Mac called and asked if I would give him a ride to Cracker Barrel for breakfast… So we went to Cracker Barrel… and to 1947, to 1956, to 1985, to 1963, to 1997, to 1936, to…

In other words Mac was Wichita’s co-host aboard The Grand Old Time Machine this past weekend. He sounded good and seemed to be having a blast hanging out with Wichita and playing some great music.

If you missed it over the weekend, it’s about to come on again. Each week The Grand Old Time Machine airs Fridays at 9pm Eastern and Saturday night at 12, then the following Tuesday at 3PM Eastern.

So tune in to Sirius/XM this afternoon and get yourself a little Mac & Wichita!

Bluegrass 1963, the Reno & Smiley DVD has twenty songs from a television pilot they recorded in Roanoke, VA in 1963 at WDBJ, which led to a regular morning show that ran for several years. The show also features a guest appearance by The Stanley Brothers and a piece from WDBJ announcer Irv Sharp on piano.

The live performances include some Reno & Smiley favorites, plus a visit from Chicken Hot Rod and Pansy.

Ronnie Reno narrates the video, which is available from Blue Highways TV for $19.95.

They have also released a Mac Wiseman DVD, recorded live in 1971, with 12 songs plus an interview with Chubby Wise, Lester Flatt and Carlton Haney. Lester and Chubby also perform in the video, which also contains some truly classic material.

• Homestead On The Farm
  
• Me & Bobby McGee
  
• Prisoner’s Song
  
• Liberty
• Four Walls
• I’ll Still Write Your Name In The Sand
• Bluebirds Are Singing For Me
• Sweetheart You Done Me Wrong
  
• Will You Be Loving Another Man
  
• I’ll Be All Smiles Tonight
  
• Are You Washed In The Blood
  
• Jimmy Brown, The News Boy

The Wiseman DVD is titled Bluegrass 1971, and is available for $16.95, or you can purchase both DVDs for $29.95.

Both belong in any serious collection of bluegrass music. They are also available from retailers who specialize in bluegrass music.

The 14 recordings in this collection came about due to the mutually beneficial liaison during the mid-1970s between Lou Ukelson, owner of Vetco Records, who was keen to give the label a more national presence, and stalwart Mac Wiseman, who was anxious to have some of his best known songs back in print. The result was two albums worth of recordings made with the assistance of some of the famous Shenandoah Cut-Ups: Billy Edwards (banjo), John Palmer (bass) and ‚ÄòTater’ Tate (fiddle) – augmented by Buddy Griffin (fiddle and autoharp), Jeff Terflinger (mandolin) and Tommy Boyd (resonator guitar). Wiseman himself played guitar and provided the lead vocals.

Not only did Wiseman re-record some of the songs that he had done for Dot Records, including new arrangements of
My Little Home in Tennessee, Fire in my Heart, Don’t Let Your Sweet Love Die and I Haven’t Got The Right To Love You, he did old songs like Mary Of The Wild Moor and The Letter Edged In Black that he had been singing for some years but never recorded previously.

Wiseman, who was 84 on May 23, is well known for his clear and mellow tenor voice and he was in good form vocally at the time of these sessions.

The selections featured were originally available on two LPs, New Traditions Vol.1 (VET 508) and New Traditions Vol. 2 (VET 509), and in Rebel’s own Classic Bluegrass CD series (REB 1106).

Unfortunately, Mac Wiseman literally broke his right femur just above the knee recently. He was taken to Summit Medical Center in Nashville, TN, where he underwent surgery and I’m told he’s now recovering nicely.

Now he’s at Skyline in “Broken leg re-hab”. He’s telling jokes every 3 minutes as usual and has all the nurses in stitches most of the time.

They just love him.

His recovery is progressing nicely and I understand that he’ll be sent home sometime next week.

The Bluegrass Blog send our best wishes to Mac for a speedy recovery!

This week Warner Brothers released the CD on iTunes for the first time and I’m told it’s selling quite well.

The CD features bluegrass legend Doc Watson together with Bootsy Collins on Wabash Cannonball and Blue Moon of Kentucky. Other stars making appearances include Mac Wiseman, Jerry Douglas, Ronnie and Rob McCoury, Jason Carter, Mike Bub, Bernie Leden (from the Eagles), and many more. Flatpicking master Steve Kaufman rips off some great solos on Little Cabin Home on the Hill mixed up with all the groovy stuff.

