This morning (11/13), Buddy Woodward of Dixie Bee-Liners will be with Carol Beaugard on WFDU. They will talk about the new Bee-Liners CD, Susanville, and The American Revival Tour they are currently working along with Sierra Hull and Uncle Earl.

WFDU broadcasts at 89.1 FM in NYC, and online via live streaming at www.wfdu.fm. The show, Lonesome Pine RFD, airs from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon (EST), and Buddy’s interview will air at 11:00. If you miss it live, look in the audio archives where it will reside for the next two weeks.

Carol also mentioned a show she did yesterday with Ned Luberecki, who broadcasts for Bluegrass Junction, the all-bluegrass channel for Sirius-XM. It can also be accessed in the archives.

“We spoke of his early work with the Paul Adkins Band. He updated us on Paul – who apparently worked for a while as a golf pro and then designing kitchens. Ned emailed him very recently and learned that Paul is back to playing music with a few gigs around the Maryland area and we both commented how wonderful it would be to see Paul back in performance.

Ned spoke at length about his work as a broadcaster on Sirius and credited his bandleader, Chris Jones for first recommending him to Sirius launching a new career so ‘he could support his banjo habit.’  We also played a couple of tracks that Ned co-wrote on the new album for Chris Jones and the Nightdrivers’ Cloud of Dust.

We also discussed his work producing the IBMA Awards show with Cindy Baucom at the Ryman Auditorium, as well as what an honor it was to broadcast the Awards Show this past year, in the same booth where Eddie Stubbs and other broadcast legends have stood.”

At noon, April Verch and her band will perform live on Blue Plate Special, broadcast on WDVX from Knoxville. We reviewed her terrfic new CD, Steal The Blue, earlier this year.

You can catch the show over the air at 102.9 in and around Knoxville, or online at WDVX.com.

Later this evening, you can hear Ricky Skaggs, The Whites and Mike Snider on The Grand Ole Opry. Of course, The Opry is carried live on WSM from Nashville, which is also simulcast live online. The show airs from 8:00-10:00 p.m. on Friday nights.

Then after Saturday’s (11/14) Opry (where The Whites and Jesse McReynolds will perform), bluegrass legend Curly Seckler will make a rare live appearance on The Ernest Tubb Midnite Jamboree from The Texas Troubadour Theater in Nashville, also broadcast on WSM.

Jesse McReynolds will host the Tubb show, and Curly is expected to sing a couple of songs with The Virginia Boys, and probably at least one with Jesse.

It is always a treat to hear Curly sing, who did as much as anyone to define bluegrass tenor singing during his tenure with both Flatt & Scruggs and Lester Flatt & The Nashville Grass.

One of these sets features the earliest surviving show, from 1956 (the band began doing these shows in 1955). Curly Seckler is featured on tenor vocals and mandolin on both volumes and on one of them he sings one of his trademark solos, What’s the Matter Now.

Other members of the Foggy Mountain Boys at about that same time were Buck Graves, Paul Warren and Jake Tullock.

Flatt and Scruggs are one of the most popular bluegrass bands of all time. Along with Bill Monroe, they developed bluegrass music into a widely successful and artistically praised musical format. The Best of the Flatt and Scruggs TV Show series contains the best musical performances from a long lost TV show taped in the 1950s and 1960s.

Never available before, this footage in this series features Flatt and Scruggs in their prime with their group the Foggy Mountain Boys playing many of their most famous songs as well as many other bluegrass classics. The first two DVDs in the series were released in March 2007.

These two DVDs will be available wherever music DVDs are sold, from Curly Seckler at his show dates and from his web site. Each volume contains two shows.

On Friday, December 26 Seckler discusses his career with host Frank Stasio on North Carolina Public Radio’s The State of Things. During the hour long program, he will perform several songs backed by semi-regular support band the Steep Canyon Rangers. The State of Things starts at noon (EST) and can be found at 91.5 FM (WUNC, Chapel Hill), 88.9 FM (WUND, Manteo) and 90.9 FM (WRQM, Rocky Mount) on the dial. If you are out of range of these stations, you may listen by visiting the WUNC website.

The show also maintains an audio archive, so you might be able to find Curly’s visit there after the fact.

The following day, December 27, also at noon there will a repeat of the October 25th programme on WSVS in Crewe, VA, that featured Seckler, Jody Rainwater and the Steep Canyon Rangers live in WSVS’s Flatt & Scruggs studio. The two-hour show features chat with Seckler and Rainwater, both recalling some favorite memories from their long careers in bluegrass music, and some live music. You can tune into the two-hour program at 800 AM in central Virginia, or listen on the Internet.

