We were treated to performances by Carrie Hassler & Hard Rain and Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out, and had just missed a set from Audie Blaylock & Redline, who had turned in a brilliant show the night before on the main stage. Michael Martin Murphey made a special appearance with Carrie Hassler, where they sang a duet on his biggest hit, Wildfire, which the pair has recently re-recorded for Murphey’s second project with Rural Rhythm, due in February of next year.

During the IIIrd Tyme Out’s set, 1970s country star Lynn Anderson joined them on stage for a rousing version of Rocky Top. She was lively and animated, and clearly enjoying herself.

All this music, however, was leading up to the announcement of Rural Rhythm and Graves Mountain collaborating for the festival in June. Six Rural Rhythm artists will appear on Friday, June 4, and the entire day will be given over to a 55th birthday party or the label. Kyle Cantrell of Sirius-XM will serve as emcee, with performances from The Crowe Brothers, Carrie Hassler & Hard Rain, Audie Blaylock & Redline, Lou Reid and Carolina, Lonesome River Band and Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out.

All of the day’s music will be recorded for a commemorative CD to be released later in 2010. Many of these artists will combine for special sets.

• Crowe Brothers with Russell Moore, Sammy Shelor
• Carrie Hassler & Hard and Brandon Rickman
• Audie Blaylock & Redline, Carrie Hassler, Russell Moore, and Lou Reid
• Graves Moutain Jam and Rural Rhythm all-star tribute featuring Grave Mountain Memories:  Carl Jackson, Mark Newton, Russell Newton, Lou Reid, Carrie Hassler, Andy Ball, Sammy Shelor, Mike Anglin, Justin Haynes
• My Home’s Across the Blue Ridge Mountains – Brandon Rickman, Crowe Brothers, Audie Blaylock, Mike Hartgrove, Wayne Benson, Steve Dilling, Edgar Loudermilk
• Instrumental Jam featuring many of the Rural Rhythm artists

You can find ticket and schedule information for the Graves Mountain festival on their web site. We’ll post with more details about the live CD as they emerge.

Brance and I will be in the press gallery at The Ryman Auditorium, announcing the winners here live as they are announced on stage. Dean Hoffmeyer will also be shooting photos during the show, which we will posting as we get them while the show proceeds.

The show should be a whopper, opening with Lonesome River Band and their version of Them Blues.

If you can’t be here in Nashville, or at The Ryman tonight, be sure to join us online starting at 7:30 (CDT). Don’t be late!!

In addition, we will be shooting Red Carpet interviews with the nominees before the show, which will be posted as soon as possible, probably sometime this weekend. Katy Daley (the 2009 IBMA Bluegrass Broadcaster of the Year!) and Doug McKelway of WJLA in Washington will be our hosts.

Young Man, Old Soul is scheduled for a June 30 release on Rural Rhythm Records. It showcases Brandon not only as an expressive singer, but also as a songwriter. 10 of the 12 tracks were co-written by Rickman, with assistance from Chris Stapleton, Tammy Rogers, Jerry Salley, Kevin Denney, and Charley Stefl.

A single is going to radio next week on Rural Rhythm’s new Fresh Cuts and Key Tracks CD. Here’s a sample…

Brandon plays guitar, mandolin and bass on the new album with Aaron McDaris on banjo, Jenee’ Fleenor on fiddle, Andy Ball on amndolin, Mike Anglin on bass and Randy Kohrs on resonator guitar. Providing harmony vocals are Terry Eldridge and Jamie Johnson from The Grascals.

The band at that time was Austin on guitar, Sammy Shelor on banjo, Ronnie Bowman on bass and Dan Tyminski on mandolin. Bowman and Tyminski were just coming into their own as vocalists, and the two of them made for a formidable combination on stage, and on records.

Here’s the clip of them on Bowman’s Game I Can’t Win…

Many contemporary bluegrass fans think first of Lonesome River Band when southwest Virginia is mentioned, and rightly so. But before there was LRB, Lost & Found was schooling future Lonesome River boys in how distinctive, original bluegrass music was played. Sammy Shelor has long claimed original L&F banjoist Gene Parker was a primary mentor, and Ronnie Bowman spent time as a guitarist and lead singer with them before joining Lonesome River.

