John Curtis Goad, Author at Bluegrass Today

Houston Caldwell Music Scholarship

On April 30, 2010, a young musician named Houston Caldwell, of Galax, VA, passed away in a motorcycle accident. Houston was a great advocate for traditional music, and was a skilled banjo and guitar player. Since that time, a festival event has been established in Houston’s honor. In fact, the Blue Ridge Travel Association of Virginia (BRTA) recently named HoustonFest 2011 as the “Best New Event of the Year,” and a presentation was made during a Tourism Awards Ceremony at the BRTA’s Annual Conference.

In a recent press release, HoustonFest 2012 has announced the creation of a Houston Caldwell Music Scholarship to further their “mission is to provide inspiration and avenues for regional youth to pursue their artistic endeavors preserving the musical heritage of our region” (Galax and surrounding areas). Beginning this festival year, a percentage of profits earned from HoustonFest will be dedicated to young musicians and non-profit traditional music programs, with funding levels to be determined by the scholarship committee.

The requirements to apply for the scholarship or grant programs vary depending upon the type of aid requested. These awards are intended for musicians under 21 who currently reside in Virginia, North Carolina, or Tennessee. They can be applied to camps, workshops, or private lessons which will help the student in his or her pursuit of traditional music. Grants will also be offered to non-profit traditional music programs, particularly those in the immediate Galax area (the city of Galax, and Grayson and Carroll Counties).

Applicants can put grant money towards instructor or student fees, or general operating expenses for the program. The deadline for applications to both the scholarship and grant program is April 15, 2012.

For further details regarding the scholarship and grant programs, including the application for each, or for more information on HoustonFest, which will be held May 4-5 in Galax, visit www.houstonfestgalax.com.

[Editor’s note] We would also like to note that John Goad, the author of this piece and a regular Bluegrass Today correspondent, is himself the recipient of a major scholarship award. John is a student in the ETSU Bluegrass, Old Time and Country Music program, and is the ACMA/ Leon Kiser Memorial Scholarship recipient for the 2011-12 academic year, which covers full in-state tuition.

We will have more about John’s scholarship and his activities at ETSU in an upcoming post.

Go the Road – Tiller’s Folly

It wasn’t too many years ago that the concept of a “band” began to change from simplistic to more complicated definitions. In fact, at the turn of the last century, many individuals would have considered the act of two people playing together (most commonly fiddle and banjo) as a band performance. However, our present definition of a “band” is much different.

For at least one group though, an older definition seems to apply. Currently the three-piece, Pacific Northwest based group Tiller’s Folly are releasing their latest project entitled Go the Road.

With a set of back to back album release shows scheduled for March 29th and 30th in White Rock, British Columbia, the Tiller’s Folly gang is proud to announce the release of their 8^th project in some 16 years of performing together as a group. According to band member Bruce Coughlan these shows will be filmed for promotional purposes and released on DVD shortly afterward.

Previously, the band had performed music based on their Celtic influences. In fact, their website describes their sound by calling them “Celtic influenced Canadian Americana Newgrass,” but with Go the Road, the band seems to be headed in a different direction. Coughlan says the band is excited to embark upon a new musical journey, which sounds closer to mainstream Newgrass music.

While the principle members of Tiller’s Folly are singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Bruce Coughlan, Nolan Murray (multi-instrumentalist), and Laurence Knight (bass, vocals, and producer) they are often joined by other musicians to fill out their sets on stage. For instance, on this album they are joined by a host of wonderful musicians. Coughlan stated that a portion of their album guests will also be accompanying them at upcoming concerts. Guest artists on Go the Road include John Cowan, Ronnie McCoury, Josh Shilling, Sam Bush, Cia Cherryholmes, Scott Vestal, and Randy Kohrs.

