Bluegrass Now tried going all-digital in March 2008, hoping that eliminating the print and mailing costs would allow them to survive with an online subscription model, but unfortunately for the entire bluegrass community, it was not to be.

The Bledsoes spelled it out in in their farewell message…

Although Bluegrass Now has avoided the magnitude of problems afflicting the major publishers, the economic downturn has impacted us in a variety of ways. After prolonged deliberations, we have decided that rather than compromise the integrity and quality of the magazine, which we have sought to maintain since its inception in 1990, we will cease publication at the end of this year.

One thing left unresolved was the status of the existing online subscribers when the magazine closed up shop. That issue has finally been resolved, and all current subscribers as of 12/08 will be offered an online subscription to Flatpicking Digital, the online home of Flatpicking Guitar magazine.

FGM publisher Dan Miller explains how the switch-off will work.

“Before they went out of business they were only offering a digital version of the magazine, so I’m allowing all of those people who still had issues remaining on their subscription to Bluegrass Now to have a one year digital subscription to Flatpicking Guitar Magazine – both our digital magazine and the audio files.”

Former BN subscribers can contact FGM for more details if they have not yet been contacted about this offer.

It’s the title track of their current CD, When I Cut Loose, recorded earlier this month at the Ely Folk Festival in Ely Cambridgeshire, UK.

The group is a “grown up” family band, based around banjo picker Stewart Johnson and his two daughters, Hannah on mandolin and Sophia on guitar. In addition, Bradley Blackwell is on bass and Howard Gregory on fiddle.

Click here to view the embedded video.

“That song was written by me, my sister and my dad – its our attempt to add to the ‘train song’ genre!!

The Toy Hearts will be coming over to the USA for a 5 week tour starting at the beginning of September.

We will be starting at the Tristate bluegrass festival in Kendalville, IA, then driving and gigging through St Louis, Oklahoma City and on into Texas. We are playing at the Bluegrass Heritage Festival in Arlington TX, then spending 2 weeks gigging in Texas before finally going up to Nashville for IBMA. We already have 5 after hours showcases confirmed.”

Sophia also told us that she had just quit her day job to manage Toy Hearts full time. Bluegrass is thriving in the UK, it seems.

You can find out more about the band on their web site or MySpace page.

While many still think of “flatpicking” the guitar as taking solos on fiddle tunes, the flatpickers on this recording are here to show you that the guitar also has something to say on traditional bluegrass vocal tunes.

The majority of the tracks were recorded in Nashville, and the band remains the same on each song with the exception of the guitar player/lead singer, and the occasional harmony vocalist.

The back up band includes Shad Cobb on fiddle, Charlie Chadwick on bass, Chris Joslin on Dobro and banjo, and Dave Harvey on mandolin. Tim May and Brad Davis provide harmony vocals on most tunes, although others also sing harmony on select tunes.

The line up of guitar players is impressive, as is the song list of traditional tunes.

1. My Home’s Across The Blue Ridge Mountains – Steven Mougin
2. East Virginia Blues – John Chapman
3. Six White Horses – Jeff White
4. When The Golden Leaves Begin To Fall – Jim Hurst
5. Long Journey Home – Josh Williams
6. I’ll Stay Around – Tim Stafford
7. Banks Of The Ohio – Brad Davis
8. Why Don’t You Tell Me So – Richard Bennett
9. In The Pines – Chris Jones
10. Teardrops In My Eyes - Jim Nunally
11. Gone Home – Tim May
12. Air Mail Special On The Fly – Kenny Smith

The consistency of the band from track to track lends a unity to the disc, which, when paired with the diversity of vocal and guitar styles represented, results in a very pleasant and interesting 40 minutes of music.

Choosing a favorite track would be nearly impossible. Each player brings a unique approach that distinguishes each track from the others. There is something to be appreciated and enjoyed from each recording.

Fans of both flatpicking guitar and traditional bluegrass should equally enjoy this CD. If you happen to be a fan of both, Flatpicking Bluegrass is custom made for you!

The festival is centered around flatpick guitar playing and instruction. It is held on the grounds of the Peaceful Bend Vineyard. The venue is small and intimate allowing for a great deal of interaction between performers/instructors, and the students/fans.

Thursday night I taped the 3rd in a series of performance DVDs for the festival’s promotors, Flatpicking Guitar Magazine and SimpleFolk Productions. The recording went well and I’m about to be knee deep in editing for a while.

Like the others in the series, the concert featured the guitar work of three outstanding players. This year it is Scott Nygaard, Jack Lawrence, and Robert Bowlin. Once I get the editing done I’m sure we’ll post a short clip or two to give you a taste.

