The SouthEastern Bluegrass Association (SEBA) has reached quite a milestone. This weekend, they will mark their 25th Anniversary supporting and promoting bluegrass music with a special concert and workshop in Duluth, GA.

From a group of pickers at the 1984 Diamond Lure Bluegrass Festival in Ellijay, GA, SEBA has grown to more than 800 members, with 9 chapters in 3 states (GA, TN, SC). Their web site contains an exhaustive listings of events near their chapter cities, including SEBA sponsored jams and pickings, appearances by local (member) bands, and festivals, workshops and concerts throughout the southeastern US.

Their Silver Anniversary Superstar concert will be held on October 24 at the Gwinnett Performing Arts Center in Duluth, 30 miles north of Atlanta. Headlining are two award-winning bluegrass acts that despite their many successful recordings, are only rarely found performing live: Longview and The Daughters of Bluegrass.

Longview consists of top bluegrass artists JD Crowe on banjo, Ron Stewart on fiddle, Don Rigsby on mandolin and vocals, Lou Reid on guitar and vocals, James Kinhg on guitar and vocals, and Marshall Wilborn on bass. They have 3 albums on Rounder Records, most recently Deep In The Mountains in 2008. Membership has varied substantially since the band launched in 1995, designed to showcase traditional bluegrass.

Similarly, Daughters Of Bluegrass formed to showcase the many talented ladies who pick and sing. They have 3 CDs, also featuring a large varied cast of characters, primarily organized by North Carolina band leader Lorraine Jordan. More than 4 dozen top female artists have recorded with this group, tanging from fresh-faced teens to, well… highly-experienced women. For the 10/24 show, the band will consist of Dale Ann Bradley on guitar, Gena Britt-Tew on banjo, Frances Mooney on bass, Tina Adair Dishman on mandolin, Lisa Ray on fiddle, Lorraine Jordan on mandolin, Jeanetta Williams aon bass, and Mindy Rakestraw on guitar – all contributing as vocalists.

Before the show, SEBA will sponsor a full day of workshops, including sessions with Ron Stewart on banjo and fiddle, Don Rigsby on mandolin and vocals, and Dale Ann Bradley on guitar. You can see the full workshop schedule online.

Congratulations to SEBA for their Silver Anniversary – here’s to 25 more!

This column, containing brief reviews of recent CD releases by Richard Thompson, is published in the current (Spring 2009) edition of British Bluegrass News. As it is a lengthy piece, we will break it into two parts, and run the rest next Sunday.

A series of rambles about CDs by bluegrassmercury…

A big bundle of CDs has landed on my desk in the recent past. They include those by Danny Paisley, the Infamous Stringdusters, Williams & Clark Expedition, Kenny & Amanda Smith Band, Daughters Of Bluegrass, High Windy, Gold Heart, Cherryholmes, Earl Scruggs, The Mashville Brigade, Crowe Brothers, Ralph Stanley II, Longview, Big Country Bluegrass.

The Infamous Stringdusters - Travis Book (bass, vocals), Jesse Cobb (mandolin), Andy Falco (guitar), Jeremy Garrett (fiddle, vocals), Andy Hall (dobro, vocals) and Chris Pandolphi (banjo) – are a bunch of young honchos who have just released their second album. This self-titled collection (Sugar Hill 4043) is growing on me. Book’s soulful vocals shine on Won‚Äòt Be Coming Back, the melodic Bound For Tennessee and the bluesy Get It While You Can. Garrett is a fine vocalist as well, as demonstrated on Three Days In July (historians, think Gettysburg, 1863), I Wonder and You Can‚Äòt Handle The Truth. There’s three enjoyable instrumentals in Glass Elevator by Pandolphi, Golden Ticket by Cobb and Black Rock by Hall, keeping interest going until the end. Overall the sextet produces a warm, full sound with fiddle and Dobro ¬Æ prominent, rather than just having one or other, as a lot of groups do.

