Edward Morris has a piece up on the CMT Country Music Blog about Rhonda Vincent and her… shall we say, décolletage.

The tongue-in-cheek article is titled Deep In The Bosom Of Bluegrass, and discusses the writer’s favorable impression of Ms. Vincent’s choice in clothing - and the reaction that the cover of her 2003 CD, One Step Ahead, generated within the bluegrass community.

As one who is pure of heart, I barely took notice of Vincent’s stylistic swashbuckling until it came up at the 2003 International Country Music Conference. There, on a panel called “Country Music and Gender,” banjo player and magazine columnist Murphy Henry grouched about Vincent’s recent epidermal revelations and then flatly declared, “You don’t show cleavage in bluegrass!”

Read the full piece at CMT.com.

This contribution comes from Casey Henry, a banjo player and writer living in Nashville, TN. She grew up in a bluegrass family with her parents (Red and Murphy Henry) performing as a band and running a bluegrass business (The Murphy Method), and her brother Chris playing mandolin.

Christmas Eve for my family has always been about playing music. There is a close-knit bluegrass community in Winchester, Virginia, where we moved in 1986. Every year since then we’ve attended two parties on the 24th, and the day wouldn’t seem right without them.

Dalton Brill is a local barber, banjo player, and, as one newspaper article put it, if the bluegrass scene was the Mafia, he’d be the Godfather. His barber shop brims over with food, music, and eggnog as everyone he knows drops in, musicians and non-musicians alike.

There are people there I only see once a year, people who used to come every Wednesday to watch us play downstairs in the basement of that shop. And every year there are people we miss, who have moved on from this life to whatever lies ahead. We always pick a tune and have a drink for them.

After Dalton’s we move the party to David McLaughlin’s house where his wife Gay arranges a beautiful spread of seasonal goodies, on which we stuff ourselves before migrating to the other room to play some more music. David sometimes plays, sometimes doesn’t. Usually he’ll play guitar or bass. Sometimes he’ll flatpick the banjo or play snare. One year Tom Gray came, and that was great fun.

When Bob Amos (of Front Range) lived in town he’d always stop by before going to the Christmas Eve service. We cherish the chance to all be together at the holidays, (Except for the year his kids gave us the stomach flu. I really wish he’d cancelled that year.) and we miss Lynn Morris and Marshall Wilborn, who are always in Texas with their families.

As we drive back to our house full of Christmas cheer, through the luminary-lined streets of David’s neighborhood, we think of Santa making his rounds and hope that he won’t forget to stop at our house.

Here’s news of the latest release from banjo instructor Murphy Henry. Her company, The Murphy Method, has just released to DVD a slow-jam video featuring Murphy and daughter Casey. The DVD is titled Slow Jam with Murphy and Casey.

The concept behind the project is that beginners often get frustrated trying to participate in jam sessions due to song tempos that are beyond their skill level. Into the gap step Murphy (banjo) and Casey (guitar) with a video that features 17 songs played at slow speeds. You can practice along by simply playing the chord changes along with the band, which features fiddle and mandolin in addition to Murphy and Casey, or you can practice your lead playing by taking a solo in the space left for that purpose.

Songs include Cripple Creek, Boil Them Cabbage Down, Banjo in the Hollow, Worried Man, Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Old Joe Clark, and many more.

Slow Jam with Murphy and Casey is almost two hours in length and sells for $29.95 plus $3 shipping.

The 3rd annual Midwest Banjo Camp is set for June 1-3, 2007 on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing, MI. The faculty includes many of the biggest names in bluegrass and old time banjo, such as Alan Munde, Bill Evans, Murphy Henry, Ken Perlman, Mike Seeger and Clarke Buehling.

The camp sets up a large number of highly specialized classes, with tracks for beginning, intermediate and advanced players. The instruction is designed to offer a mix of hands-on workshops and demonstrations of specific styles and techniques. Two faculty concerts are also on the schedule.

The full list of instructors is quite impressive:

• Old-time: Cathy Barton-Para, Clarke Buehling, Cathy Fink, Joe Newberry, Michael Miles, Ken Perlman and Mike Seeger.
• Bluegrass: Danny Barnes, Janet Beazley, Greg Cahill, Bill Evans, Murphy Henry, Gerald Jones, Ned Luberecki, Alan Munde and Mike Sumner
• Accompanists: Peter Knupfer (bluegrass fiddle) and Ron McKeever (bluegrass guitar)

Midwest banjo Camp is operated under the direction of Ken Perlman. Full details can be found on the MBC web site.

Here is one more gallery of photos from Saturday at IBMA. I took these in the exhibit hall.