Of course, on Christmas Day Seckler will celebrate another birthday, his 89th in this case.

He and his wife, Eloise, will celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary the following day.

Happy holidays indeed!

The exhibit, which will remain up for one year, includes photos, posters and LPs from Seckler’s 70 plus years in bluegrass music, as well as a guitar case, stage clothes and a hat.

After the unveiling ceremony, Seckler, accompanied by his friends Willis Spears and Larry Perkins, sang for the museum board members, trustees and other VIPs, Other featured performers included Dewey Murphy, Gloria Belle, Fletcher Bright and Ronnie Reno.

Prior to that, on October 8, Seckler went along to the WSM radio studio where he was a live guest of Eddie Stubbs during the latter’s evening show.

Two days later he joined with the Steep Canyon Rangers for a show at the Station Inn in Nashville.

On October 24, Curly was in Durham, North Carolina, to tape The State of Things for WUNC radio. He chatted with host Frank Stasio about his career and performed several songs backed by the Steep Canyon Rangers.

The State of Things is broadcast on weekdays from 12:00 noon to 1:00pm Eastern time on WUNC. The program featuring Curly Seckler is tentatively scheduled to be transmitted in December. Watch for details soon or check the WUNC web site.

During the following day Seckler visited Crewe, Virginia, for a live interview and performance on WSVS radio. This station was the home base for Curly Seckler in 1954, while he was with Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs. In addition to doing daily programs on WSVS and weekly appearances on WRVA’s Old Dominion Barn Dance in Richmond, Virginia, the Foggy Mountain Boys taped all of their Martha White radio programs at WSVS and sent them back to WSM to be broadcast. At that time, WSVS radio’s most popular DJ was Little Jody Rainwater, who had worked with Seckler in the Foggy Mountain Boys in 1950. Rainwater joined Seckler for the interview, thus the duo were reunited in the WSVS studios for the first time in 54 years. (WSVS programs bluegrass and classic country music, and you can tune in online.)

That evening (10/25) Seckler, showing the stamina of someone half his age, and the Steep Canyon Rangers gave a fantastic performance to an enthusiastic audience at the Kenbridge Town Hall, in Kenbridge, Virginia. WSVS station manager Chris Gowin co-ordinated the events as well as attending to the sound system. A portion of the proceeds of the show went to benefit a local chapter of the Salvation Army.

Curly Seckler is now looking forward to his next big event in his life: his 89th birthday, on December 25! He and his wife, Eloise, will also celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary on December 26.

It is expected that Seckler will do more shows with the Steep Canyon Rangers in 2009, while he will also perform at several bluegrass festivals with Big Country Bluegrass next year.

For additional information, bio, and photos, please you can visit Curly’s official web site.

At 1:00 p.m. (EDT) former Foggy Mountain Boys Jody Rainwater and Curly Seckler will join Steep Canyon Rangers for a live set on WSVS AM 800 in Crewe, VA. They will be performing together that evening in nearby Kenbridge, and will offer a taste of the show over the air (steamed live at www.wsvsam.com).

WSVS was the radio home for Flatt & Scruggs in 1954 and ‘55, where they did a live noontime show each weekday and also taped their Martha White shows for WSM in Nashville. Rainwater, who had left the band several years earlier, was a show host on WSVS while Lester and Earl were based in Crewe.

Curly and Jody look forward to spinning yarns about the old days on Saturday’s show, and getting a chance to perform together again backed by a fine young band who learned to play listening to the recordings they had made.

Then at 8:00 p.m. on WNCW in Spindale, NC, Merlefest will announce their artist lineup for 2009. [See update below]

John Adair from Merlefest and Christie Hutchens from Wilkes Community College will be on WNCW’s Martin Anderson to run down all the acts who will be on tap for the festival April 23-26, 2009.

Listen live online at wncw.org.

The lineup will be posted on the Melefest site after the show has concluded on Saturday at 9:00 p.m.

Update 10/26:  Ooops….. The Merlefest radio show is on Tuesday, October 28 at 8:00 p.m.

Seckler was the mandolinist and tenor singer with Flatt & Scruggs during their hey day in the 1950s and early ’60s, and later became a member of Lester Flatt & The Nashville Grass when Lester and Earl went their separate ways. Known for his songwriting as much as his soaring tenor, Curly contributed classics like No Mother Or Dad and That Old Book of Mine to the bluegrass repertoire.

Relative newcomers compared to Seckler’s 70 plus years in the business, Steep Canyon Rangers have been carving out a niche in the bluegrass world for the past few years. Their most recent CD, Lovin’ Pretty Women, has spent many months on the various bluegrass charts – and they performed the title track as the opening number on last Thursday’s IBMA Awards Show.

