The Dixie Bee-Liners will be the guest on this next coming week’s edition of Studio Special on XM Satellite Radio’s Bluegrass Junction. They’ll perform songs from their latest Pinecastle CD, RIPE, featuring their currently popular single, Down On The Crooked Road, and discuss the new project with host Kyle Cantrell.

The show debuts on Friday (7/11) at 8:00 a.m. (EDT), with several addition rebroadcasts over the course of the next week.

I contacted the artistic brain trust of the band, the singing/songwriting team of Brandi Hart and Buddy Woodward, to get their impressions of their first-time visit to the XM Nashville studio.

Buddy: Probably the most exciting part of our journey to XM Radio — and by “exciting,” I mean the Physiological definition (to stimulate or produce increased activity or response in an organ, tissue or nervous system) — was trying to park our 20-foot tour van in their tiny concrete carpark without, a.) bashing in the side paneling, b.) bashing in someone else’s side paneling, or, c.) knocking down the support columns, causing major structural failure and ultimate building implosion.

Brandi: They might have dropped us from the playlist after that.

Buddy: That’s not to say we weren’t excited about our upcoming performance on XM’s Studio Special series. We are all fans of Bluegrass Junction, and were looking forward to meeting Kyle Cantrell.

Brandi: He turned out to be a “lovely chap,” as our banjo player, Sam Morrow, would say — and the staff couldn’t have been nicer.

Buddy: We were presented with a veritable smorgasbord of mouth-watering vintage ribbon microphones to choose from, quickly decided on a set list, and before we had a chance to get butterflies, they were rolling. Songs were played, jokes were told, stories embellished, instruments identified, and coffee slurped. Veni, Vidi, Vici. And then it was off to the International Market for a Thai lunch and many cans of coconut soda.

Brandi: Sadly, nobody thought to bring a camera to the studio, but we do have artistic representations, expertly rendered by a well-respected southwestern Virginia illustrator. These images were specially commissioned by The Dixie Bee-Liners to allow readers of The Bluegrass Blog to relive every death-defying moment of that day with us.

Buddy: Does my hair really look like that from the side…???

Brandi: No comment.

Illustrations by JD Morrow, 7 year old son of Bee-Liners banjo picker, Sam Morrow.

Catch the show’s debut on Friday at 8:00 a.m., or during one these encore presentations (all times EDT).

• Saturday (7/12) - 11:00 a.m.
• Sunday (7/13) - 6:00 p.m.
• Monday (7/14) - 8:00 p.m.
• Tuesday (7/15) - Midnight (technically Wednesday morning)
• Thursday (7/17) - 3:00 p.m.

As a Virginia native, I hold a longstanding appreciation for the commonwealth and its art, culture, people and natural beauty. But I’ll not be surprised or disappointed if people entering this new contest prefer as their prize a new Wayne Henderson guitar over a trip for two to my beloved home state.

The contest to promote The Crooked Road, Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail, is sponsored by Virginia.org, the home of the state’s official tourism office online. Grand Prize winners will receive a new Henderson Crooked Road series guitar, and four First Prize winners get an all expenses paid trip to one of four Virginia tourist destinations.

Second prize is a new handcrafted guitar from Anderson-Strickland.

Entries can be submitted online until June 29, 2008 and with your entry, you’ll be able to download a free copy of the song Down On The Crooked Road, the first single from the new CD, RIPE by The Dixie Bee-Liners.

The Dixie Bee-Liners are understandably excited to see this week’s release of RIPE, their debut project on Pinecastle.

The band is the brainchild of guitarist/vocalist Brandi Hart and mandolinist Buddy Woodward who got the band started in New York. After completing an all-original short form CD, they moved to southwestern Virginia to pursue the music more aggressively. Both write songs for the band, which also includes Rachel Renee Johnson on fiddle, Sam Morrow on banjo, Jonathan Maness on guitar and Jeremy Darrow on bass.

We caught up with co-band leaders Brandi and Buddy for a tag-team interview yesterday.

Brandi: We are absolutely psyched to see RIPE hit the streets! We have been amazingly blessed to have the opportunity to record for Pinecastle and to work with such talented people on this new project. We’re very proud of the record, and I’m thrilled to say that, so far, we’ve gotten a great reaction from DJ’s and fans alike.

