We heard yesterday from Scott Napier, one of the busiest guys in bluegrass music. He’s currently playing mandolin with both Marty Raybon & Full Circle and Lost and Found.

He tells us that the next CD from Lost and Found is nearly finished, with only final mixing and mastering remaining.

Scott is a long-time student and great admirer of the mandolin legacy of Dempsey Young, the band’s original and only mandolinist until his passing in December of 2006. Dempsey had a unique and memorable style, and his playing was as definitive of the Lost and Found sound as Allen Mills’ distinctive voice.

Scott described the experience of finishing the new project as bittersweet.

“Recording with the Lost and Found was a huge honor for me. I was extremely happy, but also a little sad. Dempsey’s on exactly half of the tracks and I’m on the other half, so it was like having him in the studio with us. His Hutto mandolin would fill up the room during playbacks.

I also play a Hutto mandolin, and I used the same RE-20 microphone that he has recorded with since the mid 80’s, the same engineer and studio (Otis Lynn Dillon, River Track Studios), and a very supportive band to work with (Allen Mills, Ronald Smith, and Scottie Sparks).

Dempsey used to tell me ‘Play it your own way. That’s the only way people will remember you.’ “

This new CD will be on Rebel, with a late summer/early fall release anticipated at this point.

Scott also shared a story about the late Art Stamper (the renowned old time fiddler), a memory prompted by seeing one of Art’s favorite fiddles being offered on eBay.

“Art was a musical treasure who loved to play. He played that fiddle at our wedding in ‘04 not long before he passed away. He wasn’t too keen on playing The Wedding March, so I told him to play what he wanted.

He played Sweet Hearts Forever as my wife Melinda walked down the aisle. I kept asking him the name of the tune because I didn’t want to forget it.

So the first stop on our honeymoon was at an antique shop to get a souvenir for our log house, and as we walked in, Sweet Hearts Forever was playing through the store.

Gotta be a good sign… and I did learn that melody.”

If so, there’s a PodCast on UNC - TV that may be appealing.

Go to the PBS website for The Woodwright’s Shop, and select the show number 2707 (requires realPlayer). There you can meet fiddler Joe Thrift, a modern luthier who works with tools and techniques that are unchanged for centuries.

The PodCast is one of 13 in The Woodwright’s Shop series now available for viewing on the Internet. Presented by series creator and writer Roy Underhill, Thrift, fiddler player with old-time string band The Drawknives, demonstrates the way he builds fiddles.

Condensed into a little under a half hour Thrift, who learned his craft in schools in Europe, shows how he builds a Stradivarius copy, talks about the choice of wood - spruce for the top; maple for the back, sides and neck; and willow for corner blocks - their properties and the various tools that he uses in the process.

Being a copy of the classic Stradivarius design the neck, of course, has what is known as the Golden Spiral scroll. I didn’t know that!

The programme provides an enthralling insight into the wonderful craft of instrument building, which is, as far as Thrift’s fiddle-making is concerned, a two month process normally.

The rest of the Drawknives are Riccio (banjo), Kelley Breiding (upright bass) and Nick McMillian (guitar).

A tip of the hat to Linda Lookadoo and Richard Peoples.

Whenever we learn of a hand injury to a musician, it’s always a matter of concern. When it’s a legend like Bobby Hicks, who not only helped establish what excellence in bluegrass fiddle is all about over his long career, but is also approaching 75 years of age, it is of even greater immediate gravity.

Bobby fell and broke the ring finger of his left hand badly enough to require surgery earlier this month, but says that he recovering nicely at home.

“I’m doing OK I guess. I’ll just have to refrain from playing double and triple stops for awhile.“

Let’s hope Bobby is back in top form soon!

Bluegrass fiddle player and teacher Brian Wicklund has a brand new website for fiddle players at FiddlePal.com. Brian is the author the best-selling fiddle books, The American Fiddle Method. He is also a member of the acoustic power trio, Brother Mule, and the founder of the on-line lesson site Bluegrass College.

