John Lawless, Author at Bluegrass Today

Trading fiddlers

The annual fall rotation of band members continues, as this weekend marks the official start of fiddlers Mike Hartgrove with Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver and Jesse Stockman with The Isaacs.

Mike returns to Quicksilver almost two years to the day that founding member Terry Baucom returned on banjo, reuniting Mike not only with Quicksilver (with whom he had previously performed), but also with his former IIIrd Tyme Out cohort (and founding member) Baucom. I spoke yesterday with Cindy Baucom (host of the syndicated bluegrass radio program Knee Deep In Bluegrass and devoted spouse to Terry), and she mentioned that Quicksilver was rehearsing with Mike even as we were speaking. He has been warmly welcomed back into the band.

Mike Hartgrove left Lonesome River Band where he had been for the past several years. Sammy Shelor reports that big changes are brewing with LRB, so stay tuned for more on that as the news unfolds.

Jesse Stockman leaves Doyle Lawson after five years to work with The Isaacs. Neither band’s web sites offer any official notice of the changes but you will probably see something there soon.

Pickin’ On David West

After producing 60 Pickin’ On CD projects for CMH Records, David West is featured on a compliation project for Fireheart Records, entitled Off The Rails. The newly released CD contains 14 instrumentals from the Pickin’ On series which David performed and arranged.

Off The Rails includes bluegrass instrumental arrangements of pop hits like Bruce Springsteen’s Born To Run, Jimi Hendrix’s Foxy Lady and The Byrds’ Turn, Turn, Turn. Guest artists include Gabe Witcher on fiddle, Lorenzo Martinez on percussion and Tom Ball on harmonica.

The many CDs in the CMH Pickin’ On series have collectively sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide and include bluegrass instrumental covers of songs by such noted pop, rock and country artists as ZZ Top, James Taylor, Dave Matthews, Reba McEntire and a great many others.

Voices Of Mountain Music interviews online

Blue Ridge Country Magazine, in conjunction with WVTF Public Radio, Blue Ridge Public Television, The Blue Ridge Institute at Ferrum College and West Virginia Public Radio, have made a series of interviews with noted bluegrass artists available online.

The interview series is hosted on the Blue Ridge Country Magazine web site and includes interviews with Del McCoury, Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, Doyle Lawson, Ralph Stanley, Sean Watkins, Doc Watson and Rhonda Vincent among others.

These interviews were conducted by Cara Ellen Modisett, a producer for WVTF (Virginia Public Radio) and text transcripts are also available.

Skaggs Family Christmas CD available in October

Skaggs Family Records will have its first CD of Christmas material released in October of 2005. The new project, Skaggs Family Christmas, will be a true Skaggs Family venture, featuring Ricky Skaggs along with his wife Shaon White (and The Whites) plus Ricky’s children, Molly and Luke Skaggs, and Cheryl White’s daughter, Rachel Warren.

The material will be a mix of Christmas favorites (Deck the Halls, White Christmas, Do You Hear What I Hear) with some newer songs as well (Mary Did You Know, The Christmas Guest). A Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder Christmas Tour (with The Whites) is also scheduled for December of 2005.

Roanoke Bluegrass Weekend Scholarship deadline extended

The deadline for applications to the 2005 Roanoke Bluegrass Weekend Scholarship has been extended to August 31. Any applications postmarked by that date will be accepted for consideration for the three spots being awarded this year.

Roanoke Bluegrass Weekend is a three day instructional seminar, held in November each year in Roanoke, VA and hosted by Herschel Sizemore and John Lawless (one of the authors of this blog).

A delay in the preparation and mailing of the RBW brochures left potential applicants with only a very short time to get an application in, so an additional month was added to the submission period. This scholarship is open to young bluegrass musicians between 13 and 24 years of age, and based on demonstrated ability. Full tuition and hotel accommodations are included in the scholarship award, along with some air fare reimbursements for folks traveling beyond a certain distance.

