Scott Rouse Archives - Bluegrass Today

Ideabang takes on Rocky Top

Noted record producer and music entrepreneur Scott Rouse has announced a new licensing agreement between his company, IdeaBang, and House of Bryant Publications. The multi-year license covers branding and marketing for a variety of products that will be sold under The Official Rocky Top brand.

House of Bryant is run by Dane and Del Bryant, sons of the late Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, who made music history as the writers of Rocky Top. It was a big hit for The Osborne Brothers in 1967, and has reached legendary status as a fight song for the University of Tennessee. Though the Bryants have more than 2000 songs under copyright, Rocky Top remains their biggest hit, one that has been covered by artists as diverse as Lynn Anderson, who made it a hit again in 1970, and jam band heroes Phish.

Rouse had a run at the song himself, producing several dance remixes on Rocky Top ’96 for Decca under his GrooveGrass brand in 1996. It featured the iconic bluegrass version with a funk beat that went on to become a dance club favorite, selling over 100,000 copies. The album also featured the original Osborne recording, which Rouse says was meant to help introduce bluegrass to a younger audience with no knowledge of its existence.

He parlayed that into a full-length, self-produced recording in 1997 and another for Reprise in ’98, GrooveGrass 101. The first record simultaneously fascinated the music industry by combining Nashville grassers with Bootsy Collins, the Father of Funk, and annoyed bluegrass purists for tearing at the fabric of Bill Monroe’s legacy.

Rouse tells us that it was his sincere passion for the song and the music that convinced the Bryants to work with IdeaBang. Oh… and the string of product development successes for television and movies Rouse has under his belt. He says that this agreement has been in the works for nearly three years, and he can’t wait to get started.

Look for a launch of The Official Rocky Top brand in late July.

Rouse also has a new set of Rocky Top GrooveGrass remixes set for release September 2. He says that they are somewhat similar to the 1996 project, but reflecting 2012 musical sensibilities, and adding some sports-related themes. Charlie Daniels is on board giving voice to 2 of the tracks.

Should be fun. Scott Rouse is one of those guys you never, ever bet against.

GrooveGrass 101 on iTunes

Ten years ago a CD was released that was probably the very first mashup to feature bluegrass music (mashed with some groovy funk). The CD was GrooveGrass 101, produced by Scott Rouse.

This week Warner Brothers released the CD on iTunes for the first time and I’m told it’s selling quite well.

The CD features bluegrass legend Doc Watson together with Bootsy Collins on Wabash Cannonball and Blue Moon of Kentucky. Other stars making appearances include Mac Wiseman, Jerry Douglas, Ronnie and Rob McCoury, Jason Carter, Mike Bub, Bernie Leden (from the Eagles), and many more. Flatpicking master Steve Kaufman rips off some great solos on Little Cabin Home on the Hill mixed up with all the groovy stuff.

If you’ve never heard GrooveGrass 101, do yourself a favor and go give it a listen on iTunes.

Wichita Directs Video for The GrooveGrass Boyz

The GrooveGrass Boyz have tapped media marketing wizard, Wichita Rutherford, to direct the video for their new single “Crank That (Farmer Boy)”. When I asked Wichita about it here’s what he had to say:

The folks at GrooveGrass Recordings asked me to direct a video for the new single by The GrooveGrass Boyz about a song called ‘Crank That (Farmer Boy)’. It’s a ‘GrooveGrass’ or “Country” version of the gigantic hit ‘Crank That (Soulja Boy)’. We thought it would be fun to have a contest where people would send in videos of themselves doing the Soulja Boy dance and then I’d put the best ones in our video. They’ve got until February 15th to do a quick 30 second video and get it uploaded to me. The details are over at 5MinutesWithWichita.com. We’ve already done the initial shooting and here are some photos from it. The single will be on iTunes in about 2 weeks.

Scott Rouse produced the single with a variety of Bluegrass musicians as well as “infamous” Bluegrass musicians. The original GrooveGrass Boyz are Doc Watson, Bootsy Collins, Mac Wiseman and The Del McCoury Band. I guess we’ll have to wait and see who’s on this track.