The Rangers will appear with Curly Seckler this Friday (10/10) at The Station Inn in Nashville, and again on October 25 at the Kenbridge Town Hall in Kenbridge, VA. SCR will do their regular show and then be joined by Seckler for some of his classics as well as songs from his recent recordings.

If you live within a comfortable drive of either show, you might take advantage of one of the few opportunities to catch Curly perform live.

Recently he has appeared on the public TV affiliated Song of the Mountains show, firstly with the Steep Canyon Rangers and then with Larry Sparks.

Song of the Mountains is an hour-long program, hosted by Tim White at the Lincoln Theatre in Marion, Virginia, that airs weekly on over 160 PBS affiliates nationwide. (Check local listings for the air date in your area.)

This coming weekend (June 26 to June 28) Seckler and a number of other bluegrass pioneers, including his long-time friend, Ramblin’ Tommy Scott, will be present as the International Bluegrass Music Museum (located in Owensboro, Kentucky) celebrates the premier of several new oral history documentaries. The film festival will be part of the River of Music Party activities with some events taking place at the Museum itself. Other events take place at the RiverPark Center downtown and at nearby Yellow Creek Park. For a full schedule of events and ticket information, visit their web site.

On Saturday, August 2, Seckler, along with Willis Spears, his old friend, singing partner and Lester Flatt double, will perform at the historic Carter Family Fold, as part of The 34th Annual Carter Family Memorial Festival & Craft Show, Hiltons, Virginia. The duo will perform an afternoon and an evening set. Tentatively scheduled to back them is the fantastic Virginia band, Big Country Bluegrass. The festival commences on the Friday, August 1, and scheduled show times for each day are from 2:00pm through to 11:00pm.

For a full list of the artists performing and ticket information, you may call: 276-386-6054 or by email.

I have just had a note passed to me by Penny Parsons, manager/friend and biographer to bluegrass veteran Curly Seckler.

On Sunday, January 6 The Pickin’ Porch Show, a Bristol-based weekly two hour bluegrass and old-time music show hosted by ‘Your Bluegrass Buddy’ Tim White, celebrated Curly Seckler Day.

Seckler is a true bluegrass pioneer who has worked with some of the biggest names in the business. He worked several stints with Charlie Monroe, beginning in 1939. He also teamed with various other bluegrass pioneers, including Jim and Jesse McReynolds, Mac Wiseman, the Sauceman Brothers and the Stanley Brothers.

However, he is best known for his work with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs’ Foggy Mountain Boys, whom Curly joined in 1949 as tenor singer and mandolinist. Except for a couple of brief absences, he remained with Flatt & Scruggs until 1962. He joined Lester Flatt’s Nashville Grass in 1973 and remained until Lester’s death in 1979. Thereafter he took over leadership of the Nashville Grass leading the band for fifteen years, until his retirement in 1994.

Though Seckler retired from touring, he continues to perform occasionally at selected events. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Hall of Fame in 2004. That same year he made a collection of new recordings, which have been released on two CDs by Copper Creek Records. Down in Caroline was released in the fall of 2005 and it was a finalist for IBMA Recorded Event of the Year. Bluegrass, Don’t You Know, released in late 2006, was picked by the Chicago Tribune as one of the top 10 bluegrass CDs of the year.

Penny relates …

We had a very special get-together for Curly and his friends, both old and new. The program began with Appalachian Trail, an excellent local band. David Helms, the mayor of Marion, Virginia dropped by to congratulate Curly for his lifetime achievements in Bluegrass music, and presented Curly with the key to the city. On January 5, the night prior to the event in Bristol, Curly had performed in Marion, at the historic Lincoln Theatre. There, along with the Steep Canyon Rangers, Curly taped the Song of the Mountains TV show for broadcast on PBS later this year.

We had a number of special guests join us in Bristol. Ramblin’ Tommy Scott, who is still spry at 90, made the trip from Toccoa, Georgia, to reminisce with Curly about the old days. He related some funny stories about the shows he and Curly performed together in the late 1930s and early ’40s. Also on hand were Jim Sauceman and Imogene Sauceman Day, siblings of the late Carl and J.P. Sauceman. Curly performed with the Sauceman Brothers at WCYB in Bristol in 1951.

Curly and I took the stage and provided a brief synopsis of his 73 years in music, along with some amusing anecdotes. The audience enjoyed excerpts from the old Flatt & Scruggs TV show. We also played a rare audio track of Curly singing tenor to Bill Monroe at Carlton Haney’s festival in Camp Springs, NC in 1971.