The site in nicely laid out, featuring a lot of content, and promising even more to come in the future. Features include all the usual content one would expect from a musicians website, including Brian’s tour schedule, and a store with all his various recordings, books and DVDs for sale.

In addition, Brian has started a blog where he’ll be posting news and answering all your fiddle related questions. And the home page is sporting a free fiddle tune of the month feature. This month the tune is an intermediate version of Blackberry Blossom. The fiddle music for the tune is provided in standard notation via a downloadable PDF.

The site also promises the imminent availability of free lessons for both fiddle and mandolin. The lessons are scheduled for publication on the site in May (mandolin) and June (fiddle). These lessons will be designed to get you started from scratch and prepare you for further instruction.

If you’re a fiddle player, FiddlePal.com just may become one of your best friends.

Long-time students of bluegrass instruments will recall with fondness the name Oak Publications, a division of Music Sales that released some fine instructional manuals for banjo, guitar, mandolin, fiddle and bass starting in the 1970s. While the brand has remained active since, some of those early titles have been unavailable for years - though AcuTab reissued their classic (and massive) - Masters of the 5 String Banjo book.

Oak has reprinted a number those early books, and two of particular interest to the bluegrass community are among them. Both Bill Keith and the late Vassar Clements had transcription books as a part of Oak’s Bluegrass Masters series - which also featured books on Kenny Baker, Jesse McReynolds and Clarence White - both reissued earlier this year.

Clements’ fiddle book was written by Matt Glaser, current chair of the string department at Berklee College of Music, and the Keith banjo book was written by Tony Trischka with Bill’s assistance. The Vassar transcriptions are in standard notation and the Keith in tablature. Both feature information on the recordings from which the transcriptions were taken.

Look for Oak titles wherever bluegrass instructional materials are sold.

HT: PlayBetterBluegrass.com

Now that Ron Stewart is playing banjo with The Dan Tyminski Band, he is parting ways with his prized French fiddle that had been his main axe this past ten years or so. It is a Francois Guillmont French Violin which he used on recordings by Ronnie Bowman, Lynn Morris, Rhonda Vincent, JD Crowe, BlueRidge and Ron’s solo project on Rounder, Time Stands Still.

The fiddle is listed as a no-reserve sale on ebay, and Ron says that he is selling it to ensure that it is being played on a regular basis now that he isn’t using a fiddle as often.

I am selling it because it needs to be played! It is a cannon, and someone needs to be playing it daily!

Check it out on ebay.

The Tacoma, Washington, based The News Tribune has published a story about what it considers to be a stand out band at the 15th Annual Wintergrass festival during this past weekend’s shindig. The Ebony Hillbillies weren’t even expected to be playing at the festival, but when the Carolina Chocolate Drops cancelled just days before the festival started the New York quartet got the call to fill the void.

The quartet, comprising fiddler Rique Prince, singer and multi-instrumentalist Norris Bennett, upright bass player Bill Salter and a cowboy washboard player who simply goes by the initials A.R., not only played a set on Thursday evening, they set the place alive with foot-stomping dancers in abundance.

The full story of their memorable performance can be found at the newspaper’s website.

Here is an unrelated clip of them performing in the NYC subway.

Our friend Laura Leder from Cool Mandolin Company emailed recently to ask us to remind students of bluegrass and old time music - both here in the US, and in the UK and Europe - about Sore Fingers Week 2008.

The annual event will be held March 24-28 in Oxfordshire (UK), with classes offered in a residential setting over five days for fiddle, guitar, mandolin, banjo, resophonic guitar, bass, singing and autoharp. The faculty is drawn from top performers from both sides of the Atlantic.

A full instructor listing can be found on the Sore Fingers web site.

Fiddler Brandon Godman has come onboard with New Found Road, effective this past weekend. He did his first shows with the band at the SPBGMA convention in Nashville - where they picked up an award for Gospel Group of the Year (Contemporary).

Brandon is originally from Kentucky, but now lives in Nashville. He had previously worked with Wildfire and Karl Shiflett.