Here are the photos Wichita sent:

Backstage with Mac Wiseman

Mac Wiseman did his last show at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville last night. The show was billed with John Prine as the headliner, but Mac performed as well. Judging from the picture of the two artists together, Prine is cognizant of Mac’s importance as a music figure.

Our friend Scott Rouse was on hand for the show and sent us a couple photos taken backstage afterwards.

Mac has contributed so much to this music over the years. He truly is a bluegrass great!

Bluegrassers at the Led Zeppelin show

Bluegrass has been getting cozy with the guys from Led Zeppelin recently. From the success of the duet album by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, to John Paul Jones producing Uncle Earl, the connection is there.

The rock band of legend just performed their first full concert in 27 years at the O2 Arena in London, UK, Monday night. This was a full on rock concert, but the bluegrass connection was still alive.

We just heard from our friend Scott Rouse, the Nashville producer responsible for the Blue Highway CD MarbleTown, who was at the show courtesy of John Paul Jones himself.

John Paul Jones invited his bluegrass buddies to London for the Zeppelin show. He gave us killer seats. John’s wife, Mo, really took great care of us all. Here’s me, Paczosa, Ronnie and Rob. We all got backstage after show passes and had a blast. The Bluegrass contingent was full on.

From what Scott tells me, the whole bunch headed over to Jones’ house for a jam session after the concert. So who’s the “whole bunch” you ask?

John Cowan
Bela Fleck
the Uncle Earl girls
Ronnie & Rob McCoury
Gary Paczosa
Scott Rouse
David Ferguson
John Carter Cash and Laura Cash
Chris Eldridge

Sounds like a jam I would have liked to heard!

Doc meets Elvis

Merlefest 2007 is over and the reports are that it was a spectacular festival. I’ve heard several people recount for me the highlights of this year’s event. But my friend Scott Rouse, a Nashville based producer, had what must have been the coolest experience of the festival this year. Scott spent Thursday afternoon with Doc Watson and Elvis Costello.

He and Doc hung out in my hotel room and laughed and told stories for a little over 30 minutes. They both had a great time. Elvis’ “cool” is for real. what an awesome guy. He was relaxed and there to listen to whatever Doc wanted to say and talk about. Doc told stories from his childhood and so did Elvis. They talked about their wives and the festival and even food. Afterwards when Elvis left Doc said “That Elvis Costello is a good boy. I really like him. Yeah, he’ll do.”

Scott’s dad, Jim Rouse, was there with them and took the picture.

Elvis Costello at Merlefest? I wondered how that went over, but Scott assured me it was a hit.

Elvis did an awesome show and was welcomed with open arms into the Bluegrass world when he let go with some of his biggest tunes done acoustically. Sam Bush on mandolin, Byron House on bass etc. Its hard to go wrong there. His show floored the crowd.

His respect and love for Bluegrass runs deep. He, for real, loves it. The British really understand the importance of the history of bluegrass and music in general. They get all up in it. Take John Paul Jones for instance. He spent a couple of nights at the Carter family’s home. He’s read the book twice and the Carter family is one of the first things he wants to talk about when you talk to him. He’s totally obsessed with absorbing and learning all he can about our music. And it isn’t just the non de-script, overall view type info most people get from just learning a little bit about bluegrass and its history. He can go DEEP into where our music came from. There’s a guy, who was in one of the biggest rock bands of all time, and he is totally humbled by Mother Maybelle. It really makes you think about how important our heroes really are, not only to us, but to the most potent musicians in the world.

Yes, bluegrass may be a smaller genre in the larger music world, but it’s important. It’s important to us, and it’s important to musicians in other genres as well. And if you like good music, I guess you almost have to like Doc Watson!

Cyndi Wheeler – A voice to be heard

The internet is all abuzz right now talking about the voice of Cyndi Wheeler. Cyndi played the pre-awards party at IBMA. The party was sponsored by BMI. Cyndi performed with Blue Highway, along with Sam Bush’s rhythm section, as her band. She covered standards like September Song and What a Difference a Day Makes.

Ed Morris at CMT wrote a piece about the awards and mentioned Cyndi’s performance at the pre-show party.

