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Here’s the video of Billy Strings, performing last night on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
As he typically does on television, Billy played a solid bluegrass number, this time, his current single from Highway Prayers, Seven Weeks in County, with its wild west theme. He is accompanied by his touring band, Billy Failing on banjo, Jarod Walker on mandolin, Alex Hargreaves on fiddle, and Royal Masat on bass.
Here ’tis..
Avant-garde grasser extraordinaire Billy Strings is booked to perform Thursday, November 28, on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. The show airs at 11:35 (eastern) on NBC affiliate stations.
So when you sit down to that late night turkey sandwich, with a bit of stuffing and some cranberry sauce on the side, tune in to catch this mainstream bluegrass sensation on your TV.
Billy is a legitimate touring phenomenon, selling out large venues across the US, on multiple consecutive days in larger cities. That isn’t notable on its own, as many popular artists do the same, but we are talking about an acoustic bluegrass show here. Guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, and bass. Sure, they are plugged in, and the lighting and video are far more intense than you would see at many festivals, but they are playing bluegrass, and to a mostly younger and urban audience.
The irreducible element is Mr. Strings himself, born William Lee Apostol in 1992. Certain performers just have that “special something,” and Billy is surely one. His appeal to a generation who have grown up with glitzy, high-impact entertainment is unmistakable; they clearly see him as a star.
And did we mention that he can play? Billy Strings is a terrific bluegrass guitarist, well-versed in all that came before, and deeply respectful of the music that formed him. He writes and sings original music very much in that vein, and with a truly terrific band that can play contemporary and modern bluegrass with the best of them.
Musical artists typically appear in the final segment of the hour long program, though Fallon may have Billy on to talk about his latest album, Highway Prayers, in an earlier block.
If you are one of those bluegrass lovers who have been hearing all the talk about Billy Strings, but figured you wouldn’t like him, check it out for yourself on Thursday night from the comfort of your easy chair.
It’s the music we all love, just bigger, louder, and on a larger scale.
UPDATE 11/29: video from the show available here.
The Cavern Sessions, formerly known as Bluegrass Underground, which airs on dozens of PBS stations across the US, has made their recent episode with the Dan Tyminski Band available in full online during the month of October.
Dan and crew play the full program, running about 25 minutes, which nicely showcases the songs from his current project, Live From The Ryman, and his extremely talented band, consisting of Harry Clark on mandolin, Maddie Denton on fiddle, Grace Davis on bass, Gaven Largent on reso-guitar, and Jason Davis on banjo. Tyminski, of course, sings lead and plays guitar.
You can watch the full episode below until the end of October, or on the PBS web site.
The Life of a Musician, the PBS television program hosted by Virginia bluegrass artist Brandon Lee Adams, came away with an Emmy Award this year from The National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
The show, produced in Danville, VA by Brandon and his wife, Mindy, won in the Interview/Discussion category for an episode featuring young bluegrass mandolin prodigy, Jonah Horton.
As their concept, The Life of a Musician pairs an acoustic artist each episode with Adams, a life-long bluegrass guitarist in the Tony Rice mold, for a combination of conversation and music. Brandon makes a point to get his subjects to talk about more than just their technical proficiency or vocal skill, and dives into the topic of the show’s title, how a musician lives their life in the arts.
Though not all of the guests are bluegrass artists, given Brandon’s own tastes, a good majority are. Other guests have included Jerry Salley, John McEuen, Sammy Shelor, Larry Cordle, Kristy Cox, The Church Sisters, Tim O’Brien and Jan Farbricius, Jeneé Fleenor, and Zach Top.
Now putting together its third season, this program is available to all PBS affiliate stations, and already airs on many of them around the country.
Check the listings for your local public television station, and if you don’t see The Life of a Musician, let their management know you would like them to consider adding it.
All episodes from the first two seasons can be viewed online.
Congratulations to Brandon and Mindy for their Emmy!
Wyatt Ellis on From The Top – photo © Sally Bebawny Photography
We have written a number of times recently about From The Top, a program that identifies and highlights young musical artists during their teen years. They not only offer them visibility during the very early stages of a promising career, they also provide training to help these budding performers handle non-musical aspects of the profession.
From The Top is distributed nationally on NPR as a radio program, and this year they have broken with a habit of featuring only young classical musicians, and worked in a pair of traditional musical artists as well. Just a few weeks ago, North Carolina old time banjoist Bayla Davis, was profiled in an episode on rural America, and the most recent show, focused on Nashville, has included mandolin wunderkind Wyatt Ellis.