The band recently returned to the west coast from a short tour of the southeast, including stops in Nashville for Music City Roots, Memphis for the Folk Alliance Conference, and Valle Crucis, NC at the Mast Farm Inn. In the upcoming weeks, they will be playing across the northwest, with shows taking place in Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia. This summer, they’ll embark on a tour of the United Kingdom, visiting several festivals of traditional and Celtic music.

Go the Road is available as of March 1, and can be purchased from iTunes, CDBaby or the Tiller’s Folly website. For more information on the new album, the band, or their upcoming tour dates, visit www.tillersfolly.com.

Searching for a Home – Ethan Hughes

Many students studying mechanical engineering may only be interested in the latest and greatest gadgets, but at least one undergraduate at Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania isn’t. Having just released his first project entitled Searching for a Home on Patuxent Music, sophomore Ethan Hughes is all about music.

While flexing his excellent dobro skills, sharpened vocals, and solid songwriting capabilities, Hughes’s new release exists as a compilation of twelve tracks old and new. Additionally, the talent displayed by accompanying artists validates Hughes’s musical prowess. Joining him are Russ Carson (banjo & rhythm guitar), Nate Grower (fiddle), Marc MacGlashan (mandolin), Sav Sankaran (bass and vocals), Frank Solivan II (guitar and vocals), Wally Hughes (tenor vocal), and Norman Wright (tenor vocal).

Hughes has drawn from twenty years of listening to his parents’ Wednesday night practice sessions to record a project filled with both familiar and obscure tunes. The album’s opener and title track, Searching for a Home, was written by Hughes and sets the tone for the album as traditional music played with an ear open to the future. Tasteful versions of tunes such as the swinging sounds of Panhandle Rag, complete with a walking bass intro and solo, fit well next to other, as do more familiar, tracks like the upbeat song Ain’t it Funny and the Drumm/Goble composition Poet With Wings. Other noteworthy numbers include Bill Monroe’s Stay Away from Me and the traditional public domain piece Never Let Your Deal Go Down.

A young artist at the age of 20, Hughes is no stranger to the bluegrass music scene. In fact, both he and his father have played professionally (Wally currently performs with Bill Emerson and company), which hasn’t been an easy feat for a guy who recently described his first dobro as “something my dad had gotten out of the trash can at a pawn shop.”

Since those pawn shop dobro days Hughes has done quite well for himself and fans may now recognize him from his time spent with Darren Beachley and the Legends of the Potomac. Hughes is just getting started with a new act, Mercury Rising, who recently obtained a slot at the Wilmington Wintergrass Festival in Delaware.

Simply put, if you like music played tastefully, you’re probably going to like Hughes’s new project on Patuxent Music, Searching for a Home. For more information regarding Hughes’s work, check him out at www.pxrec.com, or at CD Baby.

The Road to Roosky from The Carter Brothers

Many bluegrass, old time, and country music fans, and surely readers of Bluegrass Today, are likely familiar with the Carter Family of Southwest Virginia. They were a major part of the seminal 1927 Bristol Sessions, which laid down the pathway for modern country music to follow. However, there are some more recent Carters paving their own way to musical success. Brothers Tim and Danny Carter of High Point, North Carolina, have recently released a new album, The Road to Roosky, on Compass Records.

Their 11 song, fifty-some minute disc pays homage to their roots while largely existing as a contemporary newgrass album. The Road to Roosky features electric instruments and percussion alongside traditional bluegrass instruments like fiddles, mandolins, and banjos. Having been enchanted by blues and black gospel musicians like Blind Willie Johnson, the Carter Brothers draw from many sources of influence.

Some tunes, like the album’s opener Woman at the Well, appear as rock-n-roll influenced pieces, while others like What Does the Deep Sea Say are arranged in a more traditional fashion, paying homage to their family’s history. The album’s title track about an armless vagabond has a really interesting banjo intro which aligns closer to blues guitar playing than Scruggs-type lead picking. Other standout numbers include Deep Ellum Blues and a very special version of Jerusalem Moan which includes the late Vassar Clements fiddling, singing, and even scatting a bit.