I was curious how things look to them now as compared to when they released their self-produced EP/CD.

Brandi: When we released the EP back in 2005, we were doing a lot of dreaming and planning for the future. All we had back then was faith and determination, but we’ve been very lucky: Lots of doors opened up for the band which have allowed those dreams and plans to become a reality in a relatively short period of time.

Buddy: Having a producer, especially one as good as Bil VornDick, made a big difference. Quite aside from the studio wizardry one expects from him, he has a certain name caché…he doesn’t get involved in a project unless he thinks its good, so people that know or know of him are more likely to listen. Also, we have a steady band now, which makes a big difference in the sound. Sam and Rachel are on RIPE, of course, but we’re really looking forward to bringing Jonathan and Jeremy as well into the studio with us next time. Plus, we’ll have the added advantage of working the new songs out on the road first before we record the next one. (more…)

This Christmas dialog comes from Brandi Hart and Buddy Woodward of The Dixie Bee-Liners. ‘Nuff said…

BUDDY: Enter Mike Wallace…dateline, Christmas season 2005. Location, the capital of country music, New York City. We had just put out our first CD only the month before, after much trial, toil, and tearing of hair.

BRANDI: We tore out each other’s hair…

BUDDY: And knitted it into a sweater. We weren’t sure how our music was going to be received, or how to procede… but we felt cautiously contented.

BRANDI: And relieved! That CD was over a year in the making.

BUDDY: So we were trying to figure out our next move, and then our beloved cat Nipper got really sick and died. I remember it was the first weekend in December — and the first snow of the year.

BRANDI: Nipper was the “Music City Kitty.” He was a brave little guy, and believe it or not, he loved country and bluegrass music.

BUDDY: He sure did. He was my pal for 15 years. He used to try to stick his head in the soundhole of my guitar when I was playing.

BRANDI: Did he ever go for the banjo?

BUDDY: Only to sharpen his claws.

BRANDI: Smart kitty! Anyway, losing Nipper was really tough on both of us, but Buddy took it especially hard. He bottles everything up…he’s the strong, silent type, don’t you know.

BUDDY: Strong like bull…

BRANDI: Dumb like chicken!

BUDDY: OUCH! Anyway, a week or so later, I started to feel feverish and had shooting pains in my side. When it didn’t go away — and in fact got worse — we went to a local clinic, where I was diagnosed with shingles. Shingles is caused by the chicken pox virus: basically, your nerve endings erupt in blisters.

BRANDI: That was all kinds of fun, right Buddy?

BUDDY: The fun was only beginning. I still had a couple weeks of rolling around in bed, clutching my side in agony, to look forward to.

BRANDI: Keep in mind, we were starving artists.

BUDDY: No health insurance.

BRANDI: Don’t you know.

BUDDY: After the vet bills, the doctor bills, the pharmacy bills….

BRANDI: Not to mention CD manufacturing and production costs….

BUDDY: Well, let’s just say we weren’t exactly decorating the Christmas tree with dollar bills.

BRANDI: No, we weren’t. In fact, we didn’t even have a Christmas tree.

BUDDY: Remember what we did?

BRANDI: Yeah, we got a wreath from the mini market and hung it on one of our mic stands, using 1/4 jacks for ornaments.

BUDDY: And an old bedsheet for a tree skirt.

BRANDI: Kind of cool and kind of pathetic at the same time.

BUDDY: As Nigel Tufnel says, “there’s a thin line between ‘clever’ and ’stupid’.”

BRANDI: So anyway, we get Buddy home and back in bed, a bottle of Percodan clutched in his feverish paw…and the first thing our other cat, Fang, does is jump right up on Buddy and start kneading on his skin.

BUDDY: Like the Dr. Seuss book, “Hop On Pop.”

BRANDI: OUCH. I think you hit high C.

BUDDY: I was definitely in the Bobby Osborne range.

BRANDI: In his own cat way, I think Fang was trying to help.

BUDDY: So, like, is there a point to this story?

BRANDI: Well yeah, it was our last Christmas in New York — right before all kinds of wonderful and exciting things started to happen to us as a result of putting out that first CD….