Opening for the trio were the 2008 IBMA and 2009 SPGMA Guitar Player of the Year Josh Williams, and 2008 Walnut Valley International Competition and 2009 Merlefest Flatpicking Champion Tyler Grant.It was a fun night and I’m sure the rest of the weekend was great as well. Here’s a few thought from Tyler Grant.

Josh and I did four numbers on Thursday night to open for the trio’s DVD shoot. The acoustics were very nice in the wine cellar, and it was a comfortable venue to play and to sit back and listen. A little glass of wine made it even more comfortable, and every now and then one of Clyde and Katie’s dogs would wander in making the whole atmosphere feel even more down-home and country. The trio of Bowlin, Lawrence and Nygaard with Wil Maring on upright bass was outstanding. Each guitarist brought his own style to the forefront, while all three met in the middle for some truly beautiful music. It would take an entire post just to go into the details of the show, so I will just advise readers to buy the DVD and hear for themselves. Gorgeous guitar music and some stellar vocal contributions from Jack, Wil and Robert.

You can read all his thoughts on the weekend in the Flatpick-L Archives, here and here.

If you’re interested in photos of the event, be sure to check out this page on the Flatpicking Guitar Ning Network.

Over the last several years they have put forth a number of such DVDs. Each DVD consists of a concert performance by three top players. This year’s offering is no exception.

The National Flatpicking Guitar Championship, held each September since 1972 in Winfield, Kansas, is the most prestigious flatpicking event in the country. Every person who has won this event is a master guitarist of the highest order. In this concert performance DVD, filmed at the Peaceful Bend Americana Music Festival in Steelville, MO, Flatpicking Guitar Magazine and SimpleFolk Productions present three of the National Flatpicking Guitar Championship’s most respected past champions: Robin Kessinger (1985 champ), Mark Cosgrove (1995 champ), and Robert Shafer (1983 and 2000 champ).

The DVD is now available for ordering at FlatpickingMercantile.com.

Here’s a one song trailer for the product. It features the tune When You and I Where Young, Maggie.

In the interest of full disclosure, my company was the production company which filmed and edited this DVD.

When the back issues began to go out of print, publisher Dan Miller decided to start offering the content digitally and their first such compendium, Best Of The First Ten Years, was released last year in four volumes. They are available as either digital downloads (in PDF form) or on a CD ROM.

The new set of digital reprints is offered in these same formats, and in four volumes organized around Flatpicking Styles.

• Volume One: Pioneers and Legends
• Volume Two: Irish, English, Scottish, British Isles, and Canadian Tunes
• Volume Three: Gospel, Christmas, and Classical Tunes
• Volume Four:  Blues, Swing & Jazz (to include Western Swing and Gypsy Jazz)

Each volume contains between 85 and 160 individual articles from the FGM archives and can be purchased as a PDF or CD ROM for $14.95

If you’d like to check out the digital version by taking advantage of this offer, just visit the FlatpickDigital.com subscriptions page, select the Free Trial option (radio button), fill out the fields on that page, and then click the Sign Up bottom at the bottom of the page.

You will immediately be able to download the current (Sept/Oct) issue.

This offer expires on October 7, 2008.

Flatpickdigital.com offers subscribers the opportunity to purchase an online subscription to either the print content (magazine), the audio content (CD), or both. The magazine is available for online viewing as jpg images, or as a pdf download. Similarly, the audio CD is available for download in mp3 format. Users may download the entire audio library for an issue, or only the tracks that interest them.

The subscription prices for the digital version are significantly less expensive than the traditional print subscription rates, especially for international subscribers. A single year of the magazine only is $20 online, $24 for the audio, or $42 for both.

If guitar is your thing, take a minute and check out the new Flatpickdigital.com

It is designed like popular social networking sites (MySpace, Face Book) and allows users to post their own photos, news and videos and fosters easy online communication among like-minded flatpickers. Users can also post information about events of interest to flatpickers, or participate in a flatpickers forum.

The site is powered by Ning, a popular engine for creating social networks online, and The Flatpicking Guitar Network already has over 700 registered users.

The festival takes place on the grounds of the Peaceful Bend Vineyard in Steelville, MO. The vineyard sits on seventy acres above the Upper Meramec River about ninety minutes south west of St. Louis on Highway T. There will be camping available at the vineyard limited to advance reservation with other lodging available nearby.

