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.
Mason has a particular knack for songwriting, which is evident in this one created with Charlie and Dover Chamberlain. It captures the chaotic rush of emotions that accompany the realization that you are falling in love, hence the title. In this case, it’s love of the instant variety, meeting someone and suddenly knowing that an adventure is about to begin.
The music video created by Skybone Studios in Nashville nicely draws out the lyrics in cartoon form.
The audio track finds Via on guitar and lead vocal, supported by Aaron Ramsey on mandolin, Jason Davis on banjo, Jim VanCleve on fiddle, Kyser George on guitar, and Jeff Partin on reso-guitar and bass. Nick Goad and Brooks Forsyth sing harmony.
Give it a go…
Falling is available now from popular download and streaming services online, and to radio programmers at AirPlay Direct.
Lifelong bluegrass and country fiddler Zeke Dawson died on November 11 at his home near Nashville, TN. He was 84 years of age. Zeke had played in numerous bluegrass groups, as well as top country artists in Nashville.
Born in Prince Georges County, MD on June 1, 1940, Zeke grew up near the homeplace of The Stoneman Family, and learned to play fiddle from Scotty Stoneman. At 12 years old he was featured in Pop Stoneman’s youth group, The Pebbles.
Dawson’s first true professional gig came at 16 when he joined The New River Boys, who performed all over the capitol region, including the Stoneman’s “home base” in DC, the Famous Restaurant. Other members included Buddy Davis, Don Mulkey, Tom Knowles, and Johnny Hopkins.
Following a stint in the US Army, Zeke headed to college where he received a music degree. He continued to play with country and bluegrass acts in the area.
A move to Nashville greatly expanded his music career. He got a job with Loretta Lynn in 1974, and remained a member of her band for nearly ten years. Dawson also toured with George Jones a number of times, and was Wilma Lee Cooper’s fiddler for many years. He even appeared in Coal Miner’s Daughter, the biographical film about Loretta Lynn.
After retiring from the road he returned to bluegrass, and was an active member of Nashville’s Leiper’s Fork. Zeke was not only their fiddler but also a featured vocalist in the group. Others in the band were Jeff Belcher on banjo, Buddy Jones on mandolin, Bo Collier on guitar, and Karl Dunlap on bass.
Zeke is well remembered not only for his fiddling, but for his joking and storytelling as well. Anthony Howell, who played some with Lieper’s Fork as a teenager, related…
“He would tell stories about being on the road with George Jones, Loretta Lynn, and numerous other country stars. He would finish a story, and he would stop to say, ‘Mr. Dawson, do you have any hobbies? Why yes, talking is my hobby! I love to talk!’
He was a joy to be around and I will always remember him dearly.”
Dawson was buried with military honors at Middle Tennessee State Veteran’s Cemetery.
The Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum in Owensboro, KY has announced a new event next month, a two-day indoor concert and workshop event honoring the music and legacy of John Hartford.
Billed as John Hartford Days, and running January 31 and February 1, 2025, the weekend will include jamming workshops, discussion panels on Hartford’s career and output, film screenings, and evening concerts with the Sam Bush Band and special guests.
Sam will perform both Friday and Saturday night, with different guests joining him each time. Guests booked to appear are John’s son, Jamie Hartford, Rodney Dillard, Mike Compton, Alison Brown, Jim Lauderdale, and Showman & Coole from Lonesome Ace Stringband.
An after party at the Museum will also be held both nights following the evening concerts, which will also feature an opening act.
On Friday afternoon they will screen Banjoes, Fiddles & Riverboats: John Hartford and the General Jackson, a documentary which John wrote and in which he stars, and on Saturday will show Ramblin’ with John Hartford, a live performance film from 1980.
All of this, both days, is included in the $99 ticket price for John Hartford Days.
The Hall of Fame has made arrangements with The Hampton Inn & Suites Waterfront, located next door to the Museum, to offer discounted room rates with your ticket purchase.
Full details and ticket purchase options can be found online.
Retro 78 has a new single sure to delight everyone who appreciates old time traditional bluegrass and country music. It’s a bright, medium-tempo song written and sung by guitarist Clint Groves called My Darling’s Coming Home
Complete with twin fiddles and a bit of walking bass, this lively number isn’t about an actual joyful reunion, but one that exists only in the dreams of the song’s narrator. For he has lost his true love and is pining for her return, but we are left with the suspicion that it isn’t to be.
The subtle paradox between the meaning and the feel of this track gives it much of its charm, along with the strong three-part harmony on the chorus. This one is likely to stick with you for a while.
With Groves on guitar and lead vocal, Retro 78 is completed by Hunter Motts on banjo, Jacob Jackson on mandolin, Jacob Turnbill on fiddle, Alex Hibbits on bass, and Ernie Evans on mandolin and guitar.
Have a listen…
My Darling’s Coming Home is available now from popular download and streaming services online, and to radio programmers via AirPlay Direct.
Rock Hearts has jumped in to the Christmas bluegrass single mix at the last minute with a song from their current album.
It’s Willie Nelson’s Pretty Paper, a heartbreak number that was a hit for Roy Orbison in 1963. The boys in Rock Hearts dress it up in a nice twin-fiddle bluegrass arrangement, just perfect for Christmastime.
Have a listen…
Pretty Paper from Rock Hearts is available from popular download and streaming services online, and for download purchase directly from the artists. Radio programmers will find the track at AirPlay Direct.
You can check out all the Christmas bluegrass we have covered at Bluegrass Today by following this link.
