The Peter Rowan & Tony Rice Quartet has undergone a couple changes recently. In addition to Rowan & Rice, the quartet formerly consisted of mandolinist Sharon Gilchrist and bassist Bryn Davies.

Both ladies have recently moved on to other pursuits and accordingly, Rowan & Rice have brought two new pickers onboard to fill the vacancies.

Joining the quartet on mandolin, and I presume fiddle, is Ricky Simpkins. Simpkins has played with Rice for many years in The Tony Rice Unit, and it seems natural that he would called on for this gig.

Multi-award winning bassist Mike Bub has been called in to hold down the low notes. Mike is well known throughout the bluegrass world for the years he spent in the Del McCoury Band. Bub is a busy man these days. He has been touring with Dale Ann Bradley, and keeping himself busy with other pursuits as well.

Yes, I am playing with the R&R Quartet and Dale Ann Bradley. So far there have been very few conflicts on dates. I am also doing a couple of music camps this year including the Transatlantic Blugrasss School in Wales, UK , Rockygrass Academy and the Augusta Heritage Workshop in Elkins, WVA. Oh yeah, I am also working with a fellow named Jimmy Stewart here in Nashville who years ago played dobro and fiddle with Doyle Lawson. He has been a utility player for Brooks and Dunn for about 12 years and will have a record out on Warner Brothers this year. Oh and one more….still working with songwriters Verlon Thompson and Shawn Camp. We have been doing the Station Inn for about the past year with Chris Henry and hope to get something on CD soon.

In addition to all his musical jobs, Bub is also busy being a dad to his three year old son, a job he relishes.

Riley is the joy of our life. He’s already aspiring to be a musician, pilot, race car driver, railroad engineer and lady killer.

Commenting on the quartets recent performance at the Birchmere, the Washington Post had this to say concerning the new band members.

The quartet’s lineup remains first-rate, with Simpkins and Bub providing smoothly integrated accompaniment and soulful vocal shadings.

I’m sure they’re correct. Bub and Simpkins are long time favorites of mine on their respective instruments. I’m looking forward to the chance to hear them in this context.

The Transatlantic Bluegrass School, scheduled for May 7-11, 2008 in the Welsh town of Pembrokeshire, has announced the formation of a  scholarship program for young students, aged 16-25, based on financial need.

The scholarship awards will cover the full tuition costs, and are available for banjo, guitar, fiddle, mandolin or vocal. Applicants must submit essays describing their musical background, financial situation and their interests and aspirations in bluegrass music.

The management of the school describes the program as follows:

The purpose of these scholarships is to encourage the development and appreciation of bluegrass music and musicianship in the 16 to 25 year age group, and especially to facilitate participation in learning activities by those who without benefit of a scholarship would find it difficult to fund attendance personally.

Instructors at the ‘08 school will include Bobby Hicks on fiddle, Kenny Smith on guitar, Amanda Smith on vocals, Emory Lester on mandolin, Ross Nickerson on banjo, and Mike Bub on bass.

Applications must be received by March 21, 2008. Full details and necessary forms can be found online.

Spring 2008 will find a bevy of top American bluegrass musicians heading to Wales to serve as instructors at the Transatlantic Bluegrass School. The school will be held starting on May 7 in the scenic coastal village of Newport, Pembrokeshire and are designed for students who have passed the most beginning stages of learning to play their instruments.

The faculty includes Ross Nickerson on banjo, Mike Bub on bass, Bobby Hicks on fiddle, Kenny Smith on guitar, Emory Lester on mandolin and Amanda Smith on vocals.

Class sessions will be held both morning and afternoon from May 8-11. Only 20 students will be enrolled for each class, so anyone interested in participating is encouraged to register right away.

There will be a special bluegrass performance on this Friday’s (5/11) edition of The Blue Plate Special, at noon on WDVX. The show will feature a live (in-studio) set with Butch Baldassari (mandolin), Barbara Lamb (fiddle), Kathy Chiavola (guitar/vocal) and Mike Bub (bass).

