If you’ll be near your computer, there are a number of online shows you might want to catch today (6/20).

At 11:00 a.m. this morning, Jimmy Gaudreau will join host Carol Beaugard on Lonesome Pine RFD, broadcast from 9:00 a.m. to noon on 89.1 FM in the New York City area. Jimmy is on tour now with Moondi Klein supporting their duo Rebel CD, 2:10 Train. They are opening for Emmylou Harris over the course of her summer tour.

You can find their tour dates on the duo’s web site.

If you aren’t in the NYC area, Lonesome Pine RFD is streamed live online at WFDU.fm.

At noon, The Lovell Sisters will perform live on WDVX’s Blue Plate Special. The show originates from Knoxville, TN and is broadcast in that market at 102.9 FM - and via live streaming online.

Blue Plate Special airs at noon (EDT).

For those who subscribe to Sirius satellite radio, here’s another one worth your attention.

The Infamous Stringdusters will be on Sirius Bluegrass tonight at 8:00 p.m. (EDT). The broadcast will feature a live set recorded last week at Nashville’s Station Inn where the guys run through all of the songs from their new CD, The Infamous Stringdusters, plus a couple of bluegrass favorites.

Should you miss tonight’s show, it will replay on Sirius Bluegrass on Saturday (6/21) at 10:00 p.m. and on Sunday (6/22) at 4:00 p.m. (all times eastern).

Sirius Bluegrass can be found at channel 65 on your Sirius Satellite Radio receiver. They also offer a subscription-based online service, Sirius Internet Radio, and free 3-day trials are offered to non-subscribers.

Recently we reported news of the release of the Country Gentlemen Reunion Band CD - Adcock, Gaudreau, Waller & Gray.

At the time the fledgling link-up didn’t have a website. It does now! Go to the new website to see the liner notes, bios, and more about the CD - plus sound clips.

As an aside, Martha Adcock told me how the name RadioTherapy Records was chosen. I thought I would share the thought process involved …

“In thinking of a name for our own record label, I thought it was best to check the www.allrecordlabels.com site to see if any of our choices had been taken, to avoid the possible confusion of our label having the same name as another. Lo and behold, all the ones we had chosen were already in use; I have a whole page of them that I systematically checked off on the list. So I resorted to the dictionary for inspiration. I like alliteration, so the R’s were consulted first; and when I came upon the word ‘radiotherapy,’ meaning ‘therapy effected through the use of radiation (the definition of the term ‘radiation’ includes sound waves) I thought it would do very well to call our label RadioTherapy Records — because of course music is good for you!”

Great story, isn’t it?

Jimmy Gaudreau and Moondi Klein, whose Rebel CD 2:10 Train was released earlier in March, are scheduled to tour with Emmylou Harris this summer.

They will open for her starting in mid-June, with dates currently booked running through the end of July.

More shows could be added, and all will be listed on the duo’s web site.

The Country Gentlemen Reunion Band has announced the release of their self-titled CD on RadioTherapy Records, a new label established by Martha and Eddie Adcock.

The Country Gentlemen Reunion Band features Randy Waller, son of Charlie Waller, who, like his father, sings lead and plays guitar; Eddie Adcock (banjo, lead and baritone vocals), Tom Gray (upright bass, bass and baritone vocals) and Jimmy Gaudreau (mandolin, lead and tenor vocals). They have been making several personal appearances, most notably to mark the 50th anniversary, last year, of the formation of the original Country Gentlemen.

Adcock, Gaudreau, Waller & Gray - The Country Gentlemen Reunion Band (RTR-CD-001) has 13 tracks, four of which, including the opening song Widow Of The Glade, are by the late lamented Randall Hylton. Remember the Country Gentlemen’s other ghost stories? Well, this is a modern counterpart to Bringing Mary Home. Older songs to get the Country Gentlemen treatment include I Hope You Have Learned, Grave In The Valley, Little Box Of Pine, Sundown And Sorrow and Some Old Day.

Other notable numbers are White Line Fever from Merle Haggard, Sweet Georgia Brown and a jazzy new instrumental composed by Gaudreau, El Doggo.

Co-producer Martha Adcock comments …..

“After Monroe, if anyone can be said to have turned bluegrass in a new direction, it was without a doubt the ‘Classic’ Country Gentlemen: John Duffey, Charlie Waller, Eddie Adcock and Tom Gray. No one else did as much to re-popularize and reinvigorate the genre, taking it to city-folk audiences, and onto hip college campuses, to large theaters and coffeehouses, and eventually to Carnegie Hall. Their musical creativity, individually and synergistically, coupled with their hip irreverence and loose attitude onstage, was a quantum leap from the past, and it brought about a sea change in bluegrass, a dramatic expansion of the genre.” (more…)

Rebel Records has two new releases released last week, a greatest hits compilation and a new duo recording.

