John had served as primary author and editor for The Bluegrass Blog from its launch in 2004 until being folded into Bluegrass Today in September of 2011. He continues in that capacity here, managing a strong team of columnists and correspondents.
Jaelee Roberts, the IBMA’s 2024 Female Vocalist of the Year, has reached back to 1989 to cover one of Lonesome River Band’s top-selling numbers, Looking For Yourself. As much as it pains those of us who remember that song (and album) from our youth, it is one ripe for a reworking, and Roberts delivers in spades.
Written by Michael Blackburn, the song describes the feelings a young person experiences gazing out at the world, trying to figure out just who they really are.
“I absolutely love the ’80s and ’90s era of bluegrass music, and Looking For Yourself completely embodies that vibe. I’ve been an LRB fan my entire life, and this song has always jumped out at me while listening to that classic album. So I decided that Looking For Yourself should be the first bluegrass cover song that I’d record!
Andy Leftwich [mandolin, fiddle], Cody Kilby [guitar], Ron Block [banjo], Byron House [bass, producer], John Gardner [percussion], and Grayson Lane are absolutely awesome, and made this track go from dream to reality for me!
Speaking of Grayson Lane, I just have to say how happy I am to have him singing harmony with me on this. We have known each other since we were born — literally — and he is one of my favorite singers, so to have his voice on Looking For Yourself was the icing on the cake.”
Jaelee gives the Dan Tyminski original vocal cut a run for its money, and turns in a terrific cut with that all-star studio band.
Check it out…
Looking For Yourself from Jaelee Roberts is available from popular download and streaming services online, and to radio programmers at AirPlay Direct.
Ralph Stanley II & The Clinch Mountain Boys have been invited to perform at the Grand Ole Opry on January 17 at the Ryman Auditorium in honor of his father, Dr. Ralph Stanley’s, distinction as the first Opry member to be inducted in the new millennium on January 15, 2000.
It was a big year for Dr. Ralph, who also recorded a chilling a cappella version of O Death for the O Brother, Where Art Thou film by the Coen Brothers, for which he won a Grammy for Best Male Country Performance in 2002, and appeared in the Down From The Mountain documentary and performance film.
Ralph II says that the honor of standing in for the Good Doctor on Friday isn’t lost on him.
“I’ve had the honor of playing the Grand Ole Opry many times as a member of my dad’s band, and each performance has felt special, but fronting the Clinch Mountain Boys at the Ryman on the 25th anniversary of Dad’s induction—and during the 100th year of the Opry itself—is an indescribable thrill.”
What a wonderful remembrance for Dr. Ralph, and for The Stanley Brothers!
Tickets for this Ryman show, which will also feature John Conlee, Suzy Boggus, and Jeanie Seeley, are available online.
Billed as Picker’s Paradise, running June 3-6, the event will offer music instruction from the members of the ‘Dusters, jamming opportunities, and group classes, all in a gorgeous setting amidst the Catskills Forest Preserve. And of course there will be performances from the band, together, and as individuals.
This is what Music Masters has been doing since 2000, bringing in national touring acts to offer this sort of immersive experience for fans and music students, with instructional programs offered to players at any level of skill and experience.
Classes with the band members will be offered for guitar, mandolin, fiddle, bass, banjo, bass, and reso-guitar, along with harmony, music theory, songwriting, and tune writing, plus sessions for pro and semi-pro players about performing before an audience and making a band work. You can see the full, four-day schedule online.
There will be plenty of opportunities to meet and talk with the band, who will also be staying on site.
All this doesn’t come cheap, with registration at Picker’s Paradise ranging from a commuter rate of $1,560 for those staying elsewhere for the duration, to a premium rate of $2,595 for deluxe, studio-style accommodations with private decks, Adirondack chairs, and dramatic vistas. There are also packages for RV and tent camping attendees, and all meals are included in the total fee.
Scholarships are available, and Music Masters solicits donations of any size to that end.
Full details can be found online for this intimate Infamous Stringdusters experience.
Barbara Martin Stephens, groundbreaking female booking agent and artist manager during the early days in Nashville, and ex-wife of enduring bluegrass icon Jimmy Martin, has released a second book.