If you’ve never heard GrooveGrass 101, do yourself a favor and go give it a listen on iTunes.

Mac Wiseman was among the eleven fellowships, which include a one-time award of $20,000 each.

These awardees were chosen for their artistic excellence and contributions to our nation’s cultural heritage. They represent a cross-section of ethnic cultures and traditions and art forms ranging from saddle making and dance to bluegrass music and drum making.

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Dana Gioia said, “It is important to recognize the diverse traditional arts that enrich America’s cultural landscape and to award those whose dedication and artistry are so integral to the continuation of these art forms.”

Wiseman joins the ranks of previous Heritage Fellows in the bluegrass field such as Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, Ralph Stanley, Jim and Jesse McReynolds, Kenny Baker, Hazel Dickens, Jerry Douglas and Doyle Lawson. Others include Tommy Jarrell, Doc Watson, Lily May Ledford, Wade Mainer, Ola Belle Reed, Nimrod Workman, Elizabeth Cotton, Fairfield Four, Wayne Henderson, Jean Ritchie and Janette Carter.

Since 1982, the Endowment has awarded 338 NEA National Heritage Fellowships.

The 2008 awardees will participate in a series of events in Washington DC during September, including a banquet at the Library of Congress, an awards presentation on Capitol Hill as well as a concert scheduled for Friday, September 19, at the Music Center at Strathmore in Bethesda, Maryland.

This is what the NEA website has to say about Wiseman …..

Mac Wiseman was born in Crimora, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley. Both of his parents sang old ballads around the house and would play recordings of early country musicians for entertainment. Wiseman began to sing in public at the age of 12, but he was stricken with polio in his youth and that curtailed his performances for a time. With the help of the National Foundation of Polio, he attended music school in Dayton, Virginia. Soon he was singing on a local radio station in Harrisonburg, and in 1946 he joined the band of Molly O’Day who taught him songs, singing style, and a love of the classic country repertoire.

Wiseman became an original member of Lester Flatt’s and Earl Scruggs’ Foggy Mountain Boys, recording his first Mercury session with them in 1948, and in 1949 he joined Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass (sic) Boys at the Grand Ole Opry. In 1951, he began his solo career, gaining fame as having the “voice with a heart,” and recording such classics as Tis Sweet to Be Remembered, Love Letters in the Sand, Jimmie Brown, The Newsboy and Shackles and Chains.

Wiseman went to Hollywood in 1957 to head the country music section of Dot Records. Along with other music industry leaders, in 1958 he co-founded the Country Music Association for which he was the first Secretary Treasurer. During the 1960s he often opened for Johnny Cash at folk festivals such as Newport and Mariposa, as well as opening for Cash at venues such as the Hollywood Bowl.

Still known for his soulful high tenor singing, in 2007 Mac Wiseman and songwriter John Prine released a well-received duet album entitled Standard Songs for Average People. Wiseman recorded three still unreleased numbers with Johnny Cash in what turned out to be Cash’s final sessions.

Fellowship recipients are nominated by the public, often by members of their own communities, and then judged by a panel of experts in folk and traditional arts on the basis of their continuing artistic accomplishments and contributions as practitioners and teachers. This year a nine-member panel reviewed 235 nominations for the 11 fellowships. The ratio of winners to nominees indicates the extraordinary level of competition for this national honor.

The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Arts Endowment is the largest annual national funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases.

The forthcoming release, on June 24, of Moneyland, (MCM 0005), from McCoury Music adds much to the catalogue of songs that speak of economic depravity. The multi-artist collection offers a hard-hitting look at the economic hardships and perceived injustices experienced by both rural and urban working people and their families.

On a personal level, Del McCoury has direct experience of life in rural America – having been born in North Carolina and spending good part of his life in York County, Pennsylvania – so it will not come as any surprise that he should lend his name to this project and express his solidarity with those who are suffering in current economic circumstances.

Among the personnel heard on this 16-track collection are the Del McCoury Band, Mac Wiseman, Merle Haggard, Patty Loveless, Dan Tyminski, Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Tim O’Brien, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.

