Mandolinist Mike Andes relayed the events that transpired on February 22…

Within 20 minutes of our trip, Mitchell says, “There are flames coming out of the back wheel.” Mitchell was driving so he pulls off the road and Gary puts the fire out with ice from our cooler. We stand around for a while and decide to try and limp the van up the road to an exit ramp. Everything is going quite well; we stop a couple of times and check the wheel, its OK. We keep going.

Tony is riding shotgun, he is glued to the mirror watching the passenger side rear wheel when he says “there’s sparks coming out of the trailer wheel.” Mitchell stops immediately; we check the wheel and agree to keep going as far as we can. Finally we get off the interstate and pull into a service mart. We are trying to come up with a game plan. We check the wheels, they’re not overly hot, and so we decide to go further.

While leaving the parking lot, Tony says, “The trailer wheel is really wobbling.” OK, so we drop the trailer and put everything we need into Chris’s vehicle. Chris is following the injured Nothin’ Fancy van.

Now back on the road, I really thought we might make it since we weren’t pulling the trailer; I was wrong. 15 minutes into the journey, I had just fallen asleep along side the bass and all kinds of luggage, KA BOOM the van is listing starboard. My first question was, “Did Chris run over our wheel?” Tony answered, “no, our wheel passed us.”

Here we sit.

Everyone will be glad to know that the boys made it on time for their next show – thanks to a taxi service – and are now driving their own tour bus, recently acquired from David Parmley. They even sent along a few photos of their new ride.

But Gary won’t be mopping floors or chopping onions. He and partner Jerry Ingram have teamed up as owners of a Quiznos restaurant in Waynesboro, VA.

The new establishment had its Grand Opening in February, and Nothin’ Fancy was on hand to provide the appropriate bluegrass entertainment.

Gary is psyched about his new venture, and hopes that all his bluegrass buddies will stop for a bite when traveling through central Virginia. The restaurant is located at 400 Tiffany Drive in Waynesboro.

The Virginia band has seven previous albums, three of which have been released on the Pinecastle label. Lord Bless This House (PRC 1162) is their first Gospel set.

Nothin’ Fancy – Mike Andes (mandolin and lead vocals), Tony Shorter (bass, and baritone vocals), Gary Farris (lead and tenor vocals), Chris Sexton (fiddle, viola and lead vocals) and Mitchell Davis (banjo and bass vocals) – are supplemented by studio guests, guitarist Cody Kilby, co-producers Rhonda and Darrin Vincent, and Steven Sheen (finger style lead guitar).

There are three original songs; Lord Bless This House, God’s Heavenly Shore, from Mike Andes, and Let Me Catch A Fish from the ubiquitous Halls, assisted by Troy Engle, an instrumental; Bells Of Saint Mary, and a variety of ‘oldies’; Gone Home (from Bill Carlisle); the Easter Brothers’s Heart That Will Never Break Again – on which Rhonda Vincent adds her usual impeccable vocals; Soul Of Man Never Dies (Wayne Raney); House Of Gold (Hank Williams) – both arranged for four voices; an up-tempo version of Peace In The Valley (Thomas Dorsey) and the PD song Lord I Hear Your Call included.

As previously noted, the band has three lead vocalists, ranging from Farris’s intensity to Andes’s more mellow tones, with Sexton somewhere between. With those contrasts allied to the varied instrumental arrangements, Lord Bless This House is full of fervor.

The CD is scheduled for release on January 27th.

Not long after that, we heard from a reader who wondered why a title we had just indicated wouldn’t be released until next year was showing up as available now online elsewhere. We checked with Pinecastle, and Ethan Burkhardt told us that they decided to do a limited early release of the four upcoming titles.

“Because of how our release schedule lined up, we couldn’t get these albums ‘officially’ released by Christmas.  We are however going to have them available to The Music Shed and County Sales for the Christmas season.”

You can find audio samples, more details and online ordering for these Pinecastle projects online.

