We’ve posted a few times about The Boxcars, the new supergroup formed late in 2009 by Adam Steffey, Ron Stewart, Harold Nixon, John Bowman and Keith Garrett.

To date, they have only played a few shows together and are working on a recording now. There is a tremendous amount of excitement about the group based on their individual reputations, but very few people have had a chance to hear how they sound as a band.

They will make their national debut this Wednesday (1/27) on the Tennessee Shines radio show, broadcasting from Knoxville, TN on WDVX FM. The show is hosted monthly by Jim Lauderdale at Knoxville’s Bijou Theatre. In addition to The Boxcars, this month’s show will feature Blue Highway, Robinella, and Tommy Emmanuel and Frank Vignola.

If you can’t make it to The Bijou tomorrow night, the entire show will be broadcast online at WDVX.com starting at 7:00 p.m. Don’t miss it!

Nominations were announced yesterday (12/2) for the 52nd annual Grammy Awards.

Omitted from the breathless news coverage of all the shiny pop stars was the real news that matters to readers of The Bluegrass Blog.

Nominees for Best Bluegrass Album (Vocal or Instrumental):

• Could We Get Any Closer?, Jim Lauderdale (Sky Crunch Records)
• The Crow – New Songs For The Five-String Banjo, Steve Martin (Rounder)
• Buckaroo Blue Grass, Michael Martin Murphey (Rural Rhythm Records)
• Almost Live – Bryan Sutton And Friends (Sugar Hill Records)
• Destination Life, Rhonda Vincent (Rounder)

Another category that features artists from the acoustic and bluegrass world is Best Country Instrumental Performance:

• Under The (Five) Wire, Alison Brown. Track from: The Company You Keep (Compass Records)
• The Crystal Merchant, The Greencards. Track from: Fascination (Sugar Hill Records)
• Mansinneedof, Sarah Jarosz. Track from: Song Up In Her Head (Sugar Hill Records)

Béla Fleck is also nominated in the Best Contemporary World Music Album category for Throw Down Your Heart: Tales From The Acoustic Planet, Vol. 3 — Africa Sessions (on Rounder), and Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer received one in the Best Musical Album For Children category for Banjo To Beatbox (Community Music).

Congratulations and best of luck to them all!

The awards will be presented during the Grammy televison special on CBS (January 31, 2010), and these “special awards” are distributed during a luncheon event earlier that day. It is not televised, but is usually available for live viewing online.

UPDATE 10:00 a.m. – Oops… We neglected to list the nomination that Barry Scott garnered in the Best Southern, Country, Or Bluegrass Gospel Album category. It is for his In God’s Time project on Rebel.

Tennessee Shines is a new live music radio show which debuts tonight (8/27) on WDVX, broadcasting at 89.9 FM in Knoxville, TN and via live audio streaming at wdvx.xom. The two hour show will be hosted by Jim Lauderdale and broadcast live on the last Wednesday of each month from Knoxville’s historic Bijou Theater.

Tonight’s guests will be The SteelDrivers, Darrell Scott, Shawn Camp and the everybodyfields.

In addition to live performances from each of the musical guests, Jim will be chatting with the bands, finding out what they have been doing, and what they have on the horizon. He will also participating in a songwriters session with Shawn Camp and both Mike Henderson and Chris Stapleton from The SteelDrivers.

WDVX will be the base radio home for Tennessee Shines, and discussions are now underway to bring the show into wider syndication, and hopefully satellite radio as well.

Guests have been booked for the September edition of Tennessee Shines, and the lineup will be announced during this evening’s program. Tonight’s show is sold out, but tickets to attend future shows can be obtained through the Tennessee Theater box office, and as available, at the door.

Tune in from 7:00-9:30 p.m. to catch the debut program tonight.

Grammy winning singer/songwriter, Jim Lauderdale is currently in the studio finishing up the vocals on a new bluegrass recording. I’m told the recording is shaping up even stronger than his last outing, The Bluegrass Diaries.

Lauderdale’s approach to songwriting and recording appears to be somewhat unique.

In typical Lauderdale style, he’s writing the lyrics after the instrumentation has been tracked, so he comes in to sing whenever he finishes a song.

It’s worked for him in the past…

It’s being recorded at Randy Kohrs’ Slack Key Studio in Nashville. The recording began back in March, and is nearing completion now. Jim’s goal is to finish the recording by Sept 1, 2008, though I don’t yet have any info as to a release date, or even a title.

I enjoy Lauderdale’s singing, and his songwriting. I thought Diaries was a great recording, and I’m looking forward to hearing this latest CD. We’ll bring you updates as we get them.