Jon Weisberger became serious about writing songs in 1998, having taken up the bass in his early teen-age years. Born in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and trained as a classical musician, the first songs that he wrote were recorded by Union Springs, a band that he helped to form in April 1992. A fellow member of the band at that time was Dwight McCall, who later recorded Weisberger’s song The Pathway Of My Savior (on Never Say Never Again, McCall’s 2007 album on the Rural Rhythm record label).

Subsequently, he has worked with the Comet All-Stars, Prospect Hill, Katie Laur Band and The La-Z Boys. More recently Weisberger has played bass in the Wildwood Valley Boys; Chris Jones and the Night Drivers; Larry Cordle and Lonesome Standard Time; The Lonesome Heirs; the Roland White Band; the Harley Allen Band; and Sally Jones & The Sidewinders.

Also he has done some touring with the Tony Trischka Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular and spent a couple of years touring with April Verch.

Weisberger has also worked on the air and behind the scenes in bluegrass radio, hosting shows in the Cincinnati area and producing several after his move to Nashville in 2002.

His songs have been recorded by a wide range of top bluegrass acts including The Chapmans (Losing Again), Jim Van Cleve (Grey Afternoon and Way It Always Seems to Go), the Infamous Stringdusters (Three Days In July), Doyle Lawson (Yesterday’s Songs) and Blue Highway (Blues on Blues).

Other cuts include My Heart’s Bouquet (The Chapmans, on the same album as Losing Again), Blown Away And Gone (Del McCoury Band on The Company We Keep), Help Me, Lord (Dwight McCall, Kentucky Peace Of Mind), Lonely Road Back Home (April Verch, Steal The Blue) and Every Shade Of Blue (Cages Bend, Now I’m Lonely).

Unreleased songs that Weisberger has written or co-written include one on the forthcoming album by The Dixie Bee-Liners, Susanville, due out in October, and one on an album by Cincinnati area artist Missy Werner, whose Dwight McCall-produced album will appear around the same time.

He occasionally writes for the Nashville Scene.

Did you grow up in a musical family?

Both my parents enjoyed listening to music – classical and folk, mostly – and my father got me started playing the recorder when I was just three or four years old.

At what age did music register with you and what were the circumstances?

I’ve been interested in music for literally longer than I can remember – I have a photo of myself holding a recorder taken when I was three. I was very absorbed in classical music as a child, taking up the oboe when I was in the 3rd grade and playing it until I graduated from high school. My father bought a guitar when I was 13 – he intended to learn to play, but lost interest in fairly short order and passed it along to me. I taught myself some chords out of a book, but took up the (electric) bass soon after, playing in local rock and blues bands through high school. After a year or so of “general purpose” collegiate studies, I transferred to the California Institute of the Arts as a music major, and graduated with a BFA degree in 1975.

You are classically trained; how did that training affect your bluegrass song writing?

As near as I can tell, very little! I think it might have sharpened my analytical skills in terms of being able to understand the structure of songs, but that’s about all. Going through a bluegrass “apprenticeship” – working with local and regional, then national bands and trying to pay attention to what I could learn from folks who had been in the music longer than I – counted for a lot more.

What prompted you to start song writing?

Back in 1992, when Dwight McCall, Randy Pollard and I formed Union Springs, we approached Lou Ukelson at Vetco Records about doing an album. He was receptive to the idea, but said he wanted some original songs, and that was incentive enough for me to start writing. I came up with what I thought would make a great ballad called A Faded Picture, but when I pitched it to Dwight to sing, he thought it would sound better up-tempo, and that’s how we recorded it. For the next few years, I wrote a couple of songs each time we went to record, and wound up with three on our second, all-gospel album (Dwight’s since recorded two of those on solo projects), and two on our third and final one.

One of those was a ballad called My Heart’s Bouquet, which Chris Davis (now with Marty Raybon) learned when he was a member of the band in 1998. He continued to sing it with other groups, and in 2000, while I was at Bean Blossom with the Wildwood Valley Boys, I suggested to John Chapman that he listen to Chris sing it there, because it might be a good one for The Chapmans. He did, liked it (and subsequently recorded it), and asked if I had anything else. I had exactly one other song, which Chris had sung with Union Springs but which we hadn’t recorded, and it took me about a week to find a rehearsal tape and send it to John. The Chapmans cut that one, too – Losing Again – and it did well for them at bluegrass radio. After that I started taking songwriting more seriously and got into co-writing in a big way.

When did you move to Nashville and why?

I moved to Nashville at the very end of 2002 – in fact, my first gig as a Nashville resident was as a member of the Sidemen at the New Year’s Eve Station Inn show welcoming in 2003. I had wanted to really pursue a career as a professional musician, and while the Cincinnati area (where I was living at the time) had many things to recommend it, it had become clear to me that the ability to support very many professionals – at least in bluegrass – wasn’t among them. As Eddie Stubbs told me shortly after my arrival, if you want groceries, you need to go to the grocery store, and for me that was Nashville.

