Word comes from Crooked Still that cellist, and founding member Rushad Eggleston will be leaving the band in November.

Perhaps serving as a testament to his unique abilities as both a musician and a performer, the band will be bringing in two players to fill his spot. Tristan Clarridge on cello and Brittany Haas on fiddle will join the band after Rushad’s last show on November 18, and will begin rehearsals for a new Crooked Still project which starts recording in January ‘08.

Clarridge has made a name for himself as both a fiddler and a cellist, and has been touring of late with Darol Anger and Republic Of Strings. Haas has also served in Anger’s Republic, and among her many performance credits, has been touring with Tony Trischka’s Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular shows – all while still in college.

No word yet as to what Rushad’s plans may be post-Crooked Still, nor a reason for his departure. Perhaps the rest of the band wasn’t ready to go quite so far as he in the envelope-pushing department, as evidenced by this recent photo of Eggleston with his own indelicately named trio, The Butt-Wizards.

Crooked Still has just a few dates in the northeast with Rushad, and you can expect him to go out with a bang.

This morning I noticed a recent post on the Japanese bluegrass blog, run by mandolin player Kasninoyh (Nino), about Crooked Still’s newest CD Shaken by a Low Sound.

Nino wrote a very thorough review of the disc for his Japanese readers, and made a great observation that this is really urbanized bluegrass played by four very talented, jazz influenced, young musicians from the Northeast. One thing he was unclear on though was the band name. I myself wasn’t sure how they had come up with the name, and neither was John. I emailed Rushad Eggleston, the cello player, and inquired as to how the name had come about.

Rushad tells me that Greg Liszt, the banjo player, came up with the name.

It basically refers mostly to a moonshine still, representative of Appalachian vibes, and its crooked which is kind of about us coming at it from a different angle.

For our non-english readers who may not be familiar with the concept of a moonshine still, let me explain. Moonshine is a strong alcoholic beverage made from corn in the rural mountains of the southeastern United States. A “still” is the device they use to distill the corn mash into liquor. The production of moonshine is illegal by the way.

It’s a “crooked still” because the band plays Appalachian/bluegrass music but, as Nino noted, is not a regular bluegrass band. Some people talk about traditional bluegrass by calling it “straight up bluegrass” so the band decided since they weren’t “straight up” they must be “crooked.”

All in all, that’s a pretty cool band name for a progressive bluegrass band.

Modern Guitars Magazine has posted a press release from Folk Alliance which states that Earl Scruggs will be the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award when they host the Folk Alliance Awards Show in Memphis, TN on February 21, 2007.

Posthumous awards will be given as well to fingerstyle blues guitarist Dave Van Ronk and Boston folk music promoter Manny Greenhill.

You can read the full press release on the Modern Guitars site. It also lists the final nominees for all the Folk Alliance Awards, which include multiple nominations for Crooked Still and one for Old Crow Medicine Show.

Thanks to our banjo pickin’ buddy Rick Briggs for the heads up on this.

Boston-based quartet Crooked Still is heading back to the UK in January 2007. They have four dates in England (1/21-24), followed by an appearance at the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow on the 25th.

Find info on all their dates on their web site.