Photojournalist Phil Zimmerman has released a book of his photos taken during the early days of the bluegrass festival era. Bluegrass Time: A Musician’s Photographs of the Early Days of Bluegrass Festivals contains 95 photos taken between 1972 and 1984 in a 64 page book.

The perspective of the book focuses on the time when a new generation of musicians were taking bluegrass in new directions while many of the early pioneers were still active – and performing on the same festivals.

Phil has kindly agreed to allow us to display several images from the book.

     In addition to these, he includes photos of first generation heroes Bill Monroe, Ralph Stanley, Lester Flatt, Don Reno, Curly Ray Cline, Kenny Baker, Tex Logan, the Lilly Brothers, Don Stover, Buddy Spicher, Paul Warren, and Joe Stuart.Representing the new blood are shots of the Country Gentlemen, J. D. Crowe and the New South, Sam Bush and New Grass Revival, Ricky Skaggs, Tony Rice, Jerry Douglas, Doyle Lawson, Tony Trischka, Marty Stuart, Bela Fleck, Emmylou Harris, Frank Wakefield, Del McCoury, Peter Rowan, Bill Keith, Vassar Clements, and Butch Robins.

Bluegrass Time includes a foreword by Rhonda Vincent, an introduction by bluegrass historian Fred Bartenstein, and extensive captions about the performers featured in the book. It is available in softcover for $25 from Phil’s web site, where you can also see several more images from the book.

The publication of the book coincides with the opening of a year-long exhibition of full size original prints at the International Bluegrass Music Museum in Owensboro, KY. There are 52 prints in this solo exhibition, all of which Mr. Zimmerman has donated to the museum’s permanent collection.

The Summer 2008 issue of The Fretboard Journal is set to be mailed to subscribers next week, with a cover feature on Chris Thile. The piece is an interview, conducted by fellow mandolin trailblazer David Grisman, who graced the cover of the inaugural issue of the magazine in 2005.

Also profiled in this issue is resonator guitarist Jerry Douglas, and a lengthy interview with noted guitar builder Jean Larrivee is included as well.

We have spoken highly of this glossy, full color quarterly in the past for its use of heavy, archival-quality paper and for the excellence of the writing and photography.

Subscription and single issue order information can be found on The Fretboard Journal web site.

The folks at Acoustic Disc are offering free daily downloads from their web site. A different track will be available each day from one of their many fine audio recordings.

Acoustic Disc is the label owned by David Grisman, and tracks from his many fine releases will be among the mandocentric offerings provide as free downloads. These files are in the MP3 format and a new one will be posted around 2:00 a.m. (EST) each day.

HT: Mandolin Cafe

The newest release from David Grisman’s Acoustic Disc label is a duo project featuring he and John Sebastian. Entitled Satisfied, it features these two on acoustic guitar, mandolin family instruments and harmonica on a mixed set of songs and tunes. The 14 selections are taken from the repertoire of blues, folk and traditional music, plus a couple of Dawg tunes and a few from the great American songbook of show music.

This is by no means a bluegrass recording (obligatory disclaimer), but fans of the music of these two genre-defining acoustic artists are sure to be satisfied with the result. My own bias towards this project comes from the twin facts that I was a huge Lovin’ Spoonful fan as a young boy in the 60’s, and the impact that Grisman’s first Quintet album had on me as a young student of bluegrass and acoustic music in 1977.

The Spoonful was a pop sensation at the time, with Sebastian front and center, the group’s name having come from a Mississippi John Hurt song, Coffee Blues, which is included here. Grisman, of course, charted new territory with his Dawg music, but has always betrayed the heart and soul of bluegrass in everything he has done.

One of the great treats upon opening the CD case was finding photos of both Sebastian and Grisman from their “early days” not long after they met as students at New York University in the early 1960s. Grisman was deep into a study of bluegrass at the time while Sebastian was immersed in Delta blues, but the two became friends and even performed together as members of The Even Dozen Jug Band.

Though their careers went in different directions after college, they found themselves performing an impromptu duo set at a concert in 2005, an event that led directly to this new collaboration.

The tracks were cut a la Grisman’s Acoustic Disc formula – meaning everything was recorded live in the studio, sans overdubs. There is a very raw, and ultimately satisfying appeal to this CD, and this may be a big part of it.

Look for Satisfied to be released on November 6, though it does seem to be available for download sale (MP3 and FLAC) at livedownloads.com.