I spoke to many International members at IBMA. With the exception of one person, they all reported having a favorable response to both Rhonda’s and Country Currents songs. No surprise there though since both were extremely well received by the audience at the Opry and Rhonda’s song having the longest standing ovation I can remember. Strange because the way they’re telling it now on the IBMA list, International members were dismayed, offended, hurt, etc. with no mention of the favorable opinion of the audience.
I have spoken to many folks, mostly every day Americans about this controversy both in and out of the bg world. All are pissed about what happened. The IBMA is thinking about dropping the National Anthem for next year’s Award Show so as not to offend the International members. I understand the concept and they apparently don’t get they’ll offend the majority of the bg audience. WHAT THE HECK ARE THEY THINKING?
I have never achieved fame for playing the dobro. But I shall never forget the first time I heard Josh Graves play.
In 1960 I was a nine year old kid who came in the house one saturday afternoon. About that time Josh started taking a break on a song. I don’t remember the song, but I will never forget the impression it had on me.
I have never enjoyed listening to anything as much. That sound caught my ear and would never ever leave me.
I knew on that day in 1960, that I would play the dobro someday. Someday came 16 years later in 1976.
I thank you Josh for giving me the most beautiful music, the most pleasure I could have ever received. I do want to send condolences to the family. From Josh Graves biggest fan.
It is a sad, sad day when the world of bluegrass feels that performing a patriotic set might offend someone and should not be allowed. This nation should be able to demonstrate its pride yet still have friends abroad. I’m a firm believer of respecting people for who they are and what they represent, but I’m getting a little tired of the notion that everyone has a freedom of speech and expression, except of course unless you’re Americans, then you expected to keep shut so you don’t offend anyone!
What’s next? Will my family bluegrass band have to stop playing bluegrass gospel because we might offend some atheist or a follower of a different religion?
This post is a contribution from Casey Henry. Casey is the daughter of banjo player and bluegrass entrepreneur, Murphy Henry, and an accomplished banjo player in her own right, as well as an experienced instructor. Currently Casey and her brother Chris are fronting a band called The Two-Stringers. She first posted this on The B, earlier this morning.
Yesterday at Madison Funeral Home a packed crowd gathered to say goodbye to Uncle Josh Graves, to honor his life, his music, and the tremendous impact he had on the lives of others. Many beautiful arrangements of flowers surrounded the casket, including white and yellow roses from Alison Krauss. Red roses adorned the coffin. I know a couple of Josh’s sons, so I said hello to them and conveyed my condolances. Brian mentioned he needs to come back to the dentist office where I work, and Josh Jr. said he still intends to get me to play some gigs with him, which he initially called me about at least a year ago–unfailingly good natured and polite even in their hour of grief.
Eddie Stubbs delivered the eulogy, giving a run-down of Josh’s life and career. His first job was with Esco Hankins. He married his wife Evelyn when he was 17 and she was 15. 61 years of marriage. We gave her a round of applause for that. There were so many stories about Josh. He wrote some songs for Flatt and Scruggs, some of which had the good fortune to be on the B side of hits. Josh commented “My side sold just as many as the A side.” Eddie asked him how he was doing after he lost his legs. Eddie “cleaned up” Josh’s answer: “I ain’t kickin’ no posteriors.”
Jerry Douglas, who is on tour on the west coast, flew in for the visitation on Monday. He had to fly back to play in San Diego Tuesday but left a letter which Eddie read. He talked about when he was learning, when all he thought about was how to make the sounds he heard coming out of the Dobro on records, that Josh was his “invisible friend,” always with him, always in his head throughout the day, in school or wherever. One of the most important events in his life occurred when he met Josh for the first time at the festival campsite of some friends. Josh gave him something more important than a handshake or a pick or a string clipping. He asked young Jerry to sit down and play a tune with him. He handed Jerry his Dobro and he played Jerry’s. He made time for this skinny kid who wanted to learn to play. And that has stayed with him every since.
Someone else who Josh called “Kid” is Marty Stuart. Marty told about how when the Flatt and Scruggs TV show came on in Phildelphia, Mississippi, when he was growing up, the air would lift. In a town torn apart by racial tension and violence it was like a respite, a bright spot that left a hole each week when it ended. Marty called that band “A divinely called band made up of divinely called men.” He played a moving, bluesy version of “Flatt Lonesome”, accompanied by Ricky Skaggs on guitar. When he played the first few notes he stopped and said to us “I’m out of tune” and proceeded to tune. He turned toward Josh, lying in his coffin at the front of the room and said, “I know I’m out of tune.”
