We posted last Friday with the sad news that Pinecastle Records was closing its doors, effective February 1, after 20 years producing and marketing bluegrass music worldwide.

The company was started in 1989 by Tom Riggs after a successful career as a Pizza Hut franchisee in Florida. Riggs moved the company to North Carolina in 2008, along with The Music Shed, a large online music retailer managed by his son, Cort.

Tom’s health is such that he now requires 24 hour supervised care, and can no longer be a part of the business. Both his need for nursing care, and the current state of the music business were given as the reasons why Pinecastle has closed down. Music Shed will continue to operate without interruption.

Over the years they had been home to bluegrass legends like The Osborne Brothers and Jim & Jesse, stalwarts like Special Consensus and John Cowan, as well as newcomers like Grasstowne and Dixie Bee-Liners.

We have learned that the two Pinecastle releases that had been scheduled for February 2010 will be the final installments in the company’s two decades of operation. Down Home from Josh Williams and 20th Anniversary from Larry Stephenson both officially hit on February 23. The label will not be able to provide any promotional support, however, as the Pinecastle staff has been laid off.

Cort will soon begin negotiating with the various Pinecastle artists and other potentially interested parties about the disposition of existing stock, as well as the masters for active catalog titles. Until these issues are resolved, artists will be able to order product through Music Shed, as will distributors, resellers and the general public.

Any of Tom Riggs’ many friends in the music business can send him words of encouragement and good will at the following address:

P.O. Box 765
Columbus NC 28722

I’ll repeat my appeal from last week: If you are in the position to patronize a business, artist, festival or concert you would like to see survive this perilous business climate, please do so while you still can.

We heard this week from Phil Bankester, pére of the singing Bankester Family of Illinois, and a video producer with Genuine Human Productions in Nashville. Phil was at The Station Inn on Tuesday for the weekly Mashville Brigade show to shoot some new footage for the IBMA’s Discover Bluegrass DVD, set for a reworking and re-release later this year.

Specifically, Phil wanted some footage of Ryan Holladay for the updated DVD, which is aimed at school children, and used in conjunction with the IBMA Bluegrass In The Schools curriculum.

“Sierra Hull and Ryan Holladay were the original hostess and host when they were eleven or so years old. We’re currently in production of the Bluegrass Music Today chapter and will be using a couple of new youngsters. But we want to give an update on Sierra and Ryan in the new piece as well.

The original production is six years old, and a lot has changed. We’re using a lot of new performance footage, new interviews with different artists, and a new hostess and host. We’re removing a lot of material that is not current and replacing it with new material.”

Phil shot most of the new Discover Bluegrass footage during the 2009 IBMA week festivities, including interviews with Jamie Johnson, Kristin Scott Benson, Becky Buller, Barry Abernathy, Sierra Hull, Ryan Holladay, and some of the young people that were participating in the Kids on Bluegrass program.

Josh Williams was also on hand for the Tuesday Station Inn show and Phil was happy that he was able to make it.

“Josh drove in to play as well last night. He was in the original Discover Bluegrass DVD as a much younger guy. Many thanks to the Mashville Brigade and the Station Inn for accommodating the video shoot.”

Bankester’s production company has created videos for Shawn Camp, Verlon Thompson, and Mary Gauthier, in addition to the debut video from The Bankester Family, Carolina Rain. They’ve also filmed and edited several Medallion Ceremonies and Artist in Residence concerts for the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Here are a couple more photos from the Tuesday night shoot.

California’s Sawmill Road is in the studio this month as well, working on their third recording at Eric Uglum’s New Wine Studios in Apple Valley.

Despite a well-received showcase at IBMA in 2008, the band is not well known beyond the west coast and mountain states. Other professional commitments prevent them from touring extensively far from home, but their 2009 CD, Fire On The Kettle, made quite a splash with bluegrass radio.

The group is anchored by a pair of bluegrass veterans, Steve Spurgin and Dick Brown. Spurgin has a serious pedigree as a songwriter, with multiple awards to his credit, and he performed as a member of several prominent CA bluegrass bands, including Sundance and California, both with Byron Berline. He plays bass and handles much of the lead singing with Sawmill Road.

Brown is a “banjo player’s banjo player,” a stickler for consistency in tone and timing, with a knack for playing just the right thing every time. He is a renowned banjo instructor and has a long resume in bluegrass as well.

