How can one be dispassionate about Ernie Thacker and the release of his latest CD, The Hangman?

While in the middle of recording tracks for The Hangman (Pinecastle PRC 1167), Thacker was involved in an horrendous automobile accident that very nearly took his life. As it was, he spent two months in a coma and a further four months of rehabilitation. In the longer term, the incident has left him paralyzed from the waist down.

After that trauma and thanks to the support of his family, band mates – his brother Matt (bass guitar and tenor vocals), Dick Roach (banjo and baritone vocals) and Brandon Shupping (mandolin) – and record label, he was able to return to performing and complete work on the CD that was released earlier this week.

The Hangman features three songs from Thacker family members, the title track, the Gospel Church Upon The Hill and Keith How Many, a powerfully emotive tribute to one of Thacker’s predecessors in the Clinch Mountain Boys, the late Keith Whitley. New material from other sources include the up-tempo lead song Bill Castle’s The Ballad Of Charlie Dill, Dave Carroll’s Detroit City Chill, Friday Once Again (Dave Russell) and Word Of Mouth from Salvatore Guido and Paul Kelly.

Additionally there are covers of This Drinkin’ Will Kill Me from Dwight Yoakam, I Wish You Knew, Sunday Morning Coming Down and the traditional Rollin’ On These Rubber Wheels.

We are indeed blessed by Thacker’s courage and continued commitment to bluegrass music.

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)

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…)

BluegrassRadio.org will be re-airing the Riverbend Bluegrass Festival show recorded last Saturday this evening (4/26) at 7:00 p.m. (EDT). Performers featured include Ernie Thacker, returning to the stage after his two year recovery from a serious accident, followed by The Chapmans, Grasstowne and Lou Reid and Carolina.

BluegrassRadio.org is a free, listen-supported Internet radio service that runs a 24/7 bluegrass feed, available for both iTunes and Windows Media. Visit their site to choose a feed and listen in anytime.