emotion and the golf ball in Wayne’s throat was apparent. It was evident that everyone loves Wayne. He received a number of awards, letters of appreciation, and mementos from prominent figures in our military and the President. A number of people got up and honored his accomplishments. The legacy and shoes to fill that he’ll leave behind is immeasurable. I’m sure his fine character will carry him far in the civilian world and his musicianship and vocal ability will impart emotion just as it always has. He’ll be missed and thought of fondly.

~Frank

We wish Wayne all the best in his future endeavors, and we encourage you to take the opportunity to see him this summer at a festival near you.

Kyle Cantrell, host of XM Satellite Radio’s Bluegrass Junction (track 14), passed along news about a few special programs and features coming up this week on XM.

The current edition of Studio Special, XM’s live-in-the studio bluegrass show, airs tonight (11/5) at 8:00 p.m. Cherryholmes is the featured guest, offering both live performance and some chit chat with Kyle during the program. It re-airs on Wednesday (11/7) at midnight (technically 11/8), and again on Thursday afternoon (11/8) at 3:00 p.m.

Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. finds Kyle with Frank Ray of Cedar Hill for a track-by-track run through of their latest release, Poverty Row. That show will re-air on Sunday (11/11) at noon, on 11/14 at 9:00 a.m. and on 11/16 at 3:00 a.m.

On Wednesday (11/7), bluegrass legend Curley Seckler will join Kyle in the studio for a live interview.

Then on Friday (11/9), Studio Special is rebroadcasting a live studio appearance from the US Navy bluegrass band Country Current in honor of Veterans Day. That show will also air on Saturday (11/10) at 6:00 p.m., on 11/12 at 8:00 p.m., 11/13 at midnight and on 11/15 at 3:00 p.m. All times for all shows are EST.

Kyle also passed along Bluegrass Junction’s Top 40 chart for November ‘07, based on October listener requests and how often individual albums were featured.

The top 5 albums for October were:

You can see the full Top 40 chart on the Bluegrass Junction web site. Just scroll to the bottom of the page and you’ll see a link to download the chart as a PDF file.

The US Navy Band, Country Current, has announced an opening for the position of pedal steel guitar player in the country line up of the band. More pertinent to bluegrass music though, is the news that Master Chief Musician Wayne Taylor has made plans to retire in the early part of 2008.

Taylor’s retirement will leave an opening in the band for a lead vocalist/acoustic guitar player, and auditions are currently being held. The position does double duty, playing and singing in both the bluegrass and country versions of the band. In addition to lead vocals and acoustic guitar, the position is also that of emcee for the band.

Master Chief Musician Wayne Taylor is retiring and will be out soon. We are actively looking for people to audition for Lead Vocals and Acoustic Guitar… Must have strong, well founded bluegrass and country background. Must send in a cd with current songs, a resume’, and should be comfortable as emcee.

The job starts with a rank of Petty Officer 1st Class and an E6 pay grade. That works out to approximately $50K a year plus 100% medical and dental benefits for the person’s entire family.

There is an age restriction for the job. The Navy specifies that the person must be between the ages of 18 and 34. Navy standard for hight/weight ratio must also be met. Anyone not meeting these standards will not be auditioned. Here is a pdf file of the Navy weight standards for reference.

All auditions are by appointment only. To schedule an audition time, one should contact Master Chief Stuart McLean or Chief Musician Christopher J. Raifsnider at (202)433-2840, or by email at NavyBand.Auditions@navy.mil.

The guys from the US Navy Bluegrass Band, Country Current, are the featured guests this week on Kyle Cantrell’s Studio Special series on XM Satellite Radio (Channel 14 - Bluegrass Junction). The show aired this morning at 8 AM EST, but will be aired again several times in the next week.

Here’s a list of the air times for the show.

Mondays - 8 PM ET
Tuesdays - Midnight ET
Thursdays - 3 PM ET
Saturdays - 11 AM ET
Sundays - 6 PM ET

Listen now: (IE users click to activate)

This episode of The GrassCast features an interview with Frank Solivan II. Frank plays in the Navy band Country Current. He performs on mandolin and fiddle when the band is doing bluegrass and also plays electric guitar in the country version of the band. In the interview Frank and I discuss the Navy band, what their mission is, what is it was like to audition for the band, and the bluegrass component of what the band does.

In addition to playing in the Navy band, Frank also has two solo CDs out. The latest one, Selfish Tears, came out late this summer. Frank and I talk about the CD and specificially we discuss, and preview, three of the songs on the disc. We also brush on Franks other obsession, cooking. Check out the photos in the enhanced version of the podcast (see iTunes link below), I’m gonna have to eat dinner at his place one of these days!

Direct Download: ep48_frank_solivan_ii.mp3

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The recent IBMA Awards Show in Nashville resulted in some controversy surrounding the performance of some patriotic material performed by the US Navy Band, Country Current. You’ll find all the details in our previous posts here and here. There is also a very popular post in The B on the topic.

While the controversy had its beginning on sites and email lists dedicated to bluegrass music, the story has now moved into the larger blogosphere. Following coverage in The Tennessean over the weekend, it has now been picked up by sites that don’t normally dedicate much, if any, time to covering bluegrass. Predictibly these bloggers have all taken a stand on the issues involved.

The US Navy Bluegrass band asked not to play service anthems? What was IBMA thinking?