Cherryholmes	Jim Van Cleve	Casey Henry	Steve Huber
Megan Lynch	Reno and Rigsby	Sizemore and Lawless	Dan Miller
Murphy Henry	Tony Williams	Fank Solivan II	Joey Cox

This post is a contribution from Murphy Henry. Murphy is well know for her instructional method that uses no tab. Be sure to visit her site murphymethod.com to learn more about, and purchase, her teaching and instructional materials.

I feel very fortunate to have known Louise Scruggs, even just a little bit. She seemed to me to be an extremely complex woman whose reserved, almost dour, public demeanor masked an incredibly dry wit. And smart! Lord, she was smart. And quick, too. At a long-ago IBMA, I was sitting with Louise and Earl at a table in the restaurant at the Executive Inn in Owensboro one evening. I was somewhat petrified because I didn’t know either of them very well. A man came up and asked Earl to autograph something–was it a license plate? He said he was getting the autographs of all the great banjo players. Louise, sitting right beside me, said to me sotto voce, “You’re a banjo player. Why don’t you give him your autograph?” That was funny on many levels, and I think Louise was aware of all of them. Needless to say, I kept mum.

A few years ago, again at IBMA, I had my picture taken with Louise, which I’m looking at right now in my office. Most people want to get their picture taken with Earl, but I wanted mine with her. Right before Marye Yeomans snapped the shot, Louise said, “Wait.” I wondered why the delay. Again in a low voice she said to me, “I’ve got to hold my stomach in.” Is there a woman on the face of the earth who hasn’t had that same thought? I loved Louise for saying that. I broke into a huge laugh, which is when Marye snapped the shot. Then Louise made me promise not to tell anyone what she said. So, in writing my column for Banjo Newsletter, I didn’t. But now it seems like it’s okay. I think that’s a side of Louise not too many people know about.
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Episode #11 of The GrassCast features interviews with banjo teacher Murphy Henry, and her daughter Casey Henry. Murphy is a performer, teacher, author, and small business owner in the bluegrass industry. She is also an engaging person with a passionate love for bluegrass music, and the more specifically, the banjo. Casey Henry is a talented banjo player in her own right and has a newly formed band with her brother Chris Henry.

This GrassCast is 11 minutes in length and the file download size is 10 MB.

Direct Download: ep11_murphy_henry.mp3
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This post is a contribution from Murphy Henry. Murphy is well know for her instructional method that uses no tab. Be sure to visit her site murphymethod.com to learn more about, and purchase, her teaching and instructional materials.

I’m just back from a visit–my first visit, I’m embarrassed to say–to the Carter Family Fold in Hiltons, Virginia. I traveled some 300 miles from Winchester, Virginia (home of Lynn Morris and Patsy Cline) to hear the McLain Family Band perform this past Saturday. Although the group has not played together regularly since the mid-80s they try to get together once a year for a reunion concert. Brother Raymond powered the instrumental portion of the show with his banjo (and fiddle), ably assisted by his brother-in-law Al White on guitar (and fiddle), with sisters Alice, Ruth, or Nancy Ann taking turns on bass and rhythm mandolin. Everybody helped with the singing. (Brother Michael was not there and he was missed!)

Janette Carter started the show off by playing the autoharp and singing the old Carter Family favorite Jimmy Brown the Newsboy. It was so good to hear her. She remained seated on stage behind the band throughout the evening, enjoying the show. Occasionally she would remind the musicians to bring out the fiddle for a hoedown. And as soon as the bow touched the strings, here came the cloggers! Being an old buckdancer myself, I scurried down the long row of steps to join in. (The Fold was packed and my friends and I were sitting in the nosebleed section.)

Jack Tottle made a guest appearance, singing and playing mandolin. Twenty-three years ago, Jack established the bluegrass program at East Tennessee State University, and since then he has served as the director. At the end of this month, he is retiring. (And moving to Hawaii!) Raymond McLain, now the assistant director, will step into Jack’s shoes, and as Raymond knows, those are big shoes to fill. But Raymond can do it! A big WELL DONE, THANK YOU, and HAPPY TRAILS to Jack for his pioneering efforts in moving bluegrass into academia. Have fun working on your tan!

Promptly at 10:00 the band played their last number and were, of course, called back for an encore. I hung around long enough to shake and howdy and get three McLain Family Band record albums to add to my collection of women in bluegrass on vinyl. As I left the Fold and stepped out into the cold night air, I could see the constellation Orion, clear as a bell, high above my head. A.P., Sara, and Maybelle–those giants in the music world–had once stood right here and looked at these same stars. I shivered and put my hands in my pockets and walked to the car.