Rachel Johnson Boyd and her husband Chris are celebrating the birth of their first child. Luke Holston Boyd was born on April 21 at 5:06 p.m., weighing in at 6 lbs 14 oz.
Rachel had worked in bluegrass since she was a young girl, touring with The Boohers while a student at East Tennessee State University. She followed that with a stint as a member of Dixie Bee-Liners, and then worked with Darin & Brooke Aldridge for two years, playing fiddle and sharing in the harmony vocals.
She asked us to share a few words on this joyous occasion…
“Thank you for all your prayers, love, and support. God has truly blessed our little family.”
Bluegrass Today congratulates the new family, and welcomes Luke Boyd to the fold.
Darin & Brooke Aldridge have announced that Rachel Johnson Boyd, their fiddler and harmony vocalist this past 2 years, is leaving the group at the end of December.
Rachel explained her reasons in this note to fans and friends of the band.
“After 2 years of making beautiful music, life-long friendships, and accomplishing dreams with Darin and Brooke Aldridge, I have decided that it is time for me to come off the road. Since Darin, Brooke and the rest of the band have become my very best friends, this decision was extremely hard to make, but after much prayer and consultation with my family, I feel like it is time for me to stay home and begin my new journey as a gooey-mooshy newly-wed and aunt. God has truly blessed me with my experience with Darin and Brooke and I am so thankful to have their support and friendship. I wish them the absolute best….. as in an Opry-filled, award-winning best!!
I am also currently having complications with my right foot and will have to have surgery in the undesirably near future. The surgery typically has a 6-week recovery, so it doesn’t look like I am going to be able to show off my new shoes I got on sale at Belk any time soon. Unfortunately it will be even longer before I will be able to get back on stage as a member of a touring band.
Thank you, friends, fans, and family, for all of your love and support that has helped me to accomplish my dreams and made me feel loved every single place that we have traveled. I hope each of you will understand this decision that I have made for my family. I will miss seeing you from the stage, but no worries; I still plan on sawing a tune every now and then.
God bless each and every one of you.”
Darin and Brooke are holding open auditions now for a fiddler and harmony vocalist to take Rachel’s spot. Anyone interested in auditioning is urged to contact Darin by email.
The title,Live at Red, White and Bluegrass! pretty much gives the game away. It was recorded this past summer at the RW&BG festival Morganton, NC, showcasing the tight duet and trio harmony that has set this group apart over the past few years.
Audio samples can be heard on the Crossroads Music site, and you catch a full project play through on Saturday, when the record gets its radio debut on WNCW’s Goin’ Across The Mountain. Darin & Brooke will be in the studio with host Dennis Jones to spin each track, and share their thoughts.
Tune in over the air in central and western North Carolina at 88.7 FM (and 4 other regional frequencies), or via live streaming online, at noon (EST) on November 10.
Special thanks to Ted Lehmann for this piece. Ted is a retired teacher who blogs at Ted Lehmann’s Bluegrass, Books, and Brainstorms and travels extensively with his wife Irene to bluegrass festivals and other events. He also took the photos in the gallery below. See more of his writing and photography online.
Rachel Renee Johnson and Christopher Boyd were joined in matrimony in a service at the Eastern Heights Presbyterian Church in Bristo, TN on Saturday, October 22, 2011 with the Rev. Dr. Rick Light officiating.
The bride, who has been a professional musician since she graduated from high school, is a graduate of the bluegrass program at East Tennessee State University. She is the daughter of Ray and Michelle Johnson of Bristol, TN. Mrs. Boyd plays fiddle and sings harmony with the Darin & Brooke Aldridge Band and teaches fiddle to private students in the Bristol/Johnson City area. She also teaches bluegrass at Sullivan East High School in Bluff City, TN.
The groom, Christopher Boyd, is a graduate of East Tennessee State University who is recently returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan with the 101st Airborne Division in which he served from 2007 through 2011. He works for Ingersoll Rand in Southern Pines, NC. He is the son of Bryan and Laurie Boyd of Bristol.
The wedding ceremony was a traditional event highlighted by its bluegrass overtones with music provided by a bluegrass band as well as a group of Rachel’s fiddle students. The bride wore a beautiful white gown made of tufted fabric looking much like flowers. Her seven attendants wore cherry red dresses. The wedding ceremony and luncheon reception held in the church was witnessed by approximately 300 friends and relatives of the bride and groom.
A honeymoon planned for Cancun, Mexico has been interrupted by Hurricane Rina forcing the couple to return early. The newlyweds will live in Pinehurst, NC.
Right on time… The bluegrass band rotations start this time each year, sometime after IBMA, roughly coinciding with the baseball playoffs. Unrestricted free agency in bluegrass does create headaches for bandleaders, but it’s not something that can be avoided in a business like ours.
The first announcement of the fall trading season comes from fiddler Rachel Johnson, who is jumping from The Dixie Bee-Liners to Darin & Brooke Aldridge. Rachel is only 22 years old, but has been performing professionally for the past 7 years. Before joining up with Buddy Woodward and Brandi Hart in the Bee-Liners, she worked for 3 years as a member of The Boohers.
Speaking on behalf of The Dixie Bee-Liners, Brian Smith (of Leadership Artists, DBL’s manager) tells us:
“We enjoyed the past four years, appreciate the contribution Rachel made to the band, and wish her all the best.
