The Grascals have put together an informal video to keep their fans up to date with all their comings and goings this year. Jamie Johnson, Terry Eldridge and Danny Roberts take turns interviewing each other as they talk about visiting the White House, recording with Hank Williams Jr., and performing for actor Steven Segal’s birthday party in LA.

Fun stuff…

The Grascals will be among the guests on tonight’s (6/24) edition of Tennessee Shines, broadcast live from Knoxville on WDVX.

The monthly show originates from the Bijou Theatre in Knoxville before a live audience, hosted by Jim Lauderdale. Other guests on tonight’s program include Steve Forbert, The Black Lillies, and Chip Taylor & Kendel Carson.

You can catch the show over the air in the Knoxville, TN market at 89.9, 102.9 or 105.9 FM, and online at wdvx.com.

The Grascals will have two spots in the national media this weekend.

Tonight (1/9), they will appear on the Friday Grand Ole Opry during the 10:00-10:30 p.m. segment.

The Friday Opry show is available over the air on WSM AM 650, on XM channel 11 (XM Nashville), and simulcast worldwide via online streaming at wsmonline.com.

On Saturday (1/10), look for them again on CMT. They will be featured on the CMT Insider show at 1:30 p.m. to talk about their recording session with Hank Williams Jr.

CMT sent their cameras into the studio and caught interviews with Hank Jr. and the Grascals. From what we have learned, those sessions went quite well and there is some talk about future collaboration between the two.

This edition of Insider will also air on Sunday (1/11) at 11:00 a.m. (EST).

In a story entitled The Grascals add girl power to their lineup, journalist Derek Halsey, writing for the Huntington, West Virginia Herald-Dispatch, previewed a recent Grascals show, the eighth featuring the band with recent banjo recruit, Kristin Scott Benson.

Benson spoke about her very interesting musical background ..

“My maternal grandfather, my Mom’s dad, was a professional mandolin player and he was half of the duet called Whitey and Hogan (Roy ‘Whitey’ Grant and Arval Hogan),” said Benson. “Hogan is my grandfather’s name. They were part of a larger group called the Briarhoppers. They had a 50-year career as Whitey and Hogan and with the Briarhoppers, and their heyday was in the 1940s. They played on WBT Radio in Charlotte, North Carolina, which was a powerhouse radio station in the day, and they had a daily radio show. Then, my Dad, all of his life, he just played for fun.”

The full story is available on line.

The Grascals will perform this morning (11/25) in Ft. Campbell, KY for the soldiers, prior to an address by President Bush. The President will also bestow a Volunteer Service Award to a local hero.

Jamie Johnson speaks for the band about this opportunity…

“What an honor to be a small part of something so huge. The troops are coming back from serving our country, and we intend to do an upbeat show and put a smile on each and every face as we all welcome them home!”

We are hoping to get some photos from this event, and will post them as soon as we get them.

There is more presidential news from the band…

The Grascals will have a second meeting with the president next Tuesday, December 2, as they travel to Washington D.C. to perform during a special reception, dinner and party honoring the President and Mrs. Laura Bush and the Vice President and Mrs. Lynn Cheney. The band will receive a private White House tour and be there to meet the president and first lady when they arrive.

2008 has been a good year to be a Grascal.

As always seems to happen this time of year, a number of top bluegrass bands are making personnel changes.

Aaron McDaris is leaving The Grascals, and Kristin Scott Benson will be leaving Larry Stephenson’s band to accept the job. She will start with The Grascals in two weeks.

The guys are stoked to have Kristin on board…

“The Grascals are VERY PLEASED that the 2008 IBMA Banjo Player of Year, Kristin Scott Benson, will be their new banjo player!  This is a very exciting time and the guys are truly thrilled that Kristin will be the newest Grascal.”

Online video for this past Monday’s edition of the Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour featuring The Grascals is now available.

The guys sing a number of songs from their latest CD, Keep On Walkin’, and host Michael Jonathon talks with each of them in turn over the course of the show.

Windows Media video can be found on the Woodsongs site.

OK… maybe not everywhere, but sometimes it seems that way.

They popped up in a recent issue of the star-style magazine US Weekly, and will appear in the January edition of Martha Stewart Weddings magazine.

They also found themselves in the studio with Hank Williams Jr., cutting with him on a song Hank Jr. wrote some time ago. It’s a song with a bluegrass feel, and while it isn’t sure when or where the track may appear, the guys were stoked to be asked to record with such a legend in country music.

