A track from King Wilkie’s latest CD, Low Country Suite, has been selected as the Discovery Download in iTunes for this week. Any iTunes subscriber can get the track (Wrecking Ball) at no charge starting tomorrow (8/21) through next Monday (8/27).

This is part of iTunes’ weekly New Music Tuesday, where they highlight new recordings deemed worthy of mention, with one or two free tracks available each week, based on a rotating schedule by genre.

You will see a link for the Discovery Download on the front page of the iTunes Music Store - look for the FREE ON iTUNES link near the bottom of the page. It will also be available from the front page of the Country genre section of iTunes.

Speaking of King Wilkie…

We posted back in June when their video on the making of Low Country Suite was available at Amazon.com. That video is no longer up at Amazon, but we found it on YouTube.

UPDATE 8/21: The direct link to the King Wilkie Discovery Download in iTunes is here. You must have an Apple or AOL iTunes account (free), and be logged in to download this free track. The link is good through 8/27/07.

Here are three interviews we found this past few days in local newspapers’ coverage of upcoming entertainment events.

First up is King Wilkie, whose Reid Burgess was interviewed in The Dallas Morning News on July 23. He spoke with Mario Tarradell about the band’s decision to break with their traditional bluegrass sound for a more melancholy pop approach.

“I don’t think anybody wanted to go back in the studio and make the same bluegrass record,” Mr. Burgess, 27, says by phone from Richmond, Va. “Over the course of about five years we did every arrangement of a bluegrass song that we could possibly think of. I’m not the same person I was then. It would make sense to not do the same type of songs. We were steering ourselves in that direction. We were writing songs that sounded this way. We didn’t want to do the same thing again. It was starting to sound forced.”

You can read the entire interview on the Morning News site.

The Vail Daily ran an interview with John Cowan on 7/23. John spoke with Ted Alvarez about his current CD, New Tattoo, and also about his days performing with Sam Bush, Bela Fleck and Pat Flynn as Newgrass Revival. He suggests that he is enjoying returning to that Newgrass vibe with his road band.

“This incarnation of my band is the first time since New Grass that I’ve felt we could get back to that special place and make magic happen,” he said. “For me it’s coming back to something I know really well — It’s been a coming home of sorts. We’ve had this line-up of the band for over a year now and the response from the crowds has been overwhelming.”

That full piece can also be found online.

On July 27, the Cabot Star-Herald in Cabot, AR carried an interview with Larry Sparks. The piece is primarily about the new Sparks release, The Last Suit You Wear, but touches on Larry’s long career in bluegrass along the way. At one point, writer Charles Haymes brings up how much bluegrass has changed over the years, with pop and country influences being absorbed into the sound.

However, Sparks has stood as tall as a redwood tree, remaining unchanged and loyal to the genre.

“I’m exactly where I belong,” Sparks acknowledged. “I love bluegrass music. I’ve always felt that bluegrass music needed me and I know that I’ve needed it. I think we’re a good match for each other. “

That one can be read on the Cabot Star-Herald site.

King Wilkie and Rounder/Zoe have utilized online resources to push digital downloads of their latest CD, Low Country Suite, and to promote their summer dates.

At Rhapsody.com, they are offering an alternate version of the song Rockabye, (Farewell Lonesome Dove) in addition to the version on the CD, exclusively for Rhapsody users.

Over at the iTunes Music Store, downloaders get a bonus track, Boy From Richmond, when they purchase the full album in iTunes.

JamBase.com is also involved, giving away a copy of the CD, and tickets to a half dozen King Wilkie shows from their web site.

Visit the band online for more on the new CD, and their tour schedule.

The summer (July/August) issue of Bluegrass Music Profiles is available, featuring a cover story on Pine Mountain Railroad.

BMP has as its focus, the people who play, write, and produce the music, along with those who build and maintain the instruments on which it is played. They focus on the personalities, and seek to help fans get to know the people who make the music happen.

This summer issue also contains an interview with Reid Burgess of King Wilkie, where he speaks candidly about the band’s decision to move away from the traditional bluegrass format that brought them to early success. They were so enamored of Bill Monroe, that they chose the name of one of Bill Monroe’s horses as the moniker for the band.

“King Wilkie initially tried to fit the mold of Bill Monroe’s brand of bluegrass. To me, Bill Monroe is bluegrass and unfortunately he’s not still here to do it better than everybody else. I guess we eventually realized - like many people do - that we’re not Bill Monroe and never will be.”