Who has influenced your song writing and in what ways?

I don’t think many people who write for bluegrass artists can escape the influence of greats like Lester Flatt and Carter Stanley; I certainly haven’t. I also have an immense appreciation for some later bluegrass writers, like Pete Goble, Paul Craft, Randall Hylton and especially Aubrey Holt, who did and do so well at writing straightforward, satisfying melodies and plain-spoken yet vivid lyrics. Tom T. Hall and Harley Allen are two more whose work I’ve appreciated greatly. I’ve also been influenced, of course, by folks I’ve written with. My most frequent writing partner has been Mark Simos, and I’ve gotten a lot from him with respect to being precise about melodies, and how to balance distinctive language with everyday speech.

You are most often noted as a bass player; what instrument(s) do you use in your song writing sessions?

On my own, I often work on songs in my head; when writing with others, the guitar.

Tell me about the writing of Three Days In July, which you co-wrote; from where did the inspiration for that song come?

Mark (Simos) and I wrote that in the spring of 2003; I don’t remember whether the invasion of Iraq was already under way, but it was on our minds, and we wanted to write a song that would address the tragedy of war but also offer some reminder of common humanity. Our thoughts naturally turned to the Civil War, as several bluegrass songs have used that as a setting to touch on similar themes, and we thought it would be neat to turn the usual bluegrass identification with the southern side on its head – and that led us to think of Gettysburg, one of the few major battlefields in the north. I think Mark already had some melodic fragments in mind, and as the son of an historian, I was familiar with the proposition that the Confederate army had moved on Gettysburg because there was a shoe factory or two there – and once we put those two things together, the song was written in a couple of hours.

About a year after that, Mark and I organized a demo recording session with Jeremy Garrett, Ned Luberecki and Stephen Mougin. Jeremy really took a liking to Three Days In July, and I thought he did a great job singing it, so although we pitched the song to a few artists, we also turned down a couple of requests by others for permission to record it because of his interest. (That turned out to be an excellent demo session, by the way, as the Del McCoury Band recorded two other songs from the same batch – Blown Away And Gone, which Mark and I wrote together, and Mark’s Eyes That Won’t Meet Mine.)

Yesterday’s Songs on the new Doyle Lawson CD sounds as though it had interesting origins.

About a year before I left the Cincinnati area, I met a young singer there named Lisa Shaffer, who was getting ready to graduate from Northern Kentucky University. We took a stab at putting a band together, but it didn’t work out, and she moved to Nashville about 6 months before I did. Lisa’s a great songwriter who’s had cuts with Dailey & Vincent and Rhonda Vincent, among others; we kept in touch occasionally, and at one point I introduced her to Mark Simos, and the two of them did a little writing together. At the 2008 World of Bluegrass, Mark wanted to write with each of us, and it wound up being most convenient to all get together at the same time. As we were casting around for an idea, Lisa talked about singing with her family as a youngster, and from there we moved along pretty quickly with the first verse, the chorus and part of the second verse. We finished the song the next day in the 4th floor lobby of the Renaissance Hotel, as Mark had already checked out of his room, and on the work tape we made, you can hear people getting in and out of elevators in the background.

A few weeks later, when I ran into Brandon Godman (then playing fiddle for Doyle Lawson) and learned that they were in the studio, I gave him a copy of the worktape on the spur of the moment – and he called from the studio a couple of days later asking me to email him the lyrics. I think Doyle’s cut turned out wonderfully, and the fact that it marks the first time he’s played the banjo on one of his records is a really cool bonus.

Which of your songs have charted or won you an award?

To date, only Losing Again has charted, reaching #5 on the Bluegrass Unlimited airplay chart; it got me a nomination for Song (or maybe Songwriter) of the Year from SPBGMA, an award I was happy to lose to Tom T. and Dixie Hall.

Which of your songs give you most satisfaction and why?

That’s a tough question to answer. Losing Again is one I’m pretty proud of; it was not only my first cut, but has been picked up by a number of bands around the country and continent, and that’s certainly a rewarding experience. Generally speaking, the ones I tend to feel best about are either written within pretty traditional bounds, like My Turn To Laugh, or pretty much completely outside of the bluegrass framework, like The Very Next Hello (both are on my album). I’m also particularly proud of Lonely Road Back Home, which April Verch recorded, and a song I wrote with Stephen Mougin called Cold Lonesome Night, which appears on a forthcoming Chris Jones & The Nightdrivers album – in both cases because pitching to an artist you’re working for or have worked for is a tough proposition!

