The release on February 10 of 3 Silver Dollars (PRC 1168) marked the sixth Pinecastle Records album for David Parmley and Continental Divide.

Following the excellent Gospel collection, Church House Hymns, Parmley has switched tack and done what is mostly a secular album this time.

3 Silver Dollars features David Parmley on guitar and vocals, long-standing pal Dale Perry on banjo, guitar and vocals, bluegrass veteran, but relative newcomer to Continental Divide, Ron Spears on mandolin and vocals, with special guests, Ron Stewart on fiddle, Kyle Perkins on bass and Rhonda Vincent singing harmony vocals on Meadow On The Mountain (Where Mama Used To Pray).

For one of the 12 tracks on the album, Parmley has dug deep into family history by recording Pete Seeger’s Winsborough Cotton Mill Blues, a song that his father, Don, did over 40 years ago as a member of The Hillmen.

Other songs featured are Parmley’s cover of Country star Billy Currington’s That’s Just Me, the Tom T. and Dixie Hall-penned title track and two originals that Spears contributed, Carolina Rain and God Reached Down. Other well-established song writers, Ray Edwards (helped by Larry Cox and Jane Price) contributed Meadow On The Mountain and (helped by Terry Foust) Anniversary Of The Blues; and Robert Gateley with Ain’t Gonna Let You Drag Me Down, Dee Gaskin with Lilly Still Blooms In The Dell; and David Scott Coffey, with Refill Of Your Love, add plenty of contrast.

Audio samples can be found in The Music Shed, Pinecastle’s online retail vendor.

We posted about ten days ago with release dates for four new projects due from Pinecastle Records in 2009.

Not long after that, we heard from a reader who wondered why a title we had just indicated wouldn’t be released until next year was showing up as available now online elsewhere. We checked with Pinecastle, and Ethan Burkhardt told us that they decided to do a limited early release of the four upcoming titles.

“Because of how our release schedule lined up, we couldn’t get these albums ‘officially’ released by Christmas.  We are however going to have them available to The Music Shed and County Sales for the Christmas season.”

You can find audio samples, more details and online ordering for these Pinecastle projects online.

• Second Season – Kristin Scott Benson (1/13/09)
• Lord Bless This House – Nothin’ Fancy (1/27/09)
• The Hangman – Ernie Thacker & Route 23 (2/10/09)
• Three Silver Dollars – David Parmley & Continental Divide (2/10/09)

A benefit concert is scheduled for next weekend (11/16) for popular Kentucky musician and singer, Vicki Simmons, who suffered a stroke while hospitalized for treatment of a brain aneurysm during the summer of 2008.

Vicki was a founding member of The New Coon Creek Girls and worked for years with Dale Ann Bradley. She has recently been a featured performer at Renfro Valley, where the concert will be held next week to help defray her substantial medical expenses.

The show will run from 1:00 to 9:00 p.m., with performances from Steve Gulley, Wildfire, Randy Graham, Cumberland Gap Connection, and a special Bluegrass All-Star Band including J. D. Crowe, Larry Stephenson, David Parmley, Curt Chapman, Michael Cleveland and more.

Ticket information can be obtained by calling 800-765-7464, or on the Renfro Valley web site.

A fund has been established for Vicki’s many friends and fans who would like to make a contribution.

Vicki Simmons Medical Fund
c/o Renfro Valley Entertainment Center
P.O. Box 19
Renfro Valley, KY 40473

Pinecastle Records recently announced the upcoming release of four new projects during the first two months of 2009.

Promos are being sent to radio this week, despite the lag of as much as three months between now and the actual street dates for these new albums.

• Second Season – Kristin Scott Benson (1/13/09)
• Lord Bless This House – Nothin’ Fancy (1/27/09)
• The Hangman – Ernie Thacker & Route 23 (2/10/09)
• Three Silver Dollars – David Parmley & Continental Divide (2/10/09)

We asked Matt Hood, Pinecastle’s Director of Radio promotion, why they send promos out so early for new releases, and about their promotional download service for radio.

“For some time we have been using a new schedule for our mainstream releases. There are a few reasons why we send out CDs to radio so far in advance. The first one has to do with the production timelines of the major bluegrass print magazines. It takes a magazine a certain amount of time to prepare each issue for printing and it takes the printer a certain amount of time to print the magazine. There can be a lag time of a couple of months. In order to chart a single during the month of the release date the DJs have to have a CD in time to review it, put it in rotation, and (if the CD merits it) report it to the folks that publish these airplay charts. The same issue applies to album reviews.

Also, many folks in the media have such a backlog of CDs to review that it can take them several months to even review a CD. The point is to get as much exposure during the immediate timeframe of the street date as possible and we’ve found that shipping CDs several months in advance of the street date helps us do that.

Our first real proof of concept was with Special Consensus’ The Trail Of Aching Hearts, which appeared on the National Bluegrass Survey in Bluegrass Unlimited the month of the release date. Almost every album we’ve released since then has done the same. We’ve also had similar results with the chart in Bluegrass Music Profiles that they started in 2007.

All of the charts, reviews, and airplay provide invaluable information to sales reps from our distributor who then work to place Pinecastle product into stores.” (more…)