While this bunch does not tour together regularly, they will occasionally do shows as The Nashville All-Stars, and have an appearance scheduled this weekend at the Earhart Music Festival in Bristol, TN.

Butch said that their show will include mostly standard bluegrass songs and fiddle tunes, and with the high level of musicianship in this group, you can expect it to be a strong set.

WDVX broadcasts at 89.9 FM from Knoxville, TN and the station’s feed is streamed live online. There are no audio archives, so be sure to listen in on Friday, eastern US time, from noon to 1:00 p.m.

The more, the merrier! That’s my personal reaction each time there is news of another mainstream pop or country artist who dips a toe into the bluegrass realm. Some, like Merle Haggard, come to bluegrass as an artistic exercise late in their career, while others are returning to their roots with a grassy outing.

Such is the case with country hit maker Aaron Tippin, who is finishing up a bluegrass project now for a 2007 release on his label, Nippit Records. When I spoke with him about it earlier in the week, he was genuinely excited about the CD, both artistically and because he was eager to let his fans and the country music media know that he had been a bluegrass guy from way back.

Aaron said that he was a country music fan growing up in the South Carolina mountains, but once he was exposed to live bluegrass, he knew he had been bitten by the bug.

“I had a high school teacher who would take a bunch of us guys out to hear bluegrass, and I fell in love with the sound. I started learning to play banjo, and before long, we had put together a little band. We called ourselves The Dixie Ridge Runners. We weren’t great by any means - most of the time we were just plain bad - but we had a bunch of fun.”

All of the rhythm tracks are finished, and with only Aaron’s vocals left to be tracked. Pickers featured on the CD include Charlie Cushman on banjo, Ward Stout on fiddle, Danny Roberts on mandolin, Mike Bub on bass and Jeff White on guitar.

The as yet untitled project will include a few original songs, but it will mostly consist of bluegrass classics and songs that will be accessible for his manistream country fans.

“A lot of people who come to my shows may not be serious bluegrass fans, so we wanted to make sure to record songs that would be familiar to them. One that we had a lot of fun with was Petticoat Junction, the theme to the old TV show that Flatt & Scruggs recorded. We also cut a bluegrass version of Sonny & Cher’s, I Got You Babe, and I’m sure that bluegrass fans will recognize our cut on Brown Mountain Light, one of my favorite songs of all time.”

Tippin’s current album, Now & Then, is a departure in itself. It’s the first since he launched his own label, and it has more of a southern rock edge than his previous country projects, six of which went gold, with one platinum. Following this rockier release with a bluegrass CD shows that his newfound independence is something he takes seriously.

I joked with Aaron when he told me that he would be including songs from the bluegrass project in his stage show, suggesting that he might dust of the old banjo and strap it on once again on stage.

“I don’t think you’ll see that happen. I never got very far on banjo, and working in the studio with Charlie Cushman really made that plain to me. I just love bluegrass music, and am delighted to have a chance to be singing it again. I can’t wait to see what people think when the CD is released.”

He wasn’t sure when I asked if a video from the bluegrass project would be forthcoming, but he did say that they filmed a large portion of the recording sessions.

Aaron promised to keep us posted about the CD’s progress, and we’ll update when audio samples are available online.

Here’s a hearty “Welcome Back!” to Aaron Tippin from The Bluegrass Blog.

This morning I’m on my way to Nashville for the concert DVD shoot I told you about a while back. This show features Josh Williams, Chris Eldridge, and Andy Falco. A few special guests are going to help the guys out as well, including Cody Kilby, and Mike Bub.

If you are in Nashville today be sure to stop by the Station Inn at 7pm or 9pm to catch one of the sets. I you can’t make to the show, you’ll be able to buy the DVD from Flatpicking Guitar Magazine here in a month or two.