Music played an important part of the service. Tim Graves started the program with “What a Friend” on the Dobro. Dean Osborne’s band sang “Sweet Hour of Prayer.” The Whites, with Ricky Skaggs, sang a song Josh wrote, “Come Walk With Me” and later sang “Farther Along.” Before the service they played the instrumentals Josh recorded with Flatt and Scruggs (so loud the little funeral home speakers were kind of distorting) and the postlude was Josh’s recording of “Flatt Lonesome”.
Josh was buried in Hendersonville but I couldn’t go to the graveside service because I had to come back and teach banjo in the afternoon. In attendance were Gary and Randy Scruggs, Carol Lee, Tim O’Brien, Rob Ickes, Randy Kohrs, Phil Ledbetter, Kim Gardner, everyone from the IBMA office, David Crow, Jill Douglas, Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, Ronnie McCoury, Carl Jackson, Curley Seckler, Mac Wiseman, Jesse McReynolds, Mike Bub, Roland White, Eddie and Martha Adcock, Kenny Baker, Raymond Huffmaster, Toshio Watanabe, Saab Inoue, Lance LeRoy, Laura Cash and others I’m sure I missed. It was a fitting service for someone who was a hero, personally and musically, to thousands of people throughout his life.
If you’re going to be in southern New England this weekend, your presence is requested at a big event called BIG SUNDAY BLUEGRASS. There, you’ll get to hear 3 terrific bands: Wildfire, Pine Mountain Railroad, and the Windy Creek Bluegrass Band. This event will be held at the East Hartford Community Cultural Center, 50 Chapman Place, East Hartford, CT, and will begin at 1PM. Show sponsors include the Podunk Bluegrass Music Committee, the Rhode Island Bluegrass Music Association, and the Bluegrass Cafe (which airs every Sunday from 4-7PM on 91.7 WHUS, Storrs, CT, and in 2007, will celebrate 25 years of Bluegrass programming at WHUS).
It was great seeing you guys at IBMA. As usual, it was I‘ve Been Mostly Awake! Thanks for doing such a great job posting the pictures, I am really please with how they came out. This is the first time I have looked at most of them since I have been mostly sleeping since my return home to Murfreesboro. I love the new format too, it’s really easy to view the larger versions of the photos. Thanks for doing such a great job at IBMA! It was a blast as usual! TNT out.
After a week that has been non-stop activity, the Grascals topped off this most memorable week with a trip to the Grand Ole Opry and an appearance at Fan Fest.
The whole tv portion was devoted to bluegrass tonight and it was so electric backstage, you could hear the buzzin’ in the hallways. Had a bomb gone off in the Makeup Room before the show, three of the hottest acts in bluegrass would’ve been wiped out.
Sitting in one makeup chair was Rhonda Vincent, resplendent in her red gown and red boots that she got in New York City; in another chair the Cherryholmes Sisters were getting curled and flat ironed; in another chair, The Grascals were getting coiffed and make-upped while Daddy Jere Cherryholmes told a tale of getting pulled over by the cops while traveling this last week. Seems some Boys in Blue were a mite suspicious of a bus hauling musicians with a bearded leader, following Willie Nelson’s unfortunate run-in with the law a week or so ago.
There may be some competition between all the various groups, but, at the same time, there is much camaraderie and brother/sisterhood between the groups. All are after a common purpose and that’s making great bluegrass music and taking it to the farthest ends of the earth.
Ricky Skaggs was the Host With The Most on the Opry. In case you missed the live Opry performance on GAC, it will run a number of times through the week. You can see the schedule here.
Another memorable performance on the first show of the Opry tonight featured The Whites, with sister Rosie White Franklin singing lead on “A Violet and a Rose” with sisters Sharon and Cheryl singing harmony. Breathtaking. Course, those girls are probably my favorite singers ever…and three of my favorite people ever.
In between Opry shows, the Grascals hopped in their vehicles and went back downtown for their appearance at Fan Fest.
One would think all those IBMA attendees would be wearing out after a week of pickin’, listening, visitin’…not hardly. I was totally mesmerized by a group of young pickers that appeared to be about the age of a couple kids at my house (13 and 14). In fact, I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of teenagers running around the Convention Center with instruments. Whoever these kids were having the impromptu jam session on the bottom floor, they were something else. Even Ken Irwin was sitting down listening to them. Nobody needs to worry about the future of Bluegrass.
Speaking of Bluegrass Kids, Ryan Holladay has certainly had a growth spurt this last year. Neither Terry Eldredge or I recognized him at first.
I’ve never seen so many dobros in one place as just about every dobro player you could name was tuning up to do a tribute to Uncle Josh Graves, who passed away earlier today. Charlie Cushman brought up an interesting point that how ironic that Josh had died on Marty Stuart’s birthday? Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder also paid tribute to Josh on the Opry with their rendition of “Foggy Mountain Rock.”