Doug Bartlett, a Quicksilver graduate is on fiddle, Charlie Edsall, another talented songwriter, is on guitar, and Mark Miracle plays mandolin. Mark also runs a bluegrass-themed business called Grassware which produces a variety of apparel and jewelry items for grassers, including a hilarious Banjo Hero line of shirts.

Spurgin gave us a sneak peek at the material they have chosen for the new CD, saying that they picked songs they enjoy doing personally, as opposed to what sort of reaction they expect others to have.

“I don’t mean to sound unconcerned with other people’s opinion by any means. We have simply thought that a recorded project should always be something that a band really feels positive about. You have to be pleased with it first, before anyone else will like it.

The new project – Sawmill Road 3 (we don’t really have more of a title yet than that) will include some things that we have been doing live. They are things that were recorded by California back in the day. A couple of mine – A Walk In The Irish Rain and Band Of Angels – plus one from my good friend John Penn, Moonlight Motor Inn. The response to those tunes is always so good, we decided to record our versions.

We also are including a couple of chestnuts, Take Me In Your Lifeboat and Listening To The Rain. Although those two are certainly familiar to folks, we do them the Sawmill Road way – whatever that is! They are just so much fun to play, we wanted to do them on a CD for the enjoyment of it. (more…)

Over the past few years, bluegrass and independent labels have been adopting a policy long employed by the mainstream record companies of not releasing new titles in the latter parts of each year. They correctly presume that media folks are often away from work between Thanksgiving and New Years, and that new projects could get lost in the holiday shuffle.

Of course, that means that we get a slew of new releases each January, making it equally difficult to keep up with all of them. We have received a dozen new CDs (at least) at The Bluegrass Blog since the New Year, and we will be mentioning and reviewing many of them over the new few weeks.

One that I have been awaiting for quite some time is the new album from Josh Williams, Down Home. Josh started on this project shortly before he left Rhonda Vincent’s employ in 2007. Its release has been repeatedly delayed, but it is official from Pinecastle that it hits on February 23.

This is a plainly delightful album. It showcases Josh’s skill as a singer on 11 tracks, and his fine picking on the lone instrumental (Cherokee Shuffle). Actually, his instrumental prowess is featured throughout as well. Most tracks have Williams on both guitar and mandolin, and he also plays banjo on Cherokee Shuffle. He tackles mandolin alone on a version of Blue Railroad Train, where Tony Rice plays guitar.

Most of the banjo comes from Kenny Ingram, who was a member of The Rage when Josh left Rhonda’s band. In fact much of this project was recorded while Josh was still riding the Martha White Express. Mickey Harris plays bass on all but two tracks – which feature Josh’s former Special C band mate Tim Dishman – and Rhonda provides harmony vocals on three songs, with Harris singing the third part.

There is a mix of styles, all placing Williams in his wheelhouse. Several cuts are solid, traditional bluegrass (Polka On A Banjo, The Last Song, Cherokee Shuffle), with some strong contemporary material (Lonesome Feeling, Dream Of Me), and a couple of new, country-flavored songs (Kodak 1955, Carl Jackson’s Down Home).

Other notable tracks are We’ll Burn That Bridge (Tom T. & Dixie Hall) where Dailey & Vincent add harmony vocals, and a grassy remake of the Buck Owens hit, Streets Of Bakersfield. Both Bakersfield and the Special C reunion track, Stealin’ Away, show the clear influence of the late 70s editions of JD Crowe & The New South, who Josh has long claimed as an ideal. Jason Carter’s fiddle is brilliant on the more traditional material, and Stuart Duncan nails his parts on the modern stuff.

Josh’s version of The Last Song, Jimmy Martin’s melancholy look at life on the road playing bluegrass, strikes me as the real standout here. It is a difficult song to sing, as the range is very demanding, but Josh is dead-on with every note, displaying a gorgeous tone and a great deal of agility. I saw him perform this with his road band at IBMA in 2009 and wrote then about how powerfully he delivered it.

Here’s a sample from the CD, and a piece from Streets Of Bakersfield.

The Last Song – Listen Now

Streets Of Bakersfield - Listen Now

Be on the lookout for this one on Pinecastle, February 23. Don’t wait long to pick yours up.