Tonight’s edition of Music City Roots on WSM has plenty to attract the attention of bluegrass fans. The show, which airs live each Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. (CST) from The Loveless Barn, just outside of Nashville, will feature sets from The Grascals and The Josh Williams Band.

If you live within WSM’s very wide broadcast footprint, you can hear the show on 650-AM. If not, it will also be streamed live online from 7:00-9:00 p.m. The format brings four bands to the stage, emceed by Jim Lauderdale and Eddie Stubbs, with artist interviews conducted live by Craig Havighurst.

The Grascals have been enjoying their richly-deserved time in the spotlight this past few years. With a trio of critically-acclaimed albums and multiple IBMA awards, these guys (and gal) have been burning up the highway, keeping a very busy tour schedule.

Less well known (for now) is The Josh Williams Band. Regular readers of The Bluegrass Blog have seen our occasional mentions of Williams, a very talented, young artist who, at the age of 29, has already had the eye of the IBMA on him for 16 years. At age 13, he was singled out to be included in a group of Youth All Stars at the IBMA show, along with Chris Thile, Michael Cleveland, Cody Kilby and Brady Stogdill. Here he is in that illustrious company – on banjo – which foretold much of what we have seen from these fine pickers since that day.

Josh had memorable stints with Special Consensus and Rhonda Vincent in his late teens and early twenties, and has now struck out on his own. His third solo project will be released by Pinecastle in February, and The Josh Williams Band will soon begin recording their debut CD.

They had a very strong showing at IBMA 2009, and we spoke with Jim Roe of Roe Entertainment, who books Josh, about the impact of their high profile during World Of Bluegrass.

“Their main stage showcase went really, really well. They played a number of late night showcases in 2008, and I heard from several people that the band sounded much more mature this year, and that Josh looked really confident fronting his band.” (more…)

Charlie Daniels has worn a good many hats over his 50 years in the music business.

His first big hit came in 1973 with Uneasy Rider, a countryfied talking blues, years before the rap craze began. The hilarious song, following on the recent success of the Dennis Hopper film, Easy Rider, told the tale of a stranded, long-haired motorist who stumbles into the wrong bar looking for a phone in the deep South. It was a hit primarily in the rock music world, with a story that appealed to the “hippie” culture more than the country music world of the day, where Merle Haggard’s Okie From Muskogee had been a 1969 hit.

In 1978, Daniels’ Devil Went Down To Georgia was an even bigger hit, mixing a rock beat with an old time fiddle in a timeless story of dueling with the devil. Charlie worked the southern rock scene for many years, but always as a fiercely independent artist who went his own way. As pop and country formats moved away from his signature sound, he formed his own label, Blue Hat Records, and has released new projects annually, without regard for radio play.

In 2005, Charlie released his first bluegrass CD, Songs From The Longleaf Pines, featuring Earl Scruggs, The Del McCoury Band, Mac Wiseman, Doc Watson, Ricky Skaggs and Chris Thile. Since then, two other releases have featured substantial bluegrass content, while it is also included in his live show.

For the end of 2009, Daniels has a new CD/DVD project with a bluegrass Christmass theme. Joy To The World – A Bluegrass Christmas has an audio CD with 12 new studio tracks and a DVD with 10 live performances of the songs from the CD. The Grascals join Charlie for Christmas Time’s A Comin’, Dan Tyminski is on hand for The Christmas Song, and Kathy Mattea for O Come All Ye Faithful – on both discs.

Other guests include Aaron Tippin, Jewel, and Suzanne and Evelyn Cox.

Audio samples can be heard in iTunes, and the CD/DVD set is available from the Charlie Daniels web site and wherever recorded music is sold online.

The Grascals announced today that they are partnering with a new sponsor: Mobil Delvac, a heavy duty diesel engine oil. They broke the news at a swanky media luncheon at The Palm restaurant in Nashville. As we ate our salads Marci Crigger, who works in marketing for the Exxon Mobil Corporation, explained how this new pairing came about. She is a big bluegrass fan and one of her friends told her she should check out the Grascals. They played at a VIP party for the Mid-America Trucking Show earlier this year and she got the opportunity to hear the band, meet them, and go out with them after the show. Over the course of their conversations, she and the members of the group realized that, “The people who listen to bluegrass are really the same ones who buy diesel engine oil.”

Mobil Delvac will provide the Grascals with a bus, emblazoned with the band’s new publicity picture, as well as the company logo. If you want to see it in person during IBMA, just walk down the street past the Convention Center in Nashville–it will be parked there all week. The bus will be filled with Mobil Delvac 1300 Super 15w-40, and the company will also conduct regular oil analysis testing with samples collected from the bus.

The band is extremely excited about the new sponsorship and feels like it’s a great pairing. I just wonder, will they give away samples at the merchandise table?