• Second Season – Kristin Scott Benson (1/13/09)
• Lord Bless This House – Nothin’ Fancy (1/27/09)
• The Hangman – Ernie Thacker & Route 23 (2/10/09)
• Three Silver Dollars – David Parmley & Continental Divide (2/10/09)

Promos are being sent to radio this week, despite the lag of as much as three months between now and the actual street dates for these new albums.

• Second Season – Kristin Scott Benson (1/13/09)
• Lord Bless This House – Nothin’ Fancy (1/27/09)
• The Hangman – Ernie Thacker & Route 23 (2/10/09)
• Three Silver Dollars – David Parmley & Continental Divide (2/10/09)

We asked Matt Hood, Pinecastle’s Director of Radio promotion, why they send promos out so early for new releases, and about their promotional download service for radio.

“For some time we have been using a new schedule for our mainstream releases. There are a few reasons why we send out CDs to radio so far in advance. The first one has to do with the production timelines of the major bluegrass print magazines. It takes a magazine a certain amount of time to prepare each issue for printing and it takes the printer a certain amount of time to print the magazine. There can be a lag time of a couple of months. In order to chart a single during the month of the release date the DJs have to have a CD in time to review it, put it in rotation, and (if the CD merits it) report it to the folks that publish these airplay charts. The same issue applies to album reviews.

Also, many folks in the media have such a backlog of CDs to review that it can take them several months to even review a CD. The point is to get as much exposure during the immediate timeframe of the street date as possible and we’ve found that shipping CDs several months in advance of the street date helps us do that.

Our first real proof of concept was with Special Consensus’ The Trail Of Aching Hearts, which appeared on the National Bluegrass Survey in Bluegrass Unlimited the month of the release date. Almost every album we’ve released since then has done the same. We’ve also had similar results with the chart in Bluegrass Music Profiles that they started in 2007.

All of the charts, reviews, and airplay provide invaluable information to sales reps from our distributor who then work to place Pinecastle product into stores.”

Hood also shared an update on the radio download service where show hosts, producers and music directors can get either MP3 or lossless WMA files from new Pinecastle projects as soon as they are announced.

“The download service is something that I have wanted to do for a couple of years and have finally been able to implement it into our website. We have had a very positive response to the download service. I have had some really good comments about it. We have a 10% adoption rate among all the DJs on our list, which I am very pleased with as it falls in line with my expectations.

Some folks have asked if we will stop sending CDs but we don’t have any plans to do that in the immediate future. At this point, if a DJ wants to voluntarily opt out of receiving a physical CD we will oblige as it saves us on cost, however, we will not automatically stop mailing to the downloaders.

The main idea behind this service is to allow DJs quick and easy access to Pinecastle material. All of our new releases are available to DJs in a CD quality lossless format as well as 320 Kbps MP3s. The artwork is available for download as well. We can also provide easy access to our catalog titles and possibly some titles that may currently be out of print.

As I’m writing this, we have several CDs in the queue to mail out and there are many DJs who have already downloaded the music to use on their programs.”

You can find out more about Pinecastle Records and their artists by visiting their web site.

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

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.

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. It’s an evocation of a Civil War era event from his native part of Kentucky. Throughout the album, Sizemore’s singing is soulful and heartfelt, bringing a new level of emotion and insight to songs new and old. Much of the source of his powerful, yet subtle, emotional style comes from the world in which he grew up, Sizemore being one of the few contemporary bluegrass singers to have learned at the feet of the original generation of mountain singers and performers, from rural eastern Kentucky in an area where the Stanley Brothers were like gods, more popular and better-known than any other of the music’s founders.

After playing with his father, other local notables and Melvin Goins, Charlie Sizemore was hired at age of just 17 to take over from the departing Keith Whitley in Ralph Stanley’s Clinch Mountain Boys. He stayed with Stanley for over nine years, before leaving to start his own band and to attend college and later law school. He graduated with honours, and now maintains a successful law practice in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, in addition to his musical endeavours. Ralph Stanley said recently:

“Charlie Sizemore gave me nine and a half years of honest and dependable service as lead singer in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He was one of my top lead singers that I have had through the years. Charlie knows music and knows how to make it right. I would highly recommend this CD.”