The highlight of that event was a performance by singer Cyndi Wheeler, who, backed by Blue Highway, beamed out irresistibly jazzy incarnations of such pop standards as “Dreamer’s Holiday,” “September Song” and “What a Difference a Day Makes.” She is produced by Scott Rouse, who also produces Blue Highway. An album of these tunes is due out soon.

John over at The Sheep’s Crib is also talking about Cyndi and had this to say.

You’re a hard-hearted meanie if you don’t like this voice.

Cyndi has been singing duets with bluegrass artists for some time now. Her fist, as far as I am aware, was a duet with Del McCoury on the tune I’ll Be Home For Christmas from the CD Christmas On The Mountain. She also joined Charlie Daniels for a duet rendition of Softly and Tenderly on his CD Songs From The Longleaf Pines. More recently she joined Blue Highway on their latest CD, Marbletown, for a duet with Tim Stafford on the song Quarter Moon.

Her upcoming album, which producer Scott Rouse tells me will be out sometime in the spring, features a duet with Ricky Skaggs on the title track, Tonight You Belong To Me. The song features the two voices with accompaniment from Ronnie McCoury’s mandolin.

You can hear several cuts from her upcoming CD on her website at CyndiWheeler.com.

Panel discussion and mentor sessions

I thought I’d let all our readers know about a couple events I’ll be involved with at IBMA next week.

On Tuesday the 26th from 10 to 11:45 I’ll be a panelist at a discussion entitled Internet Promotions: MySpace and Beyond! The focus of the panel is on maximizing your efforts at online promotion. We’ll talk about MySpace obviously, and also give you some pointers and tips for other things you can do to promote you business/band online. It should be a good discussion, one at which I’m sure I’ll learn some valuable things. The other people on the panel are Scott Rouse, John Gusty, David Gales and Jane Grimes (the moderator).

Then on Wednesday the 27th from 4-6 p.m. I’ll be doing mentor sessions on the topic of Bluegrass Podcasts & Internet Promotions. I’m not sure how much we’ll get into podcasts on Tuesday, but we can talk about it on Wednesday if anyone is interested.

The mentor sessions are a little different from the panel discussion in that I’ll be the only one involved in this topic and the mentor sessions are one-on-one 20 minute meetings where I can try and help you with your podcast or online promotions. I’ll have my laptop with me at the session although I’m not sure if I’ll have access to an internet connection in that room. There are also a bunch of other great topics you can choose from for mentor sessions. All of them are being led by great people with a lot of wisdom to share. This is an opportunity you should really take advantage of if you’re attending IBMA.

I did the mentor sessions last year as well and they were a lot of fun. I got to meet some wonderful people and really enjoyed it. If you’re interested there will be a sign up sheet in the foyer outside the ballroom (just down the hall from the registration area) starting Tuesday morning, September 26th, at 8 AM. There are only 9 time slots available so sign up early!

Scott Rouse featured in Frets Magazine

I remember when I was in school at South Plains College studying bluegrass music and recording technology, a friend of mine came in one day with a CD and said “You’ve got to hear this!” It was a recording that had all of us wondering if our world was changing forever. The CD jacket was bright yellow, said “Groovegrass 101” and it contained some of the wildest arrangements and productions we’d ever heard from bluegrass artists Del McCoury, Doc Watson and Mac Wiseman. What we also paid attention to the producer of the project. Being in school studying production you pay attention to such things. The guy’s name was Scott Rouse.

Rouse has gone on to produce some great bluegrass recordings including the latest from bluegrass supergroup Blue Highway. Marbletown is nominated for Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year at this year’s IBMA. And it’s currently doing quite well in our reader poll.

The fall 2006 edition of Frets Magazine contains an article/interview with Rouse concerning studio recording tips. It’s a very good read. Rouse gives some insight into mic placement for recording bluegrass instruments and vocals, talks about the gear he uses, and clues us in to how a good producer brings out the best performance in the studio. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find that many of the things Rouse talks about, including mics and other gear, are within the average bluegrass groups price range. Him producing your CD might not be though! He only produces 2 to 3 projects a year, and in the article he’ll tell you why.