In typical Compass Records fashion, the new release from the Carter Brothers pushes the limits of bluegrass yet again. Brothers Tim and Danny are excellent artists in their own right, and have assembled a host of great musicians to accompany them on Road to Roosky. Guest performers include Sam Bush, Ferrell Stowe, Tim O’Brien, Danny Reid, Dann Sherill, and Ross Sermons.

If you like your rock with a little banjo, then check out these guys! Perhaps the music they are creating belongs in new genre – “Bluesgrass” or “Block?” Either way, this isn’t the standard 1-4-5 drive album commonly associated with the bluegrass music genre. This album may not be well-suited for Monroe disciples, but a great deal of respect must be given to the work these artists have done.

For more information regarding the music of the Carter Brothers, or to see where they’ll be performing near you, please visit their website at www.carterbrothersband.com.

Lay Down Lay Low – The Steel Wheels

With a sound sitting comfortably between Old Crow Medicine Show and newer forms of bluegrass, The Steel Wheels of Harrisonburg, VA provide a unique listening experience. Comprised of four guys with backgrounds ranging from Mennonite Gospel quartets to concert bands and orchestras, the members of this group (Trent Wagler, Jay Lapp, Eric Brubaker, and Brian Dickel) are joined by Oliver Craven to create a distinctive sound. Their most recent album, Lay Down Lay Low, which will be released on March 6, is a collection of twelve all-original songs written by band members Wagler and Lapp.

On this, their fourth album as a group, The Steel Wheels have included a wide array of material. While all of their songs are rooted in traditional music of some sort, they seem to draw from every aspect of American music. Fast-paced bluegrassy instrumentals like Lapp’s tune Fridley’s Gap, lay alongside powerful-sounding harmonies and Gospel influences on Rain in the Valley. Hints of blues and jazz show up throughout the album, making several songs feel soulful and smooth. Spider Wings is extremely interesting, with a percussive rhythm that at times sounds almost like a rap beat. Other songs are more subdued, featuring clawhammer banjo, peaceful melodies and a bowed bass line. Despite the wide array of approaches, Lay Down Lay Low is still a cohesive album; the Wheels make jazzy beats fit in right beside mandolin-led instrumentals.

Fans may recognize this group from one of their three Spokesongs jaunts, in which they toured Virginia, Michigan, and Illinois on bicycle. They have logged over 1000 miles so far, riding from town to town with all their supplies, merchandise, and gear on their bikes – including Dickel’s upright bass. According to Wagler, they aren’t doing anything out of the ordinary – just commuting to their jobs via bicycle like any other working person might do. Through these tours, the band hopes to raise awareness of the bicycle as a viable method of transportation. This past year, they were even sponsored by a variety of companies ranging from Clif Bar to Fretwell Bass and Acoustic Instruments.

With their previous album, Red Wing, receiving multiple honors in 2010, including reaching number 15 on the Americana Music Association radio charts and being named one of the top 100 Americana albums of the year, The Steel Wheels are well-situated to find even more success with Lay Down Lay Low. Their highly-individualized sound, and the strength of their original tunes, could bring them into the spotlight in 2012.

For more information on The Steel Wheels, visit them online.

Sunday Never Comes from Jackstraw

Since their formation some 15 years ago, the Portland, Oregon based band Jackstraw has released five albums and traveled the country performing their own brand of acoustic music. Now, with some personnel changes including brand new member Cory Goldman (formally of the Water Tower Bucket Boys) on banjo, and the recent release of their sixth album, Sunday Never Comes, Jackstraw is back at it again, touring throughout the Northwest.

Having formed after meeting one another at a music store in Portland, the band began when members Darrin Craig and David Pugh teamed up with Jon Neufeld and Jesse Withers to begin making music in 1997. A decade and a half later, they’ve racked up appearances at multiple well-known festivals (such as Wintergrass and the Kootenai River Bluegrass Fest) and performed on the same bill as artists like Del McCoury and Tim O’Brien. Their new album, which was financed entirely through online fundraising source Kickstarter, seems poised to bring them even more success.