Tim White then joined Curly and me on stage and unveiled the Curly Seckler exhibit, which includes some of Curly’s stage clothes and some classic photos from his career. This display can be seen at the Mountain Music Museum on the lower level of the Bristol Mall. Curly’s favorite new band and the IBMA’s 2006 Emerging Artist of the Year, The Steep Canyon Rangers, accompanied him on stage, performing a tremendous rendition of the old favorite Salty Dog Blues. Curly’s friend and former singing partner in the Nashville Grass, Willis Spears, was also on hand to honor Curly. He and Curly recreated some of the fine music they performed in the ’80s and ’90s, including the classics I’ll Go Stepping Too and He Took Your Place.

On Christmas Day, Curly turned 88 years old, and Tim and I presented him with a belated birthday cake. Curly made several attempts to blow out the candles (they kept re-lighting). Everyone sang Happy Birthday, and later the cake was shared with the entire audience! The ACMA had also made a beautiful sign with pictures of Curly and a Happy Birthday greeting on it. Following the program, the musical guests and members of the audience signed it for Curly to keep as a memento of the occasion.

Tim White concluded, “It was a wonderful evening here at the Pickin’ Porch as we celebrated the life and career of a true music legend. Happy birthday Curly, and welcome to your rightful place in the Mountain Music Museum.”

Reflecting on his weekend in Virginia, Curly Seckler says, “I really enjoyed it. We met some very nice people. It had been about twenty years since I was in Marion. Everybody there and in Bristol was just super. Tim White did a great job with both shows, and I owe him a lot of thanks.”

You can find photos and some more information about Curly’s visit to Marion on the Pickin’ Porch web site.

Curly and his five brothers and two sisters grew up on a 150 acre farm near China Grove, North Carolina. Their dad passed away in 1929, when Curly was only 9 years old, but they still managed to have a special family celebration at the holidays each year. Christmas Day had special significance for Curly, since it was also his birthday!

Back when I was growing up, all of us had to hang up a sock, you know. Us kids, there was eight of us, used to hang them on the mantle. You’d hang up a big sock, and then they’d fill it up, over half way, with just parched peanuts, in the bottom of it. Then they’d put an apple or an orange or a tangerine in there, and then on the top of it you’d have a little knife or something like that, and that was it, back in them days.

I remember one year my mom give me a knife, and I kept that thing up until me and Eloise got married (in 1998), and through that move I lost that knife somewhere. I don’t know where it got to, but I lost it. And my mom only give, I think, about twenty-five cents for it. Back then you could get a pretty good knife for a quarter. I was about nine years old, probably, when I got that knife. I remember that real well.

I’ll tell you something else they did one time. They give us some little old stopper guns, you know, with a cork in the end of it. Little old pop guns. Us kids got them things, and you’d hammer it back, and then shoot it, and it’d go, "Poop."

We’d always go out and cut a tree down and put it in the house, for Christmas. And we’d decorate that Christmas tree. We strung popcorn on it. But it seems like it was some kind of soap suds that we used to put on the tree, to make it look kind of snowy looking. Seems like we used to cut out some ducks and stuff and paste them on there. Little old things, out of a Sears and Roebuck catalog, and paste it on the tree. We had some good times together, all us kids.

And I’ll tell you something else we used to do along about Christmas time. If it was pretty weather, we always went hunting the day before Christmas. We had a shed down there, below the old house. We took an old drum and beat that thing out and cut the top out of it, and put a pot down in there, and us boys would go out and hunt rabbits and bring them in, and we made a big fire and we’d boil them rabbits, and then we’d have a rabbit stew. We’d go out hunting all day and bring them in, and then put them in that pot down there, then we’d play music after we eat. It’d take about half a dozen rabbits to feed us all, plus our neighbor, that played music with us, Mike Belk. And then we’d pick and mess around with the guitar, after we eat.

We’d have ham for Christmas dinner. We raised our hogs and we’d kill them before Christmas, and we had ham. And we had plenty of pies. My mom just baked all kinds of pies. ‚ÄòTater pies, ‚Äòsimmon pies, peach pie, apple pie. We always had sweet potato pie. We used to eat rhubarb pies, because we’d grow it.

We’d all pile in the cars and go to church on Christmas. We had two automobiles, two T-models. They always had little things they’d give all the kids out there at the church, like an orange or apple, and some of them little old cookies, animal crackers, in little boxes. I know we’d get a little satchel, with them cookies and things in it, an apple, an orange, during Christmas, from the church. Even after I started playing music for a living, I always went down home for Christmas. All my seven brothers and sisters was always home on Christmas. We always had a nice Christmas.

