Tim O’Brien is hitting the radio tour this week, promoting his new CD, Chameleon, just out on the Proper American label.

He appeared this past Monday on The Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour (video available online) and will be the guest on today’s (3/29) edition of Blue Plate Special on WDVX-FM in Knoxville, TN.

The new CD has Tim on his own in the studio, accompanying himself on a variety of stringed instruments (banjo, bouzouki, fiddle, guitar, mandolin) on 16 of his new compositions. Audio samples are available on Tim’s web site.

If you would like to catch Tim’s show on WDVX later today, tune in to 89.9 FM in and around Knoxville, or listen live online at WDVX.com at 1:00 p.m. (EDT).

The Carter Brothers (Danny and Tim) brought their eclectic bluegrass-fusion sound to The Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour this week. They appeared this past Monday (3/3) along with Irish folksinger Tommy Sands, and the video for the full program is available on the Woodsongs web site.

The Carters grew up in North Carolina, born into folk music royalty as relatives of the acclaimed Carter Family of Virginia. They have been touring together for more than 20 years, blending bluegrass and electric instruments into their own signature style and have developed a sizeable following in Europe as well as the US and Canada.

They now reside in Nashville where Tim also works as a session player and producer/engineer, and Danny focuses on songwriting.

Video is now available online for Rhonda Vincent & The Rage’s recent appearance on the Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour. The hour-long show, hosted by Michael Jonathan, features Rhonda as the sole guest performing music from her new CD, Good Thing Going, and talking about her life and music.

She performs Who’s Crying Baby, Muleskinner Blues, All American Bluegrass Girl, Good Thing Going, Bluegrass Saturday Night and several others including Wow Baby, the title track from fiddler Hunter Berry’s solo project.

Her telling of how the question “Is she country? Is she bluegrass” has framed her career - which runs as a sub-theme throughout the discussion portions of the show - provides insight into both Rhonda’s perspective on the music business, and the paradoxical signals that business can send to its consumers at times.

Watch the full video online on the Woodsongs site.

The appearance by Larry Keel & Natural Bridge on WoodSongs Old Time Radio Hour from this past Monday - which Brance had mentioned earlier - can now be viewed as an online video.

They perform several songs - including some new ones not yet released on CD -  and chat briefly with Woodsongs host Michael Jonathan.

Folk duo Blue House also perform on this show.

Watch the full program on the Woodsongs web site.

Acoustic guitar Maharishi Larry Keel, along with his band Natural Bridge, will be making an appearance on WoodSongs Old Time Radio Hour on Monday, November 12, 2007.

If you’ve ever seen Keel and band in concert you know what kind of energy you’re in store for. If you haven’t seem them live, you should make a point of catching this show. It’s coming to a radio and computer near you.

The show is broadcast from The Kentucky Theatre in Lexington, KY. The show starts at 6:45 PM EST, and is broadcast to 900,000 listeners on over 400 radio stations, including a number of international stations, and now XM Radio Channel 15.

In addition to the radio broadcast, the show can also be heard, and seen, online. The WoodSongs Webcast is a multi-camera weekly broadcast made available online as a streaming cybercast, and also as a downloadable podcast. Join the fun at 7 PM to watch the 60 minute show live as it happens, then stay tuned at 8:05 PM for the encore performance. The encore is not broadcast on radio due to time restraints.

The webcast happens live and the show is made available as a podcast soon after the show date. Visit this page for more information about the WoodSongs Podcast.

If you’d like to be part of the studio audience, the ticket cost is $10. More information is available here.

There was an overseas invasion on Michael Jonathon’s Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour on October 1. Both Boys of the Lough from Ireland and Scotland, and Italy’s Red Wine were featured on a recent edition of the program, and the video is now available online.

Boys of the Lough may be the most widely recognized and celebrated practitioners of their native Celtic music, while Red Wine is among the leading exemplars of bluegrass music in Europe.

Red Wine spent a week or so in the US this month, performing at the IBMA convention in Nashville as well as San Francisco’s famed Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in addition to their stop in Lexington, KY for the Woodsongs taping.

In the video from the show, Red Wine performs a number of songs, and talks with host Michael Jonathan about their discovery of bluegrass music and how much they enjoy getting to tour in the US and perform on shows with top American bands which, in the words of mandolinist Martini Coppo, is like “walking through our record collection.”

Members of Red Wine are Silvio Ferretti on banjo, Luca Bartolini on guitar, Stefano Cavallo on bass and Coppo on mandolin.

Watch the full video online.