Regular readers of Bluegrass Today will be familiar with Wyatt, who at only 14 years of age has two albums of his music on offer, multiple appearances on the Grand Ole Opry, and his own band that performs at major festivals and venues. His most recent recording, Happy Valley, finds him in collaboration with some of the finest current practitioners of the mandolin, like Sierra Hull, Jake Workman, Scott Napier, Alan Bibey, Mike Compton, and Marty Stuart.
Not too shabby for a kid who can’t even drive yet!
The full Nashville episode of From The Top (Show #448) can be heard online, via any of the popular podcast aggregators, or on soundcloud.
Here is a brief video clip from Wyatt’s segment where he plays an original instrumental of his, The Winds of Rowan County.
From The Top adds new videos every day online, so more from Ellis may appear there before long.
Well done, Wyatt!
We posted several times about young North Carolina banjo player Bayla Davis, particularly about her being featured on From The Top, a program that typically highlights teen classical musicians on the rise. Her recent segment was only the second time they had focused on a traditional music artist, and we thought that was worthy of notice.
Bayla performs with her two younger siblings as a member of Newfound Gap, a bluegrass/old time band who performed just recently at MerleFest.
This week, Davis shared this statement on social media, encouraging other young traditional music artists to consider applying to be part of From The Top.
“Last winter, I was chosen as a From the Top fellow. This was an amazing opportunity that allowed me to complete an online curriculum spanning 12 hours over four weeks and record a solo performance at Echo Mountain Studio and interview for From the Top’s national radio program and podcast which released this week.
I applied during the application period that allowed applicants to apply for FREE. However, if the application fee is a barrier to youth musicians applying, they can also apply for a need-based scholarship, the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award.
We are learning to recognize that not all opportunities are what they seem. My siblings and I, with our parents’ support, have withdrawn from programs and showcases that say they promote youth musicians when, actually, they require significant investments of time and money, creating economic hardships to many families and inequities, with little to no benefit to the youth performer, while also interfering with our public-school education and our parents’ teaching schedules.
We have written about this before. Too often, young musicians are given the impression that if we participate in this program or this performance, it’s going to be our only opportunity. I am only sixteen, but I can tell you that I have never paid for any opportunity that actually benefited me as a musician, aside from lessons and camps, and I am so grateful for those opportunities like The Fine-Tuned Project and From the Top. We receive scholarships for the summer camps that we are able to attend. We receive scholarships for our lessons. We don’t invest in merchandise because we are young musicians having fun, we don’t pay to play, and we choose, instead, to invest in learning opportunities. Last summer, I enrolled in four free classes at Berklee. We are very privileged to have these opportunities.
I encourage any youth musician to apply. I am the second traditional musician to be accepted, but they do accept traditional musicians not only classical students.”
Good advice!
Here is her segment on From The Top, where she plays with two of her instructors, Jerry Sutton (Bryan’s dad) and Josh Goforth, and chats with the show’s hosts about her music.
Well done Miss Davis!
Next week’s episode of From The Top will include a segment on Wyatt Ellis.More on that Monday.
Bluegrass music continues to expand its audience in new ways as the genre grows in popularity. The music television show, Bluegrass Ridge, announced the addition of two new networks to its growing list of syndication. AIM Country and DBTV have now added the show to their weekly programming.
Bluegrass Ridge, deemed as “MTV for the bluegrass genre,” is a weekly half hour program highlighting music videos from bluegrass’s best known performers including up-and-coming artists. The program also offers a special artist interview or features a “Behind the Scene View” of the making of music videos.
Hosted by the husband and wife duo, Daniel and Carolyn Routh of Nu-Blu, Bluegrass Ridge airs on multiple television networks and stations worldwide. It continues to be the most widely broadcast TV program in the world. With 400 monthly airings, the musical program reaches over 120 million homes in the US each week, and in five countries across the world.
Co-host, Daniel Routh shared, “We love that we are able to bring so many of today’s artists into people’s homes. It gives us the chance to showcase everyone’s favorite artists, but also introduce them to new ones that they might not ever have had the chance to discover.”
Viewers can find a network or local affiliate that carries Bluegrass Ridge by visiting them online.
Bluegrass vocalist Ben James, a newly-minted member of the Oak Ridge Boys, made his television debut with the world famous quartet last weekend on Huckabee.
James, a former member of Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver and Dailey & Vincent, had been pursuing a solo career in bluegrass when contacted by the Oaks to step in for tenor Joe Bonsall, who had decided to give up touring for medical reasons. The Oak Ridge Boys start on a lengthy Farewell Tour this weekend, and stopped by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee’s television show in Nashville to get the word out.
