We posted earlier this week with a banjo sighting on Fox Television’s smash hit, American Idol. Now comes word from Phil Leadbetter, reso-man with Grasstowne, about the appearance of one of his signature Dobro guitars on the show.
The Leadbetter model Dobro was in the hands of Austin Clark, of The Clark Brothers, who won The Next Great American Band competition earlier this year. He was accompanying Kellie Pickler for her Idol performance on 3/19.
Uncle Phil was delighted with his virtual appearance on American Idol.
The piece covers Phil’s early experiences learning teh resonator guitar, his work with JD Crowe, his IBMA awards and teh debut CD with his new performance vehicle, Grasstowne. Since it’s Gibson’s site, of course, they also discuss his signature model Dobro guitar.
Still another jewel in Leadbetter’s crown was the 2003 unveiling of the Phil Leadbetter Signature Series Dobro. “I had always hoped to just get an endorsement, so I was kind of blown away when Gibson approached me,” he recounts. “It’s the only real Dobro being made right now, since Gibson owns the Dobro brand.
“When I started playing Dobros, they were making them the same way they were made in 1928, with sound wells. We improved on the design by adding sound posts and baffles, and using solid woods to increase sustain and make the tone richer. I love playing them and I’m really flattered that they’ve become the most popular Dobro out there.”
Read the full article at Gibson.com, where you can also download a free Leadbetter MP3 of Moon Racer.
We heard last night from Phil Leadbetter (dobro man with Grasstowne), that his son Matt (dobro man with Lonesome River Band) and his wife Heather welcomed their first child yesterday.
“Houston Philip Lee Leadbetter weighed in at 7lb and 2oz. He was 21 inches long. Mom and baby are both doing well. This is also my very first grand child. We are very happy with the new edition!!”
So… I guess that Uncle Phil is now Grandpa Phil? I wonder if he has already purchased a pacifier shaped like a dobro steel.
Just after getting this news from Phil, I happened to catch the episode of The Andy Griffith Show where the Darling family came down from the mountain to pledge Charlene’s newborn daughter for a future marriage. It occurred to me that, with all these new bluegrass babies being born, perhaps there may be a plot afoot to promise these young un’s for future supergroups.
The guys in Grasstowne recently had a video bio completed and graciously consented to allow us to present it here for our readers.
The video features interviews with Steve Gulley, Alan Bibey, and Phil Leadbetter, interspersed with performances from a festival in Virginia as well as IBMA in Nashville. The result is a three minute video that should be of interest to fans of the band or the respective pickers. If you’re not a fan, check it out, you might just become one!
The Knoxville Trivia Blog has posted an interview with Knoxville native, and current Carolina Road guitarist, Jerry Butler. They talk about Jerry’s early days with the Knoxville Newgrass Boys, life on the road, and the new CD with Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road, with the appropriate title, Carolina Road.
The site is dedicated to all things Knoxville, but since Byron, the site author, is a big bluegrass fan, there is a good bit of grassy content as well.
Knoxville Triva Blog has a nice piece that consists of an interview with Phil Leadbetter. Their interest in Phil stems from his time with the Knoxville New Grass Boys when he was a young teenager. The post takes the form of a question and answer session and covers Phil’s background in music, time spent with J.D. Crowe, and his excitement about the new band he’s formed with Steve Gulley and Alan Bibey, Grasstowne.
If you are a fan of Uncle Phil then you should click over and give this interview a read.
Rob Ickes has announced a four day resophonic guitar summit in Nashville this fall. Billed as ResoSummit, it will include workshops and performances, and a hands-on experience is promised for all students.
Instructors tapped to participate in addition to Rob are Mike Auldridge, Phil Leadbetter, Randy Kohrs, Michael Witcher, and Andy Hall, plus luthiers Tim Scheerhorn and Paul Beard.
Things kick off on Thursday (11/8) with a concert at The Station Inn by The Infamous Stringdusters. Classes then run from Friday (11/9) through Sunday (11/11). Here’s how Rob describes the weekend’s activities:
From Friday through Sunday, we’ll have a full menu of workshops, jams, “dobro speed dates,” faculty fave song deconstruction, and other creative approaches designed to ramp up your playing rapidly and enrich your creativity. We’ll be tapping some truly gifted teachers and players to make all this happen, and we’re going to make sure everyone has lots of fun in the process. We’ve found a great campus right off Music Row - The Scarritt-Bennett Center - for all our daytime activities. This beautiful Gothic campus will make you think you’re in college (except no exams!), and will put you in just the right mood for a high-energy learning experience. And a nearby recording studio will be available for a hands-on recording experience, for those who dare!
Each night during the ResoSummit, we’ll head back to The Station Inn for some great performances by bands featuring faculty members, including Three Ring Circle. And for the grand finale on late Sunday afternoon, we’ll have a closing performance at the Harambee Auditorium at Scarritt-Bennett.