Jimmy Gaudreau and Moondi Klein are names that should be familiar to bluegrass fans. Klein spent time with Seldom Scene, and later with Mike Auldridge (and Jimmy Gaudreau) in Chesapeake. Gaudreau has been a member of several of the most celebrated acts ever to play bluegrass - The Country Gentlemen, JD Crowe & The New South and The Tony Rice Unit, to name a few.

Their debut CD together is called 2:10 Train, and the performances are true duets throughout. There are no guest artists, just Moondi on guitar and lead vocals with Jimmy on mandolin and harmony. The material is taken from traditional old time and country music, and some of the best contemporary bluegrass and folk songwriters. If you’ve followed these genres for the past 20 years or so, most of the titles will be familiar, but each receives a treatment that is fresh and perfectly in keeping with the minimalist approach on this CD.

You’ll find Tom Paxton’s Last Thing On My Mind, Pete Goble’s Colleen Malone, Harley Allen’s High Sierra and Eric Bogle’s And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda among the newer songs along with old time favorites like Sweet Sunny South, Shady Grove and Black Jack Davey.

There are a few audio samples on Jimmy and Moondi’s site, and for all the tracks in iTunes.

Greatest hits of bluegrass collections seem to come out every few months, many of them little more than back catalog tracks by lesser-known artists. When a project is titled Best Loved Bluegrass - 20 All-Time Favorites, it’s fair to expect a good bit from the CD.

And this new Rebel compilation delivers. Not only are there offerings from Tony Rice, Lonesome River Band, The Country Gentlemen, Larry Sparks, Del McCoury, Ralph Stanley, JD Crowe and others, the songs are great examples of each artists’ work during the time they recorded for Rebel.

The Lost Found are here with Love Of The Mountains, Emerson & Waldron with the original version of Fox On The Run (classic!), Reno & Smiley with Little Rosewood Casket and Claire Lynch with Wabash Cannonball. The Gent’s offer Bringing Mary Home and Mac Wiseman Footprints In The Snow, with Larry Sparks’ version of Roving Gambler and Keith Whitley & Ricky Skaggs doing Dream Of A Miner’s Child (while they were still in school).

You can see the full track listing - and hear audio samples - in iTunes.

Music Of Coal - Various Artists (Lonesome Records & Publishing CD 071); two CDs with 70 page book, released in 2007

The work of coal miners has long been commemorated in song, disasters have led to contemporaneous ballad type songs and personal acquaintance with victims of the industry has led to intense, heart-rending insights into the side-effects of working below ground. Many songs have been found during song-catcher expeditions - some of those recording are found here, others have been written by those with a social conscience as a form of protest at times of strife. As well as embracing the social ramifications, political, historic and economic aspects of life in coal mining communities.

The industry ‘captured’ labour at a very young age and the picture of a disheveled youngster on the cover is a evidence of that. It’s a refection of the level of poverty for the often big families that boys had to go to work in the mines to help boost their father’s income. There has seemingly been very little scope for avoiding the pits. Not many people have been able to follow Ron Short’s advice in Set Yourself Free.

The collection is sub-titled Mining Songs From The Appalachian Coalfields and, in fact, the music chosen is pared down to music from southern Appalachia and to that by local talent. There is a mixture of styles - big band, jazz, old-time (in its various sub-sets, including string band), traditional country, bluegrass, folk, blues, boogie-woogie and choral.

Also, the performances are by people from a variety of classes; miners, labour organisers, activists, religious leaders and professional musicians. The quality of these vary, just as the sound quality of the recordings themselves vary, but some tracks do feature well known pickers; Mike Seeger, Jimmy Gaudreau, Jim Watson, Wayne Benson, Robert Bowlin, Glen Duncan, Mike Bubb, Jamie Johnson and Jimmy Mattingly included.

The recordings themselves span a century, beginning with the opening song on the first disc - Down In A Coal Mine an excerpt from The Edison Concert Band and made in 1908. Other recordings from the early part of the last century include Mining Camp Blues by Trixie Smith (1925); He’s Only A Miner Killed In The Ground -Ted Chestnut (1928); Coal Miner’s Blues - The Carter Family (1938) and Sprinkle Coal Dust On My Grave - Orville Jenks (1940), sung to the same melody as Sunny Side Of The Mountain. (more…)

Rebel Records has announced that their first new release for 2008 will be a duo project from Jimmy Gaudreau and Moondi Klein.

