Jon Weisberger is not at all lonesome. The Nashville-based bass player of more than 20 years standing - and noted writer about bluegrass matters - was married only a short time ago.

He is also known for his songwriting, and as an active member of the IBMA Board of Directors. You can now add to his busy schedule, a job playing bass with Larry Cordle and Lonesome Standard Time.

Let Jon tell us how this arrangement came about …….

“Cord called me shortly after New Year’s Day to ask me if I’d like to join Lonesome Standard Time. My reply, of course, was “absolutely.” I’ve been a big fan of Larry’s music for many years, going back to when Ricky Skaggs first hit with Highway 40 Blues, and I’d written about him back when Murder On Music Row came out. I filled in with him on one date in Columbus, Ohio, just about a year ago, and had a great time - and last weekend’s dates in Fairview, Ohio and Milton, West Virginia confirmed that that’s the norm. Cord’s a great writer, a great singer, and a great front-man - he really knows how to get the audience on our side and keep them there.

The rest of the band is superb, too; Booie Beach (guitar) and Kim Gardner (Dobro ®) are both exceedingly under-rated instrumentalists, and it’s great to be reunited with Chris Davis (mandolin, vocals) - he had played and sung in my band, Union Springs, back in 1998, shortly before it disbanded. And, of course, it’s cool to have my frequent musical companion Ned Luberecki playing banjo for the rest of the month’s dates.”

Larry Cordle and Lonesome Standard Time has a recently released CD, Took Down And Put Up on the Lonesome Day Record label (LDR 011), a collection that has just figured in the Top 15 Bluegrass Albums chart in The Bluegrass Unlimited Natural Bluegrass Survey listing for January.

You can check the band’s tour schedule online for a chance to catch them live.Weisberger concludes by telling us about his other activities and his hopes for this year. He certainly leads a busy life…..

“In the meantime, I’ll continue to perform with Chris Jones & The Night Drivers, the Harley Allen Band, Radiola, Roland White, et al, as I’m able to - so far the dates seem to be working out OK for that. And I’m looking forward to a good song writing year; I’ve got a co-write with Tim Stafford and Bobby Starnes coming out on the new Blue Highway album, and a couple of other songs of mine look like they’re going to get recorded this year, too.”

Mountain Heart unveils their new sound this weekend on The Grand Ole Opry, introducing guitarist/vocalist Josh Shilling for the first time on last night’s Friday Opry, and performing again tonight on the Opry radio broadcast.

They got a call back from the Opry audience last night after Josh sang one of his tunes, and all the guys are excited about having him in the band.

Jon Weisberger, Nashville writer, musician and member of the IBMA Executive Committee, attended the band’s rehearsal yesterday, and passed along some more information and his impressions of Josh, and how he fits into the Mountain Heart sound.

I stopped by Jim Van Cleve’s house Friday to catch a few numbers as Mountain Heart was rehearsing for their weekend’s shows at the Grand Ole Opry with new member Josh Shilling—and, like the members of the band themselves, I was blown away by his talent. Just 23 years old, Josh grew up around Martinsville, Virginia and now lives in Roanoke. But while he heard bluegrass from an early age—almost inevitable in that area—he was drawn to the piano as a youngster, and by the time he graduated from high school, he was already playing a wide variety of music with an equally wide variety of bands on a semi-professional basis. Indeed, by the time he got the call from Mountain Heart, he was working 200 dates a year.

From what I heard—a half-dozen numbers, including “I’m Just Hear To Ride The Train,” “God And Everybody,” “Heart Like A Road Sign, Head Like A Wheel,” “Deadwood” and a beautiful contemporary country-flavored original of Josh’s—this young man’s going to fit right in with Mountain Heart’s signature sound, while bringing some new dimensions to their music. He can definitely cut the vocals on their existing material. Josh doesn’t sound exactly like Steve Gulley, but there’s no apparent limit to the upper end of his range, and he’s getting inside the songs quickly, so fans will find a lot of continuity of sound in their favorite material.

I sat and talked with some of the guys—Josh, Barry Abernathy and Jason Moore, mostly—during one of their breaks, and was impressed by their mutual admiration. Perhaps surprisingly, it turns out that Josh and the band had been aware of each other for some time, having connected through Mountain Heart’s sound engineer Scotty Bolen, who engineered some demos for Josh a few years back.

“They were doing a record for Clay [Jones] about two years ago,” Josh told me. “And for some reason, I just decided I wanted to go by and check it out, so I eased into the session and introduced myself to everybody. (more…)

A number of people have contacted us, asking about the controversy during last week’s International Bluegrass Music Awards, or wondering why we haven’t covered it on The Bluegrass Blog. Both Brance and I were at the show (live blogging backstage), and had the chance to watch the controversy develop, before, during and after the show itself.

There have been strident and emotional reactions to the inclusion of a patriotic-themed presentation during the Awards Show, and it has led to some upheaval within IBMA’s leadership. We have contacted many of the folks directly involved to get their comment, but feel that we need to address it here now.

In a nutshell, what happened is this:

The producers of the show had included two numbers with what was described in an official press release about ten days prior as having a “patriotic theme.” This was to include a song by Rhonda Vincent, and a performance by the US Navy bluegrass band, Country Current. A number of non-US members of IBMA felt that this was adding an inappropriately political tone to the show, and that a salute to the US military was a slight to the notion that IBMA was an international organization. Several US members shared this assessment.

