Casey Henry has agreed to send us occasional updates from The American Revival Tour, where she is performing with Dixie Bee-Liners. Also on the tour are Sierra Hull & Highway 111 and headliners Uncle Earl.

Here is Casey’s report.

Do you remember the song that Madeline Kahn sings in Blazing Saddles: I’m Tired? It has the bit about “coming and going and going and coming and,” well, I’ll stop right there. But if I had to pick a theme song for the last few days of this tour, that would be it. It seems like FOREVER since I wrote my last post about the tour, but it was only a week and a half ago!

Since then we’ve been to Baton Rouge, Houston, Fayetteville, AR, Springfield, MO, Bowling Green, KY, and Knoxville, TN. We’ve had two computer crashes (Sierra Hull’s and KC Groves), one lost wallet (Sierra’s), one minor van repair (when Cory Walker’s computer blew one of their van’s fuses), and one case of laryngitis (Kristin Andressean), but no major disasters.

There have been some great moments as well, like when Uncle Earl pulled together and rearranged all their songs when Kristin couldn’t sing (the show must go on…). Uncle Earl also wrote and recorded a theme song for the daily tour blog (which is over on the Murphy Method Blog). They even sang it on stage one night!

At a coffeeshop called Coffee and Chocolate in downtown Knoxville we discovered that they had Kopi Luwak, a kind of coffee beans harvested from the forest floor in Sumatra after having been eaten and excreted by cat-like creatures called Luwaks. They roast the beans just like regular coffee, but they are highly prized for their unique flavor. We’ve been talking about this kind of coffee for years and we could not pass up the opportunity to try it. A two ounce package cost us $60 and we split it eight ways. The coffee (which they brewed in a french press) was very good. It had a very earthy flavor. But… It was so not worth paying $480 a pound.

Oftentimes on tour the best moments occur serendipitously. In Bowling Green Jeremy Darrow and I were walking around near the theater and we ran across a micro-distillery called Corsair. Their door was open, so we went in, met one of the owners, and he gave us an impromptu tasting and a little history of their business. A great find.

In Knoxville I ran across Morelock Music, which which was right around the corner from The Square Room, where we played. Matt Morelock has put together a charming store that combines instruments, LPs, consignment vintage clothing, and music lessons. This huge banjo, which reached from floor to ceiling, made me feel right at home.

In Arkansas we drove right by Janet Davis Music. Unfortunately it was on a Sunday, and they were closed, but one of the guys who worked there had come to the show the night before and offered to let us in if we wanted to stop by anyway. We didn’t have time, but I’ve always wanted to see her store.

Adam Steffey and his wife Tina came to the show in Knoxville. I’m glad I didn’t know that until after our set or else I would have been more nervous.

We have three more shows to go on our tour. When it’s over it will be one of those sad/glad moments: sad for such a great time to come to an end, but very glad to be going home!

This morning (11/13), Buddy Woodward of Dixie Bee-Liners will be with Carol Beaugard on WFDU. They will talk about the new Bee-Liners CD, Susanville, and The American Revival Tour they are currently working along with Sierra Hull and Uncle Earl.

WFDU broadcasts at 89.1 FM in NYC, and online via live streaming at www.wfdu.fm. The show, Lonesome Pine RFD, airs from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon (EST), and Buddy’s interview will air at 11:00. If you miss it live, look in the audio archives where it will reside for the next two weeks.

Carol also mentioned a show she did yesterday with Ned Luberecki, who broadcasts for Bluegrass Junction, the all-bluegrass channel for Sirius-XM. It can also be accessed in the archives.

“We spoke of his early work with the Paul Adkins Band. He updated us on Paul – who apparently worked for a while as a golf pro and then designing kitchens. Ned emailed him very recently and learned that Paul is back to playing music with a few gigs around the Maryland area and we both commented how wonderful it would be to see Paul back in performance.