New Found Road’s Tim Shelton told us that he is very pleased to have Brandon with the band, and to expand the lineup to five pieces.

We make a special effort here on The Bluegrass Blog to avoid choosing or promoting stories based on our personal likes and dislikes, or putting them forward based on anything but news judgment.

Like any rule, of course, there are a few exceptions and one of ours is an intent to bring attention to deserving artists who may not be well known, especially younger ones.

So, when we received the following message by email not long ago, I couldn’t help but follow up.

Hi I’m a 15 year old singer/songwriter, fiddler. I have opened for Rhonda Vincent, Jay Unger. I will open for the Grascals in Gettysburg in Aug. I performed at the Bluebird Cafe, The Commodore and and Tootsies. I have a new CD out in Feb.

The message came from Kate Lee who lives near Rochester, NY. I found music of striking maturity from this young woman, with the sort of understated emotion in her voice that comes rarely this early in life. In her mid teens, she has her own group, No Strings Attached, and has recorded two CDs, including songs she has written.

At school, Kate studies and performs classical music, singing in the select choir and playing with the orchestra. She is also a member of the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and keeps a busy schedule of shows with her band. As a sophomore, she maintains high honor roll with distinction, and hopes to continue to study music in college - if she isn’t signed to a recording contract.

“I really love Bluegrass music because it is such a pure sound. Voice and instrument becomes one! It does not have to be fancy to be wonderful. In fact, it’s great because it is not bogged down with any extra bells and whistles. I really like a lot of different music, like classical and some country.

It helps my fiddling to have classical training as my tone and pitch must be precise in orchestra. There is no faking it. This makes my fiddling much cleaner sounding. I love to sing and am now receiving voice training as well. My vocals, like my fiddle is based on a ‘pure, simple’ sound without a lot of fancy ornamentation. I think Alison Krauss has the perfect voice. She is the standard for all singers!” (more…)

Jon Glik, 56, one of bluegrass music’s top fiddlers, is fit enough able to play again after a year where he almost died, according to a report on Baltimore’s Eyewitness News a few days ago.

Regular readers will recall our previous posting of a story regarding his very serious illness. Glik had been suffering for a long time with liver failure, during which time he was in pain almost all the time and was unable to use his hands. Evidently, he was unable to play music during that time.

Glik had been a member of Del McCoury’s Dixie Pals and worked with David Grisman and Frank Wakefield. He was a fixture on the Baltimore/Washington bluegrass scene since the 1970s.

Musicians from across the country have participated in several benefit shows to raise money to help meet considerable medical costs. As is common with many bluegrass musicians, Glik didn’t have any medical insurance. One gathering took place in Upperco, Maryland, in October to help raise money for Glik and to boost his spirits.

Glik comments …..

“I heard from friends I hadn’t heard from in 20 or 30 years. Their support helped me have a positive attitude.”

Thankfully, a liver became available and transplant surgery was performed November 18 at the University Of Maryland Medical Center. Transplant surgeon Dr Luis Campos was frank about Glik’s condition and his prospects ….

“Without the new liver, I doubt if Jon would have lived till the new year.” (more…)

Missouri State University in Springfield, MO has created an Ozarks Studies Program intended to preserve the culture and history of the Ozarks. The program focuses on the collection and study of information about the culture and people of the Ozark Mountian region.

Gordon McCann, a native fiddler from that part of Missouri, recently announced that he is dedicating his extensive collection of fiddle music to the program. McCann’s collection includes recordings of over 2,000 fiddle tunes in 65,000 variations, along with 3,000 hours of live recordings made at jam sessions, concerts, and dances, and 200 notebooks filled with tune transcriptions and biographicial information on the musicians who played those tunes.

The Ozark Studies Institute, as it’s being called, at MSU will soon begin the process of digitizing the recordings and archiving all the paperwork.

Now, young people with an interest in history, culture, and music will be able to study and learn these great old songs without the possibility of them being lost for all time.

The Idaho Falls Arts Council has an ongoing program called Art You Can Sit On. The program commissions local artisans to create benches that are art forms. These benches are created out of a variety of materials and are placed at various locations throughout the historic downtown district of Idaho Falls. Currently there are over 20 of these benches, depicting items like trout, skateboards, and musical instruments.

