Rick and Shayne Bartley have been playing bluegrass in their native Kentucky since they were boys.

Older brother Rick stayed at home, working in the mines, all the while continuing to pick, sing and write songs. Shayne took to the road, performing with Dave Evans, Charlie Sizemore, Southern Blend, Unlimited Tradition, Rarely Herd, David Peterson and 1946, and Karl Shiflett, to name a few.

Now the brothers are fulfilling a lifelong goal of recording and touring together, and have announced the debut of The Bartley Brothers. Rick is on guitar and lead vocals and Shayne on banjo and vocals, with Taylor Baker on mandolin and Jayd Raines on bass and tenor vocals.

Their style is hard-driving and traditional, owing much to the sound of fellow Kentuckians JD Crowe and Don Rigsby, who the brothers have known and with whom they have worked and collaborated for years. Crowe has one of Rick’s songs, I’m a Hobo, on his latest CD, and Rick also has the title track on the current Junior Sisk album, Blue Side of the Blueridge.

You can hear three tracks from The Bartley Brothers on their MySpace page.

They are accepting bookings now for 2010 and beyond, with Shayne handling the band’s management. He can be reached by email or phone (859-321-9874).

We’ve been in touch recently with Fred Robbins, a photographer and bluegrass enthusiast who has posted a brilliant set of photos from the 1972 Country Gentlemen Festival at Indian Ranch online. This was the first such festival hosted by the Gents, held in Webster, MA.

Fred tells us that he just stumbled across the slides after decades sitting in a box, and says that he is delighted to be able to share them with the bluegrass community.

If you enjoyed the Bluegrass Country Soul DVD released in 2006, you are sure to appreciate Fred’s photos, which were taken a year after the festival documented in that DVD. New bluegrass fans will get a kick out of seeing some of today’s premier artists when they were younger, and folks who were following bluegrass in the 1970s will have some powerful memories rekindled.

There are shots of The Country Gentlemen, The Kentucky Gentlemen, Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys, James Monroe, Bluegrass 45, The McLain Family, Mac Wiseman, IInd Generation and the original Newgrass Revival.

Here are a few images Fred agreed to let us post, but you really need to see them all, put together in a very nice slide show online.

               

Fred also has a great many audio and video recordings from bluegrass events posted where they can be seen and heard online.

The recently completed film about banjo ace J.D. Crowe is to have its first showing shortly at the J.D. Crowe Bluegrass Festival on Thursday night, 28 August.

The film entitled A Kentucky Treasure: The J.D. Crowe Story, has been produced by Russ Farmer with the invaluable help of long time Crowe fans Frank and Marty Godbey, both of whom provided their interviewing skills, photographs and general knowledge.

As we reported in March last year, Farmer is a former producer and director employed by Kentucky Educational Television (KET) and this is the first film that he has made since his retirement from that organization.

The film includes interviews with about twenty five former New South band members. Additionally, many others including Sonny Osborne, Mark Schatz, Ricky Skaggs, Bela Fleck, Tony Trischka, Earl Scruggs and Alison Krauss have provided comment about Crowe.

Farmer spoke about the origins of the film and shared information about some of the trials and successes that have taken place along the two-year long path to completion …….

It was Labor Day weekend 2006, I was sitting at a table having cornbread and beans with the master of the five string banjo, J.D.Crowe. Thursday evenings at the annual Labor Day, J.D. Crowe Bluegrass Festival and jamming, cornbread and beans are mandatory. As we were sitting there talking mostly about golf, an idea popped into my head and it came out my mouth really before I had even thought it through.

“Would you mind my following you around with a camera for awhile,” I asked, “and maybe editing something together later as a ‘day in the life’ of J.D. Crowe?”

J.D. though for a minute and said, “yeah, I think that might be OK.”

Little did I know the next year and a half of my life would be pretty much consumed by all things J.D. Crowe. (more…)

Bobby Osborne and J.D. Crowe are hitting the road, together. The two legends are planning to tour as part of The American Bluegrass Masters concert tour. Organizers are stating this is the first time in 50 years that Crowe and Osborne have toured together. The tour is being promoted as featuring Living Legends & Next Generation Stars.

The Masters band for the tour consists of:

• Bobby Osborne – mandolin
• JD Crowe – banjo
• Dean Osborne – banjo and guitar
• Bobby Osborne Jr. – bass and guitar
• Richard Bennett – guitar
• Curtis Burch – resophonic/steel guitar
• JP Mathes – banjo, guitar, bass

In addition to the Masters band, the Kentucky School of Bluegrass and Traditional Music Ensemble is on the tour as well. The ensemble consists of:

• Obadiah (Obe) Golding – banjo
• Andrew DeKemper – resophonic/steel guitar
• Katherine Boguss – fiddle

No tour dates have been announced yet. Booking information is available at opus3artists.com.