The members of Jackstraw describe their sound as “northwest mountain music,” creating tunes somewhere between old-time Appalachian music and the up-and-coming, punk and honky-tonk influenced sounds of the Pacific Northwest. On Sunday Never Comes, they stay closest to the old-time side of things, with many songs sounding as if they were written specifically to appeal to fans of old-time music. However, they do utilize three-finger style bluegrass banjo, which adds an interesting aspect to the album. The majority of the songs on the album are band originals, with guitarist/vocalist Craig and mandolin player Pugh contributing the majority of the songs. Goldman penned one instrumental (Sunny Brae, a rousing banjo tune).

The album’s opening tune Come On Back To Me is a bouncy song with a wonderfully loose arrangement. Other numbers like May The Twain Ne’er Meet and If I Die seem more like straight ahead bluegrass style arrangements. Another side of the band is shown through the old-time melody played on Dark and Empty while the album’s title track Sunday Never Comes has a light hearted feel even though its lyrics warn “don’t sleep with drunken women, you should meet them in the church.”

Jackstraw is a band which has the potential to appeal to a wide audience, from fans of traditional bluegrass to those who prefer old-time or country, and having released six records to date proves their staying power within the northwest bluegrass scene.

For more information on the band or their new album, visit them online.

Wayne Taylor and Appaloosa

While bluegrass listeners are becoming increasingly familiar with the music of Wayne Taylor and Appaloosa, which formed in 2008, newer fans may be unfamiliar with Wayne’s background.

With his earliest recollection of music occurring at the American Legion where his father used to take him to hear music on the weekends, it seems that Wayne’s life in music has simply fallen into place over the years. At the mere age of nine there is no way Wayne Taylor could have known what lay in store for him when he learned his first guitar chords at the Legion Hall from a guitarist named Clyde Costner. Now 50 years later, and having served almost 25 years in the Navy, Wayne is just beginning a new chapter in his life’s story.

Taylor has always found his passion in music. Early in his career, Wayne studied music therapy, earned a music degree from The Conservatory of Music at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA, worked within a Community Readiness Training Program, and was also employed with Probation and Patrol at a minimum security prison in Catawba County, North Carolina. As a CRT instructor, he began teaching music to groups of inmates (who graduated every six weeks), with an end goal of them performing as a part of the graduation ceremonies. While seeking to continue a career which involved music, it wasn’t long before he obtained a position within the Navy bluegrass band Country Current, where he served as guitarist and lead singer.

For the past four years, Wayne has performed with his band Appaloosa. Besides having success with their latest project, It’s Gonna Be a Beautiful Day, Wayne and company are now excited to perform for the first time at events such as the 10^th annual Bluegrass on the Beach at Lake Havasu State Park in Arizona, and the Steve Kaufman Guitar Kamp in Maryville, TN, where Wayne will appear as a guitar instructor.

Perhaps the most exciting upcoming event for Wayne Taylor and Appaloosa is their new festival, fittingly taking place over Veteran’s Day weekend (11/10) at the Maiden High School auditorium in Maiden, NC. This one day festival, which will get underway at 10:00 a.m., will feature five acts: Bill Emerson and the Sweet Dixie Band, The Bluegrass Brothers, The Cockman Family Band, the US Navy Band Country Current, and Wayne Taylor and Appaloosa. As the festival is hosted by Cindy Baucom of Knee Deep in Bluegrass, there’s even the potential to see her hubby, the Duke of Drive, make an appearance.

With the recent release of their third album and a holiday release planned for this year as well, Wayne Taylor and Appaloosa are doing quite well for themselves. As a matter of fact, they plan to begin recording again this next month and will be making their third tour of Europe in July 2012 where they are scheduled to perform in Norway and Holland, and will complete the 13-day tour with several performances at The Guildtown Bluegrass Festival in Scotland.