Some of the recordings were ‘bought in’ from previously available sources, others were done specifically for this set.

Book-ending Moneyland are a Franklin D Roosevelt Fireside chat, parts 1 and 2, and in the one instance a 1931 recording of Breadline Blues 1932 [from Bernard 'Slim' Smith] and at the end Breadline Blues 2008, a contemporary arrangement of the 1932 song with additional verses.

Moneyland is an unashamedly political message to the powers that be. I’ll not be surprised if it prompts debate; it may help to inform opinions, just like a book or other piece of literature.

The McCoury Music web site has personal messages about the project from Del McCoury, Stan Strickland of McCoury Music, and CD producers Strickland, Ronnie McCoury, and Rob McCoury. Del expresses the project’s goal explicitly in one of these messages:

“I’m in a position where I can make good choices. And aside from just doing what I do musically, I can help others do the same themselves, and get a message out that people need to hear and think about – and, especially in an election year, take action on. This isn’t about party politics, it’s about doing what’s best for our country and everyone in it, not just a lucky few.”

[Editor's note] If you are curious which end of the political spectrum this project occupies, our friend Craig Havighurst makes it plain at String Theory Media:

“Let’s just say I wouldn’t be surprised if Moneyland is on Obama’s iPod by this summer’s Democratic convention.”

Audio samples from several tracks can be heard online. File under Americana.

The 20 song anthology embraces some of the classic songs in bluegrass music from some of the great acts in the business (track listing below).

So many of the songs here are inextricably linked with the Rebel catalogue; Bringing Mary Home, Fox On The Run and Atlanta Is Burning being three notable examples. These are signature songs as is Love Of The Mountains. There are the tour de force pieces like Rice’s Nine Pound Hammer and JD Crowe’s Train 45 also.

Most of the material is direct from the Rebel vaults, whereas some came to them indirectly, such as – and I speculate here – the Lilly Brothers track, which was originally recorded for Event Records in 1956 or 1957 and later appeared on a County LP. It was subsequently reissued on a Rebel CD (1688). Others in this category are Little Rosewood Casket – Don Reno & Red Smiley (from a Wango LP), Footprints In The Snow – Mac Wiseman (Vetco material, perhaps), Poor Ellen Smith – Ted Lundy & the Southern Mountain Boys (County), Pig In A Pen – Stanley Brothers (Wango) and Lonesome Road Blues – Larry Richardson & Happy Smith (County).

There’s lots of fine traditional material here, which is typical of this series, and which, apparently, has been doing very well for Rebel. Judging by the titles and the artists listed, the potential for this set to match its predecessors is great.

For those who have a long-time interest in bluegrass music the songs and the respective bands speak for themselves; for newcomers this album is a good place to start investigating the Rebel catalogue.

Thanks must be made to Gary Reid for sharing his thoughts on some aspects of this collection.

Complete track list…

• Nine Pound Hammer – Tony Rice
• John Henry – Lilly Brothers & Don Stover
• Bringing Mary Home – Country Gentlemen
• Wabash Cannonball – Claire Lynch
• Whitehouse Blues – Del McCoury
• Footprints In The Snow – Mac Wiseman
• Atlanta Is Burning – Boys From Indiana
• Fireball Mail – Lonesome River Band
• Fox On The Run – Emerson & Waldron
• Poor Ellen Smith – Ted Lundy & the Southern Mountain Boys
• Love Of The Mountains – Lost & Found
• Darling Corey – Seldom Scene
• Little Glass Of Wine – Ralph Stanley
• Train 45 – J.D. Crowe
• Little Rosewood Casket – Don Reno & Red Smiley
• Pig In A Pen – Stanley Brothers
• Dream Of A Miner’s Child – Whitley & Skaggs
• Down In The Willow Garden – Dave Evans
• Roving Gambler – Larry Sparks
• Lonesome Road Blues – Larry Richardson & Happy Smith

Our friend Scott Rouse was on hand for the show and sent us a couple photos taken backstage afterwards.

Mac has contributed so much to this music over the years. He truly is a bluegrass great!

