The American Made Banjo Co. will unveil their new lightweight banjo tone ring today at the SPBGMA convention in Nashville.

The Aluminum Dannick tone ring came into being after American Made owner Tom Mirisola’s search for a lighter banjo with a full flathead tone ring. He studied a number of alloys that could be cast and machined for use in his banjos.

“I stopped at the metal titanium, and felt I was at the end of the road. Titanium had the sound potential but the casting process was not cost effective for a tone ring. So, that idea was scratched fast. While searching for other aluminum alloys, I found another metal called ticalium (Pat-Pend). This is a mixture of aluminum, titanium and carbon. The hardness of this alloy could be adjusted based on the formula.”

Tom said that ticalium rang like a bell, but since their patent was pending, he knew he would not be able to use the alloy. He finally settled on a high-strength aluminum alloy developed by NASA which was also very hard with a bell-like tone. They poured a few aluminum tone rings and cut them to match the original Dannick tone ring.

“Our first test was when Robin Smith installed one in a maple banjo. It had great volume, but the tone was a little bright for our taste. Robin then suggested he install the aluminum ring in a mahogany rim to soften the sound a little. This became the necessary wood/metal combination. As an all mahogany banjo with the aluminum tone ring, the tone, volume and sustain was perfect to our ears.

One day Scott Vestal who markets his signature Stealth Banjo, was at Robin’s shop. He picked on the aluminum prototype banjo, and said, ‘That’s the sound I’ve been looking for.’ Scott then directed Robin to build a couple of fancy Stealths with elaborate binding and quilted mahogany resonators. These Stealth banjos with a Dannick Aluminum tone ring will be on display in the McGavick Room at SPBGMA 2008.”

The Dannick aluminum tone rings are cut to the same dimensions as American Made’s Dannick tone ring, and offer a full size 20 hole ring that weighs in at only 18 ounces. They are unplated, buffed to a bright finish to match the metal parts in a nickel banjo and sell for $435.

Oregon based multi-instrumentalist, Joe Ross has recently announced the release of a third album in as many years.

Following Festival Time Again (released in 2006) and Spirit of St. Louis (2007) albums, both featuring all-original songs, is a new CD entitled, Bluegrass Alphabet - officially released Saturday, January 12, 2008 on the Zephyr Records label. The 12-track album features original bluegrass and Americana songs written by Ross during the past three decades, as well as a novel arrangement of My Bonnie with autoharp, whistle, Japanese koto, among other instruments.

The title cut, which tells the complete story of bluegrass music from A to Z, was inspired by a sailors’ alphabet song that Ross plays on concertina in his solo shows.

As well as singing lead on most of the tracks, Ross plays guitar, mandolin, upright bass, and keyboard on the project. Most vocal harmonies are handled by Nashville-based musician Randy Kohrs, while noted local Roseburg, OR vocalist Jamie Kruse makes a cameo appearance on the song, The Loneliest Season. Other well-known artists working with Ross on Bluegrass Alphabet include Bryan Bowers (autoharp), Tim Crouch and Adam Haynes (fiddle), Mitsuki Dazai (koto), Ben Greene and Scott Vestal (banjo), Jason Heald and Jerry McNeely (bass), James King (guitar), Kevin Prater (mandolin and guitar), Ronnie Stewart (banjo and fiddle) and Radim Zenkl (pennywhistle).

Wayne Bledsoe, editor of Bluegrass Now magazine, speaks highly of Joe’s abilities ……..

“A man of both deep feeling and deep thinking, Joe Ross has few peers as a singer and a songster. He epitomizes the ideal contained in the 19th century French philosopher/historian, Jean Jacques Rousseau’s observation that ‘…deep thinking is obtainable only by a person of deep feeling.’ The lyrics penned by the Oregon ’songster’, Joe Ross, attest to his astute ability to evoke in his listeners an emotional response to the joys, mysteries, and sorrows of life.”

