Ten years ago a CD was released that was probably the very first mashup to feature bluegrass music (mashed with some groovy funk). The CD was GrooveGrass 101, produced by Scott Rouse.

This week Warner Brothers released the CD on iTunes for the first time and I’m told it’s selling quite well.

The CD features bluegrass legend Doc Watson together with Bootsy Collins on Wabash Cannonball and Blue Moon of Kentucky. Other stars making appearances include Mac Wiseman, Jerry Douglas, Ronnie and Rob McCoury, Jason Carter, Mike Bub, Bernie Leden (from the Eagles), and many more. Flatpicking master Steve Kaufman rips off some great solos on Little Cabin Home on the Hill mixed up with all the groovy stuff.

If you’ve never heard GrooveGrass 101, do yourself a favor and go give it a listen on iTunes.

The GrooveGrass Boyz have tapped media marketing wizard, Wichita Rutherford, to direct the video for their new single “Crank That (Farmer Boy)”. When I asked Wichita about it here’s what he had to say:

The folks at GrooveGrass Recordings asked me to direct a video for the new single by The GrooveGrass Boyz about a song called ‘Crank That (Farmer Boy)’. It’s a ‘GrooveGrass’ or “Country” version of the gigantic hit ‘Crank That (Soulja Boy)’. We thought it would be fun to have a contest where people would send in videos of themselves doing the Soulja Boy dance and then I’d put the best ones in our video. They’ve got until February 15th to do a quick 30 second video and get it uploaded to me. The details are over at 5MinutesWithWichita.com. We’ve already done the initial shooting and here are some photos from it. The single will be on iTunes in about 2 weeks.

Scott Rouse produced the single with a variety of Bluegrass musicians as well as “infamous” Bluegrass musicians. The original GrooveGrass Boyz are Doc Watson, Bootsy Collins, Mac Wiseman and The Del McCoury Band. I guess we’ll have to wait and see who’s on this track.

Here are the photos Wichita sent:

Mac Wiseman did his last show at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville last night. The show was billed with John Prine as the headliner, but Mac performed as well. Judging from the picture of the two artists together, Prine is cognizant of Mac’s importance as a music figure.

Our friend Scott Rouse was on hand for the show and sent us a couple photos taken backstage afterwards.

Mac has contributed so much to this music over the years. He truly is a bluegrass great!

Bluegrass has been getting cozy with the guys from Led Zeppelin recently. From the success of the duet album by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, to John Paul Jones producing Uncle Earl, the connection is there.

The rock band of legend just performed their first full concert in 27 years at the O2 Arena in London, UK, Monday night. This was a full on rock concert, but the bluegrass connection was still alive.

We just heard from our friend Scott Rouse, the Nashville producer responsible for the Blue Highway CD MarbleTown, who was at the show courtesy of John Paul Jones himself.

John Paul Jones invited his bluegrass buddies to London for the Zeppelin show. He gave us killer seats. John’s wife, Mo, really took great care of us all. Here’s me, Paczosa, Ronnie and Rob. We all got backstage after show passes and had a blast. The Bluegrass contingent was full on.

From what Scott tells me, the whole bunch headed over to Jones’ house for a jam session after the concert. So who’s the “whole bunch” you ask?

• John Cowan
• Bela Fleck
• the Uncle Earl girls
• Ronnie & Rob McCoury
• Gary Paczosa
• Scott Rouse
• David Ferguson
• John Carter Cash and Laura Cash
• Chris Eldridge

Sounds like a jam I would have liked to heard!