Our good friend – and occasional contributor – Casey Henry is out playing banjo with Michael Martin Murphey in support of his new Rural Rhythm bluegrass CD. She played with Michael on The Grand Ole Opry this past weekend, along with Jake Murphey and Pat Flynn on guitar, Hoot Hester on fiddle and Jeremy Darrow on bass.

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).

Michael Martin Murphey has created a music video for Close To The Land, the first from his Rural Rhythm release, Buckaroo Bluegrass.

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.

Our own intrepid correspondent, Richard Thompson [bluegrassmercury], spent a week in Nashville in early October, having traveled from the UK to attend the IBMA convention. It was his first trip to IBMA in 20 years, and we thought that his post-IBMA impressions and reflections would be of interest both to others who were likewise in attendance, and our many readers who would love to have been there.

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. (more…)

Michael Martin Murphey carved his name in pop music granite back in 1975 when his Blue Sky, Night Thunder album was released on Epic Records.

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.