The band, consisting of Allan Spinney (guitar and vocals), Rick Spinney (banjo and vocals), Gary Dalrymple (mandolin) and Adam Pye (bass) will be in the studio with radio presenter Lee Michael Demsey, who will not only play a few tracks from the CD, but will also have the Spinney Brothers in person to perform some of their new songs live, all beginning at 11:00 a.m. (ET).
The Spinney Brothers, formed in 1992, are originally from the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, Canada. They are noted for their tight brother duet vocal style that is immediately recognized for its energetic and distinctive sound. The cornerstone of their musical identity is their thorough understanding of traditional, southern-flavoured bluegrass music. While the first generation bluegrass legends have been an important musical influence, the brothers’ music is equally shaped by their personal lives and rural heritage.
The Spinney Brothers can be heard on WAMU’s Bluegrass Country with Lee Michael Demsey worldwide on www.bluegrasscountry.org and locally within the D. C. area via 105.5 FM in Washington, D.C., on 93.5 FM in Frederick and Hagerstown, Maryland, or through the station’s iPhone application.
Like her previous CDs, it features Donna singing her original compositions, tracked with some of Nashville’s top bluegrass musicians, and produced by Keith Sewell. Scott Vestal is on banjo, Rob Ickes on reso, Andy Leftwich on mandolin and fiddle, Viktor Krauss on bass, and Sewell on guitar and harmony vocals. Additional backup vocals are provided by Rick Stanley, Tony King, Greg Davis and Jon Martin.
Tune in to Bluegrass Country this morning (6/16) at 11:00 a.m. (EDT) to catch some tunes from An Easy Climb, and hear Donna tell the stories behind the songs.
WAMU’s Bluegrass Country can be heard online across the globe at www.bluegrasscountry.org, and in the Washington, DC area on HD Radio WAMU-88.5-Channel2 and on 105.5FM.
One of the advantages of living to a ripe old age is the perspective you gain over your many years. If you keep your eyes and ears open, you become something of an expert in what has happened around you during your life. And so it is for John Starling, who will reach the age of 71 this Saturday. WAMU’s Bluegrass Country will memorialize the event by airing a 3 hour interview conducted late last year by Katy Daley and Lee Michael Demsey. The show air on Sunday (3/27) from 3:00-6:00 p.m. (EDT) during the Bluegrass Master Class segment. For me, as a young student of bluegrass in the 1970s, John Starling was the Seldom Scene. Others might argue that no, it was John Duffy’s soaring tenor, or Ben Eldridge’s “missing link” banjo style. Still others may point to Mike Auldridge’s then revolutionary resonator guitar, or Tom Gray’s bass solos. To my mind, though, it was Starling’s distinctive baritone, his passionate turn of a phrase, and his unerring ear for appropriate songs that made the band stand out. Seldom Scene is still a going concern – with Eldridge the lone founding member on board – a testament to the power of the concept and their ability to entertain. But I always miss John when I hear them live. Katy shared a couple of clips from their in-depth interview with Starling, along with a few comments about Sunday’s program.
“Lee Michael and I did the interview with John Starling covering his musical career, talking about his playing music with Ben Eldridge at the University of Virginia, and then the formation of the Seldom Scene. We also discussed his work with Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, Lowell George, Paul Craft, Ricky Skaggs and many, many others.”
WAMU’s Bluegrass Country can be heard online across the globe at www.bluegrasscountry.org, and in the Washington, DC area on HD Radio WAMU-88.5-Channel2 and on 105.5FM. Here’s a nice memory of Starling with the Scene on one of his most requested songs in a return, sit-in performance following his departure in 1978.
There are a number of bluegrass radio events taking place in the next few days worth mentioning.
Thursday – May 20,2010
Frank Solivan will be live on air with WAMU’s Lee Michael Demsey. The show begins at 10 AM. Listeners will be treated to tracks from the new Dirty Kitchen recording, and discussion of an upcoming concert series.
Friday – May 21, 2010
Carol Beaugard interviews Carolyn Routh of Nu-Blu on Lonesome Pine RFD. The interview will air at 11 AM. Discussion will center around the band’s new CD Nights.
With the upcoming May 2010 issue of Bluegrass Unlimited, Lee Michael Demsey will celebrate 20 years compiling National Bluegrass Survey, the singles and album chart that has appeared in the magazine since 1990.
