Heather Berry is known to bluegrass fans as one of the award winning Daughters of Bluegrass. She put her first band together when she was 12 and recorded a CD titled Reflections of the Past. In 2006 she released To A Dove on Blue Circle Records. Now her second CD for that label has been released. At the young age of 20, this is her 8th CD.

It is aptly titled Before Bluegrass, because the music presented here is in the style of the 1920-1940’s. Recorded live with no overdubs, this CD reflects the traditions of early Appalachian recordings such as The Bristol Sessions. The CD features Heather and her husband Tony Mabe performing as a duo. The couple bears witness to the traditions that led to bluegrass music. You’ll hear echos of the Carter Family, Jimmy Rodgers, Charlie Pool and other old-time influences on this CD

My husband and I have been wanting to record a project like this since we first started dating. Now thanks to Tom T. and Dixie Hall and Blue Circle Records, we are so happy to present this album to you.

These are the kind of songs that we grew up on, and are very near and dear to our hearts. For name’s sake, we’re calling this “Before Bluegrass” because it really is the style of music that bluegrass came from.

…we want to not only help to preserve the heartfelt, beautifully pure music that they made, but to also maybe introduce it to new audiences who will hopefully love it just as much as us.

Heather and Tony are proud that there are no overdubs, punches, vocal tuning, or effects on this recording. It is just them playing and singing songs they love. Not all the music is old though. Tom T. and Dixie Hall contributed a couple of new songs that fit the style of the recording.

If you’re interested in hearing some samples of this recording, visit Heather’s home page. There are short samples from 5 songs featured in an embedded flash jukebox.

The Blue Circle Records MySpace page features several other samples. And here is a youtube music video for one of the songs on the record.

On October 28, 2006 The Daughters Of Bluegrass took home the coveted Recorded Event of the Year award for their second CD release, Back To The Well. The evening before the awards were announced, they also performed at an official IBMA showcase, and video from that show is now posted on YouTube.

Songs available from that show include:

All seven of the videos can be found on the Hope River Entertainment YouTube page.

Marion, VA is a town you might miss, unless you are traveling on I-81 through Virginia’s Blue Ridge mountains. The area has a rich musical heritage, however, and is now the home of Song Of The Mountains, a live concert series which is recorded for broadcast television from Marion’s restored Lincoln Theater.

The show is the brainchild of Tim White, a well-known performer and radio personality in East Tennessee (Troublesome Hollow and The VW Boys), and Andre Burroughs, Production Manager at Blue Ridge Public Television in Roanoke, VA. They launched in the summer of 2005, drawing a local audience and filming several of the shows for airing on BRPTV.

These shows were also offered to PBS affiliates all over the US, and 26 picked the show up over the course of that first season. In 2006, shows were recorded for the 2007 broadcast season, and the show received a Telly Award for their work in season one.

The 2007 broadcast season will include live shows featuring Jesse McReynolds & The Virginia Boys, The Lost & Found, Roni Stoneman, The VW Boys with special guest “Tater” Tate, Mike Seeger, Paul Williams & the Victory Trio, Randy Waller & the Country Gentlemen, Wayne Henderson & Jeff Little, Heather Berry & Dominion Grass and many others.

Tim White tells us that they have 50 PBS affiliate stations carrying the show now, and that it is distributed for broadcast to members of the National Educational Telecommunications Association through the NETA Program Service.

Stations wishing to contact Tim for more information can do so by email.

Heather Berry reports that her next CD, To A Dove, is nearly finished and should be released sometime in April. Guest artists include some real bluegrass legends - like Mac Wiseman and Eddie & Martha Adcock - plus more contemporary bluegrass luminaries like Don Rigsby and Alecia Nugent.

The new CD was recorded in Tom T. and Dixie Hall’s studio and the title track is one of Dixie Hall’s compositions.

Heather also has a new lineup for her band, Dominion Grass, which includes Wade Cox on bass, Travers Chandler on mandolin, and Robert Overstreet on banjo and dobro.

Starting on Tuesday October 25, The Country Music Hall Of Fame and Museum will offer a special programming schedule to coincide with IBMA week in Nashville.

Located at 222 Fifth Ave. S., the Hall Of Fame and Museum is only a short distance from the site of the IBMA convention, and admission to most museum events is free with an IBMA badge. Special events include film screenings of classic Flatt & Scruggs shows, interviews, live performances from 3 Fox Drive and Heather Berry, and a book signing with Stephanie Ledgin. See a complete list of events on the Hall Of Fame web site.