In addition to the nominations announced on Tuesday for all the glittery pop stars, a list of “lesser lights” was quietly passed out. This includes musicians, producers, engineers, radio hosts, promoters and venues. The winners of the ACM MBI Awards (Musicians/Bandleaders/Instrumentalists) are not recognized during the televised broadcast on April 18, but feted at an ACM Honors in the fall. They are typically announced prior to the program, however.

As is often the case, a number of names familiar to bluegrass fans pop up in the list. Stuart Duncan and Deanie Richardson are both nominated as Top Fiddle Player Of The Year, Bryan Sutton is nominated for Top Guitar Player Of The Year, and Dennis Crouch for Top Bass Player Of The Year. Bryan is also nominated for Top Specialty Instrument Of The Year, as is Randy Scruggs.

Buddy Cannon received a Poducer Of The Year nomination. He is not a specifically bluegrass producer, though he has been involved in the production of the music of his daughter, Melonie Cannon.

Congratulations and best of luck to them all!

“Grown Up (A Revisionist History) is a special 20th Anniversary project that revisits some of the material that the band recorded early in our history. Rather than re-release the original versions on a compilation CD, we picked some of our favorite songs, threw away everything we knew about them, and started from scratch on arrangements, solos, vocals, and production ideas (the revisionist history part). The songs had very limited exposure originally being on self released projects, a few of which were only released on cassette tapes when we were first starting out.

We really wanted to have the CD representative of The Chapmans as an anniversary project, so we decided to produce it ourselves. That way we felt the music and song selection was really all about where we were as a band, while revisiting our history. We made sure to include a few songs that we had written as kids, we recorded all of our tracks in our home studio, and designed all the artwork on the CD packaging ourselves. So a big part of our goal for the CD was for it to embody the strengths that we had developed over the last 20 years of performing, musically and otherwise.

A few highlights for us included having Rhonda Vincent sing a duet with John on the CD, something we had talked about for  a while. We were all blown away to have Noam Pikelny play banjo on El Cumbanchero, which he completely nailed. And of course we could never say enough about what Rob Ickes and Stuart Duncan bring to the project.”

We’ve also posted previously about the music video The Chapmans have produced for the song Bubble Gum Baby, which will be released in tandem with the new CD. Here’s the video teaser they created in October.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Grown Up (A Revisionist History) is scheduled for a February 2010 release.

This if from Costello’s website, announcing the new record.

Joining Costello were Jerry Douglas (dobro), Stuart Duncan (fiddle), Mike Compton (mandolin), Jeff Taylor (accordion) and Dennis Crouch (double bass), some of the most highly regarded recording artists and musicians in traditional American country music, Bluegrass and beyond.

…

Jim Lauderdale takes the close vocal harmony part throughout the record and Emmylou Harris contributed a third vocal part on the chorus of “The Crooked Line” on the final day of recording.

Obviously, it’s not a bluegrass record, but it will include the sounds of bluegrass and may introduce some new fans to the sounds and lead them down a path of discovery.

I’m continually thankful for musicians like those mentioned here, who so excel at their craft that their art is desired even by those who inhabit other musical genres.

I’m looking forward to hearing this recording.

This post is a contribution from Tim Kruzic, banjo player with Blue Daze. Tim is a long time friend of The Bluegrass Blog who has been involved with IBMA on many levels over the past several years. Serving on various committees and participating in the Leadership Bluegrass program Tim is a valuable asset to the bluegrass industry.

One of my favorite things about IBMA is witnessing some of the unique picking sessions that occur because of the gathering of so many great musicians. At Owensboro or Louisville, it was a bit easier to walk the halls and discover some of this magic. In Nashville, one of the coolest events is the series of concerts sponsored by Fred Carpenter at The Violin Shop. Though the venue is a bit of a ride from the main IBMA event and has a separate admission charge, it is well worth the effort. Fred sponsors shows on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights. The venue only seats about 50 people and features an all acoustic setup. The concerts are recorded on video and subsequently released on DVD. Twenty five percent of the concert admission is put toward a scholarship fund for up and coming fiddle players to attend music camps; the remainder of the admission goes directly to the musicians.

Last night’s concert featured Tim O’Brien with an all star supporting band of Bryan Sutton on guitar, Stuart Duncan on fiddle, and Dennis Crouch on bass. Tim played a ninety minute set that featured some old Hot Rize favorites (Blue Night), more recent material from his solo career (Senor, Drunkard’s Hiccups [Jack Of Diamonds]), current material (Look Down That Lonesome Road, Cornbread Nation), and some great instrumentals featuring the band (Red Apple Rag, Lee Highway Blues). An added treat was twin fiddles by Tim and Stuart on several tunes. Tim continues to be on top of his game. His mandolin playing sounded quite crisp, and his vocals reaffirmed his mastery of phrasing and unique melodic interpretations. In addition to the great music, Tim’s characteristic understated sense of humor and dry wit provided continuity to the show. A particular highlight was his song using a familiar bluegrass melody with new lyrics from the computer age about love gone bad. I can’t recreate the lyrics here, but it’s really funny.

One of the interesting aspects of the evening was the musical versatility of Stuart Duncan. It’s no surprise given Stuart’s mastery of the fiddle, mandolin, and bass vocal as shown over the years with the Nashville Bluegrass Band. In this show, Stuart sang lead on the choruses for several songs (like Nick Forrester used to do with Tim in Hot Rize), tenor on several other songs, and a solo lead vocal on Train 45. He certainly did a credible job on the vocals. I was most surprised to hear Stuart play clawhammer banjo. I learned after the show that he got interested in clawhammer banjo a couple of years ago. Stuart was also really funny. His vocal accompaniment on some of the fiddle tunes was a riot, and he fired off some pretty good quips in between the songs (especially when a fiddle string broke when he picked up the fiddle after the clawhammer tune).

Bryan Sutton played his usual astounding guitar style. His rhythm was perfect for every song whether a ballad, a swing tune, or a bluegrass flavored song. For any of you reading this that think Bryan’s style is only "machine gun" notes as he did on the fast fiddle tunes with Ricky Skaggs, take another listen. Bryan is such a versatile guitar player that he complements every song in just the right way. And he added some nice baritone vocals on several trios.

Not to be overlooked is Dennis Crouch. The rhythm from this group was really snapping the way it should to suit each song, and Dennis’ bass was a big contributing factor. Dennis took one bass break (I can’t remember the name of the song) which was exceptional for its ability to create the melody.

Although the feel of IBMA in Nashville is different than Louisville, great music happens when great musicians are brought together. The locations may be unfamiliar and the methods of finding it may be different, but it’s there if you look for it. When I look back over my highlights of IBMA 2006, the Tim O’Brien concert will certainly be one of the highlights and fondly remembered.

The show on September 25 will feature Tim O’Brien and Stuart Duncan, with support from Bryan Sutton and Dennis Crouch. There will be two shows that evening, at 7:00 and 9:00 p.m., with both shows taped for Volume II of their live Violin Shop concerts on DVD.

We posted about the first volume when it was released earlier this summer. That concert DVD features Andy Leftwich, Bruce Molsky, Aubrey Haynie, Jim Van Cleve and Bobby Hicks on fiddles, with contributions from Ronnie Bowman, Ron Stewart, Alan Bibey and several other fine pickers and singers.

Fred says that he really has no set release date for the Duncan/O’Brien concert DVD, but expects it will be in the first half of 2007. Details will surely appear on The Violin Shop site as they are clarified.