The chart debuted in the May 1990 issue, and according to Demsey, this next issue will be their 241st.
BU editor Linda Shaw explained how the chart works, and tips her cap to Lee Michael.
“It began as a review of the top 30 songs and later expanded to include the 15 top albums. The listing is a tabulation of what a selected group of bluegrass radio disc jockeys have reported as the songs they are currently playing. We started with 37 reporters in 1990 and currently have over 50 radio stations, syndicators, web sites and their broadcasters reporting.
Bluegrass Unlimited would like to thank Lee Demsey for his 20 years of work compiling the listing for us monthly. And, of course, he could not have done it without all the radio stations and broadcasters who have reported to the survey over the years.”
Demsey is proud of his charting tenure, and recalls how it got started lo these twenty years ago.
“Credit should also be given to Pete Kuykendall for helping come up with the concept for the chart. We were just shooting the breeze one day. If I remember correctly, I was telling him that I always enjoyed making pop charts of my favorite songs, growing up in the sixties. At that point, the possible usefulness of having a chart to track the popularity of current bluegrass songs came up.”
We wondered how much modern technology has affected the compilation of the National Bluegrass Survey over 20 years. Turns out, not much.
“In putting the chart together, nothing has really changed much. I guess I’m a Luddite, and just as I did back in 1990, I still do all my calculating with pen and paper. I get joy adding figures up with my brain, call me crazy.
Until a year of so ago, we’d send a notebook with each song getting a page of it’s own, back and forth, between my home in Maryland and the magazine in Virgina. I’ve only been to BU headquarters twice in my life. Now we’ve done away with the notebook and I send the data in through my computer, using a spread sheet.
We have a few more stations reporting now than we did in the earliest days of the chart. I think it’s 63 at the moment, and we still use the same system. Ten songs are reported, no more than two from any one project or artist. Their songs are ranked from one to ten, so number ten gets one point and number one gets ten points.”
Lee Michael also keeps to some of the old ways in his day job as an on-air host at WAMU’s Bluegrass Country’s 24/7 streaming internet station.
“I’ve been doing bluegrass shows at WAMU for much of the last twenty-eight years. We’ve gone from using LPs (and the occasional cassette or reel to reel tape) to the point now where almost all our songs are stored in a computer database. I still like to pull out an album or two each show.
I asked Demsey what sort of trends he sees in the songs that chart in Bluegrass Unlimited.
“Well, among the things I see, Gospel songs don’t make the charts too often, nor do instrumentals, and that’s a shame. I think there’s a pretty good mix of the contemporary and traditional, though some think it’s weighed heavier toward the contemporary. The more established groups naturally tend to do better on the charts, but we see newcomers and smaller, more regional acts making the lists too. Detour, from Michigan, just cracked through this month. I do find myself rooting a bit for certain artists, mainly up and coming acts.
It can be frustrating when there is a song I love and it doesn’t end up getting much in the way of votes. I want to shout out to these reporting stations, ‘why aren’t you playing this, or reporting that,’ but I don’t want to have any influence on the chart, so I keep quiet.
Most of the great songs do find their way onto the chart.”
“I’m enjoying doing the monthly countdown show (heard on the last Saturday of each month at 11am eastern time). I get to interview some of the folks who’ve charted and get their insights about the songs.
Starting May 5th, and every Friday at 11am eastern time for awhile, I’m going to look back on an old chart, starting with the very first one from May of 1990. We’ll count the top songs down from twleve to number one.”
Congratulations to Lee Michael Demsey and Bluegrass Unlimited for 20 years of The National Bluegrass Survey!
Now here is a number that all our radio friends will appreciate… 1000.
That is the number of shows that Lee Michael Demsey is celebrating today on WAMU’s Bluegrass Country. He has been with WAMU for nearly 30 years, spinning bluegrass when the signal was sent over the airwaves, and online since 2001 when the station moved the grassy programming to the Internet.
These days his show is heard weekdays from 10:00 a.m. to noon (EST), and on Saturdays from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. He also hosts the Bluegrass Unlimited Top 30 Countdown Show the last Saturday of each month.
Hats off to Lee Michael for his long service to bluegrass music!
