Murphey was in town to perform with a number of Rural Rhythm artists at IBMA, and to showcase two new singles from his next RR CD, Buckaroo Blue Grass 2, due in February 2010. The first is a remake of Wildfire, his 1975 radio hit, sung as a duet with Carrie Hassler, and the other a new MMM song, Running Gun, which tells a classic western story done up bluegrass style.

Michael and Carrie are especially stoked about getting to perform the new version of Wildfire during halftime at the SMU-Navy game in Dallas on October 17. Look for it to be released for digital download around the 17th.

Bluegrass folks seemed to warmly embrace Murphey at IBMA, and he returned the favor posing for photos and signing autographs for fans. He did a cameo during Audie Blaylok & Redline’s main stage showcase set where he was met with enthusiastic applause.

Buckaroo Blue Grass 2 will  feature a who’s who cast of bluegrass pickers, including Sam Bush, Charlie Cushman, Troy Engle, Pat Flynn, Andy Hall, Rob Ickes, Andy Leftwich among them.

Here are sneak peek samples of the two new singles.

Wildfire – Listen Now    

Running Gun – Listen Now    

Darren Beachley & Legends Of The Potomac were up first. That may sound like a fairly grandiose name for a new band, but with former Seldom Sceners Tom Gray on bass, Mike Auldridge on resonator guitar, and former Bluegrass Cardinal Norman Wright on mandolin and tenor vocals, the name fits.

Their set featured music from an upcoming CD on Patuxent Records, with Darren Beachley (former member of Quicksilver) on guitar and lead vocals and Mark Delaney on banjo.

No matter how well they played or how solid the material they chose, nothing could overshadow getting to hear Wright’s soaring tenor on stage again! His voice was clear and strong and anyone who cherished his recordings with the Cardinals had to be immediately swept up in the sound – as I surely was.

The name also fits given that their style calls to mind what could be described as the Washington, DC bluegrass sound. Both The Country Gentlemen and Seldom Scene emerged from that community in the 1960s and ’70s, and Darren and the Legends carry it forward just fine.

Next up was G2, a young bluegrass band from Sweden. Wonder what a Swedish bluegrass band sounds like?

Well with these guys, it sounds exactly like it does in Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky or Tennessee. Their style is modern, but it’s clear that all five of them have intently studied the music, and they play it with a confidence and authority you might not expect from a young European band.

Almost all of their music is written by guitarist Christoffer Olsson, who also handles the lead vocals. As resonator guitarist Tobias Strömberg mentioned during the set, “It’s hard to believe all those big words come out of such a little man.” Olsson’s songs are thoughtful and original, avoiding the sort of stereotypes that can plague artists who work in a style that is foreign to their culture.

But all of these musicians could go to work for Doyle Lawson. Mandolinist Erik Igelström has obviously mastered his instrument, but plays with a highly individual style. Bass player Jimmy Sunnebrandt, like most of the band, grew up with a father who played country and bluegrass fiddle. Erik told a story about Jimmy as a tyke going with his father to shows, where he would sit in the front row reading Donald Duck comics until his dad would call him up to play a tune with them on fiddle. After he was finished, he would return to his seat and his reading.

Banjo picker Jens Koch really stands out, and is among the very best young, traditional bluegrass banjo players in any country. He works effortlessly in the JD Crowe/Ron Stewart idiom, and I can see him becoming one of the tops on his instrument in the next few years. Strömberg was impressive as well.

Igelström mentioned that the band is planning to spend as much as four months in the US in 2010, working as many dates as Roe Entertainment can get them heading into IBMA. It was a very strong performance.

Audie Blaylock & Redline finished out the afternoon set.

Establishing yourself as a band leader can be tough, even after working with Rhonda Vincent and Michael Cleveland. Audie has been building a band since this time last year, and the one he has assembled is top notch.

His solid guitar playing holds down the rhythm section with Matt Wallace on bass, Patrick McAvinue on fiddle and Evan Ward on banjo. Darrell Webb had been playing mandolin and singing tenor, but he is process of setting up his own band, so his status with the band is temporary.

Blaylock is a singularly powerful vocalist, and this group blends with him perfectly. Their trios were matched breath for breath, and the quartet number they did, Goodbye – from their self-titled debut CD – was stunning. And it was no fluke… I heard them again this evening and they nailed this song both times.

Fiddler McAvinue also merits special mention. He is an adventurous player, with an aggressive style of his own. His solo album, Rutlands Reel is an excellent recording you may want to consider.

All in all, a very entertaining group of artists, with enough variance in style to show that bluegrass music simply doesn’t all sound the same.

On Friday, April 3rd, 2009, The Josh Williams Band was asked to back up legendary western singer, Michael Martin Murphey at Owensboro Kentucky’s eighth annual "Bluegrass Returns to Its Roots Festival."  Josh Williams said, "the band and I felt honored to perform with Michael, as we all think he is one of America’s Premier singer-songwriters.  I recorded his "Carolina In The Pines" with "Special Consensus" several years ago, and it is still one of my most requested songs So it was a special thrill to get to perform that song with him!"

And here a couple photos he sent along of the Josh Williams Band with Michael Martin Murphey.

Murphey is doing the rounds promoting Buckaroo Blue Grass, his new album on Rural Rhythm, which features a number of his familiar hits along with a bunch of new songs recorded bluegrass style. On this outing, he has a top notch bluegrass band in tow: Casey Henry on banjo, Mike Bub on bass and Troy Engle on fiddle.

You can see the entire show, which also has a performance from Tom Rush, online.