As for The Dixie Bee-Liners, we are laying the groundwork for what we hope will be a milestone year in 2011. The band recently signed with the highly regarded agency TG2 Artists for exclusive US touring representation, and we are currently writing new material, and in discussions with various labels for a new partnership in the coming year.”
Rachel speaks with fondness for her former band mates, while she looks ahead to a new chapter.
“I love Buddy and Brandi – and all the Bee-Liners. They taught me so much about singing alternative harmony, and conducting myself as a professional in the music business. The Dixie Bee-Liners have a tremendous amount to offer and I hope they take over Americana music!
They’ve also inspired me to be a song-writer and helped boost my confidence level again. I can’t thank them enough for all that they have done for me.
I grew up singing bluegrass Gospel, and feel like it’s a big part of who I am. I had been missing that music, and the bluegrass Gospel circuit, a lot these days. So when the offer came from Darin and Brooke, it seemed like the right time to make the move. I’m excited about getting to play Bobby Hicks-style fiddle, and sing Gospel-quartet harmony again.”
More similar annoucements are sure to follow – we are in the bluegrass trade season, after all.
Maro Kawabata is a Japanese native who came to the states some 20 years ago. His interest in bluegrass music led him to record a solo project for Copper Creek Records, Carolina Blue, in 2001, and then plan a tour in Japan to promote the CD. He took Sammy Shelor, one of his heroes, with him on that tour. In 2007 Maro and Sammy went back and took Jennifer Strickland with them.
That second tour had as its focus the demonstration of opportunities for cross cultural exchange through bluegrass music. Since 2007, the tour has become an annual event. We had the opportunity to speak with Maro yesterday, and gather some additional information about the tour, the musicians involved, and the bluegrass in Japan.
Here’s a listing of each of the five tours, and which musicians have participated.
2001: Maro Kawabata, Sammy Shelor
2007: Maro Kawabata, Sammy Shelor, Jennifer Strickland
2008: Maro Kawabata, Sammy Shelor, Andy Ball and Shin Akimoto
2009: Maro Kawabata, Sammy Shelor, Andy Ball, Rachel Johnson and Shin Akimoto
2010: Maro Kawabata, Don Rigsby, Terry Baucom, Patty Mitchell and Rachel Johnson
When Maro began planning for this year’s tour, he was in the studio working on his latest CD, Sunset Drive. Don Rigsby was in the studio with him and expressed an interest in going on the tour. As the two began to talk, the lineup of the tour began to take shape.
For the Sunset Drive 2010 Japan Tour, Mr. Rigsby contributed a great help to choose musicians to travel with and I carefully chose musicians that would fit the tour purpose and quality.
Maro told us that his particular interest in taking Terry Baucom stemmed from the fact that he considers Terry to be somewhat of a legend who the Japanese audience hadn’t had many opportunities to see. Patty Mitchell sang on the CD and it seemed like a natural choice to take her along as well. Of course, Rachel Johnson had gone last year, and Maro decided he wanted her along again this time around.
I asked Maro how he would gauge the popularity of bluegrass music in Japan.
With the influence of Folk music in the late 70s, Bluegrass music was introduced to Japanese college students and began to gain popularity in the late 70s and 80s. There are some die-hard Bluegrass lovers in Japan and they are the ones supporting our tour every year.
He said the popularity, expressed as a percentage of the population who enjoys the music, would be roughly equal with that of the U.S. My next question was to ask him how the tour was received this year, with both Don and Terry along.
We did a lot of straight bluegrass music on this tour and our performance was very well received among the Japanese audiences at each venue. Needless to say, having high profile veteran musicians such as Don and Terry on the tour is huge plus. Don and Terry are both strongly established in the Japanese Bluegrass scene. I am so glad that we were able to provided quality music to those who had such high expectations from our past tours.
As the conversation continued, I asked Maro how he would gauge the overall success of the tour, especially in terms of accomplishing its mission.
The 2010 Sunset Drive tour was very successful, we have accomplished our mission to provide the grass roots cross cultural experience and we visited hospitals to play our music to their patients. We also did some work shops for the college students who are learning Bluegrass music among their college club activities. I hope our time spent with those younger generations would motivate them not only to play music but to incite an understanding for international good. This year, we have raised almost $1,000.00 in donations for Nashville Flood Victims. We are very appreciative and humbled by the generosity of people in Japan. The funds raised on tour will be donated to the city of Nashville and the Red Cross on June 11,2010 by Hon.Hiroshi Sato, Consulate General of Japan in Nashville.
Maro tells us that he intends to continue this Japanese tour on an annual basis. His passion is to provide a grass-roots level cultural exchange between his native country Japan and his (now) home country of the United States. He also expressed a desire to tour here in the US as well, so we’ll be on the look out for that!
It was mentioned earlier in this article that Maro recently recorded a new CD titled Sunset Drive. The tour was named after the CD. Sunset Drive will soon be available from FGM Records. We’ve obtained a copy and will post a review soon, so keep your eyes open for that.
While they were in Japan, the band had the opportunity to interact with other Japanese bluegrass musicians. During one such instance, the Japanese bluegrass band Longing For The Southland, asked Terry Baucom to join them onstage for a turn through the song Yellow River. Here’s the video of the performance.
