Rick Hayes Instruments, makers of dreadnaught guitars and F-5 mandolins, is proud to announce today that Clay will be endorsing their mahogany guitar. It is a solid wood guitar, made with Honduran mahogany back, sides and neck, and high grade spruce for the top. The fingerboard and bridge are of West African ebony, and the guitar sells for $2999.

As you might expect, Clay speaks very highly of the guitar.

“The Rick Hayes guitar I have been playing for the past year is one of the top five guitars I’ve ever played. I recorded most of my new recording with a 1938 D18, which is my favorite guitar. I recorded the rest with the Hayes guitar. I’ll let y’all try to tell which is which because I can’t.”

More details can be found on Rick’s web site.

Eli Green Hayes was born August 20, 2009 at 2:22 p.m, the first grandson of Rick Hayes, former long-time mandolinist with The Gibson Brothers and chief luthier with Rick Hayes Instruments in Cincinnati, OH.

His proud parents are Rick’s son Garrett Hayes and his wife Allison. Young Eli weighed in at 7 lbs., 3 oz., standing 19.75”.

Lyn Hayes, Rick’s wife and partner in their various bluegrass business ventures -  who looks like nobody’s grandma – sent along this picture of the four generations of Hayes boys.

Congratulations to you all!

Rick has teamed up with fellow luthier Dann Ross to augment his F-style mandolins with a handcrafted, steel string guitar. It is made with a AAA red spruce top and Honduran mahogany back and sides. The bridge and fingerboard are ebony without fretboard position markers, and Rick’s signature is inlaid at the 14th fret.

Until last fall, Rick toured as the mandolinist with The Gibson Brothers, a position he relinquished in October ‘08 to concentrate on his instrument building and recording studio businesses. Hayes has also worked as a graphic artist, and feels that his performing/recording experience, together with the eye of an artist, allows him to build instruments that please both the eye and the ear.

The Hayes guitar sells for $2999 with a hard shell case. They are available directly from Rick’s shop, or through MyFavoriteGuitars.com.

But it’s a shame we didn’t have a video contest as well – at least for the sake of this precious video created by Rick Hayes. Until recently, Rick was the mandolinist with The Gibson Brothers, a position he gave up to focus his efforts on his other pursuits which include mandolin building, audio recording and video production.

Lyn Hayes, Rick’s partner in life and in their business, Hayes Productions, shared the story of the video which celebrates Rick’s dad.

“While reading over the IIIrd Time Out photo contest entry, I was thinking you guys might be interested in a Father-Son music video that we shot and produced a little while ago. It’s of Rick and his dad, Green Hayes (interesting name, remarkable man), doing Jacob’s Ladder (Rock of Ages). Green had originally recorded it when he was about 82.

Then we shot the video a year or so later, and decided to add the song as a bonus track to Rick’s solo CD, Fly By Night. I’m glad we did. We’ve received a lot of wonderful comments on it. Green turned 86 last September and is going strong. Rick and he go to jams all the time and even played a show together last Sunday.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Lyn offered a few more details about Green, which makes for an inspirational story as we head into Father’s Day…

“Much of the video footage was taken at their homeplace in McKee, Kentucky when we went down for Decoration Day (Memorial Day) to place flowers at the family grave sites. (You may notice the original family name was spelled Hays. Long story there.) Green and his wife of 62 years, Geneva, are proud to say they have been back home for this tradition every year but one for the past 40 plus years.

Speaking of Memorial Day, I just have to add one brief anecdote that speaks to the character of Green. Like many young men in the 1940s, Green joined the army as soon as he was old enough and fought honorably, leaving only because he spent 36 days straight held down in a frozen foxhole. They wanted to amputate his feet, but he wouldn’t let them so he spent a year and a half in the hospital rehabilitating. They did, however, want to give him a Purple Heart (in addition to the other medals he earned) for a minor scratch he received from some barbed wire fence. He refused. He felt it would be a slap in the face to the men and women he felt truly deserved this honor.

That’s the kind of guy he is.”

Thanks to Rick and Lyn Hayes for sending that video, and a Bluegrass Blog salute to all the men like Green Hayes, and to all our Dads wherever they may be!

Eric and Leigh Gibson are happy to welcome young mandolinist Joe Walsh in Rick’s stead. Joe is a recent graduate from The Berklee College Of Music and has been performing with several bluegrass and acoustic bands in the northeast, and teaching mandolin and guitar in Portland, ME.

Joe was Berklee’s first mandolin student and moved from Duluth, MN to Boston to study there. One of his professors at Berklee, David Hollender, shared a few thoughts.

