Whisperin’ Bill Anderson may not be among the first names which come to mind when you start talking bluegrass. His success came as a country singer and songwriter, and he has managed to thrive as a songsmith in the modern era of mainstream country music when many of his 1960s contemporaries can’t get a meeting on Music Row.

Earlier this year, Bill released a bluegrass recording, Whisperin’ Bluegrass, with 8 of the 16 tracks being Anderson originals. The instrumentation is bluegrass all the way, and the material and arrangements show how closely modern bluegrass and old school country music are related.

On Monday, The Post Star newspaper in Glens Falls, NY ran a lengthy interview with Bill which covers a wide range of topics. He offers a good bit of commentary on where the music business is headed, and how he has stayed viable as the music market has changed.

Post Star writer Doug Gruse also brought up Anderson’s bluegrass CD, which prompted this exchange:

This year he released ‘Whisperin’ Bluegrass,’ a CD and DVD featuring tracks with Vince Gill, Dolly Parton, Jon Randall, Willie Nelson and Jan Howard. Anderson is glad to see the recent interest by younger generations in the bluegrass tradition.

“A lot of these young kids are learning to play guitars and mandolins. They’re bringing a whole new interest to the genre,” he said. “Mainstream country music has drifted pretty far from the shore, and bluegrass music is somewhat of an alternative.”

For Anderson, who was born in Columbia, S.C., and spent his youth in Atlanta, the msuci has always been a part of his life.

“When I grew up, the music wasn’t even called bluegrass. It was called hillbilly music then,” he said.

The new recording is a way for Anderson and his Nashville friends to reconnect with their roots.

“For me to go back and do a bluegrass album, it’s going back to where I started,” he said.

You can read the entire article online, and find audio samples from Whisperin’ Bluegrass on Anderson’s web site.

This past week in Nashville a number of bluegrass and country acts came together to participate in the taping of the next Gaither Homecoming DVD. This time around it’s country and bluegrass gospel music throughout.

Of course, all the performances are centered on the common theme of faith that runs through both the country and bluegrass genres, creating the overlap into the gospel world inhabited by Gaither.

From the seasoned hall-of-famers and pioneers to the young up-and-comers, most every singer in attendance learned to sing in church, and it is those enduring truths to which they keep coming back.

Here’s the list of artists who were present for the taping.

Vince Gill, George Jones, Marty Stuart, Ralph Stanley, Dailey & Vincent, Jimmy Fortune, Buddy Greene, Jason Crabb, The Isaacs, Gordon Mote, Doyle Lawson & QuicksilverRhonda Vincent, The Booth Brothers, Cherryholmes, Jeff and Sheri Easter, Larry Sparks and The Lonesome Ramblers, The Grascals, Lisa Daggs, Ernie Haase & Signature Sound, Ben Speer, The Collingsworth Family, and The Gaither Vocal Band.

That’s quite a lineup and should be a great product for those looking to get their hands on some bluegrass gospel music in DVD form.

The Country-Bluegrass Homecoming is scheduled for release on both VHS and DVD sometime in mid to late 2008. In the meantime, the Gaither website was just updated to include a photo gallery of images taken both out front, backstage, and behind the scenes during the taping. A quick perusal revealed pictures of The Grascals, Dailey & Vincent, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Cherryholmes, Vince Gill, Ralph Stanley, and many more.

Vince Gill has announced the addition of The Del McCoury Band to an 18 date summer tour swing, in continuing support of his recent 4 disk mega-release, These Days. Gill’s wife Amy Grant will also be featured on this tour, which will run from July 14 through September 11.

From today’s press release:

“We’re calling this ‘Vince Gill: The Friends and Family Tour, Featuring Amy Grant and the Del McCoury Band,’” Gill announces. “I know that’s a real mouthful. But, believe me, it’s going to be a real earful, too. We aim to dazzle.”

“I always enjoy working with Vince,” says Grant, the gospel and pop star who’s also Gill’s wife. “It’s especially exciting to be on the road with him on the heels of his great project, These Days. Between Del and his band, the Sapphire Blue Horn Section and all the other musicians on stage, this will be a great spectrum of music.”

McCoury agrees. “Vince is like one of the boys,” he says, “great hair, great singer and a pretty good picker. Bluegrass has always been part of his life and it shows on stage.”

Del and the boys were involved in the recording of four tracks on These Days, and will presumably join Vince for a portion of his show, in addition to performing their own show as a group.

Find the tour dates on the Vince Gill site.

The 49th annual Grammy Awards were presented last night, and a few of our own were honored with awards.

The biggest bluegrass award of the night was given to Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder who took home the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album, for their most recent work, Instrumentals. I believe this is the 12th Grammy win for Skaggs and the 6th for the band. Congratulations guys!

Best Country Instrumental Performance was handed to Bryan Sutton and Doc Watson for their duet rendition of the tune Whiskey Before Breakfast, from Bryan’s latest CD, Not Too Far From The Tree.

Best Contemporary Jazz Album was awarded to Bela Fleck & The Flecktones for the CD The Hidden Land.

Even though it’s not strictly bluegrass, we’ll claim Vince Gill as one of our own and acknowledge his win for Best Male Country Vocal Performance for his song The Reason Why.