Ned spoke at length about his work as a broadcaster on Sirius and credited his bandleader, Chris Jones for first recommending him to Sirius launching a new career so ‘he could support his banjo habit.’  We also played a couple of tracks that Ned co-wrote on the new album for Chris Jones and the Nightdrivers’ Cloud of Dust.

We also discussed his work producing the IBMA Awards show with Cindy Baucom at the Ryman Auditorium, as well as what an honor it was to broadcast the Awards Show this past year, in the same booth where Eddie Stubbs and other broadcast legends have stood.”

At noon, April Verch and her band will perform live on Blue Plate Special, broadcast on WDVX from Knoxville. We reviewed her terrfic new CD, Steal The Blue, earlier this year.

You can catch the show over the air at 102.9 in and around Knoxville, or online at WDVX.com.

Later this evening, you can hear Ricky Skaggs, The Whites and Mike Snider on The Grand Ole Opry. Of course, The Opry is carried live on WSM from Nashville, which is also simulcast live online. The show airs from 8:00-10:00 p.m. on Friday nights.

Then after Saturday’s (11/14) Opry (where The Whites and Jesse McReynolds will perform), bluegrass legend Curly Seckler will make a rare live appearance on The Ernest Tubb Midnite Jamboree from The Texas Troubadour Theater in Nashville, also broadcast on WSM.

Jesse McReynolds will host the Tubb show, and Curly is expected to sing a couple of songs with The Virginia Boys, and probably at least one with Jesse.

It is always a treat to hear Curly sing, who did as much as anyone to define bluegrass tenor singing during his tenure with both Flatt & Scruggs and Lester Flatt & The Nashville Grass.

The second week of the American Revival Tour (The Dixie Bee-Liners, Sierra Hull and Highway 111, and Uncle Earl) started in the cute, cute little town of Newberry, SC. Since we had driven down from Virginia on Tuesday, we had all Wednesday morning before the show to do whatever we wanted. Hiking was what we Bee-Liners wanted to do, so we Googled a hiking spot and took off for Lynch’s Woods at the crack of dawn. (It’s funny how nine o’clock can feel like the crack of dawn…) After a refreshing couple of hours stomping through the woods in the crisp fall air we all felt refreshed and renewed.

The hotel in Newberry is directly across the street from the Opera House, and I cannot express how awesome it is to be able to walk from one to the other. We carried our instruments across the street, soundchecked, then came back to our rooms to change, so we didn’t have to haul all our suitcases into the dressing rooms. The Opera House is really old, has been beautifully renovated, and is the only theater I’ve ever seen that has individual chairs for the side seating. Someone commented, “It looks like a president could be shot here,” somewhat morbidly referring to its resemblance to Ford’s Theater. The crowd was disappointingly small, but it was a Wednesday night, after all.

I’m getting the feeling that this tour is a well-kept secret. Those who know about it and come just love it, but not that many people know! I talked to a local banjo-player friend of mine after we played the Orange Peel in Asheville and she said she only heard about the show two or three days before, when it’s been booked for months!

While on tour there are always unexpected things that need to be taken care of, errands that need to be run, fires that need to be put out (metaphorically speaking!). Sierra experienced a computer crash leaving her out of touch for a few days, and seriously hampering her doing her school work while on the road. She and her manager Claire Armbruster took off early one morning so that they could stop by a Mac store before load-in time. Her computer required a new hard drive, which the warranty covered, but it’s back up and running.

Monday night’s show got moved from the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta to the much smaller Red Light Café. When we heard we were a bit disappointed to be in such a small venue. But as it turned out, I think it was a good move. The Red Light was full of people, but the same number of folks spread out in theater seating would have looked like fewer and wouldn’t have created the same sense of energy. There were certainly disadvantages, like no dressing rooms and no backstage area, but the advantages outweighed them. And it was fun trying to squeeze all sixteen people on the small stage for the finale.

