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Monthly Archives: July 2021

IBMA names 2021 picks for Songwriter Showcase at World of Bluegrass

Posted on July 30, 2021 by Azlyrics

The International Bluegrass Music Association has announced the ten writers chosen to present at the 2021 Songwriters Showcase, held as part of the IBMA Business Conference during World of Bluegrass in September. It is one of many events specifically geared towards writers on the WOB Songwriters Track.

Each of the ten songwriters will have the opportunity to perform the original song chosen by an IBMA committee before an audience consisting of top bluegrass artists and producers. Everyone is always looking for songs during IBMA week in Raleigh, NC, so this is a great way for writers to connect with the people who need their material.

Presenting in the 2021 Songwriters Showcase are:

  • Aaron Burdett – Loser’s Bracket
  • Abbie Gardner – Down The Mountain
  • Brian Oberlin – Downtown
  • Buddy Guido and Paul Kelly – Everybody’s Best Friend
  • David Morris – Half-Passed You
  • John Lowell – I’m Going Home
  • Johnny Williams – A Change In Me
  • Kate Prascher – Roving Rounder
  • Heather Sarona – I’ll Be Lost
  • Boyd Timothy – Pines of Caroline

Congratulations to this year’s presenters!

Full details about registration for the 2021 World of Bluegrass, running September 28 through October 2, can be found online.

Posted in Lyrics | Tags: IBMA, Songwriter Showcase | Leave a comment |

Bluegrass Country Soul to be screened at 2021 Camp Springs festival

Posted on July 30, 2021 by Azlyrics

Talk about a family reunion!

This year over Labor Day weekend, the vintage classic, Bluegrass Country Soul, will be screened during the 2021 Camp Springs Bluegrass Festival – the very spot where the movie was filmed in 1971.

A lot has changed over the past 50 years. Camp Springs had fallen into disrepair and disuse, but the park was recently purchased by Cody and Donna Johnson, who have restored and updated the facility, adding a modern bathhouse, hot showers, a fishing pond, and a concession area. They have hosted a number of live music events since taking over in 2018, and are delighted to see bluegrass at the park once again.

Back in the 1970s, when the concept of bluegrass festivals was in its infancy, the great bluegrass impresario Carlton Haney held weekend shows at Camp Springs with his brother. That stage saw performances by all the creators of the music: Bill Monroe, Ralph Stanley, The Osborne Brothers, The Country Gentlemen, and all the popular acts of the day.

Carlton had hosted festivals in Virginia from 1965 to 1968, and the hubbub created from his Camp Springs festivals in 1969 and ’70 stirred filmmaker Albrt Ihde to travel to North Carolina with a crew to capture live footage in 1971. The rest of the country was largely unaware of the bluegrass festival phenomenon, and Ihde presented examples of the music and the bluegrass culture in his 1972 feature-length documentary, Bluegrass Country Soul.

In the film, we are treated to music from Earl Scruggs, The Lilly Brothers, Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys, J.D. Crowe & The Kentucky Mountain Boys, Jimmy Martin & The Sunny Mountain Boys, Del McCoury & The Dixie Pals, The Country Gentlemen, The Osborne Brothers, Bluegrass 45, and The Bluegrass Alliance, which featured young superpickers Sam Bush and Tony Rice. Ihde also shot audience footage and interviews with Carlton Haney and a number of attendees.

Since 1971, the film has been carefully restored and new, high-quality prints created for theatrical viewing. A copy is in the permanent collection of the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum in Owensboro, KY. It is also available on DVD in 4k HD widescreen format with Dolby surround sound.

On Friday, September 3, at 9:30 p.m., attendees at the 2021 Camp Springs Bluegrass Festival will enjoy a screening of Bluegrass Country Soul on the main stage, while they sit on the ground where the film was made fifty years ago.

Some of the same acts appearing in the film will also be performing on the festival this year, including Bobby Osborne and Doyle Lawson.

Further details and ticket information can be found online.

Posted in Lyrics | Leave a comment |

Urban Haglund passes

Posted on July 30, 2021 by Azlyrics

Knowledgeable Swedish bluegrass record collector, scholar, activist, and musician, Urban Haglund, passed away on Sunday morning, July 26, 2021, after a heart attack. He was 73 years old. 