Barbara breaks it down into three primary categories: Booking Agents, Managers, and Promoters, in which she discusses ten different agencies or agents with whom she worked closely, including her own; The Women Behind The Scenes, which includes memories of people like Betty Harford, wife of John Hartford; and Singers, Songwriters, and More, with 16 profiles of people on the artistic side of the business, like Ronnie Reno, Ginger Boatwright, Louisa Branscomb, Grant Turner, Wilma Lee Cooper, Merle Kilgore, and both Bob and Birdie Smith and Marty and Charmaine Lanham, who helped launch The Station Inn.
The People and the Music retains the easy, conversational style which Stephens established in her first book, making her rich memories of these formative years in bluegrass and country music accessible to all. If you ever wished you could have been backstage at The Ryman while Jim Reeves or The Osbornes Brothers were on stage, this collection will get you as close as can be.
The book closes with an epilogue titled My Memories of Three of the Greatest Banjo Players: Sonny Osborne, Bill Emerson, and J.D. Crowe, whose headline perfectly describes the contents, a poem Stephens composed, and a number of her favorite recipes.
Running to 347 numbered pages, The People and the Musicar is like spending an afternoon with Barbara Martin Stephens, and absorbing her many memories and stories from working on the inside of the music business as it was developing in Nashville. It’s a deep dive into another time, with more than 100 historic photographs.
The self-published book is available from many popular online resellers, in both soft cover and digital editions.
Remains To Be Scene marks the band’s final project with guitarist Dudley Connell after nearly 30 years in that role. Dudley had announced his retirement a few months back, and fiery flatpicker Clay Hess has since stepped in on guitar and vocals.
With the release announcement comes a new single from the album, and following a long Seldom Scene tradition, it’s a song from the rock music world, Last of the Steam-Powered Trains, written and sung by Ray Davies with The Kinks in 1968. Led here by mandolinist Lou Reid, the Scene take it from a blues rocker to a lonesome grasser with Reid reaching for the top of his register.
He says that they are just doing what the band has always done.
“The Scene has always looked outside the box for material, and we thought this one fit the bill.”
Now in their 53rd year, The Seldom Scene rolls on absent any of the original members who set the bluegrass world on its ear in the early 1970s. Only bassist Tom Gray is still with us from that trend-setting ensemble, but the band continues on, recording and performing a mix of new and classic bluegrass, while also merging material from beyond the genre into their sound.
Along with Reid and Connell, we have Fred Travers on reso-guitar, Ronnie Simpkins on bass, and Ron Stewart on banjo.
Have a listen…
Last of the Steam-Powered Trains is available now from popular download and streaming services online. Pre-orders for Remains To Be Scene are likewise enabled.
Popular Kentucky banjo builder and repairman Arthur Hatfield suffered the loss of his shop to fire on Saturday, January 10.
A wooden musical instrument shop contains a good many combustible materials, and by the time the fire department got to the building in Glasgow, KY, the shop had been consumed.
Fortunately, Arthur was not hurt, but all of the tooling and equipment used to build the Hatfield Banjos was destroyed, along with everything he was working on at the time.
Arthur has been building and repairing banjos for more than 30 years, doing it full time since 2001. Also a banjo player, he had toured with Carl Story as a younger man.
A friend has established a GoFundMe campaign to raise fund to help Hatfield rebuild. They have raised roughly $7,000 of the $50,000 goal in just two days, and more will be required to put things back to what they were. Anyone who loves the banjo, and the Hatfield Banjos in particular, may be moved to make a contribution online.
We are waiting to hear back from Arthur and will update once we learn the extent of his losses, and whether insurance might help him get the shop back in business.
UPDATE 1/15: We have heard back from Arthur, who says that everything in the shop is gone, and that he had no insurance to cover the loss. This makes the GoFundMe campaign all the more crucial for the rebuilding which he hopes to accomplish.
He also told us that the fire department believes the blaze began near a propane wall heater.
Buck White, the mandolin and piano playing patriarch of country/bluegrass family group The Whites, died today at 8:00 a.m., Nashville time. He was 94 years of age and had been in ill health for some time.
Born H.S. White in 1934 in Oklahoma City, as a young boy he changed his name to Buck in honor of Buck Jones, a radio and movie cowboy star who worked in Oklahoma that was an idol of sorts to young Buck White. It stayed with him to the end.
