Lonesome River Band is this weekend’s featured guest on Studio Special, the live music and interview show on Bluegrass Junction, airing on XM and Sirius satellite radio.

LRB visited the XM Nashville studios recently to talk with host Kyle Cantrell about their current CD, No Turning Back, and of course, play a number of the songs live.

You can catch the show at the following times on both XM 14 and Sirius 65:

• Friday 1/9 – 8:00 a.m.
• Saturday 1/10 – 8:00 a.m.
• Sunday 1/11 – 9:00 p.m.
• Monday 1/12 – 9:00 p.m.

All times eastern US.

The recent merger between XM and Sirius satellite radio has meant a lot of retraining and extra duties for the staff and on-air hosts of Bluegrass Junction, the all-bluegrass channel which now airs on both services. Program Director Kyle Cantrell reports that things are running smoothly, but that the monthly Bluegrass Junction play charts fell victim to the transition this past few months.

He did get a chart compiled for December; two, in fact. Since the merger, which also combined the music libraries of both XM and Sirius, they have decided to offer chart info based on the number of “spins” a song or CD received on Bluegrass Junction the previous month.

The new charts are posted on the XM web site, and we have them here on The Bluegrass Blog.

Most Played Songs, Bluegrass Junction Sirius XM Radio
January, 2009 (for the month ending December 31)

Album chart after the jump… (more…)

The dust is finally settling after the recent Sirius/XM satellite radio merger, and it appears that nearly all of the familiar voices bluegrass fans have become accustomed to hearing on the two networks have made the cut in the revamped bluegrass programming.

As expected, the notion of maintaining separately programmed bluegrass channels was nixed, and starting yesterday (11/12), both Sirius 65 and XM 14 carry the new Bluegrass Junction feed.

XM’s Kyle Cantrell will continue to program the music, and host the feed during the weekday morning slot (7:00-11:00 a.m. ET). Marty Fitzpatrick, who will also serve as Music Manager (MD/PD), will host from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. during the week.

The former Sirius team of Chris Jones and Ned Luberecki are still on the job as well. Chris will follow Marty for the 3:00-7:00 p.m. weekday shift, and also host a noon to 6:00 p.m. show on Saturdays. Look for Ned on Saturday evening from 6:00 p.m. until midnight, and again on Sunday afternoon from noon to 6:00 p.m.

Feature programs from both networks will also be heard on a recurring schedule. All are one hour shows unless noted otherwise.

• Studio Special (live music and discussion, hosted by Kyle Cantrell):  8:00 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 9:00 p.m. Sundays and Mondays
• Track-By-Track (album review with the artist in studio):  11:00 a.m. Wednesdays and Sundays, and 9:00 p.m. Tuesdays
• Truegrass with Chris Jones (classic bluegrass):  3:00 p.m. Fridays and 6:00 p.m. Sundays
• Hand Picked with Del McCoury:  11:00 a.m. Saturdays and Mondays, and 9:00 p.m. Thursdays
• The Gospel Train:  8:00-11:00 a.m. Sundays and 9:00 p.m.  to midnight Wednesdays
• Derailed with Ned Luberecki (newgrass):  Saturdays 10:00 p.m. to midnight
• Wichita Rutherford’s Grand Old Time Machine:  Fridays 9:00 p.m. and Saturdays at midnight (technically, Sundays at 12:00 a.m.)

It looks like Sirius’ Joey Black is the only former host who is missing from the new bluegrass lineup.

Cantrell will be doing double duty at Sirius-XM, serving also as the music programmer for The Roadhouse, their 24/7 classic country channel (Sirius 62/XM 10).

We got a note from Ned Luberecki of Sirius Bluegrass this morning.

He’s at the Winfield festival, preparing to head home, and he and his Sirius cohort, Chris Jones, plan to shake things up a bit with today’s lineup.

“At 12 Noon today (Monday) Chris Jones and I will begin what we expect to be a 12 hour straight broadcast from the van on our way home from Winfield, KS to Nashville, TN. We’ve only done the moving broadcast a couple of times before, but never for this long. I am filling in for Joey Black’s afternoon shift this week (he’s on vacation) while Wade Jessen is filling in for me on the morning show.

Listeners can tune in and hear our progress along the way. If anyone is unfamiliar with what it’s like to travel 12 hours with a bluegrass band‚Ķ this could give some valuable insight! Or it just might be goofy and fun.”

You can follow Ned and Chris’ excellent adventure on Sirius channel 65.