There aren’t any surprises on Danny Paisley’s The Room Over Mine (Rounder 0589); he continues where he and his father left off. The 13-tack collection epitomizes the hard-driving Galax area mountain-style of bluegrass, with fiddle kick-offs and driving banjo ringing loud and clear. There‚Äòs a couple of outstanding new ‚Äòold’ songs in Chris Stuart’s opener, Don’t Throw Mamma’s Flowers Away and Drowning Sailor, both of which suit Paisley to a ‚ÄòT’. Most of the rest are bluegrass versions of songs from the classic country catalogue, with a couple from his dad’s repertoire, now re-done. In the former category are The Convict And The Rose, written by Betty Chapin and Robert A. King and recorded by Marty Robbins and Charlie Moore among others, I Thought I Heard You Calling My Name, done in a honk-tonk style with walking bass and I’m Coming Back But I Don’t Know When, a song Danny first heard done by Charlie Monroe.

In the second group are At the End of a Long Lonely Day, now done in different way and with different lyrics and A Memory of You, previously recorded by Jim and Jesse. Donnie Eldreth Jr does a great job having learned how to follow Danny’s lead singing and does likewise when he is singing lead as on Another Bridge to Burn, a song from Ray Price’s repertoire. Those Paisleys and the Lundy brothers know how to do it and they do it exceptionally well. (more…)

Joe Mullins has enjoyed a very active career in bluegrass for over 25 years, beginning while still at high school when playing with his father, the highly esteemed Paul ‘Moon’ Mullins, in the Traditional Grass, then in the stellar band Longview. Since the turn of the century, he has worked on a couple of award-winning projects and in the process been honoured for his banjo playing. In between he has worked on various Ohio radio stations promoting bluegrass as a DJ. Presently, Mullins owns and operates a network of three south-west Ohio radio stations, playing classic country, bluegrass and Gospel music.

With The Radio Ramblers – Adam McIntosh, once of The Dry Branch Fire Squad (guitar and vocals), Evan McGregor, who previously has had experience playing with the Wildwood Valley Boys and The James King Band, on fiddle and vocals, Mike Terry (mandolin and vocals) and Tim Kidd (bass and drums) – Mullins is effectively combining both jobs, having a band whose primary purpose is performing at Classic Country Radio promotions. Like Topsy, demand to hear the Radio Ramblers grew and grew and they released this CD.

As mentioned earlier, Mullins grew up on traditional bluegrass and Tuned In presents more of the same, beginning with a novel recording of an intro to a bluegrass radio show after the listener has tuned in. It’s a simple, brief, but effective way to capture audience attention.

What follows is a balanced mix of four secular and four sacred songs and two instrumentals. In the first category is My Blue Eyed Darlin’, not to be confused with the popular Monroe song of that title, a song about a lost love, Each Minute Seems A Million Years, with a neat bluesy fiddle ending, Poet With Wings, from that illustrious song writing team of Pete Goble and Leroy Drumm, and Carter Stanley’s Baby Girl.

The four Gospel tracks are Jeff Tolbert’s song of praise, I Owe It All To Thee, the sterling a cappella effort, Deeper Than The Stain, When I’ve Traveled My Last Mile, which is very reminiscent of the Boys From Indiana best work, and Brand New Man, penned by McIntosh and the only original offering in this set.

The lead vocals are strong and sure and the various blends of harmony singing are well arranged and pleasing to the ear.

Mullins displays award-winning banjo-picking on the standard Bending The Strings, while East Tennessee Blues displays some fine instrumental teamwork topped off by a great guitar break.

Tuned In is good, solid traditional bluegrass with a touch of class in the right places.

Footnote:

Joe Mullins can be heard spinning discs on the Ohio airwaves each weekday from 2pm to 5pm at AM 1500 WBZI Xenia, AM 1090 WKPI Wilmington and AM 1130 WEDI Eaton and live on line at www.myclassiccountry.com.

We just received our summer (July/August) issue of Bluegrass Music Profiles and found, in addition to a cover feature on Longview, that the magazine has graduated to a full color, glossy stock publication.

BMP debuted in the spring of 2003 as black & white on newsprint, with spot color, and remained as such until the Nov/Dec ‘07 issue where the cover went full color. They went to gloss stock for the March/April ‘08 cover, and now the entire magazine is color on gloss.

Congratulations to publishers Kevin and Lori Kerfoot for finding a niche for this new publication during a time of declining print circulation. It seems that their catalog of personality-based features on bluegrass artists and industry figures has found favor with bluegrass readers.

You can find subscription, single and back issue information on the BMP web site.