The Sheep’s Crib

…if all 300 international members are offended because the IBMA’s annual event has an American patriotic theme, TOO BAD!

Vanishing American

IBMA, keep PC and leftist politics out of bluegrass

(more…)

This morning’s edition of The Tennessean, Nashville’s primary daily newspaper, has a story about the turmoil that has erupted inside the IBMA leadership over the performance by the US Navy band Country Current during last week’s International Bluegrass Music Awards.

I suppose that any hopes that this story would stay out of the mainstream press are now irrelevant.

The story (by Peter Cooper) can be found on The Tennessean web site.

A number of people have contacted us, asking about the controversy during last week’s International Bluegrass Music Awards, or wondering why we haven’t covered it on The Bluegrass Blog. Both Brance and I were at the show (live blogging backstage), and had the chance to watch the controversy develop, before, during and after the show itself.

There have been strident and emotional reactions to the inclusion of a patriotic-themed presentation during the Awards Show, and it has led to some upheaval within IBMA’s leadership. We have contacted many of the folks directly involved to get their comment, but feel that we need to address it here now.

In a nutshell, what happened is this:

The producers of the show had included two numbers with what was described in an official press release about ten days prior as having a “patriotic theme.” This was to include a song by Rhonda Vincent, and a performance by the US Navy bluegrass band, Country Current. A number of non-US members of IBMA felt that this was adding an inappropriately political tone to the show, and that a salute to the US military was a slight to the notion that IBMA was an international organization. Several US members shared this assessment.

These concerns were conveyed to the IBMA Board, who met with non-US members just days before the show, and amongst themselves to address these concerns. A decision was reached by the Board that the Navy band would be asked to change the song which they had originally been asked to perform - a medley of US military service anthems - and instead perform one of Chief Wayne Taylor’s original songs.

Rhonda’s performance was to go on as planned, with a tribute offered to US service men and women. Several representatives of the various military branches were to join her on stage, standing silently stage left and right, to be spotlighted for recognition during the song.

At the show, Country Current performed the newly-inserted song as per their new agreement with IBMA, but then launched into the service themes as per their original agreement. There is dispute among the principals - chiefly Wayne Taylor and former IBMA President David Crow - over the conversation that followed this performance, and whether the Navy Band had been authorized to include the second song. Crow resigned immediately following the performance.

In a letter to the IBMA membership, he indicated that his resignation should be seen as his assumption of responsibility for having “lied” to the membership in saying that the military anthems medley would be removed, but a subsequent letter suggested that a desire to dedicate more time to his family and legal practice - both rapidly growing - also played a large part in his decision.

There has been no official statement from IBMA about this as yet, but we have asked Executive Director Dan Hays to speak with us about it when he feels it is appropriate.

We are also seeking comment from the show’s producers, Rhonda Vincent’s management and the Navy band. I can’t swear that we can get all the details, but we’ll try, and will report what we can find out.

UPDATE 11:20 a.m.: Jon Weisberger emailed to correct an error he found in this post, to wit that IBMA had made no official statement about this controvery. He passed along a statement that he had sent on Monday to the IBMA member discussion list on behalf of the Executive Committee, posted as coming from Greg Cahill, Stan Zdonik and himself.

“Since the staging of the IBMA’s annual Awards Show on Thursday night, members of the Board of Directors’ Executive Committee have conferred both in person and by telephone to discuss aspects of the show that contravened the Committee’s and the Board’s prior decisions. The Committee views the failure to implement these decisions with deep concern, and is undertaking a timely review of events to establish responsibility for the failure. The results, along with recommendations for appropriate actions, will be communicated as rapidly as possible to the Board for consideration.”

As we did last year, we will be publishing the full schedule for IBMA’s World Of Bluegrass and Fan Fest in a searchable, printable format here on The Bluegrass Blog. This will allow attendees to pre-plan both their daytime and after-hours schedule, a big help during such a busy, and event-rich week of activities.

If you or your organization will be hosting events during the Business Conference, Trade Show or Fan Fest portions of the week (9/25-10/1), please be sure to send us the details as soon as possible.

The complete schedule will be available within the next two weeks, and we will highlight some tidbits here and there as we become aware of them. Here are a couple of note:

3 Fox Drive has been tapped to kickoff the Awards Show at The Grand Ole Opry House on September 28. As always (at least since 2001), the show begins with a rendition of The Star Spangled Banner, and 3 Fox Drive is sure to do a bang up job with that.

Chris Thile will showcase on Tuesday (9/26) in support of his (by then) new Sugar Hill release, How To Grow A Woman From The Ground. He will perform material from the CD with the same band as he used on the recording on the main showcase stage at 10:05 p.m., followed by a similar performance on the Roots & Branches stage at midnight.

That midnight show will also include The Infamous Stringdusters, and spontaneous jamming would seem to be a foregone conclusion.

UPDATE 4:30 p.m.: Thanks to Dan and Nancy at IBMA, who corrected my faulty memory about the Awards Show opening. In 2001, Sonny Osborne opened the show with a solo banjo rendition of America The Beautiful, and last year (2005) the Isaacs opened with the National Anthem.

Dan Hays also shared this tidbit about this year’s awards show:

We are planning a patriotic tribute this year involving Rhonda Vincent and the US Navy Band Country Current Bluegrass Unit.