Late last month, the city of Sparta, TN honored another of their hometown heroes during their annual Lester Flatt Celebration on May 23.

Sparta likes to call itself Bluegrass USA, being as they raised up a number of music legends including Lester Flatt and Benny Martin, both hometown boys, who did as much to shape the early bluegrass sound as any others. During this year’s event, Sparta native Blake Williams was also honored, being inducted into the city’s Bluegrass Hall Of Fame, and seeing his name listed on the official Welcome To Sparta road sign.

In addition to being born in Sparta, Williams has served as banjo player with both Lester Flatt & The Nashville Grass and Bill Monroe & The Blue Grass Boys. He works now as a member of Williams & Clark Expedition.

Ever the comic, Blake rated this award highly as he accepted an official letter of induction.

“I am humbled and extremely happy about such a wonderful tribute to Lester and Benny and being included among these men is truly an honor that I never expected. I have only won one other thing in my life and that was a fruitcake at a banjo contest in Clarkrange, Tennessee when I was 13. When I got it home, it had a worm in it. This is much better!”

You can find out more about Sparta and their Lester Flatt Celebration online.

This column, containing brief reviews of recent CD releases by Richard Thompson, is published in the current (Spring 2009) edition of British Bluegrass News. As it is a lengthy piece, we will break it into two parts, and run the rest next Sunday.

A series of rambles about CDs by bluegrassmercury…

A big bundle of CDs has landed on my desk in the recent past. They include those by Danny Paisley, the Infamous Stringdusters, Williams & Clark Expedition, Kenny & Amanda Smith Band, Daughters Of Bluegrass, High Windy, Gold Heart, Cherryholmes, Earl Scruggs, The Mashville Brigade, Crowe Brothers, Ralph Stanley II, Longview, Big Country Bluegrass.

The Infamous Stringdusters - Travis Book (bass, vocals), Jesse Cobb (mandolin), Andy Falco (guitar), Jeremy Garrett (fiddle, vocals), Andy Hall (dobro, vocals) and Chris Pandolphi (banjo) – are a bunch of young honchos who have just released their second album. This self-titled collection (Sugar Hill 4043) is growing on me. Book’s soulful vocals shine on Won‚Äòt Be Coming Back, the melodic Bound For Tennessee and the bluesy Get It While You Can. Garrett is a fine vocalist as well, as demonstrated on Three Days In July (historians, think Gettysburg, 1863), I Wonder and You Can‚Äòt Handle The Truth. There’s three enjoyable instrumentals in Glass Elevator by Pandolphi, Golden Ticket by Cobb and Black Rock by Hall, keeping interest going until the end. Overall the sextet produces a warm, full sound with fiddle and Dobro ¬Æ prominent, rather than just having one or other, as a lot of groups do.

There aren’t any surprises on Danny Paisley’s The Room Over Mine (Rounder 0589); he continues where he and his father left off. The 13-tack collection epitomizes the hard-driving Galax area mountain-style of bluegrass, with fiddle kick-offs and driving banjo ringing loud and clear. There‚Äòs a couple of outstanding new ‚Äòold’ songs in Chris Stuart’s opener, Don’t Throw Mamma’s Flowers Away and Drowning Sailor, both of which suit Paisley to a ‚ÄòT’. Most of the rest are bluegrass versions of songs from the classic country catalogue, with a couple from his dad’s repertoire, now re-done. In the former category are The Convict And The Rose, written by Betty Chapin and Robert A. King and recorded by Marty Robbins and Charlie Moore among others, I Thought I Heard You Calling My Name, done in a honk-tonk style with walking bass and I’m Coming Back But I Don’t Know When, a song Danny first heard done by Charlie Monroe.

In the second group are At the End of a Long Lonely Day, now done in different way and with different lyrics and A Memory of You, previously recorded by Jim and Jesse. Donnie Eldreth Jr does a great job having learned how to follow Danny’s lead singing and does likewise when he is singing lead as on Another Bridge to Burn, a song from Ray Price’s repertoire. Those Paisleys and the Lundy brothers know how to do it and they do it exceptionally well. (more…)

Brandon Rickman, guitarist and vocalist with Lonesome River Band is interviewed in the current (March/April ‘09) issue of Bluegrass Music Profiles.

The interview covers a lot of ground in the life of this young bluegrass singer and songwriter. Brandon talks about his reasons for leaving the band, why he returned, and what he was up to in the interim.

"…everything happens for a reason and when I came back I had grown a lot as a writer, as a singer, as a producer – everything. When we went in the studio (for the recording of No Turning Back) this was the first time that I can say that I jumped in there and was as big a part of it and as involved as you could possibly be."

The new issue also has an interview with Williams & Clark Expedition’s Kimberly and Blake Williams, a DJ Profile with Bill Hensley, a look at the bluegrass side of Charlie Daniels, an interview with Canadian bluegrass legend Eddy Poirier, and a remembrance of Butch Baldassari.

Regular features include Shop Talk with Alan Munde, Bluegrass Favorites with Rickey Wasson and Darren Beachley, a Promoter Profile on C.R. Wilson, and a Songwriter Profile on Stan Keach.

More information on BMP can be found online.

Later this afternoon, XM satellite Radio’s Bluegrass Junction will offer a track-by-track play through of the new release from Williams & Clark Expedition, Brand New Set Of Blues.

The show, which launches at 3:00 p.m. (EDT) on July 30, will feature the band members in studio with host Kyle Cantrell, discussing the various tracks as you hear them played in sequence.

The band consists of Blake Williams on banjo, Bobby Clark on mandolin, Wayne Southwards on lead vocals and guitar, and and Kimberly Williams on bass and lead vocals.

Catch the Williams & Clark show over this next during one of these scheduled broadcasts (all times eastern):

• July 30 – 3:00 p.m.
• August 2 – 4:00 p.m.
• August 5 – 7:00 a.m.
• August 7 – 6:00 p.m.

Find Bluegrass Junction at XM 14.