Bluegrass fans remember Gaudreau from his years with The Country Gentlemen, The Tony Rice Unit and his current gig with John Starling & Carolina Star. Klein will be familiar as a former member of both Seldom Scene and Chesapeake.

According to Mark Freeman of Rebel:

“It’s a very simple, straightforward traditional album, a polar opposite to their Chesapeake days. There are no additional musicians or instruments, just Moondi and Jimmy on guitar and mandolin respectively performing a number of bluegrass and folk standards with some very nice instrumentals as well.”

The two have played a number of shows in the DC-area, and will be booking shows for 2008 as their busy schedules with other commitments allow.

Look for their new CD on Rebel in February 2008.

A couple of familiar names may entice you to consider the debut, self-titled CD from The Skylighters, a DC-area band who combine bluegrass, western swing, gospel and honky-tonk music. Jimmy Gaudreau on mandolin/vocals and Mike Auldridge on dobro will catch the attention of bluegrassers, and join Eric Brace (guitar/vocals), J. Carson Gray (bass) and Martin Lynds (drums/vocals) to complete the lineup.

The Skylighters’ story will be familiar as well. Heard this one before?

A bunch of musicians in the Washington DC area get together to play for fun, and end up recording and performing their mix of traditional, modern and original music after things click at informal sessions. Include dobro master Mike Auldridge in the telling, and the sense of déjà vu deepens.

It isn’t fair to throw comparisons with Seldom Scene at The Skylighters, but the parallels are interesting, if only in a historical sense.

The music and the mix of styles is perhas more reminiscent of what Gaudreau and Auldridge did with Chesapeake some years back, and might be more properly described as Americana than traditional, bluegrass or roots music.

A track listing and audio samples are available on the Red Beet Records site. Look for the Jukebox link to hear song snippets.

March 16, 2006 has been set as the CD release date for a unique retrospective project on CMH Records from Jimmy Gaudreau. Entitled In Good Company, the CD is a mix of new and re-issue tracks, both live and studio recordings, featuring Jimmy in his role as a celebrated bluegrass sideman, or band member, over his more than 35 years in the business.

The new CD contains previously unreleased recordings with Tony Rice, Charlie Waller, The Fox Family, Bel??? Fleck with additional performances from Jack Lawrence, Sammy Shelor, Robin & Linda Williams, Randy Waller, Mike Auldridge, Dan Tyminski, John Starling, Mark Schatz and Bill Clifton.

Jimmy was first introduced to bluegrass audiences in 1969 as the new mandolinist with The Country Gentlemen, and went on to also be a part of IInd Generation (with Eddie Adcock), JD Crowe & The New South, Spectrum (with Bel??? Fleck) and The Tony Rice Unit among several others. Both as a mandolinist and a distinctive tenor vocalist, Jimmy made his mark on each of these acts, and enjoys the respect and admiration of pickers and fans alike as a result.

We had an opportunity to discuss the new CD with Jimmy recently and discovered that it is a very personal project for him.

“It started several years ago with a few tunes I had in my collection which I thought would be a good mix/foundation for a compilation CD, as this is. I then decided to go into the studio(s) and record tunes/artists…both, to complete the picture I really wanted to see and suddenly I was looking at a list of more than 30 tunes (there’s actually another album’s worth of material which I had to cut in order to trim it down to a single CD…that was tough!)”

“I was fortunate to be the 2005 inductee into SPBGMA’s Preservation Hall Of Greats, and in preparation for my acceptance speech at their annual convention in Nashville last February, I decided my ‘theme’ would focus on how lucky AND blessed I’ve been to have been able to play in bands with some of the greatest pickers and singers in bluegrass. This year I, yet another ‘baby boomer’ will turn the big 6-0 (Yikes!) and as I approach retirement (oh yes. my good friend Bill Emerson has shown me that it can be done) I look back and see that it was LUCK that enabled me (who is, in my estimation, a limited-ability player and tenor singer) to land the job with the Country Gentlemen in 1969. That position and more luck down the line, opened the doors to numerous recording opportunities and associations with several ‘name’ bands over the last 37 years and the BLESSINGS came with all the friends I’ve made during this time. It is my true intention to project this sentiment with this release…not just to say ‘Kilroy was here.’ ” (more…)