Casey sent along some photos and this report…

“On the first show we did Lone Cowboy and Carolina in the Pines, which are both on MMM’s new Buckaroo Blue Grass CD. Hoot really stepped in and did a great job, having never played with us before. We didn’t know what we were going to play until about two minutes before we stepped on stage and we didn’t even have a chance to run over Lone Cowboy with Hoot at all, so he was completely flying by the seat of his pants! He did a great job!

On the second show we did What Am I Doing Hangin’ Round, which was MMM’s first hit, recorded by the Monkees, and Fiddlin’ Man. Then, after all that, we trekked across the street and did the Ernest Tubb Midnight Jamboree. By the time we were done at 1:30 AM we were all completely worn out.

We’re playing on the Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour tonight in Lexington, so that should be fun.”

You can catch a webcast of the Woodsongs broadcast live tonight (4/6) at 7:00 p.m. (EDT).

The album was produced by Michael’s son Ryan, and features bluegrass-inflected acoustic versions of several of his most popular songs. Some of the top pickers and singers in our music helped out on this project, including Sam Bush, Ronnie McCoury, Rob Ickes, Rhonda Vincent, and Charlie Cushman.

Close To The Land is also used as the theme song for the television program, America’s Heartland, which airs on PBS and RFD-TV.

bluegrassmercury Travelogue # 12
By Richard F Thompson
Nashville, Tenn. Sunday, October 6

Karen and I spent the day relaxing and sightseeing, starting by the Cumberland River and working our way back up Broadway via First Avenue and Second Avenue.

I was disappointed to find that Fort Nashborough – the name of the first settlement – had been moved from its original site. I guess that it was part of the price of progress.

Although, it was largely a day free from music and, therefore, possibly of little interest to those who want to know about my bluegrass experiences, I found a lot of interest in down-town Nashville, if you look beyond the tackiness of NashVegas.

Viewed from the river, First Avenue looked as though the buildings were used as warehousing for goods landed from staging on the river bank. Viewed from Second Avenue, those same buildings appeared to extend through to the depth of the whole of the block. This prompted me to look closely at the buildings along the way.

The three storey Watkins Block along leafy Second Avenue was built in 1875, the two storey premises now occupied by Hatch Show Print was built in 1880, or thereabouts, and the oldest property in down-town Nashville – 102 Fifth Avenue South – was built about 1816. The Ryman Auditorium was built in 1892 and further out, but within our walking range, the Union Station building, an example of late-Victorian Romanesque Revival architecture, was opened n 1900 and the Hume-Fogg High School, a Tudor Revival building, has parts that date from 1855.

Among these older buildings is a variety of examples of more modern, but nonetheless still interesting, architecture, such as that for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the Sommet Centre and the Frist Museum. However, the landscape is dominated by the 32-storey AT& T (a.k.a. Batman) building, completed in August 1994.

For the second time during our stay we had a late lunch at Merchants bar/restaurant on Broadway. This is Karen’s favourite place to eat.

We spent the early part of the evening at the Ford Theatre, at the invitation of Eddie Stubbs for his regular monthly Intimate Evening with ‚Ķ… His guest was Michael Martin Murphey, dubbed the “singing cowboy poet,” from Texas. Murphey who was in the city for an appearance on Saturday (10/4) at the IBMA Fan Fest and delayed his return home to accommodate the interview with Stubbs.

As well as talking to Stubbs, Murphey performed a few of the songs from his forthcoming bluegrass-orientated album Buckaroo Blue Grass on Rural Rhythm Records. He was accompanied by his son, Ryan on guitar; Pat Flynn, of New Grass Revival fame, also playing guitar; and Casey Henry, playing banjo. Among the songs that he performed was his classic Carolina in the Pines.

Following that we took a few photographs, capturing parts of Nashville at night, before returning to our hotel for a snack.

Editor’s note: A photo Richard is featured this week on the front page of WAMU’s Bluegrass Country web site as a part of their bumper sticker promotion. They have posted a number of listener photos with their WAMU bumper stcikers on Flickr.

That record contained his two biggest hits, Wildfire and Carolina In The Pines, the latter of which featured the banjo and mandolin prominently (by John McEuen, then with The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band). It played a major role in igniting the folk/rock movement in the 1970s, as well as a revival of interest in acoustic and traditional music among young people at that time.

Carolina In The Pines quickly worked its way into the bluegrass repertoire, and has since been recorded dozens of times by bluegrass acts.

Now, 34 years after that song made its mark on bluegrass, Michael is returning the favor, and is set to release his first all-bluegrass album on February 10, 2009 (Rural Rhythm Records). Buckaroo Blue Grass will combine his current focus on cowboy and western themes with a red hot roster of bluegrass pickers – Sam Bush, Rob Ickes, Ronnie McCoury, Andy Leftwich, Pat Flynn, Charlie Cushman, and Rhonda Vincent.

The songs are all Murphey originals and include some of his top hits (Carolina In The Pines, Fiddlin’ Man, Lost River) plus a couple he wrote that were cut by other artists (The Monkee’s What Am I Doing Hangin Around and John Denver’s Boy From The Country).

Michael debuted his bluegrass sound during the 2008 IBMA Fan Fest in Nashville and he will be touring with a bluegrass band in support of Buckaroo Blue Grass in 2009.

We will be doing an interview with Murphey shortly, and look forward to hearing how he found himself cutting a bluegrass record. In the meantime, here is a sample from one of the tracks, Lone Cowboy.

Listen now:

That song, along with a newly rerecorded version of Carolina In The Pines, shipped to bluegrass radio this week on a Rural Rhthm radio sampler. You should be hearing them soon on your favorite radio shows.