Born October 10, 1947, in Borlänge, north-west of Sweden’s capital Stockholm, Haglund had a liking for music from an early age, and in due course he learned to play rhythm guitar and bass. 

He became a bluegrass music fan in 1962 when he was about 15 or 16 years of age and heard the Osborne Brothers’ recording, Jesse James, on Swedish Radio. 

Haglund became a member of the Stanley Brothers Fan Club – even though Haglund had never heard them at the time – and started to build a small library of 45 rpm records by corresponding with artists. He developed a passion by adding LPs and magazines to his collection, which was speculated might have been the best in Europe at one time. 

In March 1966 the Stanley Brothers, as part of a package tour, played several dates in Europe and, naturally, Haglund was in attendance for the Stockholm show. 

From shortly after 29:00 minutes Jan Johansson talks to Haglund about the Stockholm date. Prior to that is a live recording of The Stanley Brothers and a discussion with Gary Reid.

In the mid-1960s Haglund (guitar) with his brother Mats (banjo) started the group The Tennessee Travelers. Later they were joined by another brother Thomas (fiddle). Subsequently, the group became known as the Midnight Cowboys and then, in 1972, the Blue Grass Swedes.

On one instance the young Urban, the eldest of the three, and Mats supported another brother Thomas in a fiddle contest that he won in Stockholm.  

Later Urban Haglund played bass as a member of the quartet Country Comfort. 

In the various guises these bands recorded a few singles, an EP and several albums. 

Haglund was an occasional visitor to the USA, the first time in 1970 being to attend the Sixth Annual Labor Day Blue Grass Music Festival, spending time in the Washington, DC area visiting with Dick Freeland, and Don Reno and Bill Harrell, and seeing Buzz Busby and Leon Morris perform in a local venue; another – in September 1985 – to enjoy time at Bean Blossom, Indiana; and, having been an early member of the association, to participate in the IBMA Convention and Fan Fair activities, Owensboro, Kentucky (1987), to mention just three instances. 

In recent years he would play informally attending jams at the Lilla Parkcaféet and O’Connells Irish Pub in Stockholm, where he continued to be welcoming and encouraging to others, sharing his bluegrass music knowledge with locals as well as like-minded folk far and wide. 

Haglund inspired many within our genre. Compatriot, but US resident since 1986, fiddler and teacher, Jan Johansson, is among those that learned much from him over many years …. 

“Urban and I were friends for a long time. Since the mid-70s. He was extremely enthusiastic about bluegrass music and he used to have a record collection that was very impressive. He was like a bluegrass guru who introduced me to a lot of the bluegrass culture. 

Over the last several years we talked at least once a week but a lot of times we would talk on an almost daily basis.”

R.I.P. Urban Haglund 

A Discography 

Tennessee Travelers

  • Kountry Korral Is Proud To Present… (Blue Horizon LP 500, 1969) 
  • Country … A New Swedish Hit Sound… (Kountry Korral Records KLP 501, 1971)

The Midnight Cowboys

  • Midnight Cowboys, Kenneth Swanström Jamboree… (Kountry Korral Records KLP 502, 1971)

Blue Grass Swedes

  • Midnight Cowboys (Rondo Ron M 102, 1973)
  • Blue Grass Swedes (GM-Production AB GLP755, 1975)
  • Mystery Train (GMP GLP7712, 1978)
  • Drivin’ Nails In My Coffin (AWR 27916, 1979)

Country Comfort

  • Country Comfort (Duc Records SLP-1001,1979) 
  • Comfortable (Aktiv Musik HEJ LP-006, 1985)

All are Swedish releases. 

Bluegrass Today is grateful for the assistance of Joe Ross who wrote an excellent article about bluegrass music in Sweden (Bluegrass Unlimited, July 1989). The Scandinavian bluegrass discography accompanying that feature was compiled by Haglund. 

Posted in Lyrics | Tags: Bluegrass Today, Bluegrass Unlimited | Leave a comment |

Track Premiere: Strasbourg / St. Denis from Tray Wellington

Posted on July 30, 2021 by Azlyrics

Mountain Home Music has dropped a third single for banjoist Tray Wellington, an ambitious cover of a jazz standard by a five stringer.