The Gracsals hooked up with Martha Stewart at the September 26 wedding of Liesl Menning and Kevin Haynie. Liesl is Stewart’s personal assistant, and Haynie - brother of fiddler Aubrey - performs as a member of Josh Turner’s band. They met on the set of the Martha Stewart show, and the Grascals provided the musical entertainment at their gala Nashville wedding.

Here’s the segment from the Martha Stewart Show where she previews the wedding segment that will be featured on the Style Network in December, which will also feature The Grascals.

WAMU’s Bluegrass Country will once again be broadcasting live from IBMA today (10/2), from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. and 6:00-7:00 p.m. (EDT). You can catch their signal via audio streaming online, and via HD Radio (88.5-2) in the Washington DC market.

The sub-theme of the Thursday remote is tonight’s International Bluegrass Music Awards.

Appearing this afternoon (10/2) are:

• Pine Mountain Railroad
• New Found Road
• Grascals
• Preview of The Awards Show - musical medleys of nominee categories
• Profiles of Hall of Fame Inductees by Fred Bartenstein
• Phil Nusbaum on the Ryman’s importance to the bluegrass world

Our own intrepid correspondent, Richard Thompson [bluegrassmercury], has arrived in Nashville from the UK to attend the IBMA convention next week. This is his first trip to IBMA in 20 years, and we thought that his impressions and considerations would be of interest both to others who are likewise preparing to attend, and our many readers who would love be there but are unable to do so.

bluegrassmercury - Travelogue #2
by Richard F Thompson

We had the pleasure of attending the Grand Ole Opry last night (9/27). I say we, my wife Karen will probably get many mentions over the next week or so; she’s my trusty photographer.

It was my third visit to the Opry, if my memory serves me correctly and Karen’s second experience of the show.

The format never changes; it’s an institution and it works, so why fix it! It is a superb variety show with entertainment for very nearly all tastes. For those that don’t know, each artist is limited to one or two songs on his or her portion of the show, which for this particular evening, was split into four parts, each half an hour long.

There was a good mix of ladies of country music - I mean real country music.

The still beautiful Connie Smith demonstrated why Dolly Parton rates her among the top three female singers in any genre, telling me that she Never Once Stopped Loving You. The feeling’s mutual Connie! Marty, you are one very fortunate fellow.

Canadian Terri Clarke has a rare empathy with an audience and won more favor with a very good version of Loretta Lynn’s first recorded song Honky Tonk Girl. Karen was thrilled by that. And Suzy Bogguss reminded us that the art of yodeling is still alive and well.

Little Jimmy Dickens was in good wise-cracking form and reminded us of his abilities as great ballad singer, even at 87 years of age or thereabouts. In contrast the portly Jack Greene looked as though age had caught up with him a few years ago.

There were four bluegrass acts this evening; Jesse McReynolds and the Virginia Boys, who performed just one song; I’ll Love Nobody But You. He was accompanied by his granddaughter, Amanda Lynne and grandson Garrett (guitar), both singing harmony, and an ever-smiling legend, Jim Buchanan on fiddle, Terry Lease (banjo) and Matthew Madden (upright bass). Jesse still has nimble fingers. (more…)

The Grand Ole Opry is taking on a bluegrass flavor this weekend as the World Of Bluegrass prepares to descend on Nashville.

Tonight’s Friday Opry (9/26) will feature Del McCoury, Ricky Skaggs, The Whites, Grascals and Jesse McReynolds.

On Saturday night, they’ll have Del, Ricky and The Whites again along with Bobby Osborne and The Carolina Chocolate Drops.

The Friday Opry is broadcast from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. (EST) and the Saturday show runs from 8:30 p.m. until 12:30 a.m. Both shows are available over the air in the Nashville market on WSM AM 650, on XM channel 11 (XM Nashville), and simulcast worldwide via online streaming at wsmonline.com.

Our Richard Thompson will be at The Opry tonight, so perhaps we will have a report from him tomorrow.

The list of acts that will feature during this year’s IBMA Awards Show has been announced.

The IBMA Awards Show, hosted by revered singer and guitarist Del McCoury, will feature a stellar group of performers who will entertain the audience in between the presentation of the awards. The list includes some of this year’s top nominees Blue Highway, Dale Ann Bradley, Dailey & Vincent, The Del McCoury Band, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, The Grascals, The Infamous Stringdusters, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, The SteelDrivers, The Steep Canyon Rangers and others.