We’re just over the half-way point for the tour and, so far, we’re still going strong. We were all sad to say goodbye to Ron Block, whose last show was in Atlanta. Sierra’s regular banjo player Cory Walker will be taking over from here on out (except that Ron will be back for the Knoxville gig on Nov. 18th). You can read daily tour blogs over on the Murphy Method blog.

In case you want to catch the show, here are the remaining dates:

• Wednesday, Nov. 11th – Baton Rouge, LA – Manship Theater
• Thursday, Nov. 12th – The Woodlands, TX – Dosey Doe Coffee House
• Saturday, Nov. 14th – Fayetteville, AR – Baum Walker Hall Walton Arts Center
• Sunday, Nov. 15th – Springfield, MO – JK Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts @ MSU
• Tuesday, Nov. 17th – Bowling Green, KY – Capitol Arts Center @ WKU
• Wednesday, Nov. 18th – Knoxville, TN – The Square Room
• Friday, Nov. 20th – Glen Ellyn, IL – McAninch Arts Center, Mainstage
• Saturday, Nov. 21st – Hamilton, OH – Parrish Auditorium @ Miami University
• Sunday, Nov. 22nd – Pittsburgh, PA – Byham Theater

Casey Henry has agreed to send us occasional updates from The American Revival Tour, where she is performing with Dixie Bee-Liners. Also on the tour are Sierra Hull & Highway 111 and headliners Uncle Earl.

Here is Casey’s report.

The arrival of November saw The Dixie Bee-Liners, Uncle Earl, and Sierra Hull and Highway 111 burning up the roads of the southeast in the first week of our much anticipated tour – American Revival: Celebrating the New Stars of American Roots Music.

When three bands of young-ish people get to travel together for four weeks, hi jinx will ensue. We have a long-running tour game involving sausage, but I’ll leave that for another time. Our most fun show, by far, was Halloween at the American Theater in Hampton, VA. Buddy Woodward, Bee-Liner mandolin player, is great at zombie makeup and we took full advantage of his talents. He also helped out Sierra’s band, giving fiddler Christian Ward a slash across the face, bassist Jacob Eller a bullet hole in the head, and transforming guitarist Clay Hess into a very convincing wolf-man. Ron Block went as Ron Howard—no makeup needed! Uncle Earl was four bad witches and one good witch.

Punch Brothers Chris “Critter” Eldridge and Noam Pikelny came for the night’s show. Critter dressed as a Christmas party guest, complete with battery-powered lights. Noam borrowed a spare witch hat and grey wig from Uncle Earl. They joined the Earl girls on stage to sing Happy Birthday to their fiddler, Stephanie “Pumpkin” Coleman, who turned 24.

Our post-show Halloween celebration took place at a little martini bar down the street—Six—where we had tapas and cocktails and played with the motorized witch hat KC Groves had found at the grocery store. It played Ding, Dong, The Witch Is Dead, and wagged its bell-adorned, pointed tip merrily back and forth.

Monday night we played at the Birchmere in Alexandria, a legendary bluegrass venue. For most of the Bee-Liners it was the first time we’d played there and we were honored to get to take the stage where the Seldom Scene ruled for so long. I actually had my fifteenth birthday party at the Birchmere. My parents took me and a group of my friends to see the Johnson Mountain Boys play. My friend Nancy Peterson, who came to the show last night, was at that party. She said it was like coming full circle, getting to see me play on that same stage.

Today is a travel day—more than 500 miles down to South Carolina. The Bee-Liners are stopping by WAMU this morning to play a little in-studio music and then hitting the road.

For more pictures and anecdotes, see Sierra Hull’s blog. I feel this must be the most-blogged-about bluegrass tour ever!

Casey Henry has agreed to send us occasional updates from The American Revival Tour, where she is performing with Dixie Bee-Liners. Also on the tour are Sierra Hull & Highway 111 and headliners Uncle Earl.

Here is Casey’s first report.