Several of my favorites won in non-bluegrass categories as well, especially in the classical genre. The Grammy website has the complete list of nominees and winners posted so you can check to see if your favorites won.

The Del McCoury Band has posted four new video clips on their MySpace page. They are taken from the second All Star Bluegrass Celebration concert at The Grand Ole Opry in April 2003, aired on PBS, and available on DVD for PBS pledge drive donors when the program was broadcast.

The clips show Del and the band performing with Vince Gill and the late Vassar Clements. Songs include My Walkin’ Shoes Don’t Fit Me Anymore (with Vince), Orange Blossom Special and Lonesome Fiddle Blues (with Vassar) and My Love Will Not Change.

Find them all by clicking on the My Videos link on Del’s MySpace page.

The Alison Krauss/Vince Gill pairing on CMT’s Cross Country which we mentioned last month is scheduled to debut on Friday (10/27) at 10:00 p.m. (ET/PT).

The concept behind Cross Country is to have two popular artists performing together on stage, with each singing songs from the other’s catalog of hits. This show was taped in Nashville on September 23, and a music video version of their collaboration on Krauss’ The Lucky One can be viewed on the CMT web site. It has been showing on CMT Top 20 Countdown as well this week.

During the program, you’ll see Alison doing Vince’s What Cowgirls Do and Whenever You Come Around, and Vince singing Alison’s Maybe and Blue Trail Of Sorrow.

In addition to a review of their past hits, the two singers will combine on a song from Gill’s newest release, The Reason Why, the title track from The Groovy Record in his 4 CD box set of all new material, These Days. Alison joins Vince for this track on the CD as well.

You can hear audio samples from all 43 tracks on the Vince Gill web site.

The Gill/Krauss episode of Cross Country will be shown again later on Friday, in the wee hours of Saturday morning, at least by eastern US clocks. It is scheduled to air on Saturday (10/28) at 1:00 and 2:30 a.m., and then again at 11:00 p.m. On Sunday (10/29), you can catch them at 4:00 p.m.

There are several more airings set for the following week, with the full show schedule available at CMT.com.

For your Sunday reading pleasure I’ve gathered up a couple links to articles that might be of interest. Here they are in no particular order.

Vince Gill - The Boston Globe has a nice 2 page story about Vince Gill’s new 4 disc set that includes one disc of accoustic and bluegrass music.

The Crooked Trail - The News & Observer has a story about Virginia’s Crooked Trail. Not a lot of bluegrass content, but since the trail does feature many bluegrass stopping points I thought it might be of interest.

Bluegrass in Greece - This is a new blog run by flatpicker Yiannis Gougourelas. He’s a good player, and writes very well. Oh, it is in english by the way.

CMT’s Cross Country program has as its premise the pairing of two celebrated country artists, each performing the other’s songs with the original artist providing support. The next episode will involve two singers with bluegrass roots, Alison Krauss and Vince Gill.

They taped the show last Saturday, with both bands in tow, and it is scheduled for broadcast on CMT October 27 at 9:00 p.m.

Alison offered her take onVince’s Whenever You Come Around and Tryin’ to Get Over You, and Vince sang Alison’s The Lucky One and So Long, So Wrong.

We posted earlier this month with news that Vince Gill’s upcoming tour would be including some bluegrass in the show. CMT.com has a news feature posted yesterday which expands on this story a bit.

We had mentioned in that earlier post that Gill was set to release a mighty ambitious project, a box set which will include four CDs (43 tracks), all of which are new recordings of songs which he had written or co-written. CMT explains that each of the four disks is themed, and one is entitled Little Brother - The Acoustic Record.

The tour, starting 10/16 in New York, will be segmented into four “acts,” matching the four themed CDs in the box set release, ensuring that multi-instrumentalist Charlie Cushman, who has been booked for the tour, will have his hands full on stage. Bluegrasser Jeff White, a regular member of Gill’s band, will be on guitar for this tour, which will also include fiddler Deanie Richardson, who has been touring with Dale Ann Bradley this season.

Read the story in full on CMT.com.

If you follow the music industry or country music news, you may have noted that country music superstar Vince Gill has some mighty ambitious plans for his next CD, These Days. It’s a four CD set to be released on October 17, but not as a greatest hits or career-wide retrospective. This multi-disk project contains 43 new tracks, each of them written or co-written by Gill himself. We were impressed when Tim O’Brien released two CDs simultaneously last year, but this really wins the prize!

Long time bluegrass fans know that Vince got his start playing bluegrass, including stints with Bluegrass Alliance, Boone Creek, and Byron Berline’s Sundance before moving towards country rock as a member of Pure Prarie League. The new project indicates that the material will be a mix of styles, with bluegrass included. The Del McCoury Band are listed as guest performers, and with Vince’s own demonstrated ability as a picker and singer, one imagines that the bluegrass that’s featured will be solid stuff.

Gill recently announced a tour in support of the CD, and the press release also mentioned that bluegrass music would be featured on the show. When we learned last week that Nashville banjo man Charlie Cushman had been hired for the tour, there was no doubt that it was true.

The tour dates can be found on the Vince Gill website.