Ten years ago a CD was released that was probably the very first mashup to feature bluegrass music (mashed with some groovy funk). The CD was GrooveGrass 101, produced by Scott Rouse.

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.

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) yesterday announced the 2008 recipients of the NEA National Heritage Fellowships, the country’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.

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. (more…)

Music has long been a medium for the expression of social comment. This is certainly so in country music, if less so within bluegrass. Also, most of the genre’s progenitors and many from later generations have come from a rural environment and have first hand knowledge of the struggle to make a living from the land.

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.

Rebel Records has recently announced news of the forthcoming release on March 25 of a various Artists collection entitled Best Loved Bluegrass: 20 All-Time Favorites (REB-8004).

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… (more…)