While Stephanie P. Ledgin, author of Homegrown Music: Discovering Bluegrass, observes,

“Joe’s words come alive. A novel kind of guy, Joe Ross is a songwriter for all seasons who has cultivated his craft, demonstrating his formula for creating bluegrass songs. A multi-year award winner in the Portland (Oregon) Music Association Songwriting Contest, he cleverly sums up many of the elements of bluegrass in the title cut. Carrying through on that theme, ‘Bluegrass Alphabet’ - the song and the entire recording - is a CD that expresses, many times over, the love, knowledge and passion Joe holds for bluegrass music. He takes us on a tour of emotions and places, exhibiting a multitude of influences that go into his song writing.”

Bluegrass Alphabet (Zephyr 0431) will be distributed worldwide via Super-D/Phantom One-Stop, and is available from popular onloine resellers. Sound clips can be found on CD Baby.

Beginning January 26, Ross will be on an extended tour to promote the new album.

For many years now the legend of the Sidemen has lived on even though the group no longer performs at Nashville’s Station Inn.

In recent months, a new group of sidemen have come together to fill the void. They call themselves the Mashville Brigade. The group performs most Tuesday nights at The Station Inn and consists of pickers who all play in different bands on the road.

The line up may not be exactly the same every night if one or more of the guys has a gig somewhere, but the group more or less consists of Aaron McDaris (banjo), Ashby Frank (mandolin), Darrel Webb (guitar), Greg Martin or Randall Barnes (bass), and Jim VanCleve (fiddle).

The group makes an effort to play a strait up hard driving bluegrass setlist each Tuesday night, entertaining the crowd of hardcore fans who turn out for the shows.

Tonight, the line up will be a little different, as the band welcomes a few friends to the stage to “Mash” one with them.

At tonight’s show, band will be:

Josh Williams - guitar and vocals (formerly of Rhonda Vincent)
Darrel Webb - Mandolin and vocals (Currently with Rhonda Vincent)
Tim Dishman - Bass (Special Consensus)
Scott Vestal - Banjo (Sam Bush Band)
Jim VanCleve - Fiddle (Mountain Heart)
Daren Shumaker - sound engineer (Ronnie Bowman & Mountain Heart)

We’re expecting a fun crowd and a lot of energy, as we just recently fronted a show for Dierks Bently (where he graciously gave the Mashville Brigade a glowing review from the stage) at a Charity event in Nashville. You just never know who’s gonna drop in and mash one or two with the band, too, so it’s usually pretty interesting!

The Station Inn has dubbed the Mashville Brigade shows as $5 Tuesdays. The cover charge, pizzas, and pitchers of beer are each $5. If you’re in town, be sure to stop by and watch the guys Mash one!

Pinecastle Records has released three new CD projects this week, each of which we had previewed for you here prior to their street date. They have also launched a new, completely redesigned web site which Andy Evans at Pinecastle tells us has been in the planning stages for several months.

The new releases are from longtime Stanley bass man, Jack Cooke (Sitting On Top Of The World), The Circuit Riders (Let The Ride Begin) and a second compilation set from their extremely popular bluegrass instrumental series (More Ultimate Pickin’).

Andy says that they are still making minor site revisions, but expect that all the bugs will be found and fixed in the next few days. He invites everyone to stop by and have a look around.

Some of the more popular bluegrass instrumental projects of recent years have been in a Pinecastle series which came to be called the Bluegrass Annual projects, as each was designated by the year in which it was released. Seven CDs were eventually included, starting with Bluegrass ‘95, and concluding with Bluegrass 2001.

The series had a largely accidental genesis, initially recorded as a solo project for Clay Jones, now guitarist with Mountain Heart. When that project was finished, Clay made a decision to work outside of music, and Pinecastle was prepared to shelve the recording, seeing no venue to promote it. Scott Vestal, a long time friend of Clay’s who played banjo on the project, intervened with the label and convinced them to release it as an instrumental CD so that the artists who recorded with Clay (Adam Steffey, Wayne Benson, Aubrey Haynie, Barry Bales), could at least offer it for sale at their shows.

