The White Sands Music Festival in Milton, FL will be operating a live webcam from the stage tonight (4/18) and all day Saturday (4/19) while the festival is underway.

Performers include Blue Moon Rising, Gary Waldrep, Nothin’ Fancy and hosts White Sands Panhandle Band among others.

Just visit the festival web site, and you’ll see the link to launch the streaming video.

HT: Mike Kelly, WDVX

WNRV, AM 990, here in the New River Valley, has gone online.

Their live feed is not yet operational, but they are working on it, and tell me it should be available soon. The website is up and running though, and they do have mp3 files available of some of their exclusive content, including recent interviews with both Nothin’ Fancy and Dailey & Vincent.

I’m listening to the Dailey & Vincent interview as I type. Sounds like the guys had fun doing this interview. The segment lasts 23 minutes and includes a fair amount of music from the debut album.

Gary tells me they will have an interview with Rhonda Vincent available later this week.

Keep an eye on the WNRV site for more interviews and the soon to be available live feed.

This post comes from our semi-regular correspondent, Richard F. Thompson. He writes from England, where he is also a longstanding contributor to British Bluegrass News, a quarterly print publication where he also briefly served as editor.

Although the actual signing took place a few months ago, Rounder Records has recently announced the signing of revered bluegrass singer, band leader and attorney Charlie Sizemore.

At the same time, Rounder has announced the August 14th release of Sizemore’s first album for the label, Good News (ROU 0591). The 14-track CD is the first new studio album from Sizemore in five years. As of today (6/19), there are no audio samples on the Rounder site, but one track from the new CD, I’ve Fallen And I Can’t Get Up, can be previewed on Charlie’s MySpace page.

A powerful songwriter whose songs have been recorded by Ralph Stanley, Jimmy Martin, Doyle Lawson and Dry Branch Fire Squad to name a few, Charlie Sizemore contributes four new original songs to Good News. Among them the tongue-in-cheek Alison’s Band, reflecting Sizemore’s dry sense of humour that fans have to come to love. Other highlights include songs by Dixie and Tom T. Hall, Harley Allen, and veteran songwriter Hank Cochran. While Sizemore considers the record a bit “rough around the edges,” this is only in the sense that the record was recorded pretty much straight-ahead and live in the studio. With Good News Sizemore and co-producer Buddy Cannon shared the common goal of wanting to make a record that feels like and sounds like the records Charlie heard and liked while he was growing up.

Sizemore’s vocals are as restrainedly powerful and as unique as ever, and he considers co-producer Buddy Cannon to be his equal as the moving force behind the record and its making. Though it was done “live and quick,” Silver Bugle is a song the idea for which, Sizemore has carried around with him for the last fifteen years. (more…)

Virginia based bluegrass band Nothin’ Fancy will be performing at the grand opening of a new attraction at Shenandoah Caverns. On Fathers Day, June 17, 2007, Shenandoah Caverns opens The Yellow Barn.

The Yellow Barn will feature restored antique farm wagons, equipment, carriages and vehicles, an indoor bee hive, a mineral cave, a wine shop, and a country store gift shop featuring Virginia arts and crafts. The attraction is designed to give visitors a glimpse of the historically rich agricultural and rural life of Virginia.

It seems appropriate then, that a bluegrass band would be on hand to entertain visitors on the opening day. Nothin’ Fancy will perform two concerts, one at 12:30 PM and another at 4 PM. The shows will be on a large 24 foot rotating stage in the center of the 15,000 square foot building. Tickets for the shows are $15 each and can be purchased online through JamBaseTickets.com.

Nothin’ Fancy is in the studio working on their next CD, and all-Gospel project for Pinecastle Records. It is being produced by Rhonda and Darrin Vincent and recorded at Adventure Studios in Nashville.

The band says that the CD will mix some new songs with some old favorites, like as House Of Gold, Family Bible and Peace In The Valley.

No release date has been set, but the Nothin’ Fancy Gospel CD is expected later this year.

It appears that Pine Mountain Railroad has made a number of personnel changes, with one rebounding into Nothin’ Fancy.

Mandolinist Cody Shuler has taken over management of PMR, and is bringing in some new faces. We understand that guitarist Jerry Butler is gone, and banjo player Kipper Stitt will be leaving just after IBMA week.

Coming in to play banjo will be Eli Johnston, who until just last week was playing bass with Nothin’ Fancy. His leaving brought about a happy reunion for Nothin’ Fancy fans, as original bassist Tony Shorter has decided to return to traveling full time with the band.

I’m sure that we can pick up some more details later today when folks start schlepping down into the exhibit area.