These scholarships are funded through the generosity of Gibson Original Acoustic Instruments. Each year, they have donated a new instrument to be raffled, with all proceeds going to this scholarship fund. The proceeds from the 2004 raffle (for a new F9) mandolin is funding this year’s three scholarship recipients. RBW is raffling off a new Earl Scruggs model banjo this year, with proceeds funding next year’s scholarship awards.

Tim O’Brien to release two CDs 9/13

Sugar Hill Records is announcing that singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Tim O’Brien will release two new recordings simultaneously on September 13. The two projects (Cornbread Nation and Fiddler’s Green) were initially conceived as a single CD release but expanded into this form as Tim realized that he had more songs he wanted to include than would comfortably be contained on a single CD project.

Rather than simply release a double CD, the tunes were segmented stylistically into two separate themes, with Cornbread Nation being more wide ranging and eclectic, and Fiddler’s Green having a bit more of a traditionalist focus. Tim commented regarding the new twin releases:

“I wanted to do the whole spectrum of folk music from one guy singing and playing guitar or fiddle to a full band with electric guitar…”

These two new projects are not yet available in stores, but can be purchased from Tim directly at any of his upcoming shows, or from his web site.

Bluegrass fans will remember Tim as the former mandolinist and lead vocalist with Hot Rize, one of the most enduring and influential bluegrass acts on the scene in the 1980s. The group disbanded officially in 1990, but continued to perform sporadically in reunions shows until the untimely passing of guitarist Charles Sawtelle in 1999.

Conflict of interest?

The question of conflict of interest has arisen with regard to the the fact the authors of Bluegrass Today also operate businesses that market products and services to the bluegrass community. Please be assured that we will always pass along new product information which we discover or is provided to us, without respect to whether the product or service might be seen as being in competition with either AcuTab or Clear Blue.

We will surely pass along our own news as well. The release of a Ron Stewart fiddle DVD or the recording of a new CD by Larry Keel are both newsworthy items, and the fact that they involve this blog’s authors does not diminish that fact. Expect to see notices about them both when the time is right.

Expect also to see information about similar items that are provided to us by anyone else in businesses similar to ours. We encourage anyone who markets to the bluegrass community to make us aware of any news about their company or their products that may be of interest to our readers. We can’t promise that we will publish an article about every single notice we receive, but we request that anyone who feels that something has been unfairly excluded please let us know your thoughts.

We can be contacted via this online contact form.

Bottom Line: we will publish news and information which we feel will be of interest to the bluegrass community, whether it comes from this blog’s authors or friends, from a company who advertises with us or not, or from people known or unknown to us.

IBMA nominees on Bluegrass Today

Bluegrass Today will offer expanded coverage of the International Bluegrass Music Association’s press conference to announce the nominees for the 2005 IBMA awards. Working closely with the IBMA, we will have a full listing of all nominees in each category available online, along with links to photos, bios and audio for each nominee.

The nominations announcement press conference is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, August 30 and our expanded coverage on Bluegrass Today will be available by 12:00 noon that same day. We expect that this information will be of interest to anyone following the awards this year, which will not only include fans and students of the music, but also the many voting members of the IBMA who can use our listing as a valuable resource in considering their final vote.

The international music press (print, broadcast and online) can also take advantage of this resource and, if you work in that field, we hope you will avail yourself of this expanded coverage as you prepare any features planned to coincide with, or follow the awards nominations announcement.

Grascals to open for Dolly in NYC

The Grascals will perform at Radio City Music Hall on August 18 as the opening act for Dolly Parton. This show will be the second stop on Dolly’s Vintage Tour and will feature a guest performance by the country superstar during their set, a joint rendition of Viva Las Vegas, which they also sang with her on ABC’s CMA Music Festival program a few weeks back.

Look for The Gracsals back in Nashville the following day, performing at The Station Inn Friday evening to help raise funds for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, donating all of the evening’s ticket sales to the museum.