Mac Wiseman, at the age of 82, has announced he is retiring from touring. The Old Dominion Jamboree and VaBluegrass.com is asking everyone to show Mac how much we love him and his 63 year contribution to Bluegrass and Country Music by sending him a Christmas card to:

Mr. Mac Wiseman
P.O. Box 17208
Nashville, TN 37217

Of the first generation of Bluegrass musicians, Mac has written, sung and produced music for 63 years. He was vice-president of DOT Records and a founder of the Country Music Association and the first secretary. He gave Lester and Earl a break just when they were ready to call it quits. Let’s all show we appreciate him by taking a few minutes and 41 cents to send him a card.

Have a Merry Christmas by brightening someone else’s!

Sounds like an admirable idea to me. I’ll certainly be doing so.

A review of the Prine/Wiseman CD appeared in the April 26 edition of the Nashville Scene, written by Michael McCall.

“On their new album of duets, Standard Songs for Average People, these two veterans don’t harmonize as much as bring out the other’s distinctive vocal strengths. They’re more apt to trade lines than join together, but they sound delighted either way. This isn’t a duo set up as a star-power venture, nor is it meant as an artistic exercise to stretch their talents. It simply sounds like two well-traveled guys‚ÄîPrine is 60, Wiseman, 81‚Äîsharing a love of old songs and feeling inspired by each other’s company.”

Read the full review at NashvilleScene.com.

You can hear audio samples from Standard Songs for Average People in the iTunes Music Store.

The idea for the duets project was presented to Prine by Nashville producer Jack Clement, which led to an invitation for Mac to join him for a meeting and song swap session. They each then produced a list of songs they might want to record, with no stipulations as to peiod or style, and when they compared lists and saw that they had both suggested several of the same songs, they knew the project was a go.

Included are classics like Saginaw Michigan, Old Dogs and Children and Watermelon Wine, as well as more obscure songs to which one or the other was particularly drawn. Mac wanted to feature Where The Blue of the Night, a Bing Crosby number which he had loved as a child. They also chose Blue Eyed Elaine, an Ernest Tubb track from the 1940s that never made it to the charts.

Our friend Craig Havighurst, who publishes the blog String Theory Media, shared some information and thoughts about Standard Songs For Average People in a press release for Oh Boy Records.

“The singers recorded the tracks facing each other across a dining room table set up in a basement studio near Nashville’s atmospheric and semi-renovated Neuhoff meat packing plant. Co-producer and engineer David Ferguson (Johnny Cash) assembled an extraordinary group of sidemen, including guitarists Pat McLaughlin and Jamie Hartford, drummer Kenny Malone, bassist Dave Jacques and pedal steel legend Lloyd Green.

It’s no stretch to call the final product a masterpiece. Standard songs, yes, but extraordinary choices and performances. Average people these aren’t, but the title carries the message that music like this, timeless and gentle and humane, is not for music snobs or insiders. It’s not only for the old or the young or for a demographic or psychographic. It is, across generation and persuasion, for all of us.”

I found a complete track listing at Amazon.com, but no audio samples. You can order the CD from either Amazon or Oh Boy Records.

The February edition of the widely read British publication Country Music People (CMP) magazine features Jim Lauderdale on the front cover.

Lauderdale, whose new album, Bluegrass, was released last September on the Yep Roc label, discussed his song writing and recording career with Janet Apsley as they got together on what was described as a drizzly, dank November evening in Essex. He says he would do anything for bluegrass and speaks of his occasional song writing collaborations with Ralph Stanley. The article covers a complete five pages.

The second and concluding part of an interview with living legend Mac Wiseman, conducted by Nashville-based reporter Walt Trott, is also included. Titled Mac Wiseman: Music and Memories, the article resumes Wiseman’s story in the Spring of 1947, following his departure from Molly O’Day’s band. This later period in his musical life covers the bluegrass era – with Bill Monroe, and Flatt and Scruggs, among others – the Dot Record period and the years thereafter. The comprehensive article, covering ten pages, includes a photograph of the first twin fiddlers in bluegrass; Tommy Jackson and Dale Potter.

Among the CDs reviewed in the magazine are the J D Crowe & The New South Lefty’s Old Guitar (3 out of 5 stars), David Davis And The Warrior River Boys’ Troubled Times (3 stars) and Vernon Oxford Sings Gospel, Country & Bluegrass (3 stars).