I’m composing this email while backstage at the Birchmere, waiting for our sound check. Week 2 of the American Revival Tour is about to commence, starting with gigs in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia – and I’d just like to point out that some of them are not that far from Charlotte and Waxhaw (hint, hint).

• Wed. Nov. 4th – Newberry, SC – Newberry Opera House – 7:30 p.m.
• Thurs. Nov. 5th – Morganton, NC – Municipal Auditorium (CoMMA) – 7:30 p.m.
• Fri. Nov. 6th – Greensboro, NC – Carolina Theater – 8:00 p.m.
• Sun. Nov. 8th – Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel – 8:00 p.m.
• Mon. Nov 9th – Atlanta, GA – Red Light Cafe – 7:30 p.m. —NOTE—This show was originally supposed to be at the Variety Playhouse and has been MOVED!! If you’ve already bought tickets, they’re still good!!!!! (Though the Red Light Cafe website hasn’t been updated yet.)

Our complete tour schedule can be found on The Dixie Bee-Liners website.

If you want to see how the tour is going so far, I’ve been blogging every day over on The Murphy Method blog. And I must say, we had some pretty awesome halloween costumes.

Hope to see some of y’all at the shows!

Billed as The American Revival Tour - Celebrating The New Stars Of American Roots Music, this road show will include 19 shows in 25 days, each with performances from Dixie Bee-Liners, Sierra Hull & Highway 111, and Uncle Earl.

The tour starts in Raleigh, NC on October 29 and wanders through NC, VA, SC and GA until the second week on November, when they head down to Louisiana and Texas. After a swing through the middle of the country, the road show concludes in Pittsburgh on November 22.

All three bands are female fronted – at minimum. Uncle Earl is comprised of five talented women, Dixie Bee-Liners is half-and-half, and Sierra Hull manages a quartet of fellas in her band.

We asked Tobias Tumarkin, who is producing this tour for Columbia Artists Management, whether they had planned to make this a spotlight for the ladies from the start.

“We didn’t plan for it to work out that way, but when it looked like that was the way it was headed, we liked it, and even considered making a reference to that in the title before deciding to go with American Revival.

What we wanted was to find groups that were up and coming and whom we felt would do a great job in appealing to theatre crowds who are often different than fans that you would usually find at Bluegrass Festivals. We wanted to expand the audiences of the band and introduce great new bands to audiences that might not already know these groups.

In coming up with the specific bands we worked closely with Michael Jaworek of the Birchmere. Michael has a vast knowledge of bands from all over the country and acted as an advisor and helped us reach out to make contact with the bands we wanted to work with.”

Uncle Earl will be headlining the show, and KC Groves, who plays guitar, mandolin and bass with the group, is raring to go.

“We’ve so excited be a part of this series and hope that we can, by playing to some new audiences, spread the joy that we know bluegrass and old time music can bring.”

Brandi Hart of Dixie Bee-Liners explained how they came to be a part of this tour…

“We were selected for the American Revival tour after a representative from Columbia Artists Management saw our official showcase at World of Bluegrass 2008.  Of course, we were thrilled to be chosen, and we immediately began working with Pinecastle Records to fast-track the release of Susanville. We are always thinking 2-3 albums ahead, and we’d been writing Susanville for about five years. However, when the CD release was accelerated to coincide with American Revival, we jumped into high gear.

We’ve also been saving back a special bonus track for the American Revival tour. For the time being, this track will only be available to American Revival concertgoers who participate in our ‘Textual Activity’ promotion. Fans should bring their cell phones to shows (in silent mode, please!) and be prepared to get textual with The Dixie Bee-Liners this fall. More information is coming soon at www.dixiebeeliners.com!”

Susanville will be released on November 3, and audio samples from all 19 tracks can be heard online. It’s a concept album about life on the road, with a very creative packaging theme.

You can find all the details about The American Revival Tour online as well.

It will be the first from their upcoming Susanville CD, due for release later this month on Pinecastle Record.