Lost & Found saw their greatest popularity in the 1980s, touring throughout the United States and turning out popular recordings along the way. The band launched in 1973 with Allen Mills on bass, Dempsey Young on mandolin, Roger Handy on guitar and Gene Parker on banjo. Over the years, a number of banjo pickers and guitarists/vocalists have come through the band, but Mills and Young managed to retain the band’s trademark style – a relaxed, easygoing sound with sparse accompaniment on simple, plainspoken songs, presented with wit and enthusiasm on stage.

Their new Rebel release, Love, Lost and Found, shows what a 35 year dedication to quality music and an enduring style can produce. It includes a number of songs that will be familiar to long time fans – staples of their live shows – and one reworked song from their debut 1975 album. It also serves as a testament to the artistry of Dempsey Young, who passed away in 2006, while this project was being recorded. He is featured on mandolin and vocals, along with Scott Napier, who has stepped into Young’s large and very impressive shoes.

Let me get the superlatives out of the way… This is a fabulous recording, one I can heartily recommend to anyone who appreciates bluegrass music. The song choices are universally strong, the performances spot on, and the elusive “feel” just right. It may not end up having the influence and impact of their groundbreaking early records, but it strikes me as their most polished and thoroughly satisfying album yet.

I spoke with Mills about the new CD, and he deflected all the praise for the way it turned out to his current band – Scottie Sparks on guitar and lead vocals, Ronald Smith and banjo, and Napier on mandolin.

“I can’t say enough about these guys who let me play with them. Their commitment to the sound that Gene and Dempsey and I started so long ago is humbling. These guys can play any way they want, and I don’t have to ask them to play a certain way.

There ain’t no hot dogs in our group – each man is an individual. I’m so thankful and so proud of these guys.”

I also asked Allen about the band’s approach to accompaniment, where you could always hear the rhythm section, but where the musicians were clearly supporting the singer and the song, as opposed to “playing their backup.”

“This is from my years of listening to country music… don’t try to cover up the singer or play over him. Flatt & Scruggs might have a little fill line hear and there, but you could always hear the singer and understand the words.”

You can hear that – and the other defining elements of the band’s understated, even casual, approach – on Letter Stained In Blue, sung by Scottie Sparks. It is played with the definitive “slow groove” that has marked their sound from the very start.

Letter Stained In Blue -  Listen now:   

“There very easily could have been harmony on these choruses, and it would have sounded just fine. But I told the guys that Scottie did such a great job singing it, that we should leave it alone and make it a song that he owns.  It lets him be not so much a sideman but a strong lead singer in his own right.

Scottie Sparks ought to be labeled Kentucky Soul.

This song was written by Dan Wells, who plays in a band called Constant Change down in Raleigh, NC. He’s a great writer, and dynamic singer who worked with James King.

Dan’s like an old man in his mid twenties. He writes about old things and old thoughts. He sent us a CD with a number of his songs and we listened to it in the bus after we got it, and me and Scottie both took a copy home.

After a month or so, we agreed that it was full of great songs, and we have several of them on the new CD.”

One of the most poignant tracks is the one that Dempsey Young sings, A Daisy A Day. Hearing his voice on a new CD is disconcerting, and the subject matter of the song makes it seem almost prescient that he had started, but not finished his work on this track when he passed.

A Daisy A Day -  Listen now:   

“Dempsey had been doing that song with us for years, and every time he did it he got a standing ovation. We cut this with Roger years ago, and I had talked Dempsey into doing it for this record.

He cut the mandolin and scratch vocal together, and even though he always liked to overdub his vocals, we decided to keep it because there is a lot of emotion in his singing. It wouldn’t have been fair to his legacy and his fans to have left it off.

You don’t erase out 33 years of playing together, and I don’t want to. I’m so pleased to have seen an icon like that evolve and grow.

