Farley Daniel wrote in and reminded us about the Vassar Clements Holiday Band DVD release party on October 14th at the Melting Point in Athens, GA.

A couple of guests have been included in the lineup for the evening’s performance. Fiddle player David Blackmon, with Blueground Undergrass, will be joining the band as will muscian, author and radio show host (Grateful Dead Hour), David Gans.

An opening act is also on the line up for the evening.

‘Buzz’ Clifford, a wonderful jazz/pop pianist who was a member with the band, ‘Spiral Starecase’ and worked for a time with James Brown. Buzz’s father had been an arranger for Irving Berlin and a banjo player in his big band before moving south from NYC.

This DVD release party is intended to be a celebration to Vassar, and it will also support the continuing efforts to help with public school music programming and Nuci’s Space in Athens.

For more info please see the original post.

Alan Dalton wrote in recently to let us know about a DVD release of the last recorded performance of fiddle legend, Vassar Clements.

The recording took place in Athens, Georgia on December 18, 2004. The performance featured Clement’s Holiday Band; Mark Van Allen, Bobby Lee Rodgers, Ted Pecchio, Tyler Greenwell, Count M’Butu, David Blackmon, Carroll Clements, Alan Dalton and Joe Craven. Violinist and vocalist from Nashville, Ms. Andrea Zonn, made a special appearance and performed with the Holiday Band for a couple of tunes and an amazing ‘three-fiddle jam’ with Clements and Blackmon.

Before Clements passed in August 2005, he had expressed his wish to preserve this live performance on DVD.

Says Farley Daniel, producer and longtime friend of Clements’:

The December show recording was to add songs for a compilation CD we had been putting together to benefit Nuci’s Space. Everything fell into place after Vassar agreed to do it. At the last minute, I asked a friend to film it. Little did we realize then, the significance this show would have in the long run. Vassar was really pleased to help Nuci’s Space. After his tour of the facility with Linda Phillips, the founder, he told me, “This is wonderful what they’re doing here. They should have these all over the place!”

The film isn’t one of those high rolling, top notch tapes…we hadn’t planned on it. And it doesn’t matter. It was V-MAN’s last recording, last filmed performance, and this is what he wanted to do. Several times he said, “I love that little town [Athens]. Let’s get me back there.”

When asked about the nickname ‘V-MAN’, Daniel says,

That started off as an ‘inside joke’ with Vassar years ago. Something to do with super heroes. He became one to many. He certainly was one to me. His absence is sometimes very profound and his impact in music is may still be immeasurable.

A DVD release/tribute concert is scheduled for Saturday, October 14, 2006 at The Melting Point in Athens, Ga. The band performing at the concert is comprised of Joe Craven , The Codetalkers; Bobby Lee Rodgers, Ted Pecchio, Tyler Greenwell, pedal steel player Mark Van Allen, Ralph Roddenbery Acoustic Funk Trio & jazz pianist Buzz Clifford.

Commenting on the tribute concert Daniel adds,

It’s been a little trickier, getting these folks together again for the DVD release, but they have gone out of their way to arrange their schedules. We may have a few more guests to come sit in. We just have to wait and see how it unfolds.

When the audience at Randy Wood’s Concert Hall awaited the start of the Vassar Clements and Tony Rice concert back in December of 2004, they had every expectation of seeing a fabulous performance. Some may have known that the show was being recorded, and some others that it would be shot for a concert DVD release. Not many may have considered that, while all of those things were true, it would also come to pass that those would be among the very last live recordings that Vassar would make prior to his passing in August of ‘05.

Also performing with Tony and Vassar that night were Scott Vestal on banjo, Tony Williamson on mandolin, and Warren Amberson on bass and lead vocals. Vassar’s cousin Carol Clements also was featured as a vocalist on the program.

While the DVD release may be some months yet, the audio CD is now available. Entitled, Vassar Clements, Tony Rice and the Low Country All-Star Band, this new live disc was released by a company Randy Wood formed for this purpose, which he calls Flatt Mountain Records.

The 12 live tracks include a number of Vassar’s signature tunes, like Lonesome Fiddle Blues, Kissimee Kid and Billy In The Lowground plus Rice staples Salt Creek, Wayfaring Stranger and Toy Heart (with Carol singing lead). Scott Vestal’s impressive take on Earl Scrugg’s Groundspeed starts the CD, which also features the band’s version of some popular bluegrass classics like Dark Hollow, I Wonder Where You Are Tonight (both sung by Warren), and Bill Monroe’s Wheel Hoss, which closes the set.

This is one that fans of either Vassar Clements or Tony Rice will want to add to their collection, which will also surely be a welcome addition to any bluegrass lover’s library. The CD can be ordered online, but no audio samples are up at this point. We’ll keep an eye out and post back should they become available.

Randy hopes to service bluegrass radio as his time allows, but will surely send out CDs to radio hosts upon request.

Bluegrass fans “of a certain age” will recall the time in the 1970s when Jerry Garcia, guitarist with the then-underground rock band, The Grateful Dead, was making the rounds performing bluegrass as banjoist with a band called Old & In The Way. The group also included current and future legends David Grisman on mandolin and Vassar Clements on fiddle, plus former Bluegrass Boy and an emerging vocalist in his own right, Peter Rowan..

Long before the San Francisco acid rock scene that spawned The Dead, Garcia had been a serious student of bluegrass banjo and had known and performed with Grisman when they were younger. Dedicated deadheads know that Jerry was missing part of one finger of his right hand, and had developed a unique approach to banjo picking as a result.

Even now, many years after the band was last active, and Jerry Garcia’s death in 1995, Old & In The Way, and the one CD they recorded 30 years ago, is still credited with bringing new fans to bluegrass music.

We say all that in order to say this: Alan Dalton, a Florida banjo picker and instructor, has released a banjo songbook companion to the Old & In The Way CD from 1975, which includes lead sheets for each song, with guitar and banjo chords, plus banjo tab for most of Garcia’s breaks. Alan also includes a CD with the book, with him playing each of the banjo tabs, presumably at a slower speed.