Country Music People is available at all good British news vendors and by subscription. Their web site gives readers an idea of its usual content, though the site features an older edition of CMP.

A sample from the New South article can be read on the BMP web site.

This issue also has Chris Thile talking about his current stage vehicle, How To Grow A Band, and their 2007 transition into The Tensions Mountain Boys. Bryan Sutton takes the Shop Talk section to discuss his guitar collection, and Mac Wiseman shares his bluegrass favorites – including which of his songs is his all time favorite.

You’ll also find BMP’s 2007 Annual Festival Guide, with details on hundreds of bluegrass events throughout the US.

Single issue and annual subscription info can be found on the Bluegrass Music Profiles site.

Prompted by an article in the January 2007 edition of Country Music People that Nashville journalist Walter Trott wrote about Mac Wiseman, I followed up a mention of the new 4 CD Bear Family Records boxed set release of On Susan’s Floor (Bear Family BCD 16736 DK).

In keeping with the label’s well deserved reputation for making available older recordings from a variety of catalogues, this set includes some rare material from Mac Wiseman’s recording career between the years 1965 to 1979, including that from his own Wise label, the Rural Rhythm, MGM, Dot, RCA and Churchill archives, comprising 114 songs in all.

Among the songs featured are such notable titles as Bringing Mary Home, Ring Them Golden Bells, I Saw Your Face In The Moon, Bringing In The Georgia Mail, Letter Edged In Black, White Silver Sands, Ballad Of A Teenage Queen and the hit single My Blue Heaven, recorded with Woody Herman’s band.

As usual the boxed set includes a hard-backed book; this one has an essay by Colin Escott, a discography and many previously unpublished photographs.

The collection is available directly from Bear Family, and is listed in the catalogue of many online resellers where bluegrass music is sold.

Topics this year included getting radio airplay for your CD (led by several prominent bluegrass broadcasters), health insurance issues for performers, and a business mentoring session with Mac Wiseman.

The seminars are also recorded for wider distribution, and this year’s are available now through IBMA. They are available on either CD or cassette, and are offered for $15 each, with discounts in quantity.

Though attendance at the seminars was restricted to the IBMA membership, the audio recordings are available to members and non-members alike.

You can find the ordering details, and a list of the seminars which are available, on the IBMA web site.

Dale Cockrell, a professor of Musicology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, has founded a company to make the many traditional American songs and tunes mentioned in the Little House books available as sound recordings for modern readers. He is assisted in this work by Nashville mandolinist, producer and Sound Art Recordings president, Butch Baldassari. The company is called Pa’s Fiddle, and the second of ten audio CDs with this theme is due for release on November 14.

This new project is entitled, Arkansas Traveler: Music from Little House on the Prairie, and it includes 18 songs and tunes mentioned in the Wilder books. Credited performers include Mac Wiseman, Riders In The Sky, John Cowan, Bob Carlin, Butch Baldassari, Alison Brown and many others.

Arkansas Traveler will not ship to stores until next month, but it can be ordered online now from Pa’s Fiddle, where audio samples can also be heard online.

The first release in this Ingalls series, Happy Land, has been added to the We The People Bookshelf by the National Endowment For The Humanities. This program delivers a set of age-appropriate classic books to several thousand libraries around the US to foster the reading of great children’s literature. Happy Land was added as a bonus to their fourth NEH Bookshelf program, a collection of literature with The Pursuit Of Happiness as its theme.

Mac talked about some of the memorable moments in his 63 year career in music, including stories about Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, Woody Herman and Bill Monroe.

XM will re-broadcast the Wiseman interview this coming Sunday (8/6) at 10:00 a.m. (EDT).

Bluegrass Junction host Cantrell now features live shows from the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum each Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 3:00-6:00 p.m. (Eastern). The 24/7 bluegrass feed can be found on XM Channel 14, DirectTV channel 812, and also on AOL Radio.

In the last year or two, as he’s rounded the curve of 80, he’s recorded as a guest with the likes of Johnny Cash and Charlie Daniels. And he maintains a steady, though limited, touring schedule. Perhaps most notably, Wiseman recently recorded three CDs worth of the great old songs he loves to sing.