Cadillac Sky is this week’s featured artist on CMT.com’s Unplugged at Studio 330. The show offers live in-studio performance and interviews of country artists in an internet-exclusive format. Part of the concept is that these artists perform acoustically for this program, which of course isn’t an issue when they feature bluegrass acts.

We spoke with C-Sky’s Bryan Simpson about getting to record this show…

“The two things I remember about shooting under the ever-attentive eye of the CMT cameras was the never-ceasing war the touch up gal waged with the sweat on our brows and the struggle we fought within ourselves to not say something stupid during the interview.

We did five songs for the show: Born Lonesome, You Again, Homesick Angel (Sonya Isaacs came in to help us on that one-awesome) Basket Case (A Green Day cover that we did once for fun and haven’t been able to stop doing for a year and a half now) and an instrumental, Neighborhood Bully’s Long Look in the Mirror (which landed on the cutting room floor I’m told- only 4 songs were needed).

In the interview we discussed ourselves a lot, and then we spent a little more time on ourselves.”

Watch all the songs and the interview at CMT.com.

The C-Sky boys are using some down time early this year to prepare for their second Skaggs Family CD. They’ll be working with Mike Marshall producing, and are scheduled to start recording in March.

“We’ve basically assembled all the material in our grimy little hands for the new project and we’re thrilled with that part of it, but it will be hard to bid farewell to Blind Man Walking. He’s been a good compadre to us, and it’s gonna be weird giving all our attention to someone new… but time does march on Blind Man Walking, and we both knew it would come to this at some point……?!”

We did a show with Mike in Florida about a year and a half ago. He was down there playing with his first group (The Sunshine Boys, I do believe that was it - sort of a reunion thing) and he happened to hear our set and dug it. He came up on the side of the stage and professed that he wanted to produce us. We were like ‘yeah… but our first project hasn’t come out yet’ …well, when it came time to start the process of the new record, his name came bursting forth from our mouths. We’re all big fans of Mike - the person, and the projects he’s been involved in - and the fact that he’s a little crazy, made it an easy decision.

We have spent time discussing the project with Mike on a untraceable phone line to some extent and will be doing a little boot camp action at an undisclosed location very soon (doesn’t that make it more exciting?).

So everybody start marking your calenders. We are gonna tackle that 500 pound gorilla they call ‘the sophomore slump.”

Homespun Video has released two new instructional DVDs for mandolinists taught by Mike Marshall.

The two releases each carry the title Mike Marshall’s Mandolin Fundamentals for All Players, with DVD #1 subtitled Building Technique Through Exercises and Melodic Studies and DVD #2 Mastering Chords and Theory.

The subtitles accurately describe what is covered in each package, and both are presented in a step-by-step fashion so that each new exercise builds on what has been presented to that point.

Both DVDs include a printed booklet with tab and standard notation, and a discounted price is offered when they are purchased together.

Find more details on the Homespun site.

Last year the Grand Targhee Bluegrass Festival held it’s first annual instructional camp for the three days prior to the festival. The camp was successful and they have organized it again this year. The camp and the festival are both held at the Grand Targhee Resort located within the Caribou/Targhee National Forest in Wyoming.

Having lived in Wyoming for three years I can attest to the beauty and splendor of the setting for this event.

The camp is scheduled for August 7-10, 2007 and boasts an impressive line up of instructors.

• Ben Winship - Mandolin & Camp Director
• Mike Marshall - Mandolin
• Scott Nygaard - Guitar
• Tony Trischka - Banjo
• Brian Wicklund - Fiddle
• Eric Thorin - Bass
• John Lowell - Songwriting

Using bluegrass music as the common language, the camp focus is on teaching individual instrumental skills, group playing and jamming. Each day features morning and afternoon classes on your chosen instrument, elective workshops, jam sessions (both structured and unstructured) and evening performances making this Targhee Institute event extraordinary.

Registration for the camp includes 3 days of meals and lodging. Registration fees range from $700 to just over $900 depending on your willingness to share a room with another student.

For information about the festival and the camp, visit them online at the Grand Targhee Resort website.

The latest release from Mike Marshall & Darol Anger, Woodshop, is released today on Adventure Music.

In addition to Anger on violins and Marshall on mandolins and guitar, the new project also features Phil Aaberg on piano, Aaron Johnston on percussion, and the round robin of Todd Phillips, Michael Manring and Todd Sickafoose on bass.

The premise of this recording, the first by this pair since 2002, was to revisit the format from their popular 1985 release, Chiaroscuro. All the music is instrumental, and was written by Anger or Marshall. It is far more structured than their free form duo shows, with multiple overdubs and a focus on sonic purity in their visions for this new music.

We weren’t able to find much info on the Adventure Music, Mike Marshall or Darol Anger sites, but Amazon has a complete set of audio clips with online ordering enabled.

Mel Bay has a new book of mandolin transcriptions from virtuoso player Mike Marshall. Entitled The Mike Marshall Collection, the book contains 11 of Mike’s pieces, transcribed from his recordings.

Each tune is shown in both tab and standard notation, including Emu’s Blues and Zakir from Brand New Can, and Big Man From Syracuse, Hot Nickels and Shoot The Moon from At Home and On The Range.

The book will be available wherever bluegrass and acoustic music instructional materials are sold, and a complete list of tunes and a number of sample pages can be found on Mel Bay’s site.

Rounder Records is bringing a number of instrumental classics out on CD this fall, starting with the release today of Bela Flecks’ debut solo project from 1980, Crossing The Tracks.

When this album first hit, the groans of anguish from banjo players could be heard all over the world. Those of us active at the time had been hearing about this young banjo phenom up in Boston for as much as two years before this record came out, and it seemed impossible that he could really be as good as the few who had seen him live had reported.

I’ll never forget the “reality check” I got from listening to Crossing The Tracks that first time. Any pretense I had as a young banjo player of “rewriting the book on banjo” were torn to bits by Bela’s obvious mastery of the instrument, not to mention his vision as a soloist and his obvious skill as a composer. Wow.

Of course, those “groans” from banjo players were only metaphorical, and we all recognized that a major voice had emerged on the instrument. His promise seemed limitless, and it has been a pure joy to follow his career since. I might liken it to the way the mandolin world reacted when Chris Thile hit in earnest - a mix of awe and disbelief, with just a touch of embarrassment.

Some of the material from this release had appeared on Fleck collections already, but I urge anyone interested in Bela’s music, or the modern history of the banjo, to get this reissue.

Also due to be reissued on CD this fall on Rounder:

The four CDs highlighted above are described as Online Exclusives, which seems to mean that they will only be available from the Rounder web site.