Of course Mills’ own recognizable voice is the central element that has been a constant through this 35 years of the Lost & Found, and he has a number of memorable tracks here as well. One standout is a Waltz Medley that blends the Tennessee, Kentucky and Shenandoah waltzes in a nearly five minute marathon – where an uninitiated listener can come to understand why Dempsey Young is so highly regarded as a mandolinist.

“We had recorded a medley of old country songs on Ride Through The Country, and we came up with this medley from playing club dates years ago, trying to keep a song going if there was a couple dancing in the corner.

I was inspired a lot by Clyde Moody, being in the Danville area when he was there in the 50s, and I heard him sing Shenandoah Waltz many times, and Jim Eanes as well. Of course I heard Bill Monroe sing Kentucky Waltz all the time, and I loved Pee Wee King doing Tennessee Waltz.”

Mills also has two of his own compositions on Love, Lost and Found, one of which appeared on their very first LP record on Outlet Records.

If Today Was The Last Day -  Listen now:   

“That was on our first album back in 1975 in the key of D, and I sang high baritone on the choruses. Not long ago, Gene Parker said that I should sing it in G, and start doing it again.

When we got to rehearsing for this record, I asked Scottie if he could tenor to it, and he said ‘I might have to bow up, but I can do it.’  He did a great job, and Ronald’s baritone fit right in.

A friend of ours, Alfred Hatfield always asked for this song when we would see him in Summersville. He had a heart attack and died last year, and never got to hear it. So this one’s really for him.”

You can hear several complete tracks from the new CD on the band’s MySpace page, and samples from all 13 tracks in iTunes.

Allen Mills was a founding member of the International Bluegrass Music Association, being on hand for the first meetings of industry folks in 1985 when the organization was being discussed. Despite their 35 years in our business, and their ongoing contribution to the music, neither the band nor any of their recordings have been recognized in the IBMA Awards.

The Bluegrass Blog isn’t inclined to start or lead a campaign, but we will say that if any voting members of the IBMA fill out their 2009 awards ballot without a careful listening to Love, Lost and Found, they will have done a grave disservice to an important part of our music’s heritage, and a record worthy of recognition of its own accord.

The interview covers a lot of ground in the life of this young bluegrass singer and songwriter. Brandon talks about his reasons for leaving the band, why he returned, and what he was up to in the interim.

"…everything happens for a reason and when I came back I had grown a lot as a writer, as a singer, as a producer – everything. When we went in the studio (for the recording of No Turning Back) this was the first time that I can say that I jumped in there and was as big a part of it and as involved as you could possibly be."

The new issue also has an interview with Williams & Clark Expedition’s Kimberly and Blake Williams, a DJ Profile with Bill Hensley, a look at the bluegrass side of Charlie Daniels, an interview with Canadian bluegrass legend Eddy Poirier, and a remembrance of Butch Baldassari.

Regular features include Shop Talk with Alan Munde, Bluegrass Favorites with Rickey Wasson and Darren Beachley, a Promoter Profile on C.R. Wilson, and a Songwriter Profile on Stan Keach.

More information on BMP can be found online.

LRB visited the XM Nashville studios recently to talk with host Kyle Cantrell about their current CD, No Turning Back, and of course, play a number of the songs live.

You can catch the show at the following times on both XM 14 and Sirius 65:

• Friday 1/9 – 8:00 a.m.
• Saturday 1/10 – 8:00 a.m.
• Sunday 1/11 – 9:00 p.m.
• Monday 1/12 – 9:00 p.m.

All times eastern US.

Alecia Nugent was first up, with an almost entirely new band since I saw her last. Thomas Wywrot was the only constant, but he has switched to guitar from banjo. Chris Wade has just come in on banjo, with Jennifer Strickland on bass and Alex Hibbitts on mandolin.

She was featuring material from her upcoming CD, Hillbilly Goddess. Alecia and the band looked like anything but, dressed sharply, and performing the powerful contemporary bluegrass and country-tinged ballads that marked her previous project, Little Girl And A Big Four Lane.

Lonesome River Band was scheduled to come on next, but a last minute changed was announced and Sawmill Road took the stage. With so much emphasis on younger acts at IBMA – and rightly so – it’s great to see a new band made up of experienced pros selected to showcase.

