Luke McKnight is the son of Gwen McReynolds, the oldest of Jesse’s four children. He has worked as part of the Virginia Boys since 1994 or 1995 when he joined on a part time basis and, I recall, he piqued my interest in him when I heard him singing on Our Kind Of Country (Pinecastle PRC 1108). In fact, I had missed his contributions to an earlier CD A Gift For Keith, recorded as a benefit for the late Keith McReynolds, Luke’s uncle. McKnight is also among the musicians on other Jesse McReynolds’s CDs since then, as well as releasing his debut album in 1999.

More recently, McKnight has decided to go out on his own, form a band - Luke McKnight & Thunder Road - and make another album. The current band members are Daniel Grindstaff, on banjo; Kent Blanton, on bass; Steve Thomas, on fiddle; and Garrett McReynolds (Jesse’s other grandson) on guitar and tenor vocals.

McKnight recently announced the availability of that self-released album, Leader Of The Band. Recorded last year in Steve Thomas’ Gain Train Studio in Hendersonville, Tennessee, it features McKnight (mandolin and lead vocals), Grindstaff (banjo), Blanton (bass), Thomas (guitar and vocals, as well as fiddle) Donny Catron (vocals), Tommy White (Dobro ®), Carl Jackson (vocals) and Scott Vestal (banjo).

The CD comprises an interesting mix of material, beginning with The Beatles’ I’ve Just Seen A Face. There are a few other older songs including Rovin’ Gambler, Eastbound Freight Train, Lizzy Lou and Don’t Fall In Love With a Rambler, along with newer songs, such as the title cut, Mr. Right Now (written by Garth Brooks) and 2000 Years Ago, a Gospel song written by Jesse McReynolds.

Additionally, there are two instrumentals - Showboat Ride and the McKnight composition The Crossing, another showcase for the cross-picking style of mandolin playing.

There are audio samples on Luke’s website, and at CD Baby.

Bluegrass legend Jesse McReynolds has benn hosting a live radio show on WHIN Radio 1010 AM in Gallatin, TN, for a while now. But, being a local radio station, the show was previously unavailable for those outside WHIN’s broadcast area. The station has just gone online with a live stream though, so now Jesse’s live bluegrass radio show is available to all.

The Pick Inn Party Radio Show runs every weekday morning from 8-9 AM CST.

Jesse comes from the old-school mindset of live radio, so that’s the way he’s chosen to run his show. Jesse is joined by co-host Harv Mason and the two feature live music, phone calls from listeners, special guests, and more. You never know what to expect, because the entire show is done live and spontaneous!

Visit WHINRadio.com at 8 AM each weekday morning and join Jesse and Harv for some live bluegrass music and fun.

Yesterday, July 9, was Jesse McReynolds’ 78th birthday.

I spoke with Jesse, and his wife Joy, via email yesterday and they sent along this photo of Jim & Jesse, sitting on the steps outside their old homeplace in SouthWest Virginia. Jesse believes this photo was taken in 1932, when he was only three , and his brother Jim (sitting to the right) would have been five at the time.

Jesse is not only one of bluegrass music’s great pioneers, he and his wife Joy are also two of the kindest, most friendly people I’ve ever met. Congratulations on another year of playing great bluegrass music Jesse! We’re looking forward to many more.

The Grand Ole Opry has some good bluegrass on tap this weekend, during both the Friday and Saturday night radio broadcasts.

Friday (7/6) has Mountain Heart in the 10:00-10:30 p.m. slot, and Jesse McReynolds in the 10:30-11:00 segment.

On the big Saturday night show (7/7), Mountain Heart is back (9:00-9:30, 11:00-11:30 slots), as is Bobby Osborne & Rocky Top X-Press (8:00-8:30 slot), Dale Ann Bradley (8:30-9:00 and 11:30-12:00 slots) and Mike Snider (7:30-8:00 and 10:30-11:00). All times are eastern.

As always, the Opry broadcasts can be heard online via streaming audio from the WSM web site, and their radio can be heard over a wide portion of the southern and central US at 650 AM. Friday’s show runs from 9:00-11:00 p.m., and Saturday’s from 7:30 p.m. until 12:30 a.m.

Highlights of the audio broadcast will be available early next week in the WSM audio archives if you miss the broadcasts.

