Thanks to a grant from The Foundation For Bluegrass Music, The Gaston School of the Arts in Gastonia, North Carolina will be hosting The Bluegrass Project on October 14-15, 2011. The project consists of activities for both students and teachers, including workshops, panel discussions, music instruction for students, jam sessions and performances by professional musicians.
The purpose of the event is to both educate the students, and provide the teachers in attendance with tools to teach their classes, about the history and cultural significance of bluegrass and traditional music in the region. As most devoted bluegrass fans know, North Carolina produced Snuffy Jenkins and Earl Scruggs, but also country music’s Don Gibson, and many more modern era bluegrass artists.
Participating presenters and performers will include Darin Aldridge, who teaches at the Gaston School of the Arts when his touring schedule permits, Jason Burleson, notable bluegrass fiction writer Dr. Tom Bibey, sociologist and singer-songwriter Al Dunkleman, Reggie Harris, and Darin & Brooke Aldridge band members Rachel Johnson and Dwayne Anderson.
The public is invited to a concert at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday (10/15), which will feature faculty members and guest artists. A nominal admission cost of $5.00 will be collected to cover concert production costs.
For directions to the school or other information about The Bluegrass Project, contact the Gaston School of the Arts by phone at 704 866-8882, or by email.
Over this next few weeks, we’ll be doing some “after action” coverage of the 2009 IBMA World Of Bluegrass event in Nashville. Our goal is to demonstrate the effectiveness of participation at WOB, from a number of standpoints in the business, and where IBMA succeeds and fails in the eyes of the attendees.
First up is Darin & Brooke Aldridge, who were an invited showcase act who performed during the Monday (9/28) evening stage show, following the Keynote Address from Pete Fisher of the Grand Ole Opry.
The band is built around Darin Aldridge (formerly with The Country gentlemen and The Circuit Riders) and his wife, Brooke, a very talented bluegrass vocalist. Darin is on guitar, Brooke on mandolin, Chris Bryant on banjo, Eddie Biggerstaff on bass, and Perry Woodie on resonator guitar.
We spoke with Darin recently about their experience as an invited showcase act, and what sort of opportunities may have come their way as a result. I asked whether they had received many inquiries from festival or concert promoters at, or since IBMA.
“Yes we have John. The most important thing from IBMA was getting in front of all the promoters and performing. Brooke and I are a fresh new sound and a new band. Being a showcase artist helped us advance a year or two ahead in our career by getting in front of certain promoters. Now the follow up this month is what is most important.
We also got great media attention. On our showcase night, we got picked to go out over for an interview on the Eddie Stubbs show on WSM 650AM. Also it was out on bluegrasscountry.org. Tuesday morning we were interviewed by Fox News in Nashville, and later in the week by Chris Jones with Sirius-XM.
Brooke and I took part in the DJ taping session with radio hosts around the world, and also set up an article with Bluegrass Unlimited for 2010.”
Here is a piece of hand-held video from their IBMA performance.
Their impression was that the benefits outweighed the considerable expense and time commitment to be at IBMA.
“It was a honor to be featured as a showcase band, and was really helpful to us. We also were given a booth in the trade show Mon-Thur, and were able to meet lots of folks that might not have been there on Monday when we performed. It was nice to be able to network and meet people all week and tell them of our music and what we have to offer.”
We heard last week from Darin Aldridge, former member of The Country Gentlemen and current mandolinist with The Circuit Riders. This young man has quite a busy time ahead of him in the near future.
First up, he is engaged to be married to Brooke Justice, with whom he has started a new band. Darin is on guitar, Brooke on mandolin, with Chris Bryant on banjo, Eddie Biggerstaff on bass and Perry Woddie on resonator guitar. All five sing, with Brooke and Darin the featured lead vocalists.
Darin Aldridge & Brooke Justice will have a new CD, I’ll Go With You, due October 14 on Pinecastle Records and the band will be at IBMA this coming week showcasing the hard driving Gospel music that is their specialty.
Here is a YouTube clip of the band doing Get Down And Pray, one of the songs from the new CD. Audio samples for the others can be heard on their MySpace page.
Darin says that in addition to a wedding on December 27, he is also working on a new recording with The Circuit Riders this fall, which will also be released on Pinecastle.