BUDDY: So this is sort of a “mighty oaks from small acorns grow” kind of a story?

BRANDI: Hmm, too trite.

BUDDY: “The darkest hour is just before dawn”?

BRANDI: How about “Shingle Bells”?

BUDDY: OUCH!

The Dixie Bee-Liners have come a long way to this point, where they are anticipating their debut, full-length CD release, Ripe, on Pinecastle Records.

Band principals Brandi Hart, a Lexington, KY native, joined Buddy Woodward in his native New York city where the group got its start.

Brandi worked in marketing and design while Buddy did stage work until they decided that a move to Virginia was the best course to pursue a career in and around bluegrass music.

Woodward had worked previously in a production of a play based on the life and career of The Stanley Brothers at Barter Theater in Abingdon, VA and Hart had a job offer from The Crooked Road - Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail, also based in Abingdon.

They made the move to Virginia in the summer of ‘06, and a year later, were signed to Pinecastle to record a new CD. The result, produced by Bil VornDick and featuring original material written by Woodward and Hart, is due in April of 2008.

Brandi took advantage of her own graphics background and design experience and handled art-direction for the project herself.

“Because of the title track, Ripe, we went for a vintage fruit-crate theme, and we even wrote ‘Grown & packed in Washington Co., VA’ on the CD cover. We are so proud to be living and working along in this beautiful and unbelievably musical part of Virginia.

The illustrations and package design were done by Raymond Smith. He’s famous for his vintage-style Hoboken postcards, but he’s also a wonderful painter. An Englishman named Paul Bevoir also consulted on the package design.”

Also paying homage to their new home in Virginia is the lead off track from Ripe, Down The Crooked Road, which has just been released to bluegrass radio. You can hear the song on The Dixie Bee-Liners’ MySpace page.

“I really hope that this new song brings greater attention to The Crooked Road. Southwestern Virginia has a great wealth of musical history & heritage to offer bluegrass fans. I know once people visit this region and see America’s mountain music traditions alive and well, they’ll want to keep coming back for more”

UPDATE 1:10 p.m.: I neglected to mention that Down The Crooked Road is being offered to radio via two distribution channels. It is featured on the current edition of Prime Cuts Of Bluegrass (Volume 90), and for stations that do not subscribe to Prime Cuts, it is available from RadioSubmit.com.

Stations will have to register and verify their status, but there is no charge for the RadioSubmit service.

Two weeks ago at IBMA John and I, along with Brandi Hart of The Dixie Bee Liners, conducted a seminar, the official title being Establishing & Maintaining an Effective Web Presence. I thought I’d do a recap here of some of the topics we discussed during the seminar, as well as some we didn’t get to but had intended to cover.

The main point we focused on was the difference between merely having a web presence, and having an effective web presence. Now, effective means that it successfully produces the desired results. That means you must have some desired goals in mind to begin with.

As an artist or event producer or DJ or whatever, we all have the same basic goal for our web presence. We want to make a living at bluegrass music and we intend for our web presence to assist us in doing so. From that point on though, the specific goals will differ considerably. That’s your first task, decide what your goals are. Here are a few suggestions.

• networking
• gathering contact info
• maintaining communication with fans
• finding new fans
• selling merchandise or tickets

You get the idea. Depending on your goals, you go about developing your web presence differently, but some constants remain.

One of the main topics of discussion was MySpace. A point we kept trying to make was that MySpace is not YourSpace, it’s TheirSpace. (more…)

Since we’re on the topic of benefit concerts, here’s another one.

The Emory & Henry College Appalachian Center for Community Service is sponsoring a benefit concert this Friday, September 7, 2007. The concert, billed as Playing for the Future, will take place on the lawn at the Emory Memorial Chapel at 6 PM.

The benefit features four bands ranging from bluegrass, to old-time and Americana.

• The Midnight Riders - E&H students
• ETSU Bluegrass Band
• The Dixie Bee Liners
• Volatile Baby

The concert is free to the public with a requested donation of $10. All proceeds will go to three local nonprofits: Appalachian Sustainable Development, Ecumenical Faith in Action and Habitat for Humanity. The efforts of these organizations focus on two areas of public policy programming that correspond to the Appalachian Center’s priorities: hunger and homelessness, and the environment.

