Eddie Adcock will be the featured guest on Friday morning’s (5/23) edition of Lonesome Pine RFD on WFDU-FM, in New Jersey. He will join host Carol Beaugard at 11:15 a.m. (EDT) to talk about the new CD from The Country Gentlemen Reunion Band.

Harry Grant from The Wind Gap Bluegrass Festival in Pennsylvania will be on hand as well for Friday’s show. He is bringing live recordings from past fests, as well as his many backstage stories and anecdotes from years in bluegrass music.

Lonesome Pine RFD is broadcast from 9:00 a.m. to noon on 89.1 FM in the NYC area, and streamed live online at WFDU.fm. It will also be recorded for a later broadcast on WAMU’s Bluegrass Country.

Recently we reported news of the release of the Country Gentlemen Reunion Band CD - Adcock, Gaudreau, Waller & Gray.

At the time the fledgling link-up didn’t have a website. It does now! Go to the new website to see the liner notes, bios, and more about the CD - plus sound clips.

As an aside, Martha Adcock told me how the name RadioTherapy Records was chosen. I thought I would share the thought process involved …

“In thinking of a name for our own record label, I thought it was best to check the www.allrecordlabels.com site to see if any of our choices had been taken, to avoid the possible confusion of our label having the same name as another. Lo and behold, all the ones we had chosen were already in use; I have a whole page of them that I systematically checked off on the list. So I resorted to the dictionary for inspiration. I like alliteration, so the R’s were consulted first; and when I came upon the word ‘radiotherapy,’ meaning ‘therapy effected through the use of radiation (the definition of the term ‘radiation’ includes sound waves) I thought it would do very well to call our label RadioTherapy Records — because of course music is good for you!”

Great story, isn’t it?

The Country Gentlemen Reunion Band has announced the release of their self-titled CD on RadioTherapy Records, a new label established by Martha and Eddie Adcock.

The Country Gentlemen Reunion Band features Randy Waller, son of Charlie Waller, who, like his father, sings lead and plays guitar; Eddie Adcock (banjo, lead and baritone vocals), Tom Gray (upright bass, bass and baritone vocals) and Jimmy Gaudreau (mandolin, lead and tenor vocals). They have been making several personal appearances, most notably to mark the 50th anniversary, last year, of the formation of the original Country Gentlemen.

Adcock, Gaudreau, Waller & Gray - The Country Gentlemen Reunion Band (RTR-CD-001) has 13 tracks, four of which, including the opening song Widow Of The Glade, are by the late lamented Randall Hylton. Remember the Country Gentlemen’s other ghost stories? Well, this is a modern counterpart to Bringing Mary Home. Older songs to get the Country Gentlemen treatment include I Hope You Have Learned, Grave In The Valley, Little Box Of Pine, Sundown And Sorrow and Some Old Day.

Other notable numbers are White Line Fever from Merle Haggard, Sweet Georgia Brown and a jazzy new instrumental composed by Gaudreau, El Doggo.

Co-producer Martha Adcock comments …..

“After Monroe, if anyone can be said to have turned bluegrass in a new direction, it was without a doubt the ‘Classic’ Country Gentlemen: John Duffey, Charlie Waller, Eddie Adcock and Tom Gray. No one else did as much to re-popularize and reinvigorate the genre, taking it to city-folk audiences, and onto hip college campuses, to large theaters and coffeehouses, and eventually to Carnegie Hall. Their musical creativity, individually and synergistically, coupled with their hip irreverence and loose attitude onstage, was a quantum leap from the past, and it brought about a sea change in bluegrass, a dramatic expansion of the genre.” (more…)

March 1, 2007 is the last date to take advantage of the early registration discount for the 2007 Smoky Mountain Banjo Academy. The event, held each spring near Gatlinburg, TN (hosted by Jack Hatfield), is scheduled this year from April 20-22. A $50 discount is offered for early registration.

Over the course of 3 days, more than 16 banjo instructors will conduct dozens of small classes and demonstrations, arranged by skill level, and offered for both old time and bluegrass banjo styles. There is also a faculty concert, a student banjo competition and plenty of organized and free-form jamming.

The faculty for SMBA ‘07 is rich with well known players and teachers: Eddie Adcock, Jason Bales, Dave Ball, Gary Davis, Janet Davis, Jack Hatfield, Bill Keith, Andy King, John Lawless, Randal Morton, James McKinney, Tom Nechville, Ken Perlman, Butch Robins, Rick Sampson and Snuffy Smith.

The name is apt, as everything takes place at the Wa-Floy Retreat, in the heart of The Smokies.

Find all the pertinent faculty, schedule and registration details on the SMBA web site.

Each year, the Roanoke Bluegrass Weekend holds a faculty concert on the Saturday night of their three day instructional event. It is the only part of the weekend which is open to the general public (not registered to attend the 3 day workshop) and is always a highlight, both for the students and the local bluegrass community.

The concert will be held this year on Saturday, November 11 at 7:30 at the Holiday Inn Roanoke, the site for all the Roanoke Bluegrass Weekend activities.

