The Peter Rowan & Tony Rice Quartet has undergone a couple changes recently. In addition to Rowan & Rice, the quartet formerly consisted of mandolinist Sharon Gilchrist and bassist Bryn Davies.

Both ladies have recently moved on to other pursuits and accordingly, Rowan & Rice have brought two new pickers onboard to fill the vacancies.

Joining the quartet on mandolin, and I presume fiddle, is Ricky Simpkins. Simpkins has played with Rice for many years in The Tony Rice Unit, and it seems natural that he would called on for this gig.

Multi-award winning bassist Mike Bub has been called in to hold down the low notes. Mike is well known throughout the bluegrass world for the years he spent in the Del McCoury Band. Bub is a busy man these days. He has been touring with Dale Ann Bradley, and keeping himself busy with other pursuits as well.

Yes, I am playing with the R&R Quartet and Dale Ann Bradley. So far there have been very few conflicts on dates. I am also doing a couple of music camps this year including the Transatlantic Blugrasss School in Wales, UK , Rockygrass Academy and the Augusta Heritage Workshop in Elkins, WVA. Oh yeah, I am also working with a fellow named Jimmy Stewart here in Nashville who years ago played dobro and fiddle with Doyle Lawson. He has been a utility player for Brooks and Dunn for about 12 years and will have a record out on Warner Brothers this year. Oh and one more….still working with songwriters Verlon Thompson and Shawn Camp. We have been doing the Station Inn for about the past year with Chris Henry and hope to get something on CD soon.

In addition to all his musical jobs, Bub is also busy being a dad to his three year old son, a job he relishes.

Riley is the joy of our life. He’s already aspiring to be a musician, pilot, race car driver, railroad engineer and lady killer.

Commenting on the quartets recent performance at the Birchmere, the Washington Post had this to say concerning the new band members.

The quartet’s lineup remains first-rate, with Simpkins and Bub providing smoothly integrated accompaniment and soulful vocal shadings.

I’m sure they’re correct. Bub and Simpkins are long time favorites of mine on their respective instruments. I’m looking forward to the chance to hear them in this context.

Homespun Video is set to release a new instructional DVD this week featuring Peter Rowan and Tony Rice. Entitled Peter Rowan and Tony Rice Teach Songs, Guitar and Musicianship, the DVD runs 110 minutes with Rowan Rice teaching a half dozen songs from the repertoire of their live shows.

Rowan shows ideas designed to help an rhythm guitarist accompany a vocalist, while Rice describes more advanced concepts. Songs taught include You Were There For Me, Dustbowl Children, Let the Harvest Go to Seed, Angel Island, Come Back to Old Santa Fe and Panama Red. The DVD also features a performance of Rowan’s classic song, Midnight Moonlight.

It is scheduled for release on January 4. Find more details on the Homespun Video site.

Sugar Hill Records is releasing more sets in the Americana Master Series today (7/10/07), among them four bluegrass albums. These will comprise anthologies by Peter Rowan, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, the Lonesome River Band and the Nashville Bluegrass Band.

This series presents the award-winning music of Sugar Hill’s Americana Masters. Researched and compiled from the artist’s body of work on Sugar Hill Records, these tracks were culled from radio chart toppers, fan mail, downloads, and songs and tunes that are recurrent favorites at live performances. The series is designed to provide longstanding fans with a collection of favourites. For new fans, this series offers concise entry into the artistic output of these seminal artists—with liner notes that can help them to discover more and to delve more deeply into the artist’s catalogue.

Not surprisingly, the Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver collection features all Gospel material, 18 songs spread across the many years that the group has been associated with Sugar Hill Records. The opening track is He Put A Rainbow In The Clouds For Me from the eponymous first album released in 1979, followed by On The Sea Of Life from the classic Rock My Soul album. Other highlights include The Little Mountain Church House and Let Us Travel On. Both feature Lawson singing close harmony with the exceptional Russell Moore. Other great vocal partners appearing here include Lou Reid, Steve Gulley, Barry Abernathy, Jimmy Haley, Terry Baucom and Jamie Dailey.