Brandi filled me in on this evening’s plans…

“There will be a concert scene and an outdoor campfire jam scene tonight.

We’re inviting our friends & fans to join us… just simply being themselves and having fun listening to the music. We even have fans driving over from Virginia to make an appearance.  It’s going to be a really great time, and everyone is welcome.

The director simply asks that folks arrive between 6:30-7:30 p.m. (DCT) and avoid wearing logos.  Also, he requests that everyone please wear dark colors (blacks, greys, reds, dark blues).  We would suggest that folks wear layers because it will be cold tonight!”

Brandi also sent along a few photos of the early excitement…

This one features Katy Daley interviewing Rachel Renee Johnson of the Dixie Bee-liners.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Buddy Woodward, mandolinist and co-manager of the group, says that Davis only recently popped up on their radar.

“We met Robin a few months ago when he was living in Nashville. Jeremy our bass player ran into him somewhere and suggested we keep an eye on him.”

Maness is now playing mandolin with The Watkins Family.

Casey Henry has also joined the Bee-Liners on banjo. Casey has performed with a number of bluegrass groups, and toured recently with Michael Martin Murphey. She is a featured instructor on several videos for The Murphy Method, and is a regular columnist for Banjo NewsLetter.

Bee-Liner Brandi Hart tells us that…

“Casey is a Scruggs-style player who learned to play banjo at her mother’s knee.  A well-respected member of the bluegrass community, Casey has a knack for writing nifty instrumentals.”

The band now consists of Brandi Hart on guitar and lead vocals, Buddy Woodward on mandolin, and Rachel Renee Johnson on fiddle, with Davis on guitar and Henry on banjo. Robin and Buddy are now officially outnumbered in the band.

You can find Dixie Bee-Liner fall tour dates on the band’s web site.

UPDATE 9/5: Oops! Buddy Woodward just sent this via a post comment…

Hey guys, thanks so much for the press, but you forgot to mention our awesome bassplayer Jeremy Darrow…which means the boys & the girls are evenly matched in the Bee-Liners, three of each, enough for an Intramural dodgeball team.

Guitarist and lead vocalist Brandi Hart tells us that the concepts for the videos are just now taking shape, and that they have already chosen the directors who will work with them on the shoots. Both are experienced film and theater directors who have the band’s full confidence, and have worked extensively with State Theatre of Virginia, the Barter Theatre.

“Rick McVey (who directed the acclaimed Civil War film Freedom, which was scored by The Dixie Bee-Liners) will be directing a video of our single Heavy. In addition to his work on Freedom, McVey edited The Dixie Bee-Liners’ video for Down on the Crooked Road.

Also, John Hardy (who is by no means a desperate little man) will be directing a video of the dark and brooding single Restless. Hardy directed DBL mandolinist Buddy Woodward in Barter Theatre’s 2008 production of The Road Where It Curves Away, as well as Barter’s 2005 production of Man of Constant Sorrow: The Story of The Stanley Brothers. Buddy had this to say about working under Hardy’s direction: ‘The earth shifted on its axis for me. It made me rethink everything I thought I knew about performing.’

Needless to say, we are very excited about what is to come for The Dixie Bee-Liners. These videos will be a thrilling performance experience for the band, and we can’t wait to get to work on them!”

Here’s a look at that earlier video that was directed by Rick McVey, from the Bee-Liners’ 2008 release, Ripe.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Both audio and video from the show can be found on the Folk Alley page at NPR.org. The full 25 minute audio from their visit can be heard, which includes an interview with the band and a number of live performances of songs from their current Pinecastle CD, Ripe.

Two video clips are there as well, for their songs Yellow-Haired Girl and Lord Lay Down My Ball & Chain.

Find all the fun online at NPR.org.

The Bee-Liners have dubbed their June show dates as the Textual Activity Tour, and will post a special buzzword online each day. The first five fans who text in the buzzword will get free passes to the next show on the tour, and be entered to win a free Blackberry as well.