Among the others are the reigning Entertainers of the Year, The Grascals, who hope to take home the crystal trophies they have held in that category for the last two years.

Seven-time Vocal Group of the Year Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver will showcase their tight harmonies and showmanship, while songbird Dale Ann Bradley, reigning IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year, will give the audience a taste of why she is nominated again this year.

If that isn’t enough Cindy Baucom, who with Ned Luberecki has organized the event, had this to say about what’s in store for the night …..

“There will be some wonderful surprises! Bluegrass Fans will not want to miss this one!”

A highlight of the awards show will be the induction of this year’s Hall of Fame honorees–Bill Clifton, a pioneering artist, songwriter and international ambassador for bluegrass music, and the late author and historian, Charles K. Wolfe.

The current list of award presenters includes nominees Sierra Hull, Sonya Isaacs, Claire Lynch, Bradley Walker, Marshall Wilborn and Josh Williams, along with Terry Baucom, Ron Block, Larry Cordle, G2 Bluegrass Band, Carrie Hassler, Kathy Mattea, Lynn Morris, Alecia Nugent and Tony Trischka.

The International Bluegrass Music Awards are determined by the professional membership of the association and recognize outstanding achievement in the bluegrass genre. The show is syndicated to more than 300 radio stations across the country and around the world, and will be broadcast live on XM Satellite Radio, XM 14 Bluegrass Junction. National sponsors for the show include Martha White Foods, GACTV, GHS Strings, Pinecastle Records, MerleFest and Deering Banjos.

The star-studded event takes place on Thursday, October 2 on the stage of the historic Ryman Auditorium, the very place where bluegrass music was born. Tickets go on sale to the public on Friday, September 19, by calling the Ryman box office at 615-889-3060 or Ticketmaster at 615-255-9600.

The new Bluegrass Music Profiles is out, with The Grascals on the cover.

The September/October ‘08 issue finds Grascals Jamie Johnson and Danny Roberts interviewed about the band’s latest CD, Keep On Walkin’, their newest member (fiddler Jeremy Abshire), and their dream of someday becoming members of The Grand Ole Opry.

You’ll also find an interview with The Gibson Brothers, a Shop Talk column with Ron Block, a history of the Jerusalem Ridge Bluegrass Celebration, and a discussion with songwriter Chris Jones.

Full details on BMP can be found on their web site.

If it seems like The Grascals are everywhere these days… well maybe it’s because they are. They are showing up TV and radio every few days, and there are two more chances to catch them coming up.

The guys will be on tonight’s Tuesday Opry (9/2), performing in the 8:30-9:00 segment along with Jean Shepard. The Opry show is broadcast over the air on WSM AM-650 from Nashville from 8:00-10:00 p.m., and via live streaming at wsmonline.com. The show is also carried live on on XM channel 11 (XM Nashville).

Then tomorrow morning (9/3) Friday morning (9/5), they will be the guests on Studio Special, which runs on XM Satellite Radio’s Bluegrass Junction (XM 14). The show debuts at 8:00 a.m. (EDT) with a number of rebroadcasts over the next week or so.

• Saturday, September 6 at 11:00 a.m
• Sunday, September 7 at 6:00 p.m.
• Monday, September 8 at 8:00 p.m.
• Tuesday, September 9 at midnight
• Thursday, September 11 at 3:00 p.m.

The show features a live, in-studio performance from The Grascals, along with interviews and discussion with Studio Special host Kyle Cantrell - who tells us that this show was one the final appearances of former fiddler Jimmy Mattingly with the group. Kyle also mentioned that when they recorded this show back in March, the band had not yet publicly performed a number of the songs from their newest CD, Keep On Walkin’, which serves as the focus of this program.

The Grascals will be performing live today (8/29) on the News at Noon program on Chicago’s WGN TV. WGN is carried on most US basic cable packages and many satellite packages as well.

They will be highlighting songs from their new CD, Keep On Walkin’ which has been a fixture on the Billboard bluegrass chart since its release.

Look for The Grascals on WGN at noon central time on Friday, August 29. WGN posts many video clips from the News at Noon show online, so keep an eye out there if you miss them live.

