The CD is available for pre-order now, directly from the band, and those who do so will receive a signed copy of the CD along with immediate access to download a live recording of the April 15, 2008 show the guys put on at the Fox Theater in Boulder, CO. This live recording features 11 tracks, two of which are over 10 minutes in length. It was a great show, the recording is top notch and the music very enjoyable.
So here’s the content we have for you.
Sugar Hill Records has commissioned our friends at String Theory Media to produce a Best of 2007 video about The Infamous Stringdusters. The video will be debuted here on The Bluegrass Blog in 5 episodes, the first of which is embedded below. Each monday for the next four weeks we’ll present another installment. The last episode will be posted on June 9, 2008, the day before the CD hits the streets.
Each episode will be accompanied by either a streaming track or an mp3 download from the new CD. Access to the tracks will be limited to registered users of The Bluegrass Blog, and accessing the track will enter you in a promotional giveaway to win one of three autographed copies of the CD.
We also have one other contest for you - there will only be one winner in this contest, but it’s big. We’re giving away a pair of tickets to this year’s Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, a meet and greet with the band at the festival, and some merchandise the guys will autograph just for you on site.
So enjoy the video, download this week’s track, and enter to win free festival tickets!
This first installment includes episode one of the video, and an mp3 download of the first track from the new CD, Won’t Be Coming Back.
Chris Pandolfi, banjo player with The Infamous Stringdusters, is debuting his talent as a documentary filmmaker during the band’s current European tour. He will be posting video updates on YouTube while the band is overseas, with the first three available now online.
This initial installment covers their first two days in Germany, with a bit of live show footage and their attempts at learning a bit of German.
We’ll have more Infamous Stringdusters video later this morning, along with a chance to win in our new ‘Dusters promotion. Check back later for details.
The Indie Acoustic Project has announced the winners of their Best CDs of 2007 awards. To be eligible, a project must have acoustic instrumentation (at least in part) and be released on an independent (non-major) label.
The Infamous Stringdusters got the nod in the Americana category for Fork In The Road, and Larry Cordle (I’m A Lie) and Dwight McCall (Time Of Our Lives) were chosen in the list of Ten Of The Best Songs of 2007.
Travis Book, bass player and singer with The Infamous Stringdusters, has been engaged by the folks at CMT.com’s County Music Blog to report from the road during their upcoming European tour. The ‘Dusters will spend the entire month of May in Europe, primarily doing shows in Germany, with stops in Denmark, Norway, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic as well - 25 shows in all.
He will post as time and Internet connection allows, hopefully with photos as well. The band will be doing a number of European bluegrass festivals, but most of the shows seem to be theater and club dates.
Travis’ first post was published yesterday (4/28) as a warm up of sorts, and covers the band’s weekend at Merlefest plus performing Saturday on the Grand Ole Opry.
Keep an eye on the County Music Blogin May for updates from the weary travelers.
This weekend’s Grand Ole Opry features a number of bluegrass acts.
Tonight’s (4/25) Friday Opry will include performances from Bobby Osborne, The Whites, Dailey & Vincent and Jesse McReynolds.
Saturday’s (4/26) show offers even more bluegrass, including a live television appearance by The Infamous Stringdusters on GAC TV. Look for them on Opry Live, which airs from 8:00-9:00 p.m. (EDT). The ‘Dusters’ set is scheduled about 15 minutes into the show.
It will re-air on GAC again at midnight Saturday (technically Sunday at 12:00 a.m.), at noon and 7:00 p.m. on Sunday (4/27), Wednesday (4/29) at 8:00 p.m., and at 12:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. on Friday (4/30).
The Whites and The Grascals will also be appearing on Saturday’s Opry radio show.
Both the Friday and Saturday Opry broadcasts are available over the air in the Nashville market on WSM AM 650, and simulcast worldwide via online streaming at wsmonline.com. They can also be heard live on XM channel 11 (XM Nashville), replayed on XM 10 (XM America) on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
In a final Opry note, The Del McCoury Band is scheduled for Tuesday’s Opry show on April 29, which airs from 8:00-10:00 p.m.
The new CD from The Infamous Stringdusters won’t be released until June 10 on Sugar Hill, but ‘Dusters fans who can’t wait for something new can take advantage of a special offer running now on the band’s web site.