By the end of the Summit on Sunday evening, you’ll be loaded up with enough inspiration and “homework” to keep you busy for the next year!
There is no web site for the event, but Rob encourages anyone with an interest in ResoSummit to contact him by email for registration forms. Full tuition is $350, which includes all workshops and evening concerts.
Last January, both Brance and I had the chance to attend the Pickin’ at the Paramount all star concert in Bristol, TN. The show was an offshoot of one that I helped organize in 2000 (reprised in 2001) to celebrate the release of Knee Deep In Bluegrass - The AcuTab Sessions. You can read my report on last year’s show here.
The show has been scheduled again this year, and will be held next weekend (1/20/07) at The Paramount Center on historic State Street in Bristol.
The format of the current show is similar to the one we started in 2000, and reminiscent of the old “package tour” shows popular in the 1950s and 60s. An all star cast of prominent bluegrass pickers and singers will rotate on and off the stage in a variety of configurations, generally performing material outside of what you might normally hear them doing.
This year’s lineup includes Bobby Hicks, Ronnie Bowman, Mike Bub, David Talbot, Larry Cordle, Rob McCoury, Don Rigsby, Kim Fox, Darrell Webb, Steve Gulley, Jason Carter, Barry Bales, Paul Williams, Kenny & Amanda Smith and David Grier.
We have posted many times recently about Grasstowne, this fall’s big bluegrass start-up featuring Alan Bibey, Steve Gulley and Phil Leadbetter.
This week’s news is that the band has signed a 3 CD deal with Pinecastle Records, with work on the first expected to begin just after the new year. They hope to have it out by June of 2007.
Both Phil and Alan were interviewed about the new band this month on The GrassCast. You can hear these interviews online, in your web browser, by visiting The GrassCast page.
This week on The GrassCast our guest if award winning dobro player Phil Leadbetter. Phil has been in the news lately because of the formation of a new band of which he’s a part, Grasstowne (read about it here).This interview was recorded Wednesday morning Dec 6th, less than a week after the announcement of Grasstowne. Phil discusses the new band, why he’s excited about it, and why he felt it was time for him to make a change musically.
Phil spends some time talking about the musical direction the new band will be taking, and why. It’s an interesting discussion that should be of interest to fans of Phil, Steve Gulley, or Alan Bibey.
Next week’s episode will feature an interview with Alan Bibey concerning his decision to join Phil in this new undertaking.
We originally reported the band name as being Grasstowne and then later corrected that to say a decision on the name had not yet been made. That update was incorrect. The name is, in fact, Grasstowne.
It seems the band members were in agreement on the name all along, but there was some miscommunication between the band and their publicist. Our update was based on a request from the publicist to remove the name from our report, as it was her understanding that it was incorrect.
We now have confirmation from the band that Grasstowne is indeed the name they have chosen. We encourage you to keep an eye, or an ear, on this group as we expect they’ll be making some great music in the near future.
UPDATE 12/2/2006: It seems the original reporting on this was correct and Grasstowne is the name the new band will be using.
Dobro master Phil Leadbetter announced earlier this week that he would be leaving Wildfire to pursue other ventures. At the time he promised an announcement on Dec 1st as to his future plans and we have that announcement as promised.
After nearly 6 years with Wildfire, a band he helped form after leaving J.D. Crowe, Phil is starting a new band. To use a baseball analogy we’ve previously engaged here on The Bluegrass Blog, one might say that the bluegrass trading/signing season has begun with the creation of this new band.
Guitarist/Vocalist Steve Gulley has announced that he will be joining Phil in the new band and thus departing from his gig with Mountain Heart. Steve earned a reputation for his soaring tenor voice while performing on the Renfro Valley Barn Dance in Renfro, KY. After that Steve attended the Doyle Lawson School of Bluegrass where he met future Mountain Heart band mates Barry Abernathy and Jim Van Cleve. In 1998 Gulley, Van Cleve, and Abernathy were joined by Adam Steffey and bass player Johnny Dowdle to form the group Mountain Heart. In addition to the impact that band has had on the bluegrass world, Gulley has also contributed his unique vocal abilities to numerous other recordings in the last 10 years.
In another major departure, Alan Bibey will be leaving BlueRidge, the band he has lead for many years, to join Phil and Steve in this new undertaking. Alan has been a founding member of a number of celebrated bluegrass bands including the New Quicksilver, IIIrd Tyme Out, and BlueRidge. Known as one of the most gifted mandolin players of his generation, Alan brings a wealth of musical knowledge and background to the new band. It is our understanding that BlueRidge will fulfill their currently contracted dates and no more.
