Fiddler Mike Hartgrove is rejoining Lonesome River Band starting in January ‘08. Mike had been a member of LRB for three years before leaving to work with Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver in 2005, his second stint with that group. He had been a founding member of IIIrd Tyme Out with whom he toured and recorded for 11 years, and had also worked with The Bluegrass Cardinals.

Mike takes the spot vacated by resonator guitarist Matt Leadbetter, who is leaving to be closer to his young family, taking a job in Pigeon Forge, TN. See update 12/10.

LRB banjo picker and band leader Sammy Shelor tells us that the band is headed back into the studio in February to start work on a new CD project. Sammy is considering offers from record labels and expects to announce more about that by springtime.

Doyle Lawson commented yesterday afternoon on his bulletin board that he is hiring fiddle player and bass singer Alan Johnson (formerly with BlueRidge) to take Mike Hartgrove’s place, and banjo player Chris Warner (formerly with Jimmy Martin) in place of the departing Terry Baucom. Warner will be singing baritone in the band.

More details about start dates, etc., should be forthcoming later today.

Stay tuned…

Veteran fiddler Mike Hartgrove called yesterday to let us know that he will be leaving Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver as of March 17, 2007. His future plans include pursuing a career teaching fiddle full time.

Mike said he has been teaching lessons near his home in Charlotte, NC and the number of students he teaches has increased to the point that he started considering a switch to full time teaching around the first of the year.

Teaching is working out real well for me. I have a large number of students at this point and was considering teaching full time anyway. When Terry announced he would be leaving the band next month, it just seemed like a good time for me to make the change as well.

In addition to teaching private lessons, Mike is also available as an instructor for workshops and camps.

Mike indicated that he also anticipates doing some freelance work both in the studio and on the stage, in addition to his teaching schedule.

I expect we’ll be hearing a great deal of Hartgrove’s tasteful fiddle playing on many a bluegrass record in the coming years.

The annual fall rotation of band members continues, as this weekend marks the official start of fiddlers Mike Hartgrove with Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver and Jesse Stockman with The Isaacs.

Mike returns to Quicksilver almost two years to the day that founding member Terry Baucom returned on banjo, reuniting Mike not only with Quicksilver (with whom he had previously performed), but also with his former IIIrd Tyme Out cohort (and founding member) Baucom. I spoke yesterday with Cindy Baucom (host of the syndicated bluegrass radio program Knee Deep In Bluegrass and devoted spouse to Terry), and she mentioned that Quicksilver was rehearsing with Mike even as we were speaking. He has been warmly welcomed back into the band.

Mike Hartgrove left Lonesome River Band where he had been for the past several years. Sammy Shelor reports that big changes are brewing with LRB, so stay tuned for more on that as the news unfolds.

Jesse Stockman leaves Doyle Lawson after five years to work with The Isaacs. Neither band’s web sites offer any official notice of the changes but you will probably see something there soon.