The band consists of Bruce Johnson on fiddle, Steve Spurgin on bass and lead vocals, Charlie Edsall on guitar, Dick Brown on banjo and Mark Miracle on mandolin. They were likewise highlighting their new CD, a self-titled debut, and the show was filled with great songs and clever arrangements.

Spurgin’s voice is seasoned and strong, and the band showed their veteran status providing just the appropriate level of acompaniment.

They finished their set to a standing ovation.

When Lonesome River Band emerged at last, guitarist Brandon Rickman was nowhere to be seen. Regular mandolin man Andy Ball had the guitar strapped on, and former mandolinist Jeff Parker was back – at least for this show. Litterally moments before their set, Brandon was taken ill and Jeff stepped in with no more than a few minutes notice. Talk about a pro!

Hats off to Andy Ball as well, who not only managed the guitar spot like he did it every night, but shouldered all the lead singing as well. New listeners unfamiliar with the band would never have guessed that an emergency switch had been made. Longtime banjo picker Sammy Shelor was peeling the paint off the roof and Mike Hartgrove on fiddle and Mike Anglin on bass turned in the sort of powerful performance that has defined the band’s sound for the past 25 years.

LRB has a new CD as well, No Turning Back, but without Brandon, they weren’t able to feature much of that material – though Ball offered a strong version of We Couldn’t Tell, an especially apt choice, telling the story of the stock market crash on 1929 and it’s impact on a poor rural family.

All in all a great show from LRB, showing what flexibility and multi-talented players mean in our business.

Wednesday’s (10/1) lineup include will include performances from Lonesome River Band and Steep Canyon Rangers, plus a discussion about IBMA’s Leadership Bluegrass program. Katy Daley told us that today’s broadcast will start with a live duet performance of Jerusalem Ridge by Michael Cleveland and Jesse Brock.

Appearing on (Wednesday 10/1) are:

• Michael Cleveland and Jesse Brock
• Archie Warnock on Leadership Bluegrass
• G-2 Bluegrass Band
• Audie Blaylock
• Lonesome River Band
• Steep Canyon Rangers

You can listen to Bluegrass Country via audio streaming online, and via HD Radio (88.5-2) in the Washington DC market. They will be coming to you online from their suite in the Renaissance Hotel 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. and 6:00-7:00 p.m. (EDT).

Band leader Sammy Shelor told us that he was psyched about the new album, and was especially pleased that Rural Rhythm was able to get the CD into much wider distribution than their last few projects.

Sam Passamano with Rural Rhythm talked to us about the early response.

“I am very pleased with the initial retail product coverage and strong support from our music accounts and our national distributor, RYKO Distribution. On street date we had strong product coverage with all the key racks, large, medium & small chains, independent stores and online retailers. It sure is nice to see the solid level of account commitment for the new LRB album being in line with a group that has been on top of the bluegrass world for over 25 years. We’re off to a very good start and in position for success with No Turning Back.”

Shelor has been hearing from radio hosts since promos went out several weeks back, saying that their listeners are reacting positively to the new music.

“When a band has been together this long, it’s encouraging that there is still so much interest in a new release. I’ve been doing radio interviews much of the past two weeks, and have plenty more still to do.”

No Turning Back is now available wherever bluegrass music is sold, from Rural Rhythm and from LRB directly online.

The second edition of this radio release was sent to Bluegrass Radio at the end of last week, so you DJs should be receiving it sometime soon. Rural Rhythm was kind enough to give us a sneak peek of the new tracks on the disc.

The disc contains five tracks, three of which are new tracks from upcoming releases.

Them Blues is the first single to be released from the new Lonesome River Band CD, No Turning Back. The CD is scheduled for release early next month. Fans of the LRB signature sound will certainly enjoy this new cut. I’ve embedded a YouTube video of them performing the track live on stage, at the end of this post. The audio doesn’t compare with the studio cut, but you’ll get the idea. Be listening for this one on your favorite bluegrass radio station later this week!