Anyone who places a pre-order for The Infamous Stringdusters will receive a free download of a recent live show, recorded April 15 at The Fox Theater in Boulder, CO. The show was recorded on multitrack, professionally mixed and mastered, and can be downloaded as either MP3 or FLAC files, with cover art.
This virtual CD includes 11 tracks, with more than an hour of live music and fun from Boulder. The songs are taken from the first band release, various band members’ solo projects, with two sneak peeks from the new, June release of The Infamous Stringdusters. The vibe runs from jam grass to The Stanley Brothers - something for everyone?
The complete track listing is:
1. Pronto - No More to Leave You Behind - Pronto
2. Happy Birthday Travis
3. Lonesome River
4. Gettin’ Down the Road
5. Weary Heart
6. Well, Well
7. Poor Boy’s Delight
8. Deep Elem Blues
9. Lovin’ You
10. Dream You Back
11. Moon Man
Once you place your CD pre-order, you’ll receive instructions by email with the necessary details to obtain the live concert download. In addition to the free download, the first 250 orders will also receive a signed copy of the new CD when it ships in June.
If you need a new coffee mug and you like to watch bluegrass related videos, then Wichita Rutherford has a got a deal for you.
He’s posted this video on his blog. It was made back in the summer of 2006. The local news in Nashville did a story on Wichita and it contains a LOT of bluegrass musicians.
Wichita is offering a free “The Bluegrass Way” coffee mug to the first three people who can tell him the names of all the musicians in the video.
I’ll give one away, the guys pouring of the limo while playing are The Infamous Stringdusters. You’ll have to figure out the rest on your own.
To win you’ll need to visit Wichita’s Blog and email him your list.
For The Infamous Stringdusters, things just couldn’t get much better. The band’s debut CD, Fork In The Road, was very well received, as have been their live performances. The band walked away from IBMA’s 2007 award show with three awards. With their sophomore album about to be released, 2008 is shaping up to be a good year for the Dusters as well. And it just got better.
We have word that Lionsgate Muisc has signed a deal with The Infamous Stringdusters. The name should be familiar to you if you’ve been in a movie theater in the last 10 years. Lionsgate Entertainment is a production/distribution company that is considered to be the most successful independent film and television distribution company in North America.
Lionsgate Muisc is the division of the company that handles music publishing administration for film and television soundtracks. Most recently, Lionsgate Music was responsible for the score to the move 3:10 To Yuma.
The deal between the Dusters and Lionsgate is a three year, worldwide, publishing administration agreement. This means Lionsgate will be administering the band’s original album, Fork In The Road, as well as their upcoming self-titled release, for a period of three years, for use in movie and television soundtracks.
The deal came about as a result of Lionsgate Music President Jay Faires’ reaction, after hearing the band perform live.
I was in Nashville for the Americana Music Conference last year and a friend dragged me to the Station Inn to see The Infamous Stringdusters. Everything about them reminded me of why I got into this business: phenomenal songs, great musicianship, and crowd reactions. It gave me goose bumps.
It appears that bluegrass music has already gained one new fan as a result of the Dusters’ music. Perhaps many more will join the family after discovering them at the movie theater sometime in the next couple of years. I can’t think of a better band to represent bluegrass in the film industry. Congratulations guys!
Sugar Hill has announced June 10 as the release date for the new project from The Infamous Stringdusters. The CD was produced by Tim O’Brien, and contains 13 tracks, most of them written within the band, including three hot instrumentals.
Oddly enough for a sophomore effort, the new release will be self-titled, and we asked banjo picker Chris Pandolfi what was up with that.
“Our first record, Fork in The Road, came together before we were really a band. We were getting things rolling but had not toured or even worked much on music as a group. more than anything, we were excited about starting the Stringdusters, but in some ways the band didn’t quite exist yet. This second record is the product of over two years of playing together. We’ve learned a lot about how to make music as a group, and we feel like this new record reflects that sound.”
I had a chance for a quick listen to the new CD this afternoon, and think that ‘Dusters fans will find much to their liking on this one. The singing and the songwriting come across as more mature - as you would expect - and the sound of the album is gorgeous as well.
