Tennessee Pusher, the new project from Old Crow Medicine Show is scheduled for release this coming Tuesday (9/23).

OCMS chose eclectic producer Don Was for this new project, whose previous credits have included music megastars like Bob Dylan and Elton John. The band has always gone after a Dylanesque vibe on much of their material. Could it may be even more pronounced with Was at the helm?

Audio samples for all of the tracks are available online if you want to check for yourself.

The band has special pricing for pre-orders on their web site, and a very special pre-release download price of $5.00 for the full album, good through Monday.

Eclectic string band Old Crow Medicine Show has announced the release of two new recording projects in the next two months. Their next CD, Tennessee Pusher, is due on September 23 on Nettwerk Records, and a 3-song digital EP, Caroline, will be released on July 29.

The EP will include two tracks from the full length project (Caroline and Next Go ‘Round), plus a bonus track not found on the CD, Back To New Orleans.

Tennessee Pusher was produced by Don Was, more commonly seen in the studio with rock and pop artists like Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones or Elton John. Was has hailed OCMS as among the smartest young purveyors of Americana music, and it should be interesting to see what impact he has had on their studio sound.

Nettwerk is offering a free download of the title track from the digital EP. You can listen to the track in the player below, which also contains the download link (click play to see the link).

Old Crow Medicine Show is nominated for two CMT Music Awards, both for their I Hear Them All music video from their 2006 CD, Big Iron World.

They are nominated in the Group Video and Wide Open Country Video of the Year categories.

The complete list of CMT Award nominees can be found at CMT.com, along with links to all the videos.

Once again, this weekend’s Grand Ole Opry broadcasts have much to offer bluegrass and acoustic music fans.

Tonight’s Friday Opry (1/11) will feature performances from Old Crow Medicine Show, The Del McCoury Band and Jesse McReynolds & The Virginia Boys.

On Saturday, Del and Old Crow return along with Bobby Osborne & The Rocky Top X-Press, The Whites and Rhonda Vincent. The televised portion on GAC’s Opry Live will include Rhonda, so be looking for that at 8:00 p.m. (EST) on GAC.

Opry Live will be rebroadcast on GAC Sunday (1/13) at 12:00 a.m. (midnight Saturday) and 12:00 and 7:00 p.m., and then again on Tuesday (1/15) at 8:00 p.m.

The Friday Opry is broadcast from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. (EST) and the Saturday show runs from 7:30 p.m. until 12:30 a.m. Both shows are available over the air in the Nashville market on WSM AM 650, and simulcast worldwide via online streaming at wsmonline.com.

AT&T blue room has just posted live video from Old Crow Medicine Show. Five songs are included, each in a separate clip: Big Time, Minglewood Blues, Hard To Love, Lift Him Up, and Tell It To Me.

The performances were recorded at Bonnaroo 2007 back in June, and show the band in their element, before a large crowd of fans. All the live songs can be viewed online in the blue room media player.

You can find out more about the band on their web site.

Old Crow Medicine Show has released a new music video for their song, I Hear Them All, from their 2006 CD, Big Iron World.

The video was shot recently in the mid-city area of New Orleans by director Danny Clinch, and features a number of New Orleans residents amid scenes of the devastation that still remains from the historically massive hurricane Katrina.

You can catch the video in rotation on CMT, online at CMT.com or on the official Old Crow web site.

The band also recently traveled to Austin, TX to record an episode for Austin City Limits, whose air date has not yet been set.

The Americana Music Association has announced the nominees for their 2007 Honors and Awards, with the winners to be announced on November 1 during their 6th Annual Americana Music Association’s Honors and Awards Show in Nashville.

Several of the nominees will be familiar to readers of The Bluegrass Blog, including Sam Bush for Instrumentalist, Uncle Earl for New and Emerging Artist, and both The Duhks and Old Crow Medicine Show for Group/Duo.

You can see the complete list of 2007 AMA nominees on their official web site, where you can also find details about the Americana Music Conference, October 31 through November 3, 2007.

The Hackensaw Boys have been sneaking around the edges of several acoustic/Americana genres since their formation in Charlottesville, VA seven years ago. Their sound is raw and raucous, frenetic and unfocused, and bursting with energy and passion. It’s part jug band, part vaudeville, part old time string band - not unlike the sort of sound popularized of late by The Old Crow Medicine Show.

