McCoury Music and High Sierra Music have posted a YouTube video of Dierks Bentley rehearsing his hit song I’ve Got A Lot Of Leaving Left To Do with The Del McCoury Band in preparation for their joint appearance at DelFest next weekend.

The video shows them running through the tune, complete with an extended jam section - where Dierks even trades a few G runs with the Delster himself!

Brance posted on Tuesday about the special Station Inn performance this week by Mashville Brigade and friends.

The band was initially formed late in ‘06 by Ashby Frank and a number of other hot young pickers when Frank was living in Nashville and working with Alecia Nugent’s band. It included Jim Van Cleve on fiddle, Darrel Webb on guitar, Greg Martin on bass, Aaron McDaris on banjo and Frank on mandolin. Their plan was to play at Nashville’s Station Inn on occasional Tuesday evenings, much as a group know as The Sidemen had done a few years ago, assembled from members of other Nashville-based bluegrass bands.

Now that Ashby is off touring with Special Consensus, the membership at Mashville Brigade shows fluctuates wildly, and the show this past Tuesday was set to feature a number of high-profile guests, including Scott Vestal and Josh Williams.

We hear that even more unexpected special guests were on hand, and before the evening was concluded, country star Dierks Bentley joined the band for a song, as did Shawn Camp and Tina Adair. Sounds like a night of good fun and great music.

Ashby actually emailed from the Salt Lake City airport, to say that he had hated to miss that show, but had an interesting one of his own.

“Special Consensus did a show with the Idaho State Civic Symphony in Pocatello, Idaho last night in their beautiful new symphony/performing arts center. It went over amazingly well!

The crowd gave us such a warm reception, and called us out for an encore. It’s not every day that a symphony plays a full set with a Bluegrass band (we played a few new songs by ourselves, but did most of the set with the symphony), and its not every day that a bluegrass band plays in Pocatello, ID!”

We all seem to enjoy celebrity interviews. They give us a peek into the lives of the people who’s music we love so much. So how could we not love a celebrity interview conducted by a celebrity?

In a web exclusive for Country Weekly magazine, country music star Dierks Bentley plays reporter and sits down with the father of Newgrass, Sam Bush, for an interview.

Sam seems reluctant to accept that title though.

For years, I fought calling stuff “newgrass” just cause people were saying “You’re the father of newgrass.” I always thought it was John Duffey with the Country Gentlemen who made the first new bluegrass. But so did the Osborn Brothers and so did Jim and Jessie. Jim and Jessie did a whole Chuck Berry album in the ’60s called Berry Pickin’ Time in the Country.

A couple questions later though, Sam does accept the label of Newgrass:

The word newgrass probably applies, especially now that … I’ve got a banjo player, and if we want to play bluegrass we feel that we can really play bluegrass. And if we want to vary off, we have Byron House on bass … who’s great on the upright.

Other topics covered in the interview include baseball and dogs, two passions shared by both Bush and Bentley.

You can read the interview on Country Weekly’s website.

We posted a heads-up when The Grascals were scheduled to appear on The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson on February 12, performing with their friend Dierks Bentley. They were on to assist Dierks with his song, Prodigal Son’s Prayer, from his latest CD, Long Trip Alone - as they did on the recording.

That show is set to re-air tonight (3/13), so a second chance is in the offing for Grascals fans who missed it the first time around. The Late, Late Show airs at 12:35 p.m. (ET/PT) on CBS.

Their performance is also available on YouTube, for online viewing.

This is just a reminder that the Grascals will be appearing on The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson tonight. The guys will be performing with country star Dierks Bentley.

The show is on CBS and will air tonight at 12:35 AM ET/PT. More info about the performance can be found in our original post.

Be on the lookout for The Grascals on The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson on Monday, February 12. They’ll be on with Dierks Bentley, with whom they recorded for his new CD.

Bentley is a long-time friend of The Grascals’ Terry Eldridge, and he sang a duet with Terry for their latest release, Long List of Heartaches on the song Being Me. Terry returned the favor for Dierks’ latest CD, Long Trip Alone, and they will perform this duet, Prodigal Son’s Prayer, on The Late, Late Show.

The show airs at 12:35 a.m. (ET/PT) on 2/12 (technically 2/13 for those who are sticklers about such things).

Mark your calendar - and set your TiVo if you’re early to bed - to see Dierks and The Grascals on TV.

This new episode features an interview John did with Jamie Johnson about three weeks ago in Nashville. Jamie spoke with us just after the IBMA Awards Nominations press conference on August 15, and the discussion centered around the band’s new CD Long List Of Heartaches.

Jamie discusses the special guest appearances they have on the CD from George Jones, Dierks Bentley, and Steve Warner. He aslo talks about being in the band, what their vision is for their music, and more.

We’ve included some short clips of several songs mentioned in the interview.

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We posted last week about the Grascals interview available on the Country Weekly web site, where they discussed their upcoming CD. The new project will be entitled Long List Of Heartaches, and will be released August 29 on Rounder Records.

They are especially excited about the duet between The Grascals’ Terry Eldredge and country super star Dierks Bentley. The two are long time friends, and trade verses on a new song by Harley Allen, Being Me, which tells the story of a man fighting between his better and darker sides. Wonder which guy sings which part of the story?

Below are a couple of shots from the recording studio, with Dierks Bentley and George Jones, both of whom appear as guests on the new CD. Click either image to see a larger version.