Thomas Gantzerek is a musician and lyricist living in Japan, who goes professionally as Tom Gantz. He has composed a clever secular bluegrass Christmas song for this season, about a tragic incident in which Santa’s sleigh breaks down in the hills of Appalachia.
But, of course, the friendly denizens of the region pitch in to help get all the presents delivered on time, employing hillbilly wisdom and a good bit of improvisation..
Have a listen to Santa’s Sleigh Breakdown, with AI musical accompaniment, in the video below. It’s a hoot!
Santa’s Sleigh Breakdown is available from popular download and streaming services online.
You can check out all the Christmas bluegrass we have covered at Bluegrass Today by following this link.
The entire bluegrass world was shocked when Audie Blaylock died unexpectedly earlier this year. Only 61 years of age, he had been present in professional bluegrass all of the past four decades, and in such a highly visible way, that it seemed like he would always be there. And yet he was gone.
Audie was only 19 when he hired on with Jimmy Martin, staying seven years as a Sunny Mountain Boy. He lived the life of a bluegrass journeyman, working stints with Red Allen in Nashville, with Chris Jones, and Lynn Morris, before taking the guitar gig with Rhonda Vincent & The Rage in 1999. After several years there, he worked with Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper before dedicating himself to a solo career with his own group, Audie Blaylock & Redline.
Now, nearly a year on from his passing, Blaylock’s good friend and former bass player, Reed Jones, is set to release a memorial single written about his relationship with Audie. Titled Ran Out of Road, Reed says that he was inspired to write it by experience most of us will have had after losing someone close.
“I wrote this song in the wake of what appeared to be a posthumous Audie sighting. It was like he was reminding me that he was still right there with me. And I know he is.
This song was written for me, my Redline brothers, and everyone who has experienced the pain of losing a loved one. Each of those groups gets a part of this song, and I hear Audie all over it.”
Jones wrote a good bit of the material that Redline recorded in recent years, so his style is closely associated with theirs. And he brought in a number of Audie’s former bandmates to record the track, with both Evan Ward and Russ Carson on banjo, Patrick McAvinue and Mason Wright on fiddle, McAvinue on mandolin, and Darren Nicholson on harmony vocal. Reed himself played bass and guitar, using Blaylock’s vintage Martin, Thor, and sang the lead on Ran Out of Road.
Also appearing on the track are Vince Gill on tenor vocal and Harry Stinson on snare.
The studio reunion was a happy time for everyone, and Reed believes that it helped them all with their grief.
“All of us in Redline needed something like this to do together as part of our healing. We hope that healing is evident to everyone who hears this song, and that they can experience it themselves.”
Finally, Jones expressed why he cared so deeply for his friend, Audie Blaylock, both personally and musically.
“He listened tirelessly. He loved deeply. He lived passionately and intensely. He was fiercely loyal and incredibly sensitive. He was a musician’s musician, a singer’s singer. He was a kindred spirit. He was my brother.
In our first conversation, he told me, ‘we play bluegrass music, but we play it like rock stars.’ I could get behind that, and I found out very quickly he meant it. I also found out quickly that when he said, ‘I love you,’ he meant that too. In fact, I think that pretty accurately sums up Audie: he meant it.
Audie was a musical force. I would love it if Audie could hear this from the other side and think, ‘those are my guys, that is my music, and I can hear myself all over it.’ I hope he’d love it and be proud.”
Have a listen to a sample from Ran Out of Road, set to release January 10, 2025, the one year anniversary of Audie’s passing.
The title may suggest dreariness, but it’s a high-energy, minor key screamer sung by mandolinist Anneli Burnett about the emotions felt when your true love moves on. Support comes from sisters Anissa on fiddle and Sophia on bass, with Allen playing guitar and banjo. Geary and Anissa provide the harmony vocals and Dan Boner joins them on second fiddle.
In the accompanying music video we see the band playing this one out amidst their beloved western North Carolina mountains.
Check it out.
Sorrow, Grief and Pain is available now from popular download and streaming services online, and to radio programmers via AirPlay Direct.
Veteran guitarist, vocalist, and solo artist Jim Hurst has released a music video as his 2024 offering for the Christmas season.
It’s a lovely treatment of the classic hymn, Silent Night, which he recorded with his Gallagher Jim Hurst Signature Series model #1, the rosewood companion to his road axe, the mahogany #2. Jim sings it in a straightforward fashion with his rich baritone.
Hurst isn’t offering the track for sale, just sharing the lovely audio he tracked at Tim Carter’s TreeHouse Studios as a gift to all in this video with a virtual fireplace and a variety of Christmas images.
The Roan Street Ramblers, a young family bluegrass group from Johnson City, TN, have written and recorded a song about the devastating floods that followed Hurricane Helene back in September.
Titled A Long Ways Past A Preacher, it’s sung by River Smith, who plays banjo, with support from older sister Lucy on fiddle, and little brother Sawyer on mandolin. Their mom, Linda, plays guitar with lead guitar from family friend Gary Taylor.
All the youngsters in the group have been studying their instruments since they were quite young, and have participated in the Junior Appalachian Musicians program at their school. Lucy, River, and Gary are in their teens, and Roan Street Ramblers already performing before audiences near their home.
A music video for their song was filmed in the studio, showing that these young pickers and singers have come quite a long way before they can even drive a car, predicting a great future if they stick with their music.
Have a look/listen…
A Long Ways Past A Preacher is available from popular download and streaming services online. The Smiths are looking now for a way to donate money from the song’s streaming and download revenue to the various organizations helping out in the Appalachian regions affected by the flooding.
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