I Call It Gone is from the upcoming second album from Melonie Cannon, And The Wheels Turn. The album was co-produced by Ronnie Bowman and Buddy Cannon and features a very impressive line up of musicians. The CD is scheduled for release in early October.

Cindy Mae is an uptempo bluegrass number in the tradition of brother duets such as the Stanley Brothers. The Crowe Brothers (Josh and Wayne) deliver on this one. This track is from a newly recorded CD, Brothers-N-Harmony, scheduled for release in late September of 2008. The song was written by Cody Shuler of Pine Mountain Railroad. Anyone who likes good traditional brother harmony style bluegrass will want to have this CD I’m sure.

The other two tracsk are The Road From Rosine and Fox Run The Henhouse. Fox Run The Henhouse is from the previously released Tim Hensley CD, Long Monday. The Road From Rosine is an instrumental written by Jim VanCleve and debuted at the 2007 IBMA Award Show.

Radio DJs should be on the lookout for this CD, and fans of good bluegrass should be listening for these tracks.

Here’s the live video of LRB performing Them Blues. Enjoy!

Though the new CD, No Turning Back, won’t be released until September 9, 2008, a new single from the album is expected in mid-July. The band will celebrate their 26th year by releasing their updated version of Them Blues, a song originally recorded by LRB back in 1984 on their very first album for Rebel Records.

LRB bandleader Sammy Shelor tells us how that song came to be chosen as the single…

“For years I’ve heard Them Blues played in jam sessions and at festival campgrounds based on the original LRB arrangement. It hadn’t been in our show for years, but we put it back in and the audience reaction was so strong that it seemed like an obvious way for us to connect the storied history of the band with our new, re-invented lineup for the next CD.”

Look for Them Blues as the first track on the second edition of Rural Rhythm’s Fresh Cuts & Key Tracks, a radio sampler due to be sent to show hosts and PDs in the next two weeks.

No Turning Back is the first recorded effort by the current edition of this hard-hitting band, featuring Sammy Shelor on banjo, Brandon Rickman on guitar and vocals, Andy Ball on mandolin and vocals, Mike Anglin on bass and Mike Hartgrove on fiddle.

Sammy is happy to see a new direction and a new business partnership in place for this new project.

“I feel like we have re-invented the LRB sound with this band, and I’m really excited about working with these guys – on stage and in the studio.

With a reinvented sound, it seemed like the right time to go a different direction with distribution and marketing, and we couldn’t have made a better choice than Rural Rhythm. All the Passamano family has shown the same seriousness and dedication about their end of the business as we do about ours, and I look forward to what we can accomplish together.

It’s amazing that the band has gone on for 25 years, but you can’t simply rest on your laurels in the music business. We are always looking to the future with Lonesome River Band and can’t wait for all our fans and friends to hear these great new songs on No Turning Back.”

Audio clips will be available soon on the Rural Rhythm site.

Recently, I was alerted to the appearance on Kentucky Educational Television’s Jubilee stage of California’s High Country, one of the West Coast’s premier traditional bluegrass bands. Being partial to their music, I thought I would investigate. I found a series of airings with sufficient interest to enthral fans of a variety of bluegrass persuasions for weeks to come.

Starting on Wednesday (6/25) with Lonesome River Band there’s a different band featured for each week through to the end of August, with each showing being available through to the weekend, Friday excepted in all cases.

A quick scan of the schedule reveals appearances on the programm by the aforesaid Butch Waller and High Country (commencing July 2), Foghorn Stringband (July 9), Berline-Crary-Hickman (July 16), Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper with Audie Blaylock (July 23), The Rascals (July 30), Adrienne Young & Little Sadie and Cadillac Sky (August 6), Danny Paisley & Southern Grass (August 13), The Fairwell Drifters and Blue Moon Rising (August 20) and Timberline Drive paired with Jake Quesenberry & The MacRae Brothers (commencing Thursday, August 28).

Each of these bands were recorded at last year’s River of Music Party in Owensboro, Kentucky.

The Jubilee series is a KET production, distributed to public television stations nationwide. The series is directed by Nick Helton and produced by Duncan Hart. Nancy Carpenter is executive producer.