Publisher Kevin Kerfoot shared a few other tidbits found in the new issue:

Other features include a Q&A with Doyle Lawson, Shop Talk with Tony Trischka, a DJ Profile on Main Street Bluegrass Show’s Ward McAfee, David Peterson’s Bluegrass Favorites, a Q&A with Bluegrass Boy #37 Frank Buchanan, an Instrument Profile on Gibson’s Ricky Skaggs Limited Edition Distressed Master Model Mandolin, a feature remembering Grand Ole Opry Fiddler Casey Jones - which includes an interview with his daughter Marilyn Boyd, a feature about the International Bluegrass Music Museum’s Video Oral History Project, a Promoter Profile on Carolyn and Johnny Vincent, and a Songwriting Profile on Larry Cordle. You’ll also find BMP’s Bluegrass Mailbag, Anything Bluegrass News, Top 20 Hot Singles and Top 10 Bluegrass CDs, Festivals, Grassifieds, Web Sightings, Bluegrass Store, and Fresh For The Pickin’ CD reviews.

Individual issues can be purchased for $3.00, and annual subscriptions run $15.00. Get more details on the BMP web site.

King Wilkie has a “what I did on my summer vacation” video posted at Amazon.com, which offers a behind the scenes look at the recording of their newly-released CD, Low Country Suite. It covers to some degree how the IBMA’s Emerging Artist of the Year for 2004 went from a hip, young bluegrass act to an eclectic, grass/folk/rock amalgam in just three years time.

It’s an interesting story, where we see a successful touring band make the decision to come off the road, work day jobs outside of music, but remain together and active artistically - writing, arranging and planning for a chrysalis-like return.

See the six and a half minute video on Amazon, where you can also pick up the new CD.

UPDATE 8/21: Amazon is no longer hosting that video, but we have it posted here on The Bluegrass Blog.

Rounder Records has just uploaded audio samples for two new projects set for a June release.

Ron Block’s Doorway will hit on June 19. This is not really a bluegrass recording, but should be of interest to the many admirers of Ron’s musicianship and songwriting abilities.

For more on this project, read Brance’s interview with Ron from earlier this year.

The audio samples are available on the Rounder web site.

Also previewed online is Low Country Suite from King Wilkie. Also on the fringes of bluegrass music, this young band (named for Bill Monroe’s equine companion), is “developing an idiocratic new sound - a dramatic push into uncharted sonic terrain” as per Rounder’s description.

Samples for each of the 11 tracks are up at rounder.com, and the band has four complete tracks for online listening on their MySpace page as well.

Low Country Suite is set for release on June 26.

King Wilkie, the Charlottesville, VA-based string based whose multiple personality shifts defy description, have announced June 26 as the release date for their upcoming CD, Low Country Suite, their first for Rounder imprint, Zoe Records.

The band got its start in traditional bluegrass, combining a love for the old sound with youth and a fashionista flair. They released a single CD for Rebel Records in 2004, Broke, which featured a stark, “neo-primitive” bluegrass sound. With six members still in the twenties, King Wilkie was a hit at bluegrass festivals and in clubs, and were selected as emerging artist of the year by the IBMA that same year.

Tierra Del Fuego was their next project, a limited-release CD with 8 new tracks. Here, they began to show a move away from bluegrass to a sound more reminiscent of the early country rock days of The Byrds and The Flying Burrito in the 1970s.

On Low Country Suite, King Wilkie has chosen the latter path, with a more sophisticated sound, assisted by noted producer Jim Scott. The move away from traditional string music now seems complete, though the influences that informed their journey are still apparent.

Four tracks from the new CD are previewed on their MySpace page if you would like to sample the band’s latest persona.

Following up on the success of their first two instructional DVDs on bluegrass style backup for banjo, AcuTab has announced the release of Power Pickin’ Volume 3 - Playing Banjo Backup In A Bluegrass Band, featuring Bill Evans. This new DVD combines the up the neck backup demonstrated in Bill’s first AcuTab video with aspects of the first position backup taught in Power Pickin’ Vol 2, showing the various techniques both in isolation, and with a full bluegrass band.

And not just any pickup band, either. Bill performs 7 bluegrass standards with Herschel Sizemore on mandolin, Kenny Smith on guitar, Warren Amberson (Acoustic Endeavors) on bass/vocals and Nick Reeb (King Wilkie) on fiddle.

Get more details on Power Pickin’ Volume 3 - including some online video samples - on the AcuTab web site.