The Murfreesboro Post in Tennessee had a story on Monday announcing Jesse McReynolds as the recipient of the Uncle Dave Macon Heritage Award for 2007. This honor is given annually in the memory of the great Uncle Dave, with past honorees including such luminaries as Roy Acuff, Bill Monroe, John Hartford, Mac Wiseman and Rhonda Vincent.

The award is described by the Heritage Award web site thusly.

Each year the Board honors that individual who has spent a lifetime in the perpetuation and preservation of traditional, “roots” music.

Jesse will accept his award on July 14 at the Uncle Dave Days festival in Murfreesboro, TN. He will perform at the event, and serve as Grand Marshall for the yearly Motorless Parade through Murfreesboro.

Congratulations to Jesse for this much-deserved tribute, and thanks to our banjo pickin’ buddy Rick Briggs for the heads up.

There’s been so much bluegrass on The Grand Ole Opry this past few months that I feel like I’m repeating myself each Friday when I point out who’s on. This week is no exception, with Mountain Heart performing on both the Friday and Saturday night shows from The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.

If you have yet to catch their recently revised lineup - with new vocalist Josh Shilling front and center - and will be near a radio receiver or an Internet connection, you’ll have the chance tonight (2/16) between 9:00-9:30, and again on Saturday evening (2/17) between 8:00-8:30 and 11:00-11:30 (EST).

Also appearing on Saturday’s Opry broadcast will be Jesse McReynolds & The Virginia Boys (8:30-9:00), Cherryholmes (9:30-10:00 and midnight to 12:30) and The Whites (9:00-9:30 and 10:30-11:00). All times are Eastern.

The Opry broadcasts can be heard online via streaming audio from the WSM web site, and their radio can be heard over a wide portion of the southern and central US at 650 AM. Friday’s show runs from 9:00-11:00 p.m., and Saturday’s from 7:30 p.m. until 12:30 a.m.

If you miss the live broadcasts (or audio streams) you can find selected performances posted on the WSM audio archives page by early next week.

Some of the more popular bluegrass instrumental projects of recent years have been in a Pinecastle series which came to be called the Bluegrass Annual projects, as each was designated by the year in which it was released. Seven CDs were eventually included, starting with Bluegrass ‘95, and concluding with Bluegrass 2001.

The series had a largely accidental genesis, initially recorded as a solo project for Clay Jones, now guitarist with Mountain Heart. When that project was finished, Clay made a decision to work outside of music, and Pinecastle was prepared to shelve the recording, seeing no venue to promote it. Scott Vestal, a long time friend of Clay’s who played banjo on the project, intervened with the label and convinced them to release it as an instrumental CD so that the artists who recorded with Clay (Adam Steffey, Wayne Benson, Aubrey Haynie, Barry Bales), could at least offer it for sale at their shows.

Scott was quoted in an August 2000 article in Banjo NewsLetter about this, and how he came to take charge of creating and producing an instrumental release for them for each of the next six years.

“I talked with Tom Riggs at Pinecastle and suggested that we release it in some form with a generic title so that at least the guys on the record could sell it at shows. I just threw out the name, Bluegrass ‘95 and he liked it. No one expected it to sell so well but, when it did, Pinecastle turned the concept over to me and asked me to do one each year.”

Each was successful in its own right, but as the CD inventory for each title sold through, Pinecastle has elected to let them go out of print. Bluegrass 2001 is the only one still available as an audio CD.

They released a compilation from those CDs in the summer of 2005, called Ultimate Pickin, which featured 20 tracks taken from those recordings, and now a second compilation is out with a bit broader range that includes more tracks from those popular CDs.

The newly released More Ultimate Pickin also contains 20 tracks, taken from the aforementioned Vestal-produced projects, and other Pinecastle CDs like Bobby Osborne & Jesse McReynolds’ Masters Of The Mandolin, among others. A full track listing and a few audio samples can be found on the Pinecastle site.

You can still obtain the individual Bluegrass Annual projects as digital downloads in the iTunes Music Store. Follow the links below to find them in iTunes.

More great bluegrass is on tap in this Saturday night’s Grand Ole Opry radio broadcast. The Del McCoury Band and Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys are featured this week, as are The Whites and Jesse McReynolds & The Virginia Boys.