More information about Jubilee is available online.

More information about KET programming and education services, as well as how to support KET, can be found at www.ket.org.

Before we could get to any of that, Dan held forth as a proud papa, sharing stories about his three children and their exploits in the realm of sports. After a bit of discussion about the looming baseball season and a bit of golf, he was ready to talk music.

Dan recalled that the Roanoke area was where he first starting playing bluegrass professionally when he joined The Lonesome River Band in the late 1980s.

“Tim Austin [Lonesome River Band founder and current Tyminski Band road manager/audio engineer] told me that I couldn’t live in Vermont and play with the band, and that I would have to get another job in order to pull it off. I really wanted to play with a southern bluegrass band, and moved to Virginia from Vermont with only 4 gigs and no solid prospects of more than $1800/year.”

He joined LRB as a banjo player, but Austin brought him on primarily for his strong tenor voice. When their then current mandolinist Adam Steffey left the group, Tim prevailed upon Dan to switch to mandolin. His first recording with the band was their 1989 release, Looking For Yourself.

“Mandolin was my first instrument, but I fell in love with banjo when my older brother came back home one day with a JD Crowe album. Once I heard Crowe, I had to learn banjo.

Singing was something I had done since I was a boy. I still remember my first stage performance. It was at the You & I festival in Granville, NY. I pulled on Smokey Greene’s pants leg and asked if I could sing a song. That was as scared as I had ever been in my young life, but I sang John Denver’s Please Daddy Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas. Of course, any kid that sings on stage gets a big response, but I loved getting that reaction from the crowd.”

A few years after Dan’s first LRB release, the band went through some major personnel changes, bringing banjo picker Sammy Shelor and vocalist/guitarist/bass player Ronnie Bowman into the group. Their 1991 CD, Carrying The Tradition, brought Lonesome River Band to a much wider audience, and elevated Ronnie and Dan as prominent voices in bluegrass.

One of the guest artists on Carrying The Tradition was a teen aged Alison Krauss, whose own meteoric rise was also about to ignite. As their two bands found themselves together often at festivals and shows, Dan found many occasions to sing and pick with Alison, and the idea that they might one day perform together was born.

“I actually wanted the banjo gig with Alison. Adam Steffey was on mandolin with her and I was hoping that the banjo spot would come to me when Alison Brown left.

I remember where I was when I got the call from a friend telling me that Ron Block had gotten the gig. I thought… ‘Ron Block? Ron Block?!’ I was crushed.

Then at Merlefest one year Tim Stafford came up to me and told me that he was going to give his notice to Alison, and that he thought they would call me to take the guitar spot.”

They did, and Dan left to join Alison Krauss & Union Station. Lonesome River Band was soon in a tailspin, with Sammy Shelor leaving temporarily as well to perform with a touring country act. Dan soon began to feel like he had made a mistake, and returned to Virginia and LRB.

“Our Old Country Town album had just been released when I left, and I started feeling that I had really let down these guys who were dear friends.”

He stayed another year and a half before Alison called again with the proverbial offer he couldn’t refuse. The deal to be part of the Keith Whitley tribute CD that launched her into the stratosphere had been signed, and she wanted Dan in the band. He appeared on several AKUS projects and released his own CD, Carry Me Across The Mountain in 2000.

It was during this same period that he was asked to provide the voice over for George Clooney in the theatrical film release, O Brother, Where Art Thou. His version of Man Of Constant Sorrow became a worldwide hit, and thrust Dan into the spotlight, a place he had never sought to be.

Dan toured sporadically in support of this solo project, but the AKUS touring schedule and their inclusion in the Down From The Mountain package show soon made that impossible.

Fast forward to 2007…

Krauss had decided to spend most of 2008 promoting her new duet CD with Robert Plant, Raising Sand, and doing worldwide touring in support. She told the members of her band that she further planned to keep future AKUS touring to about 40 dates a year.

Tyminski finds that he will have a lot of time on his hands, and it occurs to him that this is the right moment for him to do something more productive with his free time. The Dan Tyminski Band was born from that recognition.