Bee-Liner Brandi Hart explains how the whole thing got started…

“We’re very excited about the Textual Activity Tour, and we encourage bluegrass fans from all over the U.S. to participate.  The idea for the tour actually started at an in-studio appearance on Nashville Public Radio with Dave Higgs.  We had just finished recording, and our fiddler, Rachel Johnson, was text-messaging on her cell-phone.  Then our guitarist, Jonathan Maness, made a joke about being ‘textually active.’ Later on, I thought about doing a ‘Textual Activity’ tour… and the rest, as they say, is history.

I wanted the tour to be something which all of our fans could participate in — even if they didn’t live where we were touring.  With the text-in promotion, fans anywhere in the U.S. can text-message us to be entered to win the Grand Prize, a Free BlackBerry¬Æ Pearl 8130TM smartphone. The first five fans to text in (who hopefully live within driving distance) will be awarded free tickets to the following day’s show, plus a VIP concert badge and free gift.  The V.I.P. winners must attend the show to collect their prizes, however.”

You can see all the contest details on the band’s web site, where the daily buzzword will also be posted. They will post the secret word on MySpace, Face Book and Twitter as well.

Brandi also mentioned that their next CD, Susanville, is about to be mastered, and that she is finishing up the artwork now.

“It’s coming along nicely, and we can’t wait to get it out into the world!”

The new project with be titled Susanville, and will once again be recorded with Bil VornDick producing.

Brandi explained the idea behind the title…

“Susanville is the first of several bluegrass concept records we’ve been planning. Buddy and I were performing in California a few years ago, and I saw the town of Susanville on a map. We decided it would make a good song title because destinations can be very symbolic. Susanville is a town, but it’s also a place in time. It can be a woman, a but it’s also a memory. It represents all the things people miss about their youth — things that probably never existed the way we remember them.

The CD will be all about journeys and destinations.  Imagine being able to look down into every car on the highway and tell the stories of the people inside. That’s what Susanville will be like.”

Susanville is expected in the fall of 2009.

At 1:00 p.m. (EDT), Carrie Hassler will be interviewed on WorldWideBluegrass.com. Carrie will join WWB host Gracie Muldoon to talk about her latest CD, CHHR2, and what she and her band, Hard Rain, are up to heading into the IBMA convention at the end of this month.

Catch the live WWB stream online at worldwidebluegrass.com.

Then at 5:00 p.m. (EDT), The Dixie Be-Liners will be performing live on WNCW FM. They will be on the Studio B program, and highlight material from their latest CD, Ripe.

WNCW broadcasts on several FM frequencies in NW North Carolina, and streams their signal online at wncw.org.

Tonight’s Friday Opry also has some bluegrass on tap. Both Cherryholmes and Rhonda Vincent are scheduled – Cherryholmes between 9:00-9:30, and Rhonda in the final segment between 10:30-11:00. All times eastern.

Rhonda is set to appear during the same segment as country crooner Gene Watson, fueling speculation that they may perform their duet version of Together Again, from Watson’s current CD, Matters Of The Heart.

The Grand Ole Opry is carried over the air at WSM 650 AM, broadcasting from Nashville, on XM channel 11 (XM Nashville), or via live streaming at wsmonline.com.

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.

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 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 cach?©…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.

This CD has been available to radio for some time, with a single, Down On The Crooked Road, promoted via Prime Cuts of Bluegrass. It spent nine weeks in the #1 position on the Roots Music Report bluegrass chart, and reached the top of the Bluegrass Music Profiles chart as well.

Brandi: The response from radio has been overwhelming! We were just blown away by the positive feedback. We received a great note from one radio station who started off playing one cut from RIPE because they liked the album cover… but then they ended up spinning the entire album because people kept asking for more!

I’ve got to tell you that not a day goes by that we’re not grateful for all the interest we’ve had in the album. We feel very fortunate that folks have taken a shine to the project.