Have you written any songs with a particular singer in mind? If so, what examples are there of that and what particular song writing techniques did you employ?

I’ve never spent much time trying to write for a particular artist. I’m not opposed to it in theory, but most of the time I’ve been writing, the song has kind of dictated its own direction, and the idea of bending it to fit one artist has tended to run counter to that. I’m a pretty strong believer in the idea of writing the song and then seeing who (or what style of music) it might fit.

What inspires you to write? Do you write from 9am to 5pm [office hours]?

I don’t have fixed hours for writing as such, but since most of my work these days is with other writers, there are definitely prime appointment times, typically 10 or 11 a.m. and going for a couple of hours. Co-writing imposes a certain kind of discipline in that regard that I find very helpful. Normally, when I get an idea, or a line, or a musical idea, I make note of it, and then when I get with a co-writer, I can pull out those notes and see what might be inspirational with that person at that time.

As you have become more experienced how has your song writing evolved?

I’ve certainly become more open-minded and adventurous as a songwriter, and have become a lot more comfortable with the process of following a song in the direction that it seems to want to go, rather than trying to force it to fit a preconceived idea of what it should be. At the same time, I think I’ve gained a better sense of how things work – balancing unusual verses with more straightforward choruses, for instance, or having a clearer sense of when a song needs (or doesn’t need) a bridge. And perhaps most importantly, I’ve become a lot more confident that a session will produce something useful!

What advice would you give for someone just starting to write bluegrass songs?

First, to listen analytically to favorite songs, and to try to find common elements among them that can serve as models for one’s own writing. Second, to keep track of ideas, lines, melodies; don’t rely on your memory to hang onto them indefinitely. Third, at least consider the idea of co-writing, especially with someone more experienced; quite a few writers are open to the idea of co-writing, even with folks they don’t know very well, and you can learn a tremendous amount from the experience. Fourth, seek out critiques from people whose opinions you respect; it can be an humbling experience, but the benefits far outweigh the discomforts. Lastly, don’t be afraid to get “out there” if a song seems logically to be heading that way; there’s more variety than ever in bluegrass, and more artists open to recording less obviously conventional material.

You took the unusual (unique?) step of putting out a CD of your own songs that were effectively demo-ed by other singers, but it was at the same time a bona fide release.

Though it’s a stylistically broader album, John Pennell did something similar about 10 years ago, and I hadn’t forgotten about it when I set out to do mine. The idea made a lot of sense to me, since I’m not in any respect a lead singer, and I have a lot of great singers among my friends. Hardly any of the songs existed in any form other than a rough work tape, and as I thought about it, I realized that I could come up with quality recordings for not much more than it would cost to make full-band demos – so that’s what I did!

Since then have you written more songs in which artists have shown interest?

Most of the songs on the project were at least a year old at the time it was recorded, and I’ve written quite a bit since then – in fact, as noted, Yesterday’s Songs was written after the project was done, and there are a couple of others written since then in which artists have shown an interest. I don’t want to provide details, because as Ronnie Bowman once told me, it’s best not to say anything about getting a cut until it’s on a CD shrink-wrapped and in the racks at Wal-Mart (!), but it looks likely that I’ll have a few more cuts out this year – and, I hope, more to come after that.

You can hear all 10 tracks from Jon’s CD on his MySpace page.

Rounding out the band are Mark Stoffel, mandolin and vocals, and Aaron Till, fiddle and vocals. Though the emphasis is on the band, there will be guest appearances by Darrin Vincent, Jamie Daley, Sally Jones, Jeremy Garrett, Mike Witcher and Megan Lynch.

The material will be mostly originals by Chris and/or Jon and Ned.  It will be the second CD for Chris’ own GSM records, with a projected release date in late July or early August. A downloadable single release is planned in early July.

In addition to winning IBMA Song of the Year in 2007 for Fork In The Road, Chris was also named the ‘07 IBMA Broadcaster of the Year for his work on Sirius-XM. Since The Night Drivers now contain a second Sirius-XM host (Ned Luberecki) and a bluegrass radio producer (Jon Weisberger), they decided to write and record a song for the new CD specifically for bluegrass jocks everywhere, entitled Bluegrass DJs 1:34.

They can say no more at this time.

The collection consists of a dozen songs, each of which Weisberger has written either alone or with a partner. None has been recorded before except for Losing Again (which the Chapmans cut in 2000).

Three of them were co-written with Mark Simos, while Alan Bartram, Jennifer Strickland, Justin Carbone, Jeremy Garrett and Tim Stafford helped with one each. The last five sang lead or harmony on their respective songs.