The latest addition to the collection is a giant fiddle head bench that has been placed outside the Willard Arts Center. The bench replaces a piano art bench that was destroyed by vandals two years ago.

Created by Robert Carter, the new fiddle head bench is constructed of steel and weighs 1500 pounds.

This may not be a bluegrass fiddle, but rather a heavy metal fiddle!

Jon Glik’s fiddle playing can be heard on some of my favorite records. Anyone who knows me, knows I’m a huge Del McCoury fan. Don’t Stop The Music may be my all time favorite McCoury album, and Glik’s fiddle plays an important roll in the band’s sound on that recording.

Over the years Jon has recorded with a number of other bluegrass legends including David Grisman, Frank Wakefield, Peter Rowan, the Forbes Family, Dave Evans, Paul Adkins, Walter Hensley, Bob and Danny Paisley, and more.

Sadly, Jon is now in the hospital due to liver failure. This makes the third time this year he has been hospitalized. Like many other musicians, Jon does not health insurance and is faced with rising medial bills. In the midst of this, he is in need of a liver transplant if he is to survive.

The bluegrass community is coming together in an effort to assist this beloved fiddle player. A fund has been started to raise money for the transplant and to help offset his medical expenses.

Several things are being done to raise money for the fund.

A benefit concert is being held on Friday, October 19, from 7:00-11:00 PM. The concert takes place at The Arcadia Fire Hall, in Arcadia, MD. Admission is $35 at the door. Performers include The Del McCoury Band, David Grisman, David Grier, and The Forbes Family.

Eastman Strings has kindly donated a beautiful 904 D Mandolin to be raffled off at the concert, with all proceeds going directly to Jon’s medical fund.

James Reams, Walter Hensley & The Barons of Bluegrass are donating all proceeds (during the month of October) from the sale of the CD Wild Card, featuring Jon Glik on fiddle, to Jon’s medical fund. To order the CD, they ask that you mail a check for $15, made out to Jon Glik Medical Fund, to Mountain Redbird Music, 565 9th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215. They ask that you also include $1 in cash or postage stamps to cover shipping costs.

You may also contribute directly to the fund by sending a check to Jon’s sister, Barbara Glik. Again, the check should be made out to Jon Glik Medical Fund, and mailed to:

Barbara Glik
P.O. Box 4005
Annapolis, MD 21403

Let’s all pull together and help one of our own in his time of need.

Hailing from Selma, N.C., at Samantha Casey & The Bluegrass Jam is a two person band comprised of 11 year old Samantha Casey on fiddle, and her dad, Daniel, on guitar and banjo. The two have been performing together for four years now. They started when Samantha was only 7 years old, and performed mostly at churches, retirement homes, and civic organizations.

Now, four years later, at the age of 11, Samantha has just won the Oreo & Milk Jingle Contest. The duo performed the jingle on guitar and fiddle with Daniel singing lead and Samantha carrying the tenor part. The final performance was given in Times Square. The event was hosted by NBC late night talk show host Carson Daly, and broadcast live on national television. The father-daughter duo were also featured on Fox & Friends yesterday morning.

I couldn’t find video of either performance, but you can see their audition tape online at Samantha’s website.

The pair took home a cool $10,000 for their winning performance. They also had their image on the Times Square Super Sign. Samantha commented on the whole affair.

Playing in Times Square with the other groups was really cool. Our favorite part of the contest was seeing ourselves on the Times Square Super Sign and we’re so glad that Oreo made that happen!

The Caseys say that most of the $10K will be saved for Samantha’s college fund.

Interestingly, they are the first winning group in the contest’s history to use instruments; previous grand prize-winning groups sang a cappella versions of the cookie jingle. Carson Daly, didn’t just host the event, he was also one of the judges, and he commented on the winning performance.

Choosing a winning group was tough since all the groups were so great, but this talented father-daughter duo was something special and really brought the Oreo & Milk moment to life.