I’m sure that we’ll have a lot more to say about The Infamous Stringdusters between now and the June release date.
As they have done several times in the past, The Infamous Stringdusters have made a number of live tracks available for free download from their MySpace page.
The five songs were recorded at a show three weeks ago at Miami University in Hamilton, OH where the ‘Dusters opened a concert featuring Uncle Earl.
Anyone can access the tracks and listen but you must be a MySpace user and logged in to download the tracks.
The Infamous Stringdusters will be doing a live radio appearance Saturday (2/9) at 3:00 p.m. (EST) from the studios of WREK FM in Atlanta, GA.
The guys will be interviewed on air, and expect to play a few tunes live in the studio as well. One suspects that their upcoming Sugar Hill project will be a major topic of discussion.
The station broadcasts at 91.1 FM, and their signal is streamed live at WREK.org.
Andy Hall’s new solo project, Sound Of The Slide Guitar, is released today on Sugar Hill. As the title suggests, this recording focuses on Andy as a resophonic guitarist and is heavy on original tunes he has written of late.
He is joined by his bandmates in The Infamous Stringdusters for most of the tracks with special guests David Grier, Tim Stafford and Rob Ickes making appearances as well. You can read more about the new CD - including some comments from Andy - in our earlier post about this release.
Sound Of The Slide Guitar is available for download in iTunes or on Andy’s MySpace page, and CD copies can be purchased from Andy at ‘Dusters shows.
Andy talks with BMP about how the group came into existence, how they signed with Sugar Hill and their newest member, Andy Falco. A point that he made forcefully had to do with growing the bluegrass audience.
“We want to develop our own audience the way that a band like Nickel Creek was able to develop their audience. There were people that liked bluegrass that came to their shows and there were those that didn’t know anything about bluegrass coming to their shows, but they were all Nickel Creek fans. We want people to be The Infamous Stringdusters fans with as many people in it as want to see us play.”
A portion of the Hall interview can be read on the BMP web site.
The Jan/Feb issue also includes articles on DJ Charlie Hansen, John Reischman and the Jaybirds, Shop Talk with The Rocky Top X-Press and Charlie Sizemore Dobro player Matt DeSpain, Russell Moore’s Bluegrass Favorites, Remembering Tater Tate, Promoter John Hutchinson, songwriter Connie Leigh, as well as their 2008 annual Festival Guide.
Coming back to The Infamous Stringdusters… They will will be performing live on the radio tomorrow (Friday, 1/11) on WNCW from Spindale, NC. They will be on at 3:00 p.m. (EST), and they have teased that they may preview a couple of songs they will include on their next CD.
If you aren’t in the Charlotte radio market, you can listen live via web streaming.
Andy Hall, busy resophonic guitarist with The Infamous Stringdusters, recently found time to cut a solo project of his own between recording and touring with his band mates.
Sound Of The Slide Guitar features 11 tracks, 8 of which are original pieces Hall wrote for this project. The Dusters serve as the core band, but four tracks are cut as duets, performed with David Grier and Tim Stafford on guitar, Jesse Cobb on mandolin, and Rob Ickes on dobro.
Andy said that he had wanted to complete this recording quickly, reflecting his writing and playing over a certain period of time. Unlike his first solo project, Redwing - which took almost two years to finish - this one was recorded in four months at Hall’s home studio.
Dusters fans will recognize Deep Elem Blues, which Andy sings with the band on their live shows, and Norman Blake fans will enjoy hearing the reso-version of Green Light On The Southern and Bony Crossing The Alps which closes the CD.
“I chose the title, ‘The Sound Of the Slide Guitar,’ because I heard so many people use that phrase. Like ‘I love the…..’ or ‘ ……….is a haunting sound.’ I had heard it used so much, I thought it would be an appropriate title. Seems to be pretty accurate in describing the record!
I used my mahogany Meredith guitar on a lot of the tracks and my my Koa Harper in D tuning for C-Bops. For a few of the softer tunes, I used my Hawaiian. There’s some bluesy stuff too, like Deep Elem, where I used an old style 2 square neck tri-cone.
I wanted to get some different sounds on there, as per the album title.”