The name is derived from two slang expressions that are not always used in a complimentary fashion about string musicians - hack and saw. It does, however, nicely capture the irreverent approach they take to the music, and their sound - plus the look and the vibe - has won them a loyal audience.

Look Out is the name of their newest CD, due for a June 19 release on Nettwerk Records. It’s their fifth full length CD, and their second with Nettwerk. The instrumentation is as varied as the Hacks’ sound - accordion, banjo, harmonica, guitar, fiddle, spoons, and of course, saw.

Members perform with colorful stage names, and include Jesse Fiske (Baby J.), Jimmy Stelling (The Kooky-Eyed Fox), Robert Bullington (Mahlon), Ferd Lionel Moyse, IV (Four), Ward Harrison (Cousin Spits) and Justin Neuhardt (Salvage).

Two tracks from the new CD are available on the band’s MySpace page.

If you like music videos you’re probably disappointed by the lack of bluegrass music videos on the music channels coming in over cable and satellite. Enter Ya’ll Wire. This is a fairly new site that is still under development and assembling content, but it is live.

The site features music videos for the bluegrass, country, and Christian genres. It’s advertiser driven with text ads as well as short video ads that play before/between videos. The ads are not bothersome in the least and I saw at least one of them that was entertaining in its own right.

It’s a great idea, but there really isn’t that much content in the way of bluegrass videos yet.

• Alison Krauss & Union Station - 2 videos
• Yonder Mountain String Band - 2 videos
• Ryan Shupe and The Rubber Band - 2 videos
• Chris Thile
• Sam Bush
• Rhonda Vincent
• The Grascals
• The Gibson Brothers
• Adrienne Young
• Old Crowe Medicine Show
• Lori Willcuts

That’s a total of fourteen at this time, but the site is still seeking contributions from content providers. They do have a contact form for submitting videos. You can’t actually upload anything as they do have to review your request for submission and approve copyrights. I spoke with Ruby Sioux, one of the site’s principles, and we discussed the issue of copyrights.

We pay the publishing societies BMI, SEASC, and are working on an agreement with ASCAP.

We do not allow anyone to post videos to the site without our review. We do not want people to post copyrighted material, unless the copyright holders approve.

(more…)

Modern Guitars Magazine has posted a press release from Folk Alliance which states that Earl Scruggs will be the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award when they host the Folk Alliance Awards Show in Memphis, TN on February 21, 2007.

Posthumous awards will be given as well to fingerstyle blues guitarist Dave Van Ronk and Boston folk music promoter Manny Greenhill.

You can read the full press release on the Modern Guitars site. It also lists the final nominees for all the Folk Alliance Awards, which include multiple nominations for Crooked Still and one for Old Crow Medicine Show.

Thanks to our banjo pickin’ buddy Rick Briggs for the heads up on this.

There’s plenty of great bluegrass on the Grand Ole Opry again this weekend. JD Crowe & The New South will make a rare Opry appearance on Saturday (12/8), performing in the 8:00-8:30 and 11:00-11:30 p.m. segments. They will surely be showcasing songs from their newest release, Lefty’s Old Guitar.

Also on the show this week are Jesse McReynolds & The Virginia Boys (12:30-1:00 a.m.) and Old Crow Medicine Show ( 8:30-9:00 and 11:30-midnight). All times shown in Eastern Standard Time.

As we remind our readers whenever we find good bluegrass on The Opry, the show is broadcast live on WSM AM 650, and can be heard over the air in large parts of the central US. You can also listen to the live WSM audio stream online to hear the program, which runs from 7:30 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. on Saturday, December 8.

WSM selects highlights from both the Friday and Saturday Opry shows, and makes them available on their audio archives page. Each weekend’s audio should be available by early in the following week.

Old Crow Medicine Show’s newest CD, Big Iron World, will be released next Tuesday August 29, 2006. They are currently accepting pre-orders through their online merchandise page. The first 500 to pre-order the disc before Monday, August 28 at midnight, will receive a limited-edition wristband from the band.

Sample clips from the disc can be heard on the band’s myspace page. The video is available in both Windows Media and Real Player formats.

In addition to the audio samples, they also have a music video available for the first track from the disc, Down Home Girl. It can be found between the about and friends sections of their myspace page.