Any bluegrass fan could have told Nabisco this is the way the jingle should be done!

In their ongoing effort to keep their back catalog alive online, Rebel/County Records has reissued two more classic LPs as download-only releases.

The Blue Sky Boys are such well-established icons in early country music that even those with little or no familiarity with their music will cite them as exemplars of the brother duet sound. Bill and Earl Bolick had a string of well over 100 recordings starting in the 1930s, and were among the most popular entertainers on radio in the southern US until they retired in 1951 rather than change their old time style to fit evolving modern tastes.

They were coaxed out of retirement during the 1960s when young American audiences warmed to folk and traditional music once again, and recorded a number of albums for various labels. It was during this time that this set was released on the County label, one that Bill Bolick is said to have remembered as one of their most satisfying records. There are 10 tracks, including Beautiful, Beautiful Brown Eyes, Don’t Let Your Sweet Love Die, I Never Will Marry and 7 others.

The digitally remastered project, The Blue Sky Boys, is available for download in either iTunes or emusic.

Amazingly, Joe Greene’s Fiddle Album on County Records in 1969 was his sole solo project, his only other instrumental album being the 1968 classic High Country twin fiddle recording with Kenny Baker. As the story goes, Greene, a well-respected fiddler from North Carolina, met Kenny Baker at the 2nd Bluegrass Festival in Fincastle, VA in 1966, launching a friendship and collaboration that brought Greene to Nashville, where he established a career as a side man working with Roy Acuff and Little Jimmy Dickens.

Joe Greene’s Fiddle Album is a stellar example of his fiddle work, and will be a wonderful discovery for those not already familiar with his playing. J.D. Crowe is on banjo, and Chubby Wise on guitar for a 12 track romp through some fiddle workouts. To my ears, this project is as essential to any fiddle music library as the many great Baker recordings of the late 60s and ’70s. I bought the download while preparing this piece.

Greene offers versions of Katy Hill, Money Musk, Paddy On The Turnpike, Grey Eagle and Salt River - all as much a part of the old time as bluegrass fiddle repertoire - and his version of Daley’s Reel in B flat is one that will turn many a modern fiddler’s head. The banjo/fiddle duet on Turkey Buzzard shows Crowe’s mastery of this idiom several years before his 1975 New South LP brought it to a wider audience.

You can also get Joe Greene’s Fiddle Album in both iTunes and emusic.

Here’s a CD release for fans of old-time fiddling.

Marcus Martin is considered one of the finest old-time fiddle players from western North Carolina. His legendary fiddling style can now be heard on a new CD produced by the Southern Folklife Collection and the North Carolina Folklife Institute.

When I Get My New House Done: Western North Carolina Fiddle Tunes and Songs contains 26 tunes, played by Marcus Martin and recorded in the field during the 1940s by Alan Lomax and others.

Many of the tunes on this CD will be familiar to fans of old-time and bluegrass music. Familiar tunes include songs like Sally Goodin, Gray Eagle, Cumberland Gap, Possum up a Gum Stump and John Henry. Others are a bit more obscure, such as How the Squire Courted Nancy or Jenny Run Away in the Mud in the Night.

The CD is available for order, and sound samples for three tunes can be heard, from the North Carolina Folklife Institute.

When the roll is called of the all-time greatest fiddlers in bluegrass, the name of Benny Martin will always be included. He was a member of the Flatt & Scruggs show for several years in the early 1950s, and also worked briefly for Bill Monroe. He played on The Grand Ole Opry as a solo performer, and had stints with country artists Johnny and Jack, Roy Acuff and Kitty Wells.

He was a flamboyant performer, and a favorite with fans in the 50s and 60s for his singing and fiddling, plus his huge smile and larger-than-life persona on stage. Benny passed away in 2001, but had been in ill health since the mid-’80s, so a great many younger bluegrass fans and fiddlers have only a passing acquaintance with his brilliant playing.