The format is a loose, relaxed jam-like setting, where the many artists are grouped in a variety of configurations - either solo, duo or in groups - with a good mix of vocal and instrumental music. Both the performers and the audience always enjoy the fun, “no pressure” environment as well as the chance to witness or be a part something as potentially spontaneous as this.

The musicians will sometimes not even choose the song they will perform until a few minutes before they go on stage, a sign both of their high level of skill and professionalism, and the sort of fun they have with this show.

Performing on the RBW faculty concert this year are Eddie Adcock, George Shuffler, Roland White, Craig Smith, Don Rigsby, BlueRidge, Jack Lawrence, Bull Harman, Herschel Sizemore, David McLaughlin, Acoustic Endeavors and many others - plus a number of unannounced surprise guests.

Maps and driving directions can be found on the Roanoke Bluegrass Weekend web site.

Information on the 2006 Roanoke Bluegrass Weekend is now available on the RBW web site. The event will be held November 10-12 in Roanoke, VA and offers three days of intensive instruction in the fine points of playing bluegrass music.

This year’s faculty includes the members of BlueRidge, along with first time instructors Eddie Adcock and George Shuffler, plus returning favorites Kenny Baker, Jack Lawrence, Allen Shelton and Roland White.

The biggest news for RBW ‘06 is the inclusion this year of classes and workshops in bluegrass singing. Both individual vocal tips and workshop instruction in bluegrass harmony will be offered throughout the weekend, spearheaded by noted singer and vocal instructor Don Rigsby.

The 2006 faculty includes both legendary bluegrass pioneers and actively touring artists.

Once again, Gibson Original Acoustic Instruments will be donating a new instrument to be offered in a raffle to fund the RBW Scholarship for deserving young bluegrass students. Four full scholarships (tuition and accommodations) will be awarded to outstanding bluegrass musicians between the ages of 13-24, selected based on demonstrated ability through an application process.

This year, a new RB-250 banjo will be raffled, with chances to win sold at $10. Find all the details about the raffle and the scholarship on the RBW site.

Keeper Of The Flame is the title of the new CD from Randy Waller & The Country Gentlemen - the first release by The Gentlemen since the passing of legendary founder and vocalist, Charlie Waller, whose son Randy is now leading the band. The new CD, now available from Randy’s web site, features the current edition of The Country Gentlemen, (Mark Delaney, David Kirk and Gary Creed), plus guest artists like Mike Auldridge, Ricky Simpkins, Heather Berry and others.

Liner notes for the new CD were provided by Joe Bonsall, long time member of The Oak Ridge Boys, and a newly serious student of the five string banjo.

“Randy Waller and the Country Gentlemen are a GREAT Bluegrass Band and this is a GREAT CD! These guys can pick it clean on every instrument and their singing and harmonies and blends are impeccable. It also becomes very clear on this project that Randy Waller is one of the great lead voices singing today!”

“I love this CD and will be listening to it a lot this year!”

Our friend Dave Roye reports that Randy announced a few days ago that The Country Gentlemen Reunion Band (consisting of Jimmy Gaudreau, Eddie Adcock, and Tom Gray) are set to go into the studio the last week in March to produce a new recording project. They will also be doing a limited number of shows with the Reunion Band, which can be found on Randy’s web site, along with the shows for Randy Waller & The Country Gentlemen.

Pioneering bluegrass banjo player Eddie Adcock has been selected for induction at the 31st Annual Bill Monroe Hall of Fame & Uncle Pen Days Festival, held September 21-24, 2005 at the Bill Monroe Memorial Park in Bean Blossom, IN. Serious students of the five string banjo - and the history of bluegrass banjo - regard Eddie’s contributions to the instrument as huge, and involving a major departure in style and technique from the playing of Earl Scruggs and Don Reno, whose innovations had largely dominated the study of the banjo prior to Eddie’s arrival in the 1960s.

Adcock started his musical career in the early 1950s, working with Smokey Graves & His Blue Star Boys. His regular radio appearances with the Graves show brought him to the attention of a number of other bluegrass artists, and Eddie soon found himself working with such well known performers as Bill Harrell and Mac Wiseman. After a very brief stint as a member of Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys in 1957-58, Eddie was contacted by John Duffey and Charlie Waller about their idea to form a new group, one now celebrated as The Country Gentlemen.

He remained as a member of the Gentlemen until the late ’60s when he left to pursue his own musical direction, a move that sparked such acts as Second Generation (II Generation), Talk Of The Town and Eddie & Martha Adcock where both his ground breaking banjo (and guitar) playing and his clever stage humor were brought to the attention of successive generations of bluegrass fans.

It may be hard for ears new to bluegrass music in this century to recognize the impact of Eddie’s unique banjo style when he first came to prominence in the 1960s. What may sound almost mainstream now was quite startlingly fresh at the time, and his ability to integrate aspects of Merle Travis-style guitar into his banjo was as distinctive a part of the original Country Gentlemen sound as Charlie Waller or John Duffey’s voices.

Congratulations to Eddie for this honor… you’ve earned it.