GAC TV is running a live program on Grand Ole Opry Live this Saturday, but none of the bluegrass acts are slated during this 8:00-9:00 p.m. segment.

Ralph and The Whites will perform in the 7:30-8:00 and 11:00-11:30 slots, Del in the 9:00-9:30 and the midnight to 12:30 a.m. spots, and Jesse in the 10:30-11:00 segment (all times EST).

If you can catch WSM over the air - as a large portion of the south central US can do - you can tune in at 650 AM, broadcasting from Nashville. If not, you can catch the live WSM audio stream online to hear the program, which runs from 7:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. on Saturday, January 27.

Del and Ralph will also appear on tonight’s Friday Opry show (1/26), which is not broadcast. WSM does record the show, and audio from selected performances will be posted on their WSM audio archives page by early next week. Selections from Saturday night’s show will be posted there as well.

Look for Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver to appear on this Saturday’s Grand Ole Opry radio broadcast (12/30). They are scheduled in the 8:00-9:00 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. to midnight segments.

Jesse McReynolds & The Virginia Boys will also be featured, performing in the 9:30-10:00 p.m. and 12:30-1:00 a.m. slots. All times are EST.

If you can catch WSM over the air - as a large segment of the south central US can do - you can tune in at 650 AM, broadcasting from Nashville. If not, you can catch the live WSM audio stream online to hear the program, which runs from 7:30 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. on Saturday, December 30.

GAC TV is airing a Best of ‘06 program on Grand Ole Opry Live this Saturday, but a performance by Alison Krauss & Union Station will be included. It airs initially at 8:00 p.m. on 12/30, with several encore presentations on New Years Eve.

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.

There’s plenty of great bluegrass on the Grand Ole Opry again this weekend. JD Crowe & The New South will make a rare Opry appearance on Saturday (12/8), performing in the 8:00-8:30 and 11:00-11:30 p.m. segments. They will surely be showcasing songs from their newest release, Lefty’s Old Guitar.

Also on the show this week are Jesse McReynolds & The Virginia Boys (12:30-1:00 a.m.) and Old Crow Medicine Show ( 8:30-9:00 and 11:30-midnight). All times shown in Eastern Standard Time.

As we remind our readers whenever we find good bluegrass on The Opry, the show is broadcast live on WSM AM 650, and can be heard over the air in large parts of the central US. You can also listen to the live WSM audio stream online to hear the program, which runs from 7:30 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. on Saturday, December 8.

WSM selects highlights from both the Friday and Saturday Opry shows, and makes them available on their audio archives page. Each weekend’s audio should be available by early in the following week.

Bluegrass booking agency Roe Entertainment has announced the addition of Jesse McRynolds to it’s artist roster. Jesse should need no introduction to bluegrass fans. In addition to McRynolds Roe has also recently added Karl Shiflett & Big Country, and The SteelDrivers. These additions have doubled the number of artists Roe is booking. Prior to this the roster included Lonesome River Band, Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper, and Randy Kohrs & The Lites.

With six artists now the roster I suspect Jim Roe is going to be busy acquiring bookings for next year. Hopefully he’ll keep all his artists busy as well. If you are an event producer and would like more information you can visit Roe Entertainment on line at www.roeentertainment.net or via the info below.

Contact Information:

Jim Roe
Roe Entertainment
PO Box 128186
Nashville, TN 37212

Office: 615-770-2622 ext 10
E-mail: roeent@bellsouth.net

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This week’s guest on The GrassCast is mandolin legend and Grand Ole Opry star, Jesse McReynolds. Jesse has a new CD out titled Dixie Road. He had a copy with him at IBMA and we sat and talked about the recording. In the interview we preview 4 tracks from the disc, talk about the players on the disc, and touch a bit on songwriting.

In addition to the new CD, Jesse also talks about his history in bluegrass music. He tells us how he came up with the crosspicking mandolin style he’s known for, and explains what it was like in the early years of bluegrass playing and singing with his brother Jim McReynolds. He also discusses the changes in recording technology and how that has affected the music.

This is a great interview with a true bluegrass pioneer. Don’t miss it!

Direct Download: ep51_jesse_mcreynolds.mp3

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