Thanks to CMH Records, one of his classic recordings is set to be reissued on CD. The Fiddle Collection, originally released as a 2 LP set in 1977, is set to hit the street on October 9 in a special CD edition. The tracks from the original vinyl have been remastered, and a number of bonus tracks are included as well, all of which feature John Hartford on banjo.

Among the 28 tracks are such favorites as Lee Highway Blues, Fiddlers Dream, Back Up And Push and Ragtime Annie, as well as bluegrass numbers like Flint Hill Special, Footprints In The Snow and Foggy Mountain Breakdown.

To get a feel for just how influential Martin was on the next generation of fiddlers, we asked a few of the current nominees for the IBMA Fiddle Player Of The Year Award for comment.

First up is Mountain Heart’s Jim Van Cleve:

“Big Tige (Benny Martin) was the quintessential bluegrass fiddle player…Unbelievably rich tone, especially considering the recording technology of the time, an incredible awareness of the vocal and an inventiveness for where he needed be in context to it. It was so natural for him. Ultimately, he played a huge part in defining for a lot of players, myself included, what types of things were appropriate for the bluegrass fiddler. It’s not unlike what Tony Rice eventually did for bluegrass guitar. His signature fire and enthusiasm just underlined the fact that what he was playing and creating was perfect!”

Ron Stewart, fiddling with JD Crowe & The New South added these words: (more…)

In 2002, Centerstream Publishing published a book by author Randy Noles entitled Orange Blossom Boys. The book explored the history of the tune by the same name and the lives of Ervin T. Rouse, Chubby Wise, and Johnny Cash.

Noles has done further research since that time and decided to update the book and republish it under a new title. Also published by Centerstream, Fiddler’s Curse is now in print.

The new book give full credit to Rouse for authorship of the tune. Here’s the description from Amazon.com

One of the most bizarre stories in all of popular music is the history of “Orange Blossom Special,” arguably the century’s best-known fiddle tune. The man credited with its ownership, Ervin T. Rouse, endured tragedy, alcoholism and mental illness. He spent his last years fiddling for tips in isolated taverns at the edge of the Everglades, and died all but unknown. The man who claimed co-ownership, Chubby Wise, achieved fame as the seminal fiddler of the bluegrass genre, but struggled to overcome personal demons and to heal the scars of childhood abandonment and abuse. Johnny Cash, the tortured superstar who made the song a mainstream hit, quietly championed Rouse and earned the enmity of Wise. This trio’s disparate legacies are here told - and forever linked with the legendary diesel steamliner.

Hat Tip: European Bluegrass Blog

Newsweek and MSNBC.com have posted an online feature on The Carolina Chocolate Drops, the black string band making waves at festivals all over the US this summer. Their sound is a mix of jug band and old time music, but all heavily influenced by the contributions that US black and African folk artists made to Appalachian musical culture.

“People ask us, ‘Are y’all from the mountains?’,” says fiddler Justin Robinson, a North Carolina native. “What they’re really asking is, ‘Why the hell are you playing this?’” His answer: “It’s a reclamation.” Robinson, fellow Carolinian Rhiannon Giddens and Arizona-born multi-instrumentalist Dom Flemons met two years ago at the annual Black Banjo Gathering in Boone, N.C. Under the tutelage of fiddler Joe Thompson, one of the last surviving practitioners of the black fiddle style that once provided the soundtrack to North Carolina’s hilly Piedmont region, the Carolina Chocolate Drops learned their roots and honed their chops. Last month they released their first album, an infectious hoedown of a record called “Dona Got a Ramblin’ Mind.” Now they’re one of the hottest tickets on the old-time and folk-music festival circuit. “In the black community most of the time they’re shocked we’re doing this,” says Flemons. “A lot of black people like country music and old-time music, but they can’t relate because the people playing it don’t look like them.”

The full article - with two live performance video clips - can be found on the MSNBC/Newsweek web site. There is also a lengthy interview with the band posted at RealCountryMusic.org.

You can hear audio samples from their CD on The Carolina Chocolate Drops MySpace page.

They also have a YouTube clip of themselves competing at the Mt. Airy Fiddler’s Convention this past spring.