“Joe has great time, beautiful tone and he really knows how to connect with other players and make a band groove. His playing has contemporary elements but retains a deeply rooted, down to earth quality that not that all young players have. When Joe is in the band you can be sure the music will just feel good.

I think everyone who knows Joe knew it was just a matter of time until he’d land a gig like the one he has now. It’s said that success comes mainly from motivation, determination and perseverance. Joe exemplified this when he was a student at Berklee. He had to struggle to stay in school. You’d see him on his bike on cold winter days with his mandolin on his back headed to class after getting up to drive a bread truck at 4:00 am every day. Later you’d see him at night heading off to jam. Nothing would stop him and it’s great to see all that work starting to pay off.”

He will do his first show with The Gibsons on January 2, 2009 at the New Year’s Bluegrass Festival in Jekyll Island, GA. Joe joins Eric (banjo and guitar), Leigh (guitar), Mike Barber (bass), and Clayton Campbell (fiddle) to make up the band’s new look.

Carol’s show, Lonesome Pine RFD, is broadcast from 9:00 a.m. to noon (EDT) on 89.1 FM in the NYC area, and streamed live online at WFDU.fm.

Rick will phone in at 10:30 a.m. to talk about his solo project, the latest from The Gibsons, Iron and Diamonds, the handcrafted mandolins he builds, and his recording studio and graphics business.

Busy guy…

We offered a few words about Rick Hayes’ debut solo project, not long ago on The Bluegrass Blog. The CD, Fly By Night, was released this week, and features Rick on mandolin and lead vocals, along with The Gibson Brothers, with whom he performs on a regular basis.

Audio samples from the CD, which also features Ron Stewart on banjo, Jim Van Cleve on fiddle, Josh Swift on resonator guitar and Rick on mandolin and bass and guitar, can be heard on the Rick Hayes web site.

Rick will be interviewed online this Saturday when he joins Gracie Muldoon on WorldWideBluegrass.com. Catch Rick and Gracie on Muldoon with the Blue Moon on May 24 at 10:00 p.m.

Can’t Wait, the the second CD from the Allegheny Drifters, was released in, April right on time for the Pennsylvania group’s 5th anniversary performing as a unit.

The band includes Bernie Cunningham on lead vocals/guitar, Bob Artis on baritone vocals/mandolin, Karen Artis on tenor vocals/bass and Keith Beaver on bass vocals/banjo, with guest artist Michael Cleveland on fiddle.

Audio samples from several tracks can be found on their web site, along with their summer schedule of live shows

Also celebrating their second CD release is The Jason Boone Band from the state of Mississippi. Their new project is I Hear Mississippi Calling, which highlights the strong tenor voice of the band’s namesake, along with Don Robinson on banjo and lead vocals, Johnny Rawls on bass, Lee Ely on mandolin and Jeff Boone on fiddle. Jason plays guitar.

The material is a mix of band originals and country/Gospel hits, all performed in a driving bluegrass style. This relatively new band, formed in 2004, has been making noise on the circuit since they first appeared, and their previous self-titled Gospel CD has been well received as well.

Audio samples can be found on CD Baby or in the iTunes Music Store.

Rick Hayes,

Hayes handles the lead vocals as well, with the exception of a guest lead each by his bandmates Eric and Leigh Gibson. Harmony vocals were provided by Dwight McCall, the Gibsons and Clay Hess. The CD will also include a bonus track sung by his father, Green Hayes.

Hess contributed three new songs to the project, and Mark Cole, formerly of Larry Sparks & the Lonesome Ramblers, has two.

Fly By Night was recorded in Rick’s studio, Hayes Productions, where he has previously tracked projects like Dwight McCall’s Kentucky Peace of Mind and Clay Hess’s Red Haired Boy. It will be released under his new label Kang Records ‚Äì an homage to the bluegrass pronunciation of the legendary King Records.

Hess is the new guitarist with Mountain Heart, and had previously worked with both Ricky Skaggs and Mark Newton. Hayes plays mandolin with The Gibson Brothers, and makes handmade Hayes Mandolins in his Cincinnati shop.

The pair will offer their workshop on November 17 at Zeiler Music Center in Rising Sun, IN. Three one-hour classes will be held from 2:00-5:00 p.m., followed by an evening concert.

The workshops are described by the organizers thusly:

The three consecutive one-hour workshops will cover bluegrass 1) guitar and 2) mandolin techniques and then 3) how they fit within a band structure. Time will be allowed for question and answers as well.

Full contact and registration info for the 11/17 event can be found online.