The Chapmans are hoping to use the leverage of viral marketing to help promote their next recording project.

They have a new single release, which is being offered as a free digital download online. The track is a remake of Redwood Hill, the Gordon Lightfoot song made into a bluegrass classic by the Country Gentlemen in 1972.

They don’t yet have a new CD on the horizon, but Jeremy Chapman tells us that they wanted to remind everyone that they were still kicking with a new song.

“The main reason for the single was that we have been hearing a lot from fans and DJ’s wanting to know if we had anything new since Simple Man in the works. With the time we took off in the early part of the year to allow John to be home for the birth of his first baby, we decided to get into the studio to cut a few tracks while we were building a new team on the business end, as far as agent, management, and record label. One of the tunes we cut was Redwood Hill, which is one that we had grown up listening to the Country Gentlemen do. We thought we would keep pretty close to their arrangement to kind of pay homage to them.

Then as well as mailing it to a number of bluegrass radio stations, we wanted to make it available to all our fans through our new website for free. Just to hold them over until we have a full project finished.”

Listen to the new track on the band’s reverbnation site, where you can also download it for free.

BluegrassRadio.org will be re-airing the Riverbend Bluegrass Festival show recorded last Saturday this evening (4/26) at 7:00 p.m. (EDT). Performers featured include Ernie Thacker, returning to the stage after his two year recovery from a serious accident, followed by The Chapmans, Grasstowne and Lou Reid and Carolina.

BluegrassRadio.org is a free, listen-supported Internet radio service that runs a 24/7 bluegrass feed, available for both iTunes and Windows Media. Visit their site to choose a feed and listen in anytime.

As a young man just gaining an interest in bluegrass music, the bluegrass festival was almost heaven for me. One of the first festivals I can remember attending was at Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO. I grew up there in Missouri so it seems natural I would have fond memories of this festival. This is where I first encountered the mandolin playing of Danny Roberts, the flatpicking of John Chapman, and the thrill of excitement of being at a bluegrass festival.

Silver Dollar City has hosted a bluegrass festival since 1975. Back then it was called the Mountain Folks Music Festival. Over the years the festival has changed names and dates more than once. Four years ago it became Silver Dollar City’s Bluegrass & BBQ Festival. The festival is a long running one, starting on May 10 and continuing through June 1, 2008. During these 23 days, the park will be running a total of nine stages throughout each day, with over 60 bluegrass bands performing. Each performance is scheduled at 30 minutes and during the course of the festival there will be in excess of 1000 sets.

I had the chance to speak with D.A. Callaway, the festival coordinator, and he shared some interesting details about the event. With that many stages running for this length of time, the technical staff will be working hard. Callaway tells me they have 25 full time technical staff to run sound and lighting during the festival. The park hours are 9:30 AM to 7 PM each day. The shows begin in the morning and continue throughout the day.

Silver Dollar City is a large theme park that attracts a lot of tourists, but Callaway assures me that of the 10,000 attendees the park will average each day of the festival, 40-50% of them are there for the music. These are fans that might not be at the park if it wasn’t for the festival. Those are great numbers to contemplate on both sides of that equation. 4-5K people per day in attendance specifically to hear bluegrass music is a great turn out. But 5-6K people each day who aren’t there for the music, will surely hear it as they enjoy the other offerings of the park. Perhaps a few new bluegrass fans will be born next month in Branson!

With 60+ bands performing I was curious how artists are selected for inclusion in the festival. (more…)

The Riverbend Bluegrass Festival in Ocilla, GA begins today, and BluegrassRadio.org will be on hand to record all of the main stage performances this weekend.

Artists to be recorded include Grasstowne, Lou Reid and Carolina, The Chapmans, and more.

The Grasstowne performance will be broadcast on Sunday April 20, 2008 @ 1 PM EDT. Next Saturday, April 26, 2008, BluegrassRadio.org will broadcast the entire main stage performance from all the bands. That will take place starting at 7 PM EDT.

If you don’t have plans Sunday, or next Saturday evening, be sure to attend the Riverbend Bluegrass Festival online at BluegrassRadio.org.