For more information regarding Wayne Taylor and Appaloosa or Wayne Taylor’s Homecoming Veteran’s Day Weekend Bluegrass Festival, visit them online.

Winter Harvest – Matt Flinner Trio

While the phrase “du jour” may be familiar to coffee house goers and soup connoisseurs, it may be one that much of the bluegrass world encounters only rarely, especially where their music is concerned. However, there is at least one group of artists who are extremely familiar which the French term meaning “from the day,” or “special to that day.” Since 2002, the guys in the Matt Flinner Trio, featuring Matt Flinner (mandolin), Ross Martin (guitar) and Eric Thorin (bass) have been using the phrase as a muse for creating new musical pieces.

According to Flinner, on each day that the group spends playing shows out on the road during one of their Music du Jour tours (which they began in 2006), each member challenges himself to compose a new tune.he band often performs these pieces on stage hours or even minutes later. Their first album on Compass Records, which was comprised of a collection of these Music du Jour pieces, debuted in 2009. Now, with the onset of their sixth year of mostly west coast outings, the band is embarking on an eastern excursion, appearing in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky during their first few appearances.

Currently armed with a new group of material derived from their last set of dates, the band is releasing a new project entitled Winter Harvest on Compass Records. It is a collection of twelve tunes which collectively exist as a mixture of classical and jazz influenced pieces, each of which revolve around a central chord structure, separating these compositions from free jazz numbers.

Flinner’s Trio guys may be only a three-piece band, but they use their instruments to the fullest extent. Both plucked and bowed bass lines exist among a host of flowing chord structures and complicated arrangements, all executed with pinpoint precision.

Emotion seems to flow from these clever pieces. The Stumbling Bro, complete with the sounds of shattering glass, has an interesting bass line which creates a swing or blues-like texture. Tunes like Winter Wheat exhibit soothing qualities, while others like Raji’s Romp and Slapping is Encouraged, seem playful and energetic. Arco, yet another “du jour” piece, seems to lean toward thematic classical composition.

For those listeners who may tire of the incessant 1-4-5 drive musical compositions often associated with the bluegrass music genre, Winter Harvest could be a welcome change. However, the new age acoustic sounds of the well-versed Matt Flinner Trio could seem like elevator music at first to the uninitiated – but there is much to enjoy if you give it a chance.

With a resume that includes performing with artists like Leftover Salmon, Darrell Scott, Tony Trischka, and the Nashville Chamber Orchestra, Matt Flinner is more than qualified to lead this courageous trio.

For more information regarding Matt Flinner, the trio, or to see where they’ll be performing at a venue near you, you can visit www.mattflinner.com.

Buddy Merriam Backroads Mandolin book

One might say that becoming a bluegrass virtuoso was simply written in the stars for Buddy Merriam, a mandolinist originally from Hartford, Connecticut. Although he had played guitar since childhood, he became interested in the mandolin after seeing Frank Wakefield perform in 1972, choosing to pick it up as a second instrument. Then, while attending the first Berkshire Mountains Bluegrass Festival in upstate New York, Buddy developed a fascination with the mandolin style of Bill Monroe, after he was unfortunately struck by lightning standing in front of the stage, causing him to lose his hearing. Having lived to tell the tale, Buddy’s hearing eventually came back around and he began studying the techniques employed by Monroe. He eventually formed his own musical group, Buddy Merriam and Back Roads.

Since 1980, Buddy has worked with this group of musicians to spread his own form of bluegrass throughout the country, performing at the Grand Ole Opry on different occasions and even making an appearance at the grand opening of the Bluegrass Museum and Hall of Fame. Buddy has also done more for bluegrass music than merely performing at different venues within the United States and abroad. Besides being the host of WUSB 90.1 FM’s Blue Grass Time radio show in Stony Brook, New York, he has also released a book of some 30 original mandolin tunes entitled Back Roads Mandolin, Vol. 1.