In the 1960s, after I’d quit working with Lester and Earl, we’d go up to the McCormicks’ every Christmas. Back when the McCormick Brothers was all still living, we’d go up, where Lloyd and Kelly and their daddy and mother lived, up there in Westmoreland, Tennessee. In that old house, they had a big basement underneath it, and we’d go down in there and play music.

Lloyd would always play Santa Claus for the kids, and he had a real outfit. He had the boots and a beard, and everything. You’d never think it was Lloyd McCormick. He’d go out, after a while, and dress up like Santa Claus, and come back and go, "Ho, ho, ho, ho," and come in. And he’d give out a bunch of gifts, and we’d play all kinds of songs, there. Christmas Time’s a-Coming, we used to sing that a lot. But we used to go up there every year, for Christmas.

I used to eat there a lot, in the old days. I remember I’d be up there late in the evening, and it was about time to eat, and their mom would tell me to get in there to the table, "You know where your place is." And she’d open that back door of the house, there, and holler down to the barn, and say, "Lloyd, come on home. It’s suppertime." I’ve eaten many a meal up there. And during Christmas time, we’d eat there, too.

In later years, when we’d go over to Gerald McCormick’s for Christmas, Lloyd played Santa Claus over there about every year, as long as he was able, before he passed away. Mrs. Seckler sat on his lap! We’ve got pictures here of it.

I’ve always enjoyed my Christmas Days, and I’d like to wish everyone a very happy holiday.

Curly Seckler – December, 2007

Later today (11/20), Cadillac Sky will be featured in the 3:00 p.m. hour. On Wednesday (11/21), Kyle will have IIIrd Tyme Out, discussing their new Footprints CD, and spinning a few cuts. That IIIrd Tyme Out feature will run sometime between 3:00 and 6:00 p.m.

Then at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Kyle will replay his visit with legendary bluegrass singer Curly Seckler.

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:

#1	Cherryholmes II	Cherryholmes
#2	Scenechronized	Seldom Scene
#3	More Behind The Picture Than The Wall	Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver
#4	Lovin’ Pretty Women	Steep Canyon Rangers
#5	Good News	Charlie Sizemore

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.

A great example will be on display at next weekend’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in San Francisco, CA. When The David Grisman Experience performs on this free, 3 day festival on October 7 in Golden Gate Park, David will welcome Curly Seckler to join him on stage.

Curly had a hand in shaping the way bluegrass tenor is sung, and is widely regarded as being as influential in the earliest days as Bill Monroe or Ralph Stanley. Not only did he record more than 100 tracks with Flatt & Scruggs during his 12 years with the band, he also wrote several of their most memorable songs, like No Mother Or Dad and That Old Book of Mine.

Curly performed as a member of Lester Flatt and The Nashville Grass from 1973 until Lester’s passing in ‘79, and then fronted the band himself up to his retirement in 1994. He didn’t retire completely, however, and marked the year 2004 – his 70th in bluegrass music – by recording a total of 28 tracks, released as two CDs on the Copper Creek label (hear audio samples in iTunes).

Later that same year, he was inducted into the IBMA Hall of Honor, and gave a memorable performance at the 2004 awards show.

You can find more details about the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival on their web site. Austin City Limits will be filming at the festival, and we sure hope that Curly will make the cut and appear when the footage is aired.

Three cheers for Curly Seckler – and for David Grisman as well!

The new release from bluegrass legend Curly Seckler is now available, but not in the ways with which you may be accustomed. The folks at Copper Creek Records have decided to release this project almost exclusively for download.

A limited pressing of manufactured CDs were made, for distribution to radio and for Curly to sell at shows, but no audio CDs will be sold through record stores or other common CD sources.

Bluegrass, Don’t You Know is the name of this new release, which includes 14 tracks. 7 are Seckler originals, and Curly reprises some of his classic offerings from the days with Flatt & Scruggs as well. You’ll find new versions of Some Old Day, Why Did You Wander, Bouquet In Heaven, That Old Book Of Mine and Brother I’m Getting Ready To Go.

Helping out are such bluegrass luminaries as Larry Sparks, Russell Moore, Larry Cordle, Dudley Connell, Rob Ickes, Herschel Sizemore, Tater Tate, Larry Perkin and more.

You can hear samples from each track, or purchase the “CD” for download at Apple’s iTunes Music Store. Audio CDs can be obtained from Curly directly, via his web site.

There’s something plainly fascinating about seeing a member of bluegrass music’s first generation embracing new distribution models. Kudos to Curly, and Gary Reid at Copper Creek for giving this a try.