Life Goes On – Music from the MACC II

We’ve written many times about the magnificent work done by Darrel and Phyllis Adkins at their annual Musicians Against Childhood Cancer festival in Ohio. Top bluegrass acts make the trip each summer and perform at no charge, with proceeds from the festival being donated to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis.

Recordings made at the festival from 2000-2005 were released as the Celebration Of Life CD in 2006. The record went on to win the IBMA Album of the Year award that September, and was widely hailed for its stellar performances by the more than 130 artists featured on the 2 disc set.

March 27 has been set for the release of a second volume of live MACC tracks, again a 2-CD set recorded at the festival from 2006-2011. Life Goes On will appear on Rural Rhythm Records and, like the live show, all the artists appear without compensation, with a share of proceeds headed to St. Jude’s.

A debut single is now available to radio through Airplay Direct, the lone track of 39 that was not recorded live on stage. It’s the title track, one that Darrell Adkins particularly wanted to include, which was cut recently at Randy Kohrs’ Slack Key Studio in Nashville. It features shared lead vocals from Jerry Salley, Larry Cordle, Ricky Wasson, Ronnie Bowman and Carl Jackson on a poignant song by Dale Pyatt and Steve Thomas about moving on after losing someone dear. Adkins was inspired to host the MACC fest after losing his own daughter to cancer in 2000, making his identification with the song’s lyrics all too clear.

Life Goes On: [http://traffic.libsyn.com/thegrasscast/life_goes_on.mp3]

Alan Bibey is on mandolin, Jim VanCleve and Ron Stewart on fiddle, Randy Kohrs on reso-guitar, Clay Hess on guitar, and Jay Weaver on bass. Harmony vocals are provided by Garnet Bowman, Ashley Kohrs, Darrell Adkins, Len Butler, Gary Payne, and Dale Pyatt.

A music video for the song is being filmed today in Gallatin, TN with Ronnie and Garnett Bowman, Larry Cordle, Jerry Salley, Randy and Ashley Kohrs, Clay Hess and more scheduled to appear. It should be available some time prior to the 3/27 album release date.

We’ll share more details about the rest of the material on Life Goes On shortly.

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About the Author

John Lawless

John had served as primary author and editor for The Bluegrass Blog from its launch in 2006 until being folded into Bluegrass Today in September of 2011. He continues in that capacity here, managing a strong team of columnists and correspondents.