When looking for a higher education in the area of bluegrass music, there are limited choices. The one I chose was South Plains College in Levelland, TX. One of the things I loved about the school was the close association of the music program with recording program.

East Tennessee State University (ETSU) has a similar program of bluegrass music studies, the Center for Appalachian Studies and Services. Beginning with the fall semester, the students at ETSU will have access to a new recording facility. Plans have been in place for the recording lab since a building on campus was vacated in 1999. Those plans are coming to completion during the 25th anniversary of the bluegrass program.

Associate professor Raymond McLain commented on the new learning opportunities this would present for the students.

From a musician stand point, it will be a good opportunity to learn in a recording environment. It is hard to learn to play the guitar with out a guitar, and it is hard to learn how to record music without a recording lab.

Plans are for one recording class to be taught this coming fall, but the University is still looking for the right person to manage the lab and teach the class (job info). And they are still working to complete the construction phase of the lab. The ceiling has been completed, the sheetrock work is underway but currently on hold so wiring can be completed. School officials predict the overall cost for construction to be somewhere between $400,000 and $500,000. These expenses have largely been paid for by funds raised via the student technology access fee.

Speaking from my own personal experience, those students who are dedicated to earning a living in and around bluegrass music will benefit greatly from this resource. I encourage them to take advantage of the opportunity to learn about the technical side of making music.

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.

Takeharu Kunimoto is a popular personality in Japan, where he performs on the shamisen in the traditional rokyoku style, and  works as an actor, storyteller and narrator for children’s movies. He is also an accomplished bluegrass musician, both on the mandolin and on the shamisen.

The shamisen is a somewhat banjo-like instrument, native to Japanese culture, with three strings stretched across a small skin head. Takeharu has developed a fascinating style which draws heavily on Earl Scruggs’ banjo playing, though using a flatpick rather than fingers. He traveled to the US in 2003 to study in the bluegrass music program at East Tennessee State University, which is where he first attracted some attention in this country.

This next two weeks, he is again visiting in the United States, and touring with the bluegrass band from ETSU, The Last Frontier. Takeharu joins the band on shamisen, on a blend of familiar bluegrass songs and his own unique bluegrass instrumentals. They have shows in New Jersey this weekend, and in Virginia, Georgia and Tennessee next week before heading to Japan for two weeks of performances there.

This morning’s edition of The Roanoke Times has a story about him and this tour which can be accessed online.

Kunimoto heard bluegrass on a Japanese radio station as a teenager in 1973, and he saw the genre’s progenitor, Bill Monroe, during a tour of Japan the next year. Bluegrass has a small but passionate following in Japan, where several festivals bring as many as 100 Japanese bluegrass bands together.

You can find their tour schedule on Takeharu’s MySpace page, along with audio samples of his “Japanese banjo” playing. The shows are sure to be lively and entertaining, and worth your time if you live near one of their tour stops.

Dr. Ralph Stanley will be celebrating his 80th Birthday tonight at a dinner to support The Ralph Stanley Museum & Traditional Mountain Music Center in Clintwood, VA. The dinner begins at 6 PM at Meadowview Convention Center in Kingsport, TN. The evening will feature performances by the ETSU Bluegrass Band along with a few surprise guests.

The dinner will be serve yourself buffet-style and is priced at $100 per guest. All proceeds will go to support the museum’s operating and programming needs. The museum is a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation and a portion of the ticket price may be tax-deductible.

Tickets may be purchased by calling the museum at 276-926-8550. More information about the museum, and this event, can be found on the museum’s website at ralphstanleymuseum.com.

Here’s a chance for bluegrass lovers everywhere to “give back” to a man who has contributed mightily to the development of our music.

Clarence “Tater” Tate, who spent many years on stage as a member of Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys, is currently being treated with chemotherapy for lung cancer. Tater was with Monroe until the end, and spent time with Red Smiley, Lester Flatt and Hylo Brown as well.

He had been working as a part time instructor in the bluegrass music program at East Tennessee State University in recent years, and Raymond McLain, who directs the program at ETSU, has set up a fund to help Tater with the medical expenses he is facing.

Raymond urges Tater’s many friends and admirers in bluegrass to send along whatever contribution they can, along with well wishes and words of encouragement to him via ETSU.

Checks should be made payable to Clarence Tate.

A benefit concert has also been scheduled for April 15 in Bristol, TN which will reunite Tater with several other former Bluegrass Boys at the Appalachian Cultural Music Association’s Pickin’ Porch in the Bristol Mall. Billed as An Afternoon with Tater Tate, it will feature special guests Bobby Hicks, Butch Robbins, Tom Ewing, Robert Bowlin and many others.

All proceeds from the Bristol show will go to Tater Tate. Find more details on the ACMA site.

We have posted a number of time of late about the recent change at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston to allow students of traditional fretted stringed instruments to pursue a music education at their institution. While this does not involve a “bluegrass course of study,” Berklee has added a number of clinics and labs that teach students who are not primarily bluegrass players the basics of the style, while serious banjo and mandolin players with a bluegrass background are welcomed to use their instruments to study at Berklee.

There is, however, a music program which offers a four year degree program that focuses on bluegrass music. It is the Bluegrass & Country Music Program at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN. The program was launched in 1982, but without an expectation that it would evolve into a full time program. Under the direction of Jack Tottle, this program has become quite popular, bringing serious young musicians to ETSU from all over the United States. The list of celebrated alumni includes well know bluegrassers like Tim Stafford, Adam Steffey, Barry Bales and Warren Amberson and Kelly Green of Acoustic Endeavors, plus country superstar Kenny Chesney, who got his start at ETSU.

After so many years nurturing this program, Tottle is moving towards retirement, and is only teaching during the fall semesters. A full time, adjunct professor will be hired for the spring terms through 2008, and the position for 2006 has been given to Kristin Scott Benson, current banjo player with Larry Cordle and Lonesome Standard Time. (more…)