For more information visit Playing For The Future.

The Dixie Bee-Liners are the newest member of the Pinecastle Records family, with their first full-length CD project, Ripe, expected early in 2008.

Their debut, self-titled release was a short form CD with 8 tracks, released in 2005. It spent over a year on the Roots Music Report bluegrass chart, cracking the top 10 for more than 2 months.

The band is focused around the singing/songwriting team of Buddy Woodward and Brandi Hart, and Buddy tells us that the new CD will have a new music focus.

“The music is all original, we will be reprising two songs from our first limited-release CD-EP, plus a whole batch of new tunes that Brandi and I wrote over the winter and spring - including one we co-wrote with Blue Highway’s Tim Stafford, and another we co-wrote with producer Bil VornDick. It will be everything fans have come to expect from us, ranging from hard-core bluegrass to a few envelope-pushing diversions along the way. There will be a little something for everybody.”

In addition to Buddy on mandolin and Brandi on guitar, Ripe will feature fellow Bee-Liners Rachel Johnson on fiddle and Sam Morrow on banjo, along with guest appearances from Mark Fain and Andy Leftwich (Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder) on bass and mandolin/fiddle respectively, ex-Grascal David Talbot on banjo, and dobro player Travis Toy from Rascal Flatts.

Buddy tells us that they are currently auditioning bass players and lead guitarists, with an eye towards having a full, regular Bee-Liner contingent for their road work. They are also firming up new management and representation to have all the pieces in place when the new CD hits next year.

He mentioned how exciting it was to jump to a respected label, recording with a top producer.

“We’re thrilled to be on Pinecastle. Its been a long road, and lots of hard work to get here. Along the way we’ve had the help & support of a lot of great people, most especially journalists and DJs around the world, not to mention our friends and fans. We couldn’t have done it without any of ‘em.

Working with Bil VornDick has been a fantastic, mind-blowing experience. After having handled production chores for the band myself up to this point, I’m delighted to hand the reins over to him. I can only compare the experience to the Beatles working with George Martin: he didn’t change what we do, instead he helped to refine and focus what makes us unique, and we’ve all come away from the sessions having learned a lot, as well as having a heck of a lot of fun…he’s a producer after my own heart.

I can’t wait for everybody to hear the new CD, its going to be a corker!”

The Dixie Bee-Liners have a nice feature up on Gibson’s web site. It gives an overview of the band - and their story of meeting and starting a bluegrass band in New York, and then moving to Virginia - along with a photo of Brandi Hart and Buddy Woodward touring the Gibson custom shop.

It also mentions their upcoming CD, now nearly completed, and the addition to the band of Rachel Renee Johnson on fiddle, Sam Morrow on banjo, Claiborne Woodall on lead guitar and Andy Blevins on upright bass.

Gibson is also sponsoring a blog for The Dixie Bee-Liners, which you can find on the Gibson site as well.

The Dixie Bee-Liners could be seen as an anomaly in the rapidly expanding world of bluegrass and acoustic music - a male/female, singer/songwriter duo playing Appalachian-inflected original music with their band, originally from a base in New York City.

On second thought, maybe there isn’t much of an anomaly at all, as artists based in in every corner of the globe seek to claim, and redefine, the music that originated in the southeastern mountain regions of the United States. Recent entrants have included The Earl Brothers, playing a minimalistic sort of mountain string music from CA, and G2, a bluegrass band in Sweden whose music sounds very much like what I encounter here in southwestern VA.

The Bee-Liners are Brandi Hart and Buddy Woodward, both accomplished bluegrass players, singers and songwriters. While Buddy is a New Yorker, Brandi hails from the Bluegrass State, growing up in Lexington, KY. Brandi will be a showcase songwriter at IBMA’s World of Bluegrass this fall, and Buddy will be appearing before audiences throughout the south this fall reprising his multiple roles in the touring show for Man Of Constant Sorrow: The Story of the Stanley Brothers, originally staged at The Barter Theater in Abingdon, VA.

Their debut release was a self-titled EP CD containing 8 songs, was widely praised by critics, with the “culture clash” between the Appalachians and the Big Apple a major part of their sound. It spent six weeks in the Top Ten on the Roots Music Report bluegrass chart after its release. (more…)