Sound Of The Slide Guitar will be released on January 22 from Sugar Hill, but is available for download purchase now on Andy’s MySpace page, where you can hear audio for several tunes. It will appear in iTunes on the 22nd, and will be available for CD purchase from Andy’s site at that time as well.
UPDATE 1:55 p.m. - Andy will be a guest on Cindy Baucom’s Knee Deep In Bluegrass show this week, talking with Cindy about the new CD.
Both groups back up Crooked Still vocalist Aoife O’Donovan on Look On And Cry, and then jam out on a spirited version of Old Joe Clark. Ruby also interviews Aoife, with those segments interspersed throughout.
Since this performance was captured before recent personnel changes in both groups, you’ll see Chris Eldridge with the ‘Dusters and Rushad Eggleston with Crooked Still. If you’ve not witnessed Eggleston’s manic cello live, you’ll want to get a good look at him here.
We’ve caught word of a few other new projects expected at some point in 2008.
Kati Penn is working now on a new project with Blue Highway’s Rob Ickes producing. She is planning a mid-2008 release.
Starting soon on a new album is Revonda Roberts & Harvest Wind, hoping to follow-up the success they saw with their Ancient Days CD, which garnered a 2007 Dove Award Nomination.
Also tracking this fall/winter are The Infamous Stringdusters, with plans to turn over a final master to Sugar Hill early in ‘08. When I saw them earlier this year, there were a number of new songs in the show which they mentioned had been recently written by band members, all of which would be excellent candidates for inclusion on a new release.
No word yet on a release date for the second ‘Dusters CD.
2008 is shaping up as a powerful year for new bluegrass releases.
This evening, November 23, will find The Infamous Stringdusters on the stage of The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, making their debut performance on the venerable radio broadcast.
They will be featured in the 8:30 to 9:00 p.m. segment (EST), which airs in the Nashville market on WSM AM 650, and simulcast via online streaming at wsmonline.com.
For many fans of the band, this could be your first chance to sample the ‘Dusters with new guitarist, Andy Falco, who stepped in when founding member Chris Eldridge left to work with Chris Thile.
Also on tonight’s Opry broadcast is Ricky Skaggs, appearing in the 9:30 - 10:00 p.m. slot.
The Infamous Stringdusters were excited to announce late last week that they have been invited to perform on The Grand Ole Opry. Their debut Opry set is scheduled for November 23, the day after Thanksgiving.
Since that day tends to be one given over to family, frantic shopping and resolutions to start getting more exercise for those of us here in the US, perhaps Friday evening, 11/23, would be a fine time to tune in to WSM and enjoy these young bluegrass pioneers, fresh off their big night at the 2007 IBMA awards last month.
Dusters’ bassist Travis Book also had some news to share last week. His occasional, part-time band, The Colorado Playboys, have recorded a 6 track EP which is due for release on December 5. They also have an 11 day tour of Colorado set that runs from the 5th through the 16th of December.
Band members include John Frazier on mandolin, Jon Stickley on guitar, Andy Thorn on banjo and Book on bass.
You can hear audio tracks and find the tour dates on The Colorado Playboys’ MySpace page.
Earlier this evening John and I had the opportunity to attend the official screening of the 30 minute video Four Days Of Infamy. The video was produced by Craig Havighurst of String Theory Media and takes the viewer on the road with The Infamous Stringdusters.
The event was hosted by Sugar Hill Records and even though we’d seen the video here, I must admit there is just something about seeing a video on the big screen.
We’ve posted it before, but with the excitement rekindled, we decided to post it again for those of you who missed it the first time around. Just click the play button and join The Infamous Stringdusters on a 4 day Colorado tour, for Four Days Of Infamy.
While this site is built on the open source weblog system Wordpress, along with a number of third party plugins, it has been heavily modified and appended to suit our needs, including but not limited to the user interface, contact form, commenting system, user registration system, and a whole bunch of administration features behind the scenes.
The design, layout, polls, and everything else were developed and programmed by Branc
As we look forward to the June 10, 2008 release of The Infamous Stringdusters, the sophomore release from this multi-award winning band, we’re partnering with the band, Sugar Hill Records, and Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, to bring our readers some exciting content and giveaways.
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The winter 2008 issue of 