The festival is more than just performances. It consists of workshops and private lessons during the day, followed by a concert each evening. Most of the performances will be held in the wine garden and will be limited to 200 seats. Thursday evening however will be special. National Flatpicking Champions Mark Cosgrove, Robin Kessinger, and Robert Shafer will perform in the wine cellar Thursday evening. Seating is limited to 100 in the cellar. I’m told the acoustics are fantastic in there, and I certainly hope so. I’ll be on hand that evening to record the performance for a future DVD release from Flatpicking Guitar Magazine and SimpleFolk Productions. The title of the DVD will be Pickin at the Peaceful Bend. This will be the fifth in a series of flatpicking concert DVDs I’ve produced for them. So come out and be part of the audience for this live production.

After Thursday’s taping, the rest of the weekend looks pretty spectacular as well.

Performers include

Friday: The Grass Pack, David Grier and Wyatt Rice.

Saturday: Will Maring and Robert Bowlin, Bryan Sutton and Russ Barenberg.

Sunday: Josh Williams, The Chapmans, Plus an All-Star-Jam!

For more information and registration details, visit SimpleFolkProductions.com.

Our good friend Brad Davis is one of those super fast flatpickers that leaves you wondering, “How does he do that?” Well, Brad wrote in to share one of his secrets (besides insane talent, and lots of practice). The secret is coffee.

Brad is an avid coffee drinker. I’ve been in studio sessions with him that lasted 12 hours or more, and I’ve seen him drink a lot of coffee. Somewhere around a year ago, Brad showed up with a new coffee he insisted I had to try. The brand was Coffee Fool. I had never heard of them before, but Brad swore by the stuff.

Brad went on to write a theme song for company, just because he loved the coffee so much. You can hear that song by visiting CoffeeFool.com and clicking the play button in the lower left.

Just a couple months ago at the January NAMM show, Brad teamed up with Flapicking Guitar Magazine editor Dan Miller, to convince the guys at Coffee Fool that bluegrass flatpickers were in need of a special brew to give them the energy boost necessary to keep up with banjo and fiddle players during late night jam sessions. The company responded by creating a special coffee blend just for flatpickers. It’s called Flatpicker Fuel.

Pick the high note and low note at the same time with our post-roast blend of high energy Breakfast Brew, rich Fool’s House Italian and the subtle sweetness of pure Extra Fancy Hawaiian Kona. Just the right combo to keep you jammin’ through the day… or night!

CoffeeFool.com is a great supporter of music and musicians. They are sponsoring some of Brad Davis’ workshops and performances and are also co-sponsoring some live music events with Flatpicking Guitar Magazine. Dan Miller had this to say about working with Coffee Fool.

When Flatpicking Guitar Magazine needed a co-sponsor to help with the costs of promoting and hosting an Infamous Stringdusters show in California, with opening act Keith Little and Jim Nunally, Coffeefool.com didn’t hesitate to jump on board and get involved. They are good folks who love supporting live music.

So if you’re a flatpicker in need of a speed boost, give Flatpicker Fuel a try.

Plaidgrass is a band whose foundation concept is a mixture of Celtic music instrumentation with a bluegrass sensibility. The group is fronted by the husband/wife team of fiddler Gretchen Priest and guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Tim May. They are joined by Tom Saffell on 8-string banjo, Al Goll on resonator guitar, Brian Christianson on mandolin and fiddle, and Dan Miller on bass.

You can find audio samples on the band’s MySpace page, and several video clips on YouTube.

Also new from FGR is Robert Bowlin’s Six String Soliloquy, a set of solo acoustic guitar pieces primarily written by the artist.

Bluegrass historians remember Bowlin as a fiddler, having the distinction of being the last to work as a member of Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys. Early reaction to his new CD suggests that his lasting mark will come instead as a flatpicker, with the wide range of emotions and his virtuosity as a guitarist being widely heralded.

You can see the full track listing on the Flatpicking Guitar site, and hear several audio samples on Robert’s MySpace page.

Guitarmageddon, co-produced with SimpleFolk Productions, showcases three young flatpicking firebrands who have been making their presence felt in bluegrass this past few years. Chris Eldridge, Andy Falco and Josh Williams are featured in this one hour DVD performing live at Nashville’s storied Station Inn in a variety of settings.

The three each offer solo arrangements, are paired as duos, pick as a trio, and are joined by Cody Kilby on banjo and Mike Bub on bass for some rockin’ bluegrass numbers. Each of the three guitarists are interviewed, as is J.T. Gray, current owner of the Station Inn.

A total of 15 songs are included, among them favorites like Cherokee Shuffle, East Tennessee Blues, Jesse James, Nine Pound Hammer, and Salt Creek.