Lastly, I asked what they saw as having been available to them working with a label as opposed to going it alone?

Brandi: First, let me say that Pinecastle has been wonderful to work with. They’ve given us unlimited creative freedom, which is critical for any artist who’s writing and performing their own material. Beyond that, being on a label has provided many great advantages to “going it alone” as an indie artist: publicity and marketing support, broader distribution, business advice, and so much more! I think it also helps to grow the band’s reputation to see that a record label is willing to invest its resources in a particular artist. For emerging artists like The Dixie Bee-Liners, it has worked almost like a “seal of approval.” We’ve had several significant career opportunities that have developed precisely because of that relationship with our record label. We’ll always be grateful that Pinecastle was willing to take a chance on us, and we work hard every single day to make good on their investment in our career.

Buddy: We still need a manager, though! There’s just so much stuff coming at us that we can’t keep on top of it all. I’m not complaining; years ago we used to say to each other, “we should have such problems.” Now we do, and we’re very grateful.

Audio samples from RIPE can be found on The Bee-Liners’ MySpace page, on the Pinecastle site and in iTunes.

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!

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.

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. What I mean is that you should not use MySpace as your primary website. It is a good road sign to direct people out of that network and to your actual site. John made a good point that if you don’t understand MySpace, you should ask one of your children or grandchildren for help. If you are running a business you might look into obtaining an intern from a local college to do your MySpace work for you. These young people will know how to work that network and will enjoy doing so for you.

MySpace can be good for building a network of people that you then direct to you main website to accomplish your other goals, like selling merchandise or festival tickets.

YouTube is another site that can be used for the same purpose. Uploading promotional videos of your band or festival can be a great way to let people get a look at you without having to travel.

A good bit of discussion centered around the idea of branding. Branding simply means that everything you do, from your .com website, your MySpace page, your YouTube clips, your printed material and promotional items, all reinforce your brand. Your brand is your band or festival name, your logo, whatever it is that people remember you by. Brandi was key to this discussion, as the primary mover behind The Dixie Bee Liners effective use of a branding strategy. We took a look at their website, and at some printed material and promo items she brought for show and tell. This is really something you should pay attention to, it’s important.

Another topic was graphic design and usability. We discussed how the average website visit is only 30 seconds. If a site is not pleasing to the eye and easy to get around, the surfer moves on. You should definitely spend some time working on your site to make sure it navigates easily and isn’t distracting visually. Study websites that you find easy to use and pleasant to look at, copy their ideas. Depending on your situation you may want to consult with an professional on the design of your site.

We also discussed the technical aspects of constructing a website. Tools we mentioned were FrontPage (don’t use it) and Dreamweaver (do use it). There are several free ones out there as well. The real decision you are faced with is knowing when you have reached the limits of your knowledge, time, and capability and need to hire a professional. You can teach yourself a great deal about html and building websites by doing online research into the topic. Brandi mentioned a site she used called htmlgoodies.com. This site is just one of many.

You may also want to visit validator.w3.org to check your site and make sure your code is valid html. I just checked The Bluegrass Blog, ouch! we have 152 errors at present. It’s always changing though since we update with new content each day. It’s hard to keep up with.

That brings us to the next topic which is content and updates. We stressed the importance of frequent updates and valuable content. If a visitor comes to your site for a second visit and nothing has changed, it will be a while before they return. Good ways to serve up content include: blogs, contests, giveaways, news, etc.

The most important aspect of all marketing is remark-ability. You need to be remarkable. If you are a band and you are trying to market yourself, you need to make sure you are playing music worth a listener’s time. If you’re not, they won’t visit repeatedly, no matter how cool your site is. The same goes for whatever it is you are trying to market online.

That about sums it up. There was a question and answer time, but I can’t remember all the questions that were asked at this point. IBMA did record the seminar and it will be available for purchase from the organization at some point in the near future. All of the seminars are recorded each year and made available on CD.