Cadillac Sky’s recent performance on the WoodSongs Old Time Radio Hour is now available online. WoodSongs is hosted weekly by folksinger Michael Jonathon, and is carried by more than 450 radio stations worldwide.

You can choose to watch streaming video of the program, or listen to streaming audio in either a high or low fidelity Windows Media stream.

Gretchen Peters also appears on this show.

Cadillac Sky is among the nominees for the 2007 IBMA Emerging Artist of the Year Award, so this is a great chance to see them perform live when contemplating a vote. Other nominees in their category are Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper featuring Audie Blaylock, The Infamous Stringdusters, Bradley Walker and Williams & Clark Expedition.

You can see the full list of ‘07 IBMA Nominees here on The Bluegrass Blog, with links to the various nominees’ web sites and audio files.

Brance posted last month about Kentucky House Bill 71, which made bluegrass the official music of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. He also mentioned that a ceremonial signing of the bill would occur during the live taping of Michael Johnathon’s Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour, with KY Governor Ernie Fletcher on hand with his sharpie.

The video of that show is now available for viewing online at the Woodsongs site. The show features performances by Cherryholmes, teen-aged grassers Kentucky Sassafras, and Kentucky bluegrass legend JD Crowe.

Governor Fletcher shows his bluegrass street cred by mentioning how he would go to the Holiday Inn in Lexington while he was in college to catch JD Crowe perform.

Visit the Woodsongs site to watch the video and see/hear songs from Cherryholmes new CD, Cherryholmes II: Black & White, tunes by Kentucky Sassafras and a banjo mandolin duet featuring Scott Napier on mandolin, and both Cia Cherryholmes and JD Crowe on banjo.

The state of Kentucky has a long history of association with bluegrass music, but this coming Monday, June 25, 2007, it will become official.

The state’s Governor, Ernie Fletcher, will be making a special appearance, along with banjo legend J.D. Crowe and IBMA Executive Director Dan Hays, for the signing of House Bill 71. The bill will make bluegrass music the offical music of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

The event will be marked by the performance of some bluegrass music by the bands Kentucky Sassafras and Cherryholmes. Most of you are probably familiar with 2005 IBMA Entertainer of Year, Cherryholmes, but you may not be so familiar with Kentucky Sassafras. This is a young band of teenage pickers from the Boston, KY area.

Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour will be on hand to film the proceedings. The Woodsongs Webcast due to air that evening from 6:55-8:15pm EST will feature performances from both bands as well as J.D. Crowe and The New South.

While all but one state have official state songs, as best I can tell Kentucky will be the first state to adopt an official state music. It’s quite an honor for bluegrass music to have that distinction.

Don Rigsby & Midnight Call were recent guests on Michael Jonathan’s Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour, and the video of that show is now available online.

In addition performing several selections from his latest CD, Hillbilly Heartache, Don talks with Michael at length about his work with The Kentucky Center for Traditional Music, and his experiences growing up in Eastern Kentucky. KCTM is part of Morehead State University in Morehead, KY, and was established to document and preserve the musical traditions of eastern Kentucky.

Folk duo Bethany & Rufus also appear on the show.

Brad Davis is featured in the second half of a recent broadcast of Michael Jonathan’s Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour. He was supported on the show by Flatpicking Guitar Magazine editor/publisher Dan Miller on bass, and brother, champion-picker Greg Davis on banjo.

They perform a number of songs from his most recent CD, This World Ain’t No Child, which also features contributions from such stellar artists as Earl Scruggs, Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Rob Ickes - and Billy Bob Thornton.

You can watch the video of Brad’s appearance as a Windows Media file. Rounder artist Vienna Tang also performs.

The video is now up of the recent appearance by Special Consensus on Michael Jonathan’s Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour. Special C shared the bill with folk/country singer Elizabeth Cook, and performed songs from their upcoming Pinecastle CD, The Trail Of Aching Hearts, due for a May 15th release.

You can see the video from this show as a Windows Media Video.

Woodsongs airs every week on dozens of public and community radio stations all over the world, on XM Satellite Radio’s The Village, and via live video streaming from the show’s web site. Each episode is also maintained in their online archive, where you can watch the video, listen to the audio, or download the MP3 for each broadcast. Other recent shows that may be of interest to Bluegrass Blog readers include:

The Kruger Brothers and The Chocolate Drops
The Infamous Stringdusters and Martha Scanlan
Tony Joe White and Dale Ann Bradley
J.D. Crowe & New South
Chris Thile & How To Grow A Band
The John Cowan Band and E Muzeki
Tony Trischka and Crooked Still
Cindy Bullens and Uncle Earl