The Grascals are scheduled to perform this Saturday (8/16) on The Grand Ole Opry, not only on the radio, but on the televised portion as well. They’ll be offering songs from their latest CD, Keep On Walkin’, and celebrating the two IBMA nominations they received yesterday.

An hour of Saturday’s Opry show is carried live on GAC TV, on Opry Live, which airs from 9:00-10:00 p.m. (EDT). The show will re-air on Sunday (8/17) at 1:00 a.m., again at noon and 7:00 p.m., and then again on Tuesday (8/19) at 8:00 p.m.

Catch the Opry radio show over the air from 8:00 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. at WSM 650 AM, broadcasting from Nashville, on XM channel 11 (XM Nashville), or via live streaming at wsmonline.com.

We mentioned yesterday that Rhonda Vincent was being considered in the second round of CMA voting for her duet with Gene Watson, an it turns out, The Gracsals are candidates in this last vote as well, in the Vocal Group Of The Year category.

Wouldn’t it be great to see several bluegrass acts among the CMA nominees?

Y’all Wire, a large country music video web site, has announced their Top 8 Bluegrass Videos for 2008 to date.

The video ratings are based on the site’s Multivariate Audience Meter, which measures a video’s popularity of “audience engagement.” In addition to online views, this measure includes how often a video is selected as a favorite, forwarded to others, embedded elsewhere, tagged, receives comments and is rated by Y’all Wire users.

Here’s how this measurement system rates bluegrass videos for 2008:

1. Rhonda Vincent, Heartbreaker’s Alibi
2. Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Sadie’s Got Her New Dress On
3. The Grascals, Me and John and Paul
4. The Gibson Brothers, I Got A Woman
5. Sam Bush, The Rivers Gonna Run
6. Lori Willcuts, Black Eyed Susans
7. Ryan Shupe and The Rubberband, Banjo Boy
8. Yonder Mountain String Band, Classic Situation

Y’all Wire also publishes a weekly list of the top 7 bluegrass videos, and you can browse all of them on their site.

Artists or labels who would like to see their videos appear at YallWire.com can register online.

FiddleFest is an annual bluegrass festival located quite near my home in Roanoke, VA. It’s held the last weekend of July each year on the bucolic campus of Hollins University, just north of Roanoke.

I was able to attend last Friday’s (7/25) show where I enjoyed music of Grasstowne, Jimmy Bowen & Santa Fe, The Bluegrass Brothers and Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys - and was flat blown away by my first live experience of Dailey & Vincent!

Jenny Slaughter, the official FiddleFest photographer, shared a number of images she captured at the festival, which we share with our readers forthwith.

Bluegrass Underground, a new monthly live bluegrass music show, is set to debut on WSM on August 29. It will air on WSM and in syndication on the last Friday night of each month at midnight (central time - technically, Saturday morning).

Each show will be recorded before a live audience more than 300 feet underground in The Volcano Room at Cumberland Caverns in McMinnville, TN - hence, the show’s name. The site is a natural amphitheater created by the actions of water and time over millions of years which the show’s producer, Todd Mayo, describes as one of the most acoustically pure natural spaces on earth.

“No man-made sound reaches inside the cavern and the living rock hued amid the eons is jagged and uneven, providing near perfect resonance. All performances will be entirely acoustic and unamplified. Each show will be recorded, mixed, and edited by our Grammy-Winning Recording Engineer, Phil Harris. The goal is to arrange the band around one large tube microphone to record and perform the way it was done in the Golden Age of Radio and Bluegrass. We will have plenty of other microphones on hand to compliment the recording where needed.”

The first two show tapings have been scheduled, and tickets are available now to be in the studio audience.

• August 16, 4:00-6:00 p.m. - The Steeldrivers
• September 27, 2:00-4:00 p.m. - The Grascals

Tim O’Brien and The Infamous Stringdusters are expected in shows later this year. Once the show gets going, video and audio archives will be added to the show’s web site.

Stations interested in carrying Bluegrass Underground should contact Todd Mayo by email.

Jamie Johnson, of The Grascals, and his wife, Suzanne Mumpower-Johnson, are very proud to announce the birth of Jackson Cole (Cole Train) Johnson.

Little Cole Train was born on Saturday, July 12. Cole Train is 20 ½ inches long and weighed in at 8 lbs, 2 ½ oz.

Both Mommy and baby are doing great and so is Jamie since he was able to make it home from California where The Grascals were on tour in time for the birth!

Congratulations to Jamie on the birth of his son!