If you are interesting in recording and producing bluegrass and accoustic music, I suggesst you go read this article.

Scott Rouse speaks about Charlie Daniels CD

As John mentioned in his earlier post we recorded an interview with Charlie Daniels for this week’s edition of The GrassCast. Prior to the interview I had a chance to email a few questions to Scott Rouse the producer. At the time I was just gathering background information for the interview, but we felt Scott’s comments were interesting and valuable enough to include them as an introduction to the podcast. At some point we’ll conduct an interview with Scott for The GrassCast. For now, here’s my question and answer with him about Charlie’s CD.

Who’s idea was this record, yours or Charlie’s?

Actually it was the Rector at my parent’s Church in Oak Ridge, TN, Craig Kallio. We’re Episcopal and 2 years ago I was in LA because I was nominated for a Grammy as producer for the Bluegrass Christmas album “Christmas on the Mountain” and when I found out the idea I was gonna pitch David Corlew, Charlie’s manager, had fallen through I didn’t know what I was going to meet with him about when I got back to Nashville. So as I’m standing there thinking about that my cell phone rings and its my Mom. And she says “Scott, I just talked to Craig Kallio and he thinks you need to do a Bluegrass Gospel album.” I about fell over because that would be PERFECT for Charlie and I would pitch THAT at my meeting with David Corlew.

Who selected the various artists and guests? Was that something Charlie came to you and said “I want to have these guys on my CD,” or did you suggest it?

I suggested the GrooveGrass Boyz as the band because that’s my A-List of of musicians that I use for most everything. We talked about Doc and Earl and Mac. Actually when I told Corlew the album I was wanting to do on Charlie the first thing out of his mouth was “Do you know Mac Wiseman?” and I said “Yeah man. He’s one of my best friends.” And Corlew said “If Mac Wiseman will do it, I know Charlie would love to do it.” So right then I called up Mac and before I has a chance to say a word he said “I was just thinking about you. Who are we doing a record with?” That’s true. That’s why Mac is such an important part of the album. Cyndi Wheeler sang with The Del McCoury Band on “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” on the Christmas on the Mountain Album. We talked about who he Charlie should do a duet with and all the bluegrass guys kept bringing her name up so we got her. She’s a grasser but she does this really warm jazz style vocal with bluegrass instruments and it just sounds wonderful. I’m actually cutting an album on her now and Blue Highway is the band.

Was Keep On The Sunnyside actually recorded live? And if so, how did that happen?

It was actually Charlie’s idea. And its live. It just happened so fast. And that’s the way Charlie is. “Hey Scott, let’s try this!” or “Scott, do you know Chris Thile? Let’s go over and see if he’ll be on this album.” There are only about 5 people who call me “Scott.” My Mom and Dad, Doc Watson and Del McCoury. Everybody else calls me “Rouse”. So when Charlie says “Hey Scott!” It really gets my attention. Plus the fact Charlie sounds like God would sound if he was from North Carolina.

Any other general comments as the producer?

Of all the people I’ve worked with as a producer, since I was 19 and I’m 42 now, Charlie is the most energetic “Let’s do this!” artist I’ve ever worked with. And his charisma is infectious. And you can hear it on the album. And he’s surrounded himself with the same kind of people, from his manager, David Corlew to Bebe Evans and Angela Wheeler and everybody else that works with him at his offices. Everyone involved with the album from the musicians to the studio owners just couldn’t get enough of the guy. You really have to experience someone’s personality like that in person. It sounds corny, but hanging out with him really makes you see things a little differently. He’s not kidding about the things he says about God. He’s what my father calls “A true believer.” Before Charlie went to Iraq we were talking and I said “Do you realize they are really having a real war over there and you’re gonna fly right into it? Doesn’t that scare you?” And he said “Scott, God will watch out for me from here to Iraq and back just like he does when I walk from my truck over there and back.” And he said it with that tone he uses when he’s reciting the 91st Psalm on the album. Let me tell you, THAT will get your attention! He’s such a powerful personality, and I think he’s using that in as many good ways as he possibly can.