These concerns were conveyed to the IBMA Board, who met with non-US members just days before the show, and amongst themselves to address these concerns. A decision was reached by the Board that the Navy band would be asked to change the song which they had originally been asked to perform - a medley of US military service anthems - and instead perform one of Chief Wayne Taylor’s original songs.

Rhonda’s performance was to go on as planned, with a tribute offered to US service men and women. Several representatives of the various military branches were to join her on stage, standing silently stage left and right, to be spotlighted for recognition during the song.

At the show, Country Current performed the newly-inserted song as per their new agreement with IBMA, but then launched into the service themes as per their original agreement. There is dispute among the principals - chiefly Wayne Taylor and former IBMA President David Crow - over the conversation that followed this performance, and whether the Navy Band had been authorized to include the second song. Crow resigned immediately following the performance.

In a letter to the IBMA membership, he indicated that his resignation should be seen as his assumption of responsibility for having “lied” to the membership in saying that the military anthems medley would be removed, but a subsequent letter suggested that a desire to dedicate more time to his family and legal practice - both rapidly growing - also played a large part in his decision.

There has been no official statement from IBMA about this as yet, but we have asked Executive Director Dan Hays to speak with us about it when he feels it is appropriate.

We are also seeking comment from the show’s producers, Rhonda Vincent’s management and the Navy band. I can’t swear that we can get all the details, but we’ll try, and will report what we can find out.

UPDATE 11:20 a.m.: Jon Weisberger emailed to correct an error he found in this post, to wit that IBMA had made no official statement about this controvery. He passed along a statement that he had sent on Monday to the IBMA member discussion list on behalf of the Executive Committee, posted as coming from Greg Cahill, Stan Zdonik and himself.

“Since the staging of the IBMA’s annual Awards Show on Thursday night, members of the Board of Directors’ Executive Committee have conferred both in person and by telephone to discuss aspects of the show that contravened the Committee’s and the Board’s prior decisions. The Committee views the failure to implement these decisions with deep concern, and is undertaking a timely review of events to establish responsibility for the failure. The results, along with recommendations for appropriate actions, will be communicated as rapidly as possible to the Board for consideration.”

We’d like to add one more voice to today’s discussion about the IBMA Wellness Program, and its being rolled into the Education Committee. Here are a few words from the current Chair of that committee, Jon Weisberger.

“Health and wellness issues are indeed important for the IBMA to address on a consistent basis, including at the World of Bluegrass trade show, and in fact they will be addressed at this year’s WOB and, I’m confident, at future ones, too.

What’s important, I think, is to understand that the administrative decision to recombine all seminars, including wellness-related ones, under the purview of the WoB Education Committee, isn’t a reflection on the priority the organization assigns to these issues, but rather a reflection of the experiences we’ve had in trying to put together a comprehensive and well-organized educational program as part of the World of Bluegrass. As Dan Hays has already noted, we anticipate that Musicares - the NARAS health program of which Dave Moultrup spoke so highly on the GrassCast podcast - will be having its health fair at the trade show again this year, and while the Education Committee is just now finalizing its list of seminars to be offered this year (which, by the way, means that any comments about a lack of wellness-related seminars in 2006 were necessarily speculative), it appears just about certain that health issues will be among the topics addressed. We are also looking into some other health-related offerings that may not necessarily take the form of seminars.

Finally, the Education Committee always welcomes suggestions for seminar topics - not just during the springtime planning period for a given year’s trade show, but year-round - whether they’re offered by individuals or by a group of IBMA members. Probably the most convenient way to do this is via the contact us page on the IBMA’s website.”

Noted bluegrass writer/journalist and musician Jon Weisberger has written another fine tribute to Louise Scruggs which can be read in the online version The Nashville Scene, a free arts and culture newsprint publication widely read by music industry professionals in Nashville. Jon recaps her life and the impact she made on the music business, and also includes some quotes from an interview she gave to The Nashville Scene, last year.

A reserved but iron-willed woman who was raising two young sons at the time she began assuming responsibility for Flatt & Scruggs” business, Louise had been interested in business from her childhood. She wasn”t surprised by the resistance she encountered. “They always wanted to talk to Earl,” she recalled in a 2005 interview with the Scene. “But I would say, “No, you have to go through me anyway, so you might as well talk to me now and then we”ll get this settled.” “

Read the whole article here.

Jon also links to a fascinating recent interview with both Earl and Louise Scruggs conducted by Alan Chartock for WAMC radio in NY. Chartock is professor emeritus at the University at Albany, and an amateur banjo player in addition to his work on radio. The wide ranging 30 minute interview is devoted as much to Louise as Earl, and includes some classic music clips as well.

Earl describes how he came to join Bill Monroe’s band, how he developed his three finger style, and discusses his participation in Viet Nam war protests in the 1970s. Louise recalls the genesis of Flatt & Scruggs’ involvement with The Beverly Hillbillies TV show, and the day that Warren Beatty called to talk to Earl about scoring the music for Bonnie & Clyde.

Serious students and fans of Flatt & Scruggs or Earl and Louise Scruggs won’t learn much new from the radio interview, but anyone who would enjoy hearing a recap of their long careers and contributions to the music will surely enjoy giving it a listen.