After the Grascals did their set at Fan Fest, they spent a little time at their table greeting people, then it was back over to Briley Parkway for their second show on the Opry. They appeared immediately behind Bobby Osborne and the Rocky Top Express.
The Cherryholmes and Grascals were discussing how busy this week has been back in the dressing room. Both groups will only get a couple days rest before it’s back out again Wednesday for the Cherryholmes and Friday for the Grascals. I’m sure Rhonda’s week will be busy as usual.
We finally got in the car to head home to Hendersonville. We turned the radio on to the Ernest Tubb Midnite Jamboree and there was Rhonda and the Rage, hosting. That bunch sounded as sparkly and sharp. They are some kinda pros. I bet they’ll be glad to get in their beds tonight though.
It was about 4:30 am on Thursday night after the awards show. I was getting tired and about to pack it in for the night but decided with a few friends to go cruising the hotel one last time for the night. I knew that Noam Pikelny, Danny Barnes, and Casey Driessen had been jamming on the 20th floor at the end of the hallway with some guys because I saw part of that jam. Since I was with Tony Watt (who shares a house with Noam in Nashville), we decided to go back to the 20th floor to search out Noam. Well, that session was done and there was nobody around. So we started down the floors searching.
We came upon the Grey Fox suite and heard some music. Clearly, adult beverages had been consumed and these few folks were having a good time. I saw Jimmy Rollins from South Carolina (a long time friend of mine since he grew up in Maryland) playing banjo with Danny Paisley playing guitar. Joe Zauner, a banjo player from Maryland, was also playing guitar and Mary Burdette was playing bass.
Jimmy was kind of sitting on the opposite side of the room from Danny. Jimmy got up and said "I want to come over here and sing some tenor." If I can’t play banjo in a jam session, I sure like to sing baritone. So I got to sing baritone in the trios on some bluegrass chestnuts like "I Hope You’ve Learned," "When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again," and some other classics. On the second song (Blue Moon Turns to Gold) when it came to the end of the second line and the baritone hits the sweet note on the third, Danny looked up at me and smiled and nodded. What a great moment. It was after 5:00 when Danny decided to take a smoke break, so I headed off to bed. Another moment for the highlights of the 2006 IBMA week.
I was cruising around the Renaissance Hotel about 2:00 in the morning on Wednesday night looking for something cool. Somebody introduced me to Mike Bucayu outside of the conference room on the second floor where Mountain Home records was showcasing their artists. Mike’s wife came out of the room and told him that Michael Cleveland was playing with the Kruger Brothers in the conference room. Having sat in a suite several years ago in Louisville for many hours witnessing a similar event, I knew this would be a hot one.
I walked in the room and the music was on fire. The setting was great with a nice lighted stage and a good sound system. They were jamming on some tune that I did not recognize, but Michael and Jens were trading breaks back and forth for about ten minutes. Mike Bucayu had said to me "Jens Kruger is the only person that I have seen that can make Michael sweat." What an apt description! The breaks that these two traded were incredible. Musical ideas were put out there which pushed the limits of credibility and each successive break seemed more impressive than the last. After this song finally ended, they went into a more laid back blues type of number with vocals. By the end, Jens had the audience singing along on the choruses. Somewhere in there they wore out the Cherokee Shuffle and I remember them ending with an astounding version of Sally Goodin. Not to be overlooked were the incredible guitar breaks by Uwe. It is truly amazing how fast and clean these guys can play. They really were "wearing it out."
Some high profile players, including Noam Pikelny, were in the audience. I got the impression that they were as amazed as I was. The showcases were supposed to end at about 2:00, but this one went on until more like 3:30. Yup, this was one for the highlights.
Now that another awards show has come and gone why not head out of the hotel/convention center for an evening of great Irish food and LIVE BLUEGRASS music. Mulligan’s Pub and Restaurant at 117 2nd Ave N (just 3 blocks from the convention center) has dedicated this weekend to Bluegrass Music. This is the first time in the 19 year history of Mulligan’s that this has happened and it’s believed that this will become a yearly tradition so long as the IBMA Convention remains here in Nashville.
Jimmy Bowen & Santa Fe are your host band for the weekend with several very special guests dropping by to perform as well. Tonight (Friday) finds JB&SF sharing the performance schedule with Randy Waller as well as Honi Deaton and Dream. Saturday finds JB&SF along with Eddie & Martha Adcock, Serge Bernard and Janet McGarry, and Avery County.
There’s never a cover charge at Mulligan’s and the food is wonderful so come and join us as Bluegrass invade Ireland in Nashville!