“There was not much question who I wanted to pull together into a band. I had played with Barry Bales and Adam Steffey a great deal over the years, and many times the three of us would find ourselves in sessions with Ron Stewart. We always enjoyed playing together, and talked often about how much we all hoped to find a chance to perform together someday.

It became a running joke whenever we saw each other. ‘Say when… just say when.’”

With Tyminski on guitar, Steffey on mandolin, Bales on bass and Stewart on banjo they added multi-instrumentalist Justin Moses on fiddle, dobro and harmony vocals. They secured a record deal with Rounder, and managed to keep all this top secret through the late summer of ‘07, debuting the new band at IBMA in October.

Their new CD was recorded in January and February of this year, and expected for a May/June release on Rounder. The project is entitled Wheels, and features primarily new material, with three written within the band.

“We really wanted to have mostly new songs, but we did cut an old Kitty Wells song, Whose Shoulder Will You Cry On, and a Del McCoury song, Who Showed Who. Ron Block wrote two for us, and there is a Craig Market/Darren Shoemaker song. The title track came from Patrick McDougal.”

Dan says that he is enjoying his new venture, and getting great support from the bluegrass community.

“At first, I was lost in a sea of fear. I’m always surprised to see anyone coming out to the shows.

I’m best suited as a member of a band – I’m just not a natural front man. Fortunately, Adam Steffey is perfect for that role, and he does a brilliant job.”

At this point, Dan sees no reason why he can’t keep his band active while remaining a member of Alison Krauss & Union Station. He feels like he can maintain a schedule of 60-70 dates with The Dan Tyminski Band, and fulfill his obligations with Krauss.

“Alison is totally on board with what I’m doing. She is very supportive of the idea, and actually encouraged me to do this.”

He expects to find himself back in the studio with AKUS late this year, though there are no plans in place yet for any live shows. His own future plans are to simply enjoy playing music with friends, and getting used to being the man in charge.

“We are a fairly traditional bluegrass band, and I try to treat it as a band – not with me as band leader. We can’t wait to get the new CD out and hope people will enjoy the music.”

You can find their tour schedule on Dan’s MySpace page.

Sam said that they have finished recording (14 tracks) and he will start mixing later this week. 13 tracks are vocals, with one banjo instrumental, and Sammy said that it is strong, in your face bluegrass.

This will be the first project with the current version of LRB: Sammy Shelor on banjo, Brandon Rickman on guitar/vocals, Andy Ball on mandolin/vocals, Mike Anglin on bass and Mike Hartgrove on fiddle.

As soon as the mixing is finished (end of February), Sammy will shop the completed master to a number of labels and hopes to see it released sometime this spring.

Mike takes the spot vacated by resonator guitarist Matt Leadbetter, who is leaving to be closer to his young family, taking a job in Pigeon Forge, TN. See update 12/10.

LRB banjo picker and band leader Sammy Shelor tells us that the band is headed back into the studio in February to start work on a new CD project. Sammy is considering offers from record labels and expects to announce more about that by springtime.

Check out the Shelor interview on Country Unplugged with Uncle Billy Dunbar on WWB today (10/11) from 4:00-6:00 p.m. (eastern).

To listen to the 24/7 WWB audio stream online, just visit their streaming page, and choose a connection speed and file type.

Last year’s maze was cut in the shape of the Crooked Road logo, a southwest Virginia tourism and music project with which Sammy has been involved. This year’s maze isn’t cut into so intricate a design – though it does honor the 25th Anniversary of Lonesome River Band – but Sammy says the maze is a bit more challenging to navigate.

“We’ve got some tricky trails cut. I was mowing in there the other day and got lost myself!”

The Grand Opening of Corn Acoustics is over this coming Labor Day Weekend (9/1-3), and will include bluegrass entertainment each day at no additional charge.

Find out more on the official maze web site.

The Virginia Tech String Project will provide affordable string music instruction for third and forth grade students of both public and private schools in the area. Classes will be held on the VT campus on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.

Why is this of interest to us?