Sizemore provides this brief story about what led up to him signing for Rounder, as well as offering some comforting encouragement for ambitious young bands.

“Buddy Cannon, who has known Ken Irwin for probably two decades, sent him a copy of our rough mixes. I wasn’t particularly hopeful – if you’re sending an unsolicited recording to Ken you’d better hit the bulls eye or at least come really close. In the end, Rounder thought I deserved a chance and that’s all I can ask for. And I’m all the more appreciative because I think my best work is in front of me. The bard said there are no second acts in American life. I’ve set about to prove him wrong. We’ll see.”

The Charlie Sizemore Band is Charlie Sizemore (lead vocals, guitar), Danny Barnes (mandolin, vocals), Matt DeSpain (Dobro), John Pennell (bass) and Wayne Fields (banjo). The band is currently on tour and will perform at the 2007 I.B.M.A. World of Bluegrass Conference in October.

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.

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.

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.

The band was taken by ambulance to a local hospital for X-rays, and the web site says that they sang for the ED staff working the overnight shift. They made it to the festival on time, proving yet again that “the show must go on.”

This sparked the folks at East Public Relations into action, and a contest is now in play. Fans are requested to send along their name suggestion by July 20, at which time the band members will review the entries and select their favorite. The winner will receive a Nothin’ Fancy ball cap, and the band CD of their choosing, in addition to the honor of naming the fan base.

To enter, send an email to info@eastpublicrelations.com with your submission.

The message board is managed by the folks at East Public Relations, who handled publicity for Nothin’ Fancy.

The title of the next Pinecastle release from Nothin’ Fancy will carry the title of 7. The numerical reference was chosen by the label since this will be Nothin’ Fancy’s seventh project as a band, their third with Pinecastle. Mike Andes referred to the project this morning as Number 7, and mentioned that all but their very first release are still available online.

They expect to have copies available at shows by May 1, though the actual street date has not yet been announced. You can check the band’s tour schedule online and look for a chance to pick up the new CD at a show this spring.

Get more details and hear some audio samples on the Pinecastle site.

The Nothin’ Fancy tour schedule is posted on the MySpace site, and they offer a number of sample audio clips there as well. The biggest appeal, however, is the ability provided by MySpace.com for people to all link together within the system, and more and more bands in all styles of music seem to be embracing this method for both reaching their own fans and friends, and also for finding new ones.

Mike mentioned that they had a photographer with them during the final tracking session, and studio photos can be viewed online.

Three of the twelve tracks for the new project were penned by Andes: How Can I Lose, I Can’t Say Hello and Ghost Dance. Tom T. Hall contributed one new song and the band also selected a number of “bluegrass classics” for their Nothin’ Fancy treatment. George Jones’ Walk Through This World With Me (also recorded by Seldom Scene) and The Country Gentlemen’s Two Little Boys are featured, along with their versions of Jim & Jesse’s I Wish You Knew and the gospel favorite, Nearer My God To Thee.

This time out, the guys in the band recorded all the tracks without guest artists, so Nothin’ Fancy fans can expect to hear the same band sound they hear from the stage.

The band has also recently engaged the services of a publicist, East Public Relations.

The CD appears to be primarily instrumental with a few vocal numbers as well, and features his Nothin’ Fancy bandmates along with guest artists Dudley Connell, Kenny Smith, Emory Lester, Sally Love and Mark Schatz, with Gary Ferguson producing.

Nothin’ Fancy announces with sadness that bassist Tony Shorter has left the band due to personal reasons. In his stead, the band is pleased to announce Eli Johnston, recently of Branson, Missouri but now of Lexington, Virginia as our new bassist. He made his debut at last night’s show in Wind Gap, Pennsylvania.

We encourage everyone to say hi, get to know Eli, and make him welcome!