Here’s another update on the ongoing campaign to petition the US Postal Service to honor Bill Monroe with his very own postage stamp – and we have some very encouraging news!

People and organizations all over the US have been circulating petitions and returning them to the manager of stamp services for the USPS. The campaign has picked up steam this year in the hope of seeing the stamp issued in 2012, which will mark the centennial of Bill Monroe’s birth on September 13.

The good news comes in the form of a letter from Terrence McCaffrey, manager of the USPS stamp development office, in response to a set of signed petitions turned in by the Seven Mountains Bluegrass Association in Pennsylvania.

The letter indicates that the Bill Monroe stamp is under consideration for issuance, and that subjects for the 2012 release schedule are now being selected. Now is the time to double down, folks!

You can find all the details to print petitions to be completed, and the addresses where they should be sent, here on The Bluegrass Blog. Take them to a jam or a bluegrass concert, get your family and friends to sign, irritate your neighbors…

If enough bluegrass lovers participate, we’ll all be able to celebrate the founder of bluegrass music with an official US postage stamp in 2012.

Just do it!

Jimmy Gaudreau’s musical legacy in the bluegrass world is already partly written. He is what the baseball writers would call a “future hall of famer” – an active player who has already achieved sufficient notoriety to ensure his eventual induction as one of the greats.

His career in bluegrass began more than a generation ago when he stepped in to fill John Duffey’s place with The Country Gentlemen in March of 1969. Over those 40 years Jimmy has toured and recorded with The Tony Rice Unit, JD Crowe & The New South, IInd Generation and a number of others, and splits his time these days supporting Robin & Linda Williams as a member of their Fine Band, and as a duo partner with Moondi Klein.

Gaudreau is hard at work finishing a new album of his instrumental tunes for mandolin, one that he hopes will be released before the end of 2009 on a new label, Stonebridge Records, which he has formed with Stuart Martin. The two met when Martin was engineering 2:10 Train, Gaudreau’s 2008 CD with Moondi Klein on Rebel Records. Jimmy and Stuart have become serial collaborators, and will be working together on the new instrumental project as well.

“The basic concept of my project is to feature ‘pieces & bits’ ( a possible title) of instrumental tunes I’ve composed over my career, some of which I have recorded on earlier albums and some I simply haven’t gotten around to recording until now. The ‘pieces’ will include rhythm guitar, bass and various other lead instruments while the ‘bits’ will feature abbreviated versions and include only mandolin or mandola backed by rhythm guitar, octave mandolin or bouzouki. The idea is to weave these in between the production numbers possibly using a fade-in/fade-out technique, although that’s merely one idea we’re tossing around.

In the end, I’m sure what will happen is that Stuart will hit on the ideal way to tie it all together, and we’ll go for it. He’s just that good!” (more…)

Sound like a Country Gentlemen song?

Well this morning Katy Daley will be talking to ex-Country Gentlemen alumnus Jimmy Gaudreau, who this month is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the date that he first sang as a member of that storied bluegrass band.

Since then Gaudreau spent several years, in two stints, playing mandolin and singing with the Gentlemen, and later with JD Crowe and the New South. He also worked with The Tony Rice Unit (for 9 years), with his own bands Country Store, Spectrum (with Bela Fleck), Chesapeake, and Auldridge, Bennett & Gaudreau, and partnering with Bill Clifton and currently Moondi Klein.

Their telephone conversation can be heard on WAMU’s Bluegrass Country online.

WAMU transmits on 88.5FM and 105.5FM from Reston, Virginia.

We heard recently from Gianluca Tramontana, who hosts a weekly radio program in England. Sitting with Gianluca airs each Wednesday evening at 10:00 p.m. (GMT) on Resonance 104.4 with a mix of live music and discussion with roots music artists.

His guests last week were Jimmy Gaudreau and Moondi Klein, who sat for an interview with Tramontana in the basement of the Town Hall in New York, waiting to open for Emmylou Harris.

They talked with Gianluca about their music and their terrific CD, 2:10 Train, released on Rebel in 2008, and picked a few for the radio microphones.

You can hear the podcast from the show on the Sitting with Gianluca web site.