Bluegrass Jamboree is the name attached to a two-week road show in Germany set for December.

Headlining is Steep Canyon Rangers, who will be fresh off their US tour with Steve Martin, and hawking their newly-released CD, Deep In The Shade. Rounding out the show will be US old timers Beverly Smith & Carl Jones, and British grassers Toy Hearts.

The tour is intended to be an annual event, which the promoters describe as a first for the European bluegrass scene. In true barn storming fashion, Bluegrass Jamboree will consist of 16 consecutive one-nighters which will hit Berlin, Bonn, Munich, Hamburg and another dozen German cities.

Sophia Johnson of Toy Hearts shared a few words about their participation.

“We are very proud to be involved with this project – which is the first of its kind, to have a touring show of 3 bands doing 15 (?) consecutive nights together. The Headline band the Steep Canyon Rangers are personally one of our favourite groups – they are incredible musicians and who put on a really great show, and as they write their own material, they are a great showcase of the new wave of young, dynamic bands currently coming through in the USA. I think the whole show will have something for any audience member, because of the range of bands, it would be a great introduction for newcomers to Bluegrass as well as featuring enough great picking for the more trained ear!”

Sophia also mentioned that Toy Hearts is set to return to the US in January to record their 3rd CD. David Mayfield of Cadillac Sky is set to produce, and the band is hoping to involve some top Nashville pickers on the new project as well.

Details on the various Bluegrass Jamboree tour stops (December 5-20) can be found online.

Ned Luberecki has reported on Sirius Bluegrass this morning that guitarist Mike Jump has left Cadillac Sky and is replaced by David Mayfield.

Mayfield is a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and songwriter with many years’ experience in bluegrass and country music.

Ned tells us more…

“Mike’s last show with the band was at the Pickin’ In The Panhandle festival near Martinsburg, WV last weekend and David’s first show was last night in St. Louis. The C-Sky boys stopped by for a visit in our Nashville studios for a show which will air early next week.”

You can hear audio from David’s solo CD on his MySpace page. We are expecting some more details about the switch from C-Sky’s Bryan Simpson shortly.

One of our readers posted a review of David’s first show with the band over in The B, our reader-submitted section of The Bluegrass Blog.