A good many bluegrass instrumentalists are drawn to jazz sounds, as that genre is where the most fearless improvisers live and breath. Bluegrass is an improvisational form as well, though typically guided by a greater degree of structure, with an audience less welcoming of harmonic adventurism. But a solo project is just the place to stretch out and experiment, and is welcome here.

Playing jazz well requires both physical dexterity and a wide knowledge of chord and scale basics. These are taught, of course, in music schools, and as we see more graduates of such programs gravitate towards bluegrass, we can expect to find them exploring applications for that understanding in their grass.

Wellington is still a young artist, a recent graduate of the bluegrass school at ETSU, and he has chosen an easygoing tune for this escapade, Strasbourg / St. Denis, by trumpeter Roy Hargrove. It was included on Roy’s 2008 album, Earfood, and named for an underground subway stop in Paris.

For Tray, cutting a version of this tune has been on his mind for some time.

“As a longtime jazz fan. I see Roy Hargrove as a staple, and a legend in the music. I knew from the first time I heard this song that I wanted to record it some day, and with this crew playing on the session, I knew this would be the perfect time to do it!”

Tray is supported by fellow jazz-inspired grassers Jon Stickley on guitar and Lyndsay Pruett on fiddle, with Wayne Benson on mandolin, and Kevin Kehrberg on bass.

Have a listen.

Strasbourg / St. Denis by Tray Wellington is available now wherever you stream or download music online. It will also be included on his upcoming full length album with Mountain Home Music.

Radio programmers can download the track at AirPlay Direct.

Posted in Lyrics | Leave a comment |

Ask Sonny Anything… did your wife ever travel with you and Bobby?

Posted on July 30, 2021 by Azlyrics

Sonny, I’ve been enjoying your column since it began, and I finally decided to toss in my two cents worth.

Last week you said that you played better standing up than you did sitting down. I’ve noticed the same about my own playing, though in my case it’s probably more correct to say that I play worse sitting down than I do standing up.

I have two questions for you.

First: Whose idea was this column? Did BluegrassToday approach you, or did you approach them?

Second: Back in the early 1990s or thereabouts, you played a festival up here in Minnesota. At the time I had a portable (just barely) VCR recorder/camera and had been taping a few performances. A friend of mine warned me not to record when The Osborne Brothers were on stage, because at another event where a spectator was recording your set, you had called out the person and demanded to know, ‘Who gave you permission to do that?’ Do you recall such an incident? And if so, did the person cease and desist, or was there an argument? (I took the warning to heart and left my recorder in the truck during your sets.)

Thanks much!

Randy G.

—–

Randy. Thank you for joining us… and a couple of interesting questions.

First of all, standing and playing probably releases something in your brain that makes you hear things that nobody else hears. And standing gives you a more creative spirit. I guess.

This column was a product of Terry Herd. He asked me a question and asked me to answer it, which I did. He said, ‘Would you like to do a column entitled Ask Sonny Anything?’ I said yes and here we are.

I remember playing the festival in Minnesota, but that incident didn’t happen at that festival. Our recording contract with Decca had a clause that did not allow us to knowingly let someone record us, and so we decided to enter that into our contract which was sent to promoters. Which simply gave us the right to refuse, and the promoter had to agree to it.

The worst incident of this nature happened in Lavonia, GA at Shoal Creek Park. We had a large crowd, and had already told PBS that they could not film us. So when we went on I noticed a huge TV camera set up about 20 feet in front of the stage. It was aimed right at us and the red light was blinking. We stopped playing and sat down on some bales of hay on the stage and I said that as long as that camera was out there and working, we wouldn’t play.

The PBS guy went berserk, and I told him, ‘I can’t help you because I can’t give you permission to record us. We can’t go on until you point that camera straight into the ground and turn it off.’ We finished our show then, and had a good time.

Chances are, Randy, if you would have asked…there was a 50/50 chance that we would have said yes. But we had to protect ourselves.
S.

=============

Sonny, when you were recording with Bill Monroe, was Ernie Newton playing the drum on his bass? Did you like that sound?

Cliff in Portsmouth, OH

—–

Cliff in Portsmouth, OH.