There doesn’t seem to be a video sample up online yet, but they may be posted soon on Flatpicking Guitar’s YouTube channel.

You can find more details in the Flatpicking Guitar online store.

For each tune, at each speed, Brad plays through the solo and then provides a rhythm guitar accompaniment for you to pick the lead. The idea is to allow you to play the solos slowly as you first learn them, with a solid rhythm guitar behind you to keep time.

Once you graduate from the slow version, Brad alternates between soloing and back up twice through so that you can get a good rhythm workout yourself. For more experienced pickers, the fastest version is at a typical performance speed, which could be useful for both warm-up and rhythm work.

The tunes are all familiar fiddle tunes and jam favorites like John Henry, Leather Britches and Home Sweet Home. You can see the full list of tunes on the Flatpick Jam Volume 4 site.

You can also get a taste of the format on this DVD by checking out the free lesson offered in October by Flatpicking Guitar, which offers the tab and MP3 audio for Brad’s version of Crazy Creek from this new DVD.

The series consists of 4 discs, each pulling articles on a specific topic from back issues of the magazine published between November/December 1996 (Volume 1, Number 1) and September/October 2006 (Volume 10, Number 6). The content on the discs is presented in PDF format with an index file containing a table of contents with links to each individual article or tab.

The four discs in the series are:

1. Cover Story Articles: 60 cover story articles with tablatures
2. Rhythm Articles: 90 rhythm guitar articles and 29 interviews with rhythm guitar players
3. Guitar Builder Articles: 50 builder interviews, 14 reviews, 11 guitar building articles
4. Editor’s Song Picks: 147 song transcriptions

• Edd Mayfield
• Maybelle Carter
• Riley Pucket
• George Shuffler
• Hank Snow
• Don Reno
• Delmore Brothers
• Jimmie Rodges
• Doc Addington

Yes, the folks at FGM are aware that not all these players used a flatpick.

Although not all of these early performers used a flatpick, they all certainly had a great influence on those of us who flatpick today.

The usual columnists are all on board providing lessons and tabs of tunes played by these pioneers. The entire issue is a great lesson in the history of bluegrass and flatpicking guitar.

Here’s a link to the subscription info.

Acoustic Guitar Fundamentals is a video presentation of Tim’s treatise on the Five T’s – Tuning, Timing, Tone, Technique, and Taste. These are the elements that separate the best from the rest, and allow even a novice or amateur player to develop a sense of authority over the instrument and the music they play.

Each of the “T’s” is covered in detail, with Tim explaining the concepts and then offering practical examples of how to incorporate a study of them into your practice routine. The material is very well organized and explained clearly with topic reviews after each section.

Tim’s mastery of the guitar and the flatpicking style is unchallenged – both as a soloist and a member of the rhythm section. His advice for other pickers is as valuable as his contributions to the music as a performer.

Find more details and order online from Flatpicking Guitar’s Mercantile.

They also note the release of a best of compilation of Mark Cosgrove’s recordings on their Flatpicking Guitar Records label. The CD is entitled, Take Yer Medicine – Best Of Collection, and contains 18 tracks taken from his earlier releases.

The folks at Flatpicking Guitar have also created a YouTube channel where web viewers can see snippets from their instructional DVDs and live performances from prominent guitarists associated with the magazine.

If you are in Nashville today be sure to stop by the Station Inn at 7pm or 9pm to catch one of the sets. I you can’t make to the show, you’ll be able to buy the DVD from Flatpicking Guitar Magazine here in a month or two.

Canada, 25 years old, studied in the bluegrass music program at East Tennessee State University. He is also joined on Grassoline by Raymond McClain, director of the prgram at ETSU, and former bandmates there, JP Mathes and Taro Inoue.

Mo’s web site contains a powerful endorsement from the reigning IBMA Guitar Player of the Year, Bryan Sutton:

“What a great recording. Mo Canada shines in this collection of mainly new tunes. He really does a great job showcasing his personality as a guitarist here. To me, one of the hallmarks of a great bluegrass instrumentalist is playing with drive without overpowering the sound of the band as a whole. Mo certainly doesn’t let me down. I’m impressed with his wonderfully mature sense of melody and groove. If this weren’t enough, Mo’s got one of the best tones I’ve heard in a long time. Anyone interested in Bluegrass guitar should give this recording a serious listen.”

There are no audio samples up on the FGM Records site, but one track plays on Mo’s site, which also contains a nice gallery of photos taken during the Grassoline recording sessions.