These three players are coming together to form what is sure to be a major league band with a great sound. Word has not yet been released as to who will fill the bass and banjo roles in the new band, but we expect an announcement on that very soon. This is bound to be some great music and we’ll look forward to hearing what this band produces.
The three have decided on the name Grasstowne and are currently accepting bookings for the 2007 season.
UPDATE 9:56 AM: It seems the guys are still debating on a name so for now they ask that you visit them online at their Myspace page.
Gibson has posted a video on their web site featuring their top bluegrass endorsers playing a lively version of Jingle Bells. The All Stars consist of Earl Scruggs on banjo, Sam Bush and Ricky Skaggs on mandolins, and Phil Leadbetter on dobro. They are accompanied by Randy and Gary Scruggs on guitar and bass, respectively.
Each of them takes a break on Jingle Bells - except the bass - and Earl Scruggs is in fine form. All of them seem to have been enjoying this very much.
The video runs for just over three and a half minutes, and the site shows a link to download a free iPod version of the video. When I followed that link and tried to save the file, the “Save As Source” option was not available. You may need to use the right click (ctrl click for Mac) “Download Linked File” option from the main video page in order to get the video file, in the .M4v format.
Phil Leadbetter has announced his resignation from Wildfire, the band he helped create in 2001. Since the band’s inception, Phil along with Curt Chapman, Robert Hale, Barry Crabtree and Darrell Webb have recorded 3 CDs for the Pinecastle record label. Phil has expressed his deep appreciation for his fellow band mates, but says he feels it’s important for him to move in a new direction.
I feel it is important in my career to begin a new page. I am ready to pursue a new path, and have no desire to hold any of the guys in Wildfire back or jeopardize their band. Therefore, I decided it was time to move on.
Phil is leaving the band on good terms and Wildfire will be honoring all commitments for show dates currently on the books. The band also has plans to move forward. I spoke with Curt Chapman and got this comment from him.
We will continue on with the same people, minus Phil. We are looking at some players now. Phil left on very good terms, he just wanted to go in a little different direction & we all understand. Unfortunately, change is a part of the business. We were very lucky to have kept the same 5 people for 6 yrs. Hopefully we won’t make another change for 6 more. Wildfire will be going into the studio this winter & get another CD out. Everything remains the same . We are looking forward to seeing our fans next year on the road!
Phil has also teased us all with the promise of an announcement on December 1st as to what his future plans are. Sounds interesting…look for the news here on Friday!
Gibson’s bluegrass division introduced three new limited edition models recently - one each in their banjo, dobro and mandolin lines.
The new banjo is a vintage RB-4 re-issue. Like the style 4 banjos made prior to WWII, this re-issue will be made with a walnut neck and resonator, and chrome (rather than nickel) plated hardware.
Gibson will only make 40 of these Retro 4s, and they will carry a list price of $5443.
In the dobro line, Gibson has just introduced a limited edition Phil Leadbetter signature mahogany model. Only 50 guitars will be made in this series, and Phil will inspect, play and sign each one before it is shipped.
The body and neck are made of solid mahogany, and employs a hand-spun Quarterman aluminum cone, with bound, open soundholes in the body. I have not been able to find the price for this dobro, but will post an update when I do.
Gibson is also creating a new mandolin in their signature artist series, this one for Ricky Skaggs. It will be a Master Model F5, with a distressed finish and a neck shaped to exactly match his Loar. Ricky will inspect each instrument before it is shipped, and sign the label when he is satisfied that the mandolin is set up properly. Only 30 of these mandolins will be made.
The Skaggs Master Models will ship with both a standard Gibson case, Small Dog case cover and a tone guard. List price is set as $25,554. There is no information up yet on the Gibson site about this mandolin.
Over the next few days, we hope to publish a number of brief tributes to Josh Graves from resonator guitarists whose own music was shaped in part by Josh’s.
Josh Graves influenced my life beyond mere words of gratitude. He changed my life. I would not be a professional musician, or even have any real burning desire to play the steel guitar at all, had I not discovered his wonderful playing when I was about 12 years old. He became my mentor and then good friend, when I decided to try music as a profession. I will miss Josh deeply.
I don’t think I would have ever played the dobro guitar if it had not been for Josh Graves. The dobro guitar world changed forever on September 30th 2006 when we lost Uncle Josh. I will always treasure the first time I ever met Josh when I was only 12 years old, and he let me get up on stage and pick “Shuckin’ The Corn” with him in Maryville, TN in 1974. It was one of the highlights of my career. I have been blessed knowing Uncle Josh and calling him a friend. We lost a musical giant when we lost Josh.
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We posted earlier this week with a banjo sighting on Fox Television’s smash hit, American Idol. Now comes word from Phil Leadbetter, reso-man with Grasstowne, about the appearance of one of his signature Dobro guitars on the show.
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The 
Dobro master 
Guitarist/Vocalist 
In another major departure, 