He got the idea for creating Back Roads Mandolin after becoming sick. Fearing death at the time, he realized that his music would be lost unless he were able to pass the songs down to new generations of pickers. Armed with his Monteleone Grand Artist and Gilchrist mandolins at his side, Buddy Merriam has produced over five hundred original tunes which, according to his website, are “presently being transcribed and recorded.”

In this re-release of his first book, he includes tablature (which the first edition lacked) and sheet music for thirty original compositions ranging in scope from pieces highly influenced by Monroe’s playing to other forms of music like gypsy jazz tunes. While most of his pieces are in the 2/4 time signature, which is most familiar to bluegrass musicians, there are also waltzes and hornpipes as well as other compositions which are in the more obscure 4/8, 6/8, and 6/4 times. Some interesting titles include the highly Monroe-esque Back Roads Breakdown, Procrastination, and Gypsy Tears of Joy.

While Merriam and Lou Martin (who did the transcriptions for the book) caution against the use of tablature over standard notation in the book’s introduction, they also state that “standard notation is itself often inadequate to the task of truly accurate representation.” Nevertheless, it’s clear that Back Roads Mandolin has been gone over with a fine tooth comb, as it even includes pick directions and song descriptions where needed in order to help convey the rhythmic feel of each musical piece.

Currently, Merriam is performing with The Mandolin Experience, a group featuring members of his regular band, Back Roads, along with a second mandolin player. He also has six CDs on Lily Pad Records exhibiting his work.

For more information on Buddy Merriam’s music, visit his website, www.buddymerriam.com. If you enjoy Back Roads Mandolin, look for additional volumes which are planned for the near future.

Back to My Roots – Carolina Road

With seven national recordings to her credit, Lorraine Jordan is back at it again with Carolina Road’s second Rural Rhythm release, Back to My Roots. Formed in 1998, the group remains very active on the bluegrass circuit, averaging 60 festivals per year in the US and Canada. Following their last album, the rather successful Carolina Hurricane, going “back to their roots” promises fans of traditional bluegrass music an excellent set of material.

The album opener and title track, co-written by Jordan and Terry Faust, is a hard-driving tune led by the banjo of longtime Carolina Road member Ben Greene, and the smooth baritone vocals of one of the band’s newest members, Tommy Long. It’s the perfect opening for an album based in tradition. Many of this project’s other songs also reflect on the early days of bluegrass, with remakes of songs such as the Louvin Brothers’ Bald Knob Arkansas and the old Mac Magaha/Don Reno number, I Know You’re Married But I Love You Still, which appears as a poignant duet between Jordan and Long. Several other tunes on Back to My Roots are new versions of previously recorded material, like the Stanley Brothers’ Sharecropper’s Son and the Randall Hylton number Lee Berry Rye (which was brought to the band by banjoist Greene from his time with David Parmley).

Reflections on home and tradition pop up throughout the album. For instance, Tom T. and Dixie Hall’s contribution, A Light at the Window (the album’s first single), was inspired by a reference made about Bill Monroe’s On My Way Back to the Old Home at the dedication of Big Mon’s Kentucky homeplace. Carolina Road has also revived noted North Carolina musician A.L. Wood’s tunes, The Hills of Home and Sing a Bluegrass Song, the record’s closing track, complete with Wood’s son Bobby playing mandolin.

Carolina Road’s strong vocals are matched by solid instrumentation throughout this project. In addition to Greene on banjo, the band also consists of Jordan (mandolin), Long (guitar), Eddie Biggerstaff and Dustin Benson (bass), and Josh Goforth (fiddle). Band members also show their songwriting skills, with Long writing or co-writing two originals: Granny’s Garden and Cold Carolina Snow.

For more information on Carolina Road and their newest project, Back to My Roots, visit their official website.