Mandolinist Jeff Midkiff is the Master Teacher for the String Project. Midkiff grew up in the area, and attended VT where he studied music education. He has conducted several youth orchestras, composed and performed his own pieces with the orchestras around the country, and toured internationally as a member of both the McPeak Brothers and Lonesome River Band.

The program begins later this month when Midkiff, along with other teachers, will visit area elementary schools to recruit students for the program. Classes will begin September 4, 2007.

This series presents the award-winning music of Sugar Hill’s Americana Masters. Researched and compiled from the artist’s body of work on Sugar Hill Records, these tracks were culled from radio chart toppers, fan mail, downloads, and songs and tunes that are recurrent favorites at live performances. The series is designed to provide longstanding fans with a collection of favourites. For new fans, this series offers concise entry into the artistic output of these seminal artists‚Äîwith liner notes that can help them to discover more and to delve more deeply into the artist’s catalogue.

Not surprisingly, the Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver collection features all Gospel material, 18 songs spread across the many years that the group has been associated with Sugar Hill Records. The opening track is He Put A Rainbow In The Clouds For Me from the eponymous first album released in 1979, followed by On The Sea Of Life from the classic Rock My Soul album. Other highlights include The Little Mountain Church House and Let Us Travel On. Both feature Lawson singing close harmony with the exceptional Russell Moore. Other great vocal partners appearing here include Lou Reid, Steve Gulley, Barry Abernathy, Jimmy Haley, Terry Baucom and Jamie Dailey.

The Lonesome River Band anthology comprises 16 songs, culled from just four albums, the tracks presented in chronological order. The first band here features founder and rhythm guitarist Tim Austin, Dan Tyminski (mandolin), Ronnie Bowman (bass) and Sammy Shelor (banjo). They are heard on four cuts including Old Country Town and Highway Paved With Pain. The second edition of this high-energy group is that comprising Kenny Smith (guitar), Don Rigsby (mandolin) and the aforementioned Ronnie Bowman and Sammy Shelor. Their contributions are taken from two albums, One Step Forward from 1996 and Finding The Way released in 1998. On the last four cuts Rickie Simpkins is included, playing fiddle. Overall there’s some great original material and a superb mix of excellent voices – trademark Lonesome River Band material.

As befits the eclectic character of the music for which Peter Rowan is known, the 15 songs on this first anthology from Rowan come from the various phases of his time on the Sugar Hill roster. There are three songs done in collaboration with the Nashville Bluegrass Band; starting with The High Lonesome Sound followed with Memories of You and Meadow Green. There are a couple with Jerry Douglas; Girl in the Blue Velvet Band and You Taught Me How to Lose. Then there’s the solo effort, Dust Bowl Children, and two career songs, Walls of Time and Hiroshima Mon Amour.

The best of the Sugar Hill years as far as the Nashville Bluegrass Band is concerned stretches from their first album on the label, The Boys Are Back In Town. The song of the same name is the second track of this 16 cut anthology. The set concludes with Rockin’ Chair Money from their 2004 CD release Twenty Year Blues. At the heart of the Nashville Bluegrass Band sound is Pat Enright’s complex voice, a beacon of the blues. His solo take here on Biggest Liars In Town is ripe with tension and pathos. Enright’s vocal collaborations with Alan O’Bryant are equally haunting as can be heard on Waitin’ For The Hard Times To Go. Other equally important participants are Stuart Duncan (fiddle and vocals), Roland White and Mike Compton (both playing mandolin) and Gene Libbea (bass and vocals) and Dennis Crouch (bass). The Nashville Bluegrass Band has taken their music to many parts of the world and won accolades for their work. This set from the twice voted IBMA ‘Entertainer of the Year’ band includes Grammy winning material. Recommendation enough?

The Sugar Hill web site is currently under reconstruction, and links to only two of the compilations mentioned above are showing up as of 9:00 am. on 7/10. I’m sure they will all appear shortly as site revisions are completed.

You can see full track lists for the Peter Rowan and Nashville Bluegrass Band CDs now at SugarHillRecords,com, but no audio samples. They will be available when these new releases show up on iTunes.