Scott was quoted in an August 2000 article in Banjo NewsLetter about this, and how he came to take charge of creating and producing an instrumental release for them for each of the next six years.

“I talked with Tom Riggs at Pinecastle and suggested that we release it in some form with a generic title so that at least the guys on the record could sell it at shows. I just threw out the name, Bluegrass ‘95 and he liked it. No one expected it to sell so well but, when it did, Pinecastle turned the concept over to me and asked me to do one each year.”

Each was successful in its own right, but as the CD inventory for each title sold through, Pinecastle has elected to let them go out of print. Bluegrass 2001 is the only one still available as an audio CD.

They released a compilation from those CDs in the summer of 2005, called Ultimate Pickin, which featured 20 tracks taken from those recordings, and now a second compilation is out with a bit broader range that includes more tracks from those popular CDs.

The newly released More Ultimate Pickin also contains 20 tracks, taken from the aforementioned Vestal-produced projects, and other Pinecastle CDs like Bobby Osborne & Jesse McReynolds’ Masters Of The Mandolin, among others. A full track listing and a few audio samples can be found on the Pinecastle site.

You can still obtain the individual Bluegrass Annual projects as digital downloads in the iTunes Music Store. Follow the links below to find them in iTunes.

We posted last week about the upcoming project from Tony Trischka, Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular, which will feature Tony in duets with Earl Scruggs, Béla Fleck, Steve Martin, Alison Brown, Tom Adams, Bill Emerson, Kenny Ingram, Scott Vestal and Noam Pikelny. It is due for a January 23, 2007 release on Rounder.

At the time, we noted that no audio samples were available online, but Rounder now has snippets from all 14 tracks on their site, in both RealAudio and Windows Media formats.

I had a chance to discuss this new CD recently with Tony, and was especially interested in how he decided on a twin banjo project.

“After doing two electric band albums, I’d approached Rounder about doing a bluegrass album, a la my Hill Country record from the early ’80s. Ken Irwin thought it might be more fun, and have more of a commercial hook if I turned it into a double banjo album. And that’s what it became.

All the duets were recorded live except for the one with Scott Vestal. I was going to have JD on one cut and at the last minute something came up and he wasn’t able to make it, so I cut the track by myself as part of the Sam Bush sessions. After a week or so I decided to have Scott add the double part. He did it at his home studio and when he emailed it back to me, I flipped. His playing is ridiculously amazing.”

Tony told me that the project was exciting, both putting it together, and recording with so many of his favorite players, but that it took a long time to complete, given the difficulty of scheduling nine different banjo players. Still, he says the whole thing was a thrill, and well worth the trouble in the end.

“The biggest treat was getting to record with Earl. It was a huge honor and more than that, a gift. Sitting across from him while running it down I was impressed with the power of his right hand. I’ve heard him live on various occasions, but hearing him from three feet away is another story.”

Another highlight for Tony was working with Steve Martin. (more…)

This new compilation CD is due for a September 6 release from Pinecastle Records. The 20 instrumental tracks were selected from the popular Bluegrass ‘96-’99 CD series produced by Scott Vestal, now out of print. These recordings featured contemporary interpretations of bluegrass instrumental classics and were recorded primarily in Scott’s studio with him on banjo, Wayne Benson on mandolin, Mark Schatz on bass and Jeff Autrey on guitar. Both Rickey Simpkins and Aubrey Haynie contribute on fiddle, as do Rob Ickes and Randy Kohrs on dobro.

Tunes on Ultimate Pickin’ include: Clinch Mountain Backstep, Foggy Mountain Special, Jerusalem Ridge, Leather Britches, Little Rock Getaway, Dear Old Dixie and 14 other classic bluegrass instrumentals. The original CD releases were the subject of two AcuTab transcription books, for Scott Vestal (banjo) and Wayne Benson (mandolin).

This is terrific music, passionately performed and likely to be remembered in future as a definitive statement of the state of the art in bluegrass music at the turn of the last century.