The White family moved from Oklahoma to Wichita Falls, TX when he was but a few months old, and he was raised in the rich musical environment in Texas. Hid dad was a buck dancer, a skill Buck also mastered, but he didn’t take up music until he was a teen, starting with piano. The mandolin captured his attention as a senior in high school.
By the 1950s he was performing with honky tonk country bands in Texas and Oklahoma, often with his wife, Pat Goza, who he met and married in 1952. In Texas, he played shows on piano with artists like Hank Snow and Ernest Tubb. Pat and Buck, with their two oldest daughters, Cheryl and Sharon, moved to Fort Smith, AR, where they formed their first group, The Down Home Folks, with Arnold and Peggy Johnson.
1971 was the year that a successful show at Bill Monroe’s festival in Bean Blossom, IN convinced them to move to Nashville and pursue the music business professionally. They billed as Buck White & The Down Home Folks, and White resisted the several opportunities to become a sideman with other groups, supplementing what the band brought in with plumbing work, though he did a few shows with James Monroe as a Midnight Rambler.
Pat retired from the band in ’73 to raise their two younger daughters. They released a couple more album as Buck White & The Down Home Folks, in particular a live album recorded at Randy Wood’s Pickin’ Parlor that drew some notice in 1977.
Their first album as The Whites came in 1980 with More Pretty Girls Than One, which featured Buck on mandolin, Sharon on guitar, and Cheryl on bass, along with fellow rising stars Jerry Douglas on reso-guitar, Sam Bush and (producer) Ricky Skaggs on fiddle, and David Grisman on mandolin.
The next year Sharon married Ricky Skaggs, and The Whites were catapulted by his country star which began rising in 1982. They scored a number of country radio hits in the “back to tradition” movement that categorized ’80s country, and were made members of the Grand Ole Opry in 1984. A duet that Ricky and Sharon recorded, Love Can’t Ever Get Better Than This, won a CMA award for Vocal Duo of the Year in 1987, one of many awards that came to The Whites.
Though much of the tributes to The Whites centered on Sharon and Cheryl, Buck was a fine vocalist himself, and he especially liked singing gospel music.
Buck continued to perform and record, both with The Whites, and with others, appearing with his daughters in the 2000 film, O Brother, Where Art Thou, and on the subsequent record-breaking Down From The Mountain tour. He was included on A Skaggs Family Christmas, Volume One, and on several Christmas tours under that name. Buck was also chosen to appear on the 2006 all-star project, Bluegrass Mandolin Extravaganza, alongside Sam Bush, David Grisman, Ronnie McCoury, Jesse McReynolds, Bobby Osborne, Ricky Skaggs, and Frank Wakefield.
For many years a Buck White International Mandolin Championship was held in Kerrville, TX, once won by Mark O’Connor.
Buck was recognized throughout his life not only for his musicianship, but also for his cheerful attitude and giant smile. He was a friend to countless artists and industry folks in Nashville and beyond, and will be long remembered for his kindness and humility.
Simply put, Buck White was a giant in bluegrass and country music, and will be sorely missed.
No information has been shared as yet about funeral arrangements.
Pitney Meyer, the new bluegrass outfit consisting of Mo Pitney and John Meyer, has announced a new single, Bear Creek Clay, and pre-order availability for their debut album, Cherokee Pioneer, set for release on Curb Records in April.
Pitney, who has enjoyed considerable success as a country singer, explained his love for bluegrass, and his happiness in getting to play it again.
“My first introduction to being overjoyed with music is with bluegrass. Jimmy Martin, Tony Rice, Larry Sparks, Del McCoury. Now, it’s like the best of all worlds with John and I being able to come out here and have songs that we’ve written, stories that mean something to us, but sounds like the old joyful, child-like bluegrass that we grew up loving.”
Bear Creek Clay is the third single to drop, and the first with Meyer taking the high lead vocal. Written by Danielle Yother, John Meyer, and Mo Pitney, it’s a hard-charging grasser with a story of adventure, primarily sung in three part harmony.
John describes why he likes this song, and the music he and Mo are making together.