Knoxville, TN radio station WDVX plays a blend of music styles that cover the gamut of acoustic styles including bluegrass, gospel, and americana. The station provides an online media player as well as support for Windows Media 96K, and a 128K iTunes feed.

Supported entirely by listener donations, benefit concerts, and local business underwriting, the station is not affiliated with any college, university, religious or political organization. In a new effort at fundraising, the station is auctioning off three great instruments that have been autographed by a number of prominent artists.

The instruments are being auctioned on ebay through the Giving Works program designed for non-profits. All proceeds from the auctions go directly to support the station and it’s programing.

The first instrument on the auction block is an autographed Martin DXM Dreadnought guitar. The instrument has been autographed by Robert Earl Keen, Tim O’Brien, Del McCoury, John Hiatt, Alison Krauss, Dan Tyminski, Jerry Douglas, Jason Carter, Ron Block, Mike Bub and more.

The bidding began this past Friday, February 2nd, and will continue through the auction’s closing date of Sunday February 11th, at 6PM EST.

The instrument comes complete with a hard shell case. The Martin DXM is a mahogany guitar with a modified low oval neck profile, 1 11/16″ nut, 25.4″ scale length, 2 1/8″ bridge string spacing, and Martin’s pattern HPL textured finish.

More photos of the instrument are available on the ebay auction page.

Last January, both Brance and I had the chance to attend the Pickin’ at the Paramount all star concert in Bristol, TN. The show was an offshoot of one that I helped organize in 2000 (reprised in 2001) to celebrate the release of Knee Deep In Bluegrass - The AcuTab Sessions. You can read my report on last year’s show here.

The show has been scheduled again this year, and will be held next weekend (1/20/07) at The Paramount Center on historic State Street in Bristol.

The format of the current show is similar to the one we started in 2000, and reminiscent of the old “package tour” shows popular in the 1950s and 60s. An all star cast of prominent bluegrass pickers and singers will rotate on and off the stage in a variety of configurations, generally performing material outside of what you might normally hear them doing.

This year’s lineup includes Bobby Hicks, Ronnie Bowman, Mike Bub, David Talbot, Larry Cordle, Rob McCoury, Don Rigsby, Kim Fox, Darrell Webb, Steve Gulley, Jason Carter, Barry Bales, Paul Williams, Kenny & Amanda Smith and David Grier.

There will be two shows on January 20, at 3:00 and 7:30 p.m. Tickets and show details can be found at the Pickin’ at the Paramount site, or the Paramount Center site.

“What an honor to be on this stage.” Thanks his wife and family, and his fellow nominees - hopes they will be honored in the same way. Emotional for Mike - audience loves him.

Mike is honoring the bass men of the early days, many who played on this stage. Thanks Del and the McCourys each, and Jason Carter.

The awards for artists who, on recorded and/or in-person performance during the specified time period, have shown an extraordinary mastery of their instruments. Nominations and awards will be made in six (6) sub-categories: Banjo, Bass, Dobro, Fiddle, Guitar and Mandolin. The awards go to the artists.

The Bass Player Of The Year for 2005 is:

Review past recipients of this award.

The Del McCoury Band has a new member. Del has hired bassist Alan Bartram to replace long time band member Mike Bub, who left the band two months ago. Here’s the announcement that was made on Del’s website:

As of August 23, 2005 the Del McCoury Band made Alan Bartram a permanent member! Alan will play bass with DMB, following Mike Bub’s departure from the band earlier this year. We’ve got Alan working on a bio for us right now and we’ll have that posted on here soon…check back to find out more about this new member of the band! Welcome Alan!!

Alan is an experienced player having been a member of The Kenny and Amanda Smith Band for some time now. Prior to that he played with the group 2nd Edition (their website is way outdated, which means they still have some info about Alan). He was here in my studio in June, to record on the new CD project for Huber Banjos. Pictures from that session can be found here.