On the episode aired this past Sunday, Ben was called upon to sing lead on Elvira, perhaps the Oaks’ biggest hit, alongside longtime vocalists Duane Allen, William Lee Golden, and Richard Sterban.
He said it has been a an amazing ride…
“It has been a dream come true becoming an Oak Ridge Boy. I grew up with their music, and performing nightly with them is a ‘pinch me’ moment with every song. This weekend was extra special as we made our way to the Grand Ole Opry for the first time together. I love the Oaks, and I love and admire Joe Bonsall!”
Here’s video of their performance, with Governor Huckabee on bass, as always.
Well done Ben!
Billing this as their Farewell Tour could mean that this year may be your last chance to see the Oak Ridge Boys in person, but you never know. Bluegrass lovers will certainly enjoy seeing and hearing a familiar face and voice with such a legendary act.
You can see all the tour stops online.
One of our favorite artists over the past decade has been Summer Brooke McMahan, in her time with her family band Mountain Faith, on her own, and with her brother as Summer & Bray. We followed the rapid rise of Mountain Faith on the bluegrass scene, as well as the success they enjoyed after spending several weeks on America’s Got Talent in 2015, where they wowed everyone with their bluegrass versions of pop songs of the day.
We caught up with Summer over the weekend, and she has some exciting news to share. Now Summer Brooke Morgan, she is set to appear on tonight’s edition of The Voice on NBC television as a contestant.
She says that it’s a bit different going on alone…
“I’ll be singing solo on The Voice! I had to overcome the massive fear of being on stage ALONE for the first time in my life! I missed Bray being beside me, but he’s busy with a new baby.
Here lately I’ve been playing music at church every Sunday, and learning to play the guitar. I miss the road so much and I hope I get to do it again sometime. I miss all of my bluegrass family!”
The Voice airs tonight, March 4, at 8:00 p.m. (ET/PT), so tune in and see what our sweet bluegrass darlin’ is up to these days.
One thing she is doing recently is writing books, with three titles now available under her name. Two are children’s books, Addie’s Appalachian Home and The Little Fiddler, and the other an inspiration story of her own life called She Will Not Fail: A Successful Life in God’s Eyes.
All three are actually based on her life, and her reaction after she discovered so many girls and young women were inspired by how confident and cool Summer always seemed on television, on stage, and doing television sports coverage.
So how did becoming an author come her way?
“When the band came off the road, I wasn’t writing music as much because we weren’t making albums anymore. So, one day the thought popped into my head about children’s books.
The children’s books are self published and for sale on Amazon, and She Will Not Fail is with Trilogy Publishing, and available at Walmart.com Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.
I’ve been working on the inspirational book for years!
I have a few more ideas for children’s books for the future.”
Good luck on The Voice, Summer! Look for her tonight and/or possibly Tuesday night.
You can read through some of our previous coverage of Summer and Mountain Faith here.
Bluegrass Ridge, the half hour television program that broadcasts bluegrass music videos into the homes of millions every week, has added a new feature for viewers who want to hear the songs from the show after it is over.
Hosted by Daniel and Carolyn Routh of Nu-Blu, the show has just begun creating a streaming playlist for the videos that appear on the program. Now anyone viewing Bluegrass Ridge on one of the many networks on which it appears can simply scan a QR code that shows up on screen and listen to the tracks from that week’s and previous episodes in one place.
The playlists are available on Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, Pandora, Tidal, Deezer, and Soundcloud, and can also be accessed by this link.
Daniel tells us that this is something that viewers have been asking them to do.
“This is an official playlist, which means that the streaming services will be listing it as part of all the other editor-curated playlists that they push to all listeners. Any video that is featured on Bluegrass Ridge will automatically be added to the playlist. The songs will automatically roll off the playlist after 50 songs, unless the video is featured again, which will bring it back up to the front and start the rotation over again.
We listened to everyone at the IBMA label meeting, and our viewers that email us each week, and realized that we needed to add this critical component to the show so that we could bring people directly to artists.
Please be sure and get us your videos so that we can feature them, and get your artists added, and reach out so that we can get your artists featured in our spotlight segment as well. It doesn’t have to be a current video, we can go back and feature a re-current video and artist for this as well.”
Bluegrass Ridge is a service of CJM Productions, and artists or labels interested in having their music videos included can reach them by phone at 615-414-5420, or by email.
Bluegrass Ridge can be seen on cable or satellite networks that include the Heartland, The Family Channel, Canyon Star, Country Road, Harmony, Right Now, Stryke, Family Friendly Entertainment, The Country Network, CMT, YTA, or Country TV channels.
It is also available through a number of local affiliates, a list of which can be seen online.