“This form of music is inherently nostalgic. But it can’t only be nostalgia. There has to be something fresh, there has to be something from your heart. What’s your story? How do you tell that?
I really think that’s what’s been happening with this music, and that’s why it’s been resonating with us and with others. We wanted to make music that’s defined by the music. This project is about connecting with people, honoring the past, and sharing what’s in our hearts.”
Like the full album, this one was tracked live in the studio with Mo on guitar and John on banjo, along with Nate Burie on mandolin, Jenee Fleenor on fiddle, and Blake Pitney on bass.
Have a listen…
Bear Creek Clay is available now from popular download and streaming services online, and to radio programmers via AirPlay Direct. Pre-orders for Cherokee Pioneer are likewise enabled ahead of its April 18 release.
The Conference celebrates the many varied streams of traditional music in Ireland, which have inspired folk string music in many other parts of the world, particularly in the US and Canada which so many Irish immigrants brought when they fled the island nation during famine and oppression.
Structured a bit like IBMA’s World of Bluegrass conference, Your Roots Are Showing combines seminars, educational workshops, networking opportunities, artist showcases, and Iive performances from January 15-19, from a mix of performers in bluegrass, folk, Americana and roots music. The Conference follows the big Folk in Fusion concert on January 14 and attracts show promoters and festival managers from across the UK and Europe.
IBMA will be in attendance at the 2025 Conference, something that co-founder and Executive Director of Your Roots Are Showing, Charlene Sloan, says shows how much they have grown in just three years.
“We are absolutely thrilled to announce this exciting partnership with the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA). Bringing IBMA to Ireland for this year’s event marks a significant milestone in the growth of Your Roots Are Showing. The opportunity to collaborate with an organization that has such a profound impact on the bluegrass community is truly special.
We look forward to welcoming IBMA to Killarney and celebrating the incredible legacy of Peter Rowan with his well-deserved Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as hearing him share his insights during the ‘In Conversation with Peter Rowan’ panel, which will be hosted by IBMA’s Business Development Director, Anna Kline.
We’re also excited to announce that we will be attending IBMA in Chattanooga, TN this September to continue building these vital connections.”
Ken White, Executive Director of the IBMA, is similarly pleased to be involved.
“Our partnership with Your Roots Are Showing harkens back to the very beginnings of bluegrass, when Irish melodies found their way to Uncle Pen’s fiddle in Kentucky. Our bluegrass family continues to grow, proof positive that bluegrass is alive and well around the globe. From the IBMA International Band Performance Grant program to supporting our international industry partners at YRAS, we remain committed to strengthening the ties of our worldwide musical family.”
A total of 90 artists will participate in live showcases over the four days, hailing from Ireland, Northern Ireland, Canada, USA, Australia, Italy, Portugal, Guyana, England, Scotland, Brittany, Spain, and Finland.
Complete details and schedules for the 2025 Your Roots Are Showing conference can be found online.
Gena had established herself as a bluegrass pro long before Sister Sadie hit it big. From her home in North Carolina she spent time in a number of touring groups, from Petticoat Junction, New Vintage, Lou Reid & Carolina, and Alan Bibey & Grasstowne to The Daughters of Bluegrass and her own Gena Britt Band. People have admired her banjo picking and her singing voice from the 1990s to today.
This new release is a song called Take Your Circus on the Road, written by Connie Harrington and Don Pfrimmer, about a lady who has figured out that her romantic partner had been selling her a bill of goods, and she’s finally found the courage to send him packing.
Britt tells us that it came to her while she was filling in for Marc Pruett back in 2021.
“When I was traveling some with Balsam Range and we were talking about collaborating on some recorded material, Buddy [Melton] played me this song in a parking lot in Georgia between sets, and said he could hear me doing this tune. I love the fun aspect and creative songwriting of this tune. It struck a chord with me and I’m really proud of how the track turned out.”
Gena sings the lead and plays banjo supported by Milan Miller on guitar, Seth Taylor on mandolin, Aubrey Haynie on fiddle, and Buddy Melton on bass. Buddy and Milan sing harmony.
Despite the heartbroken theme, it really is a lovely song.
Have a listen…
Take Your Circus on the Road is available now from popular download and streaming services online, and to radio broadcasters via AirPlay Direct.