The Lonesome River Band anthology comprises 16 songs, culled from just four albums, the tracks presented in chronological order. The first band here features founder and rhythm guitarist Tim Austin, Dan Tyminski (mandolin), Ronnie Bowman (bass) and Sammy Shelor (banjo). They are heard on four cuts including Old Country Town and Highway Paved With Pain. The second edition of this high-energy group is that comprising Kenny Smith (guitar), Don Rigsby (mandolin) and the aforementioned Ronnie Bowman and Sammy Shelor. Their contributions are taken from two albums, One Step Forward from 1996 and Finding The Way released in 1998. On the last four cuts Rickie Simpkins is included, playing fiddle. Overall there’s some great original material and a superb mix of excellent voices - trademark Lonesome River Band material. (more…)

When we posted in November about the upcoming January ‘07 release of the new CD from Peter Rowan and Tony Rice, we mentioned that they would tour in support of the project this year.

They are about to embark on a string of east coast dates together running from March 14-25, and will reunite for a performance at Merlefest in late April.

The new CD is entitled Quartet, and features Peter and Tony along with Bryn Davies on bass and Sharon Gilchrist on mandolin. This same lineup will be featured on the east coast swing.

We just received word of this special holiday concert tour. The tour will consist of a set of music performed by Larry Keel & Natural Bridge and a set by Peter Rowan. There will also be extensive collaboration between the artists. Keel calls his music New Mountain Music, and Peter Rowan combines bluegrass, blues, and reggae into a sound all his own. The holidays are all about congregation and celebration and these two pickers are doing just that.

Only five stops are planned on this tour so if you’re interested you’ll need to act now. Here are the tour dates.

• 12.13.06 Georgia Theatre in Athens, GA
• 12.14.06 Freebird Live in Jacksonville, FL
• 12.15.06 Pour House in Charleston, SC
• 12.16.06 Rafters in St. Simons Island, GA
• 12.17.06 Gottrocks in Greenville, SC

Here’s a press release with some great background info about both Keel and Rowan. (more…)

Also due from Rounder in January is a new release from Peter Rowan and Tony Rice, which Brance mentioned earlier this month. Entitled Quartet, it features the group that has been performing on tour: Rice and Rowan on guitars (with Peter doing lead vocals), Bryn Davies on bass, and Sharon Gilchrist on mandolin. Both ladies share singing chores with Rowan.

The material includes some familiar songs which Rowan has recorded previously, like Dust Bowl Children, Walls Of Time, Cold Rain And Snow and Midnight Moonlight, as well as songs by such unexpected writers as Townes Van Zandt and Patti Smith, and a cut of Jimmy Martin’s Sunny Side Of The Mountain.

Rice and Rowan are surely familiar to most fans of bluegrass and acoustic music, but their Quartet cohorts perhaps less so. Gilchrist has a long pedigree in the music, having performed as a teenager with Martie and Emily Erwin of Dixie Chicks fame, and more recently as a member of the acclaimed old time band, Uncle Earl.

Davies is a relative newcomer to bluegrass, discovering it while studying jazz at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. She performed as a member of the Two High String Band before coming aboard as a member of The Tony Rice Unit and the Rice/Rowan collaboration.

The official Tony Rice web site indicates that Tony has described Quartet as “one of his favorite albums to date.” No faint praise, that.

Audio samples from all 11 tracks can be found on the Rounder web site.

January 23 is listed as the official release date for Quartet, and the group will be touring in support of the CD throughout 2007.

Cybergrass has a story announcing a January 23, 2007 release date for the new CD from Peter Rowan and Tony Rice. The CD is to be titled Quartet and will, of course, feature Rice and Rowan, along with Sharon Gilchrist on mandolin and vocals, and Bryn Davies on bass and vocals.

Highlights include five originals by Peter Rowan (”Dustbowl Children,” “Perfection,” “Let the Harvest Go to Seed,” “The Walls of Time,” and a stunning re-imagining of the Old and In the Way classic “Moonlight Midnight”), and a mix of bluegrass standards (”The Sunny Side of the Mountain”), reborn traditional material (”Shady Grove”), and poignant covers of Patti Smith (”Trespasses”) and Townes Van Zandt (”To Live Is to Fly”).

No further information or audio clips were available anywhere that I could find. As soon as we do know more we’ll update you.