Most of the songs were penned in the past five years and they reflect the various facets of bluegrass music during that period of time. Two, My Turn To Laugh and Stepping Stone, are both traditional in character, albeit that the latter reminds one of Johnny and Jack with its rumba beat. Some, like When She’s By My Side, At The Bottom Again, Aim High and the title track, are among the majority in being contemporary bluegrass. A couple, including Nothing Against Memphis and Lonely Town, are acoustic country while The Very Next Hello has the broadest appeal.

Weisberger has been playing bluegrass bass since his late twenties, playing with at various times Union Springs, the Wildwood Valley Boys, Chris Jones and the Night Drivers, Larry Cordle and Lonesome Standard Time and recently the side project band, Lonesome Heirs. The musicians that he has asked to help him – Chris Jones, Tim Strong, Aaron Till, Mike Witcher, Ron Block, Jesse Brock, Andy Falco, Jeremy Garrett and Ned Luberecki, among others – are largely those with whom he has appeared on stage in recent years, with Tim Stafford and new friends Jenni Lynn Gardner and Megan McCormick could be described as ‘hired guns’ in the usual meaning of the term.

The same goes with the singers. Darren McGuire is young singer who crossed Weisberger’s path when they were both in Ohio in the 1990s, while the better-known Patty Mitchell, Jan Harvey, David Peterson, Robert Gateley, Stephen Mougin and Chris Davis have each made a favourable long-term impression in their own ways.

Weisberger offered this explanation for releasing If This Road Could Talk …..

“I started thinking about doing the album about a year ago, with two main purposes in mind. First, I simply wanted to have something to sell in the course of touring and teaching; second, I had accumulated a fairly substantial catalog of songs that hadn’t been recorded, and in some cases not even demo’d. I concluded that an album of original songs made with the friends and colleagues I’ve gotten to know over the years could be something that fans would want, and could also serve as high quality demos for unrecorded songs. And with that came the opportunity to highlight some of my favorite musicians – not only those already well-known, but some who, in my opinion, deserve to be much better known than they presently are.”

The album was recorded at Ben Surratt’s studio, The Rec Room, in Nashville, with engineer Surratt sharing production duties with Weisberger.

Information regarding purchase of the CD and audio clips will be available on Jon Weisberger’s website from September 16, and full tracks are in rotation now on his MySpace page.

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 ¬Æ) 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‚Ķ..

“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.”

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‚Äîalmost inevitable in that area‚Äîhe 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. And then just a week or so later Scotty gave them some of the demo stuff.”

“Scotty and Jim and I went to see him at one of his regular gigs, and he was just unbelievable,” Barry added. “Needless to say, we were impressed, and I thought, if there were ever a move made here, he would be the first one that I would want to call‚Äînot that I had any idea he would take a job playing bluegrass!”

Though Josh’s background isn’t in bluegrass, he’s got a solid grasp of the music, both from his wide-ranging tastes – I’ve got everything from Bill Monroe to Tower of Power, and I find something I like in all of it,” he told me – and from the perceptiveness that accompanies his talent. “Bluegrass takes the simplest form of music and does so much with it,” he said. “Playing rhythm guitar with these guys has been a big challenge‚Äîit always seemed almost obsolete in the other bands I’ve played in; it was like, I’m just trying to fill a hole here, who cares what it sounds like. But here, it’s very important. You either do it right or don’t do it at all. It’s got to lock with everything else. And the music is so organic that it’s almost like creating something from nothing. You don’t have to have every piece of technology in the world to make it happen.”

Barry summed up the band’s thoughts about their new member this way. “The first time I heard Josh I knew that that’s the person I wanted to see if he would be interested in doing it. Not that he couldn’t do it, but I don’t really hear Josh singing “Sunny Side Of The Mountain.” He’s not that type of singer. But for what we do, I could hear him fit real well; I heard something that I think can really click. We had two or three people in mind that we knew could do the job, but I just felt like this would be special.”

“I’ve been telling people, you’re going to love it. If you don’t, you don’t like music. And that’s pretty much the way I leave ‘em.”

The group promises to record some songs at rehearsal soon and post them online, but in the meantime, Mountain Heart fans who want to get a taste of the group with Josh Shilling can listen to the Grand Ole Opry tonight (1/6) – they’ll be on the 6:30 pm and 9:30 pm segments (all times CST) – by tuning into WSM (650 AM) or visiting the station’s website at http://www.wsmonline.com.

The Opry show tonight is streamed live on WSM, and excerpts from both the Friday and Saturday Opry shows will be posted on the WSM Archives page by early the following week if you miss the live stream. There’s no guarantee that the Mountain Heart shows will be included, but with an encore on Friday night, one suspects that they will be featured.

Mountain Heart invites all their friends and fans to give a listen to the Opry this weekend, and share your thoughts about the new sound in their online forum.

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.”

“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.”

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.