When I was recording with Bill Monroe, everyone saw the drumhead mounted on Ernie Newton’s bass, and naturally we asked him to demonstrate, which he did, and Bill promptly said, “That ain’t no part of nuthin’,” and at that time Paul Cohen agreed.
S

============

Sonny, that is really interesting that you sat for recording. Probably means they gave you a lowered vocal mic as well as one for the banjo. I’m fairly sure you all were not using headphones, so evidently you were able to hear each other well enough to blend the three voices. Did you maintain this configuration all through your recording career with the Brothers?

I’ve watched you play standing uncountable times, and I know you were very comfortable that way…able to improvise freely and play anything you wanted to. The idea that you “perhaps would have become a great banjo player” is pretty funny coming from one of the greatest banjo players (and harmony singers) of all time.

A quick note on Bill and baseball: In the brief time I toured with him in 1964, gloves and balls and bats were always up in the racks above the seats. I played catch with him numerous times and, despite his vision (or mine, which also wasn’t that great), found him to be accurate in both pitching and catching.

Sandy R.
—–
Sandy Rothman, it’s always good to hear from you.

We didn’t use headphones until later in our career. Hal Rugg played steel and we couldn’t hear what he was doing, but we could hear the rest of the guys in the studio. So far as our vocal configuration, we did maintain this setup for the most part of our career.

The subject of Bill Monroe and baseball….we traveled in a car for the most part, and I think you are making reference to a bus, therefore there wasn’t room for bats, balls, gloves, etc. On one trip, I remember Bill’s son James (who was 2 years younger than I) brought a couple of gloves and a ball, and James and I tossed them back and forth. But other that what I’ve already explained, that was the extent of the baseball experience with Bill Monroe.

Sandy, it’s always a pleasure to hear from you. We’ve been friends for a very long time.
S

=============

Hey Sonny, sure love your column and y’alls music. I was wondering did Judy travel with ya’ll a lot back in the days, or did she stay home and keep the fares a burnin’. Keep doin what cha doin’ we think a whole lot of ya’ll.

Terry C.

—–

Terry…thank you for your time.

Judy and I were married in 1958, and our son was born in 1960, our daughter in 1962. Up until the children came along, she worked and supported us at Delco Products in Dayton, OH which was a division of General Motors. Had she not done this, we would have starved to death, which would not have been a bad thing on my part, but she weighed 90 lbs.

Consequently, I got a job driving a taxi cab for the Yellow Cab Company, to put biscuits and ‘taters on the table. That’s what I was doing when we were made members of The Grand Ole Opry, and from that point things had a slight upturn, and she had two teenagers to raise at the same time.

I thank the Lord for Judy, and her Dad, George, who donated a lot for us to build a little house on, which we did. It was 750 square feet, and it cost $6500 to build. The humongous house payment was $64 a month, which we were barely able to make.
S

See you next week!!!!

If you have something you would like to ask Sonny, be sure to post it in the comments below, or send it to us directly.

Posted in Lyrics | Tags: Ask Sonny Anything, Bill Monroe, OH | Leave a comment |

Harlan County – new fiddle music from Natalie Tomlinson

Posted on July 30, 2021 by Azlyrics

Natalie Tomlinson is a young fiddler from Harlan County, KY, which she has chosen as the name of her second solo project of fiddle music. And we do mean solo… she plays all the instruments except for two tracks with Sunrise Ridge, who she performs with in nearby Whitesburg.

Tomlinson is a recent graduate of the Kentucky School of Bluegrass and Traditional Music at Hazard County Technical College, where she studied mandolin with Bobby Osborne for for years. After finishing that program, she studied at the Lincoln Memorial University School of Business, where she earned a bachelor degree in business management.

Using the skills she has gathered from those two degrees, she is now a full time musician, doing guest spots with other artists in addition to shows with Sunshine Ridge.

The Harlan County album includes a dozen instrumental tracks taken from the wide repertoire of Appalachian fiddle music, along with a couple of her own contributions to that catalog. She plays fiddle, mandolin, banjo, guitar, and bass on ten of them, including the title track which she has agreed to share with our readers today.

Natalie tells us that she named it in honor of her Appalachian home.

“All of my family is from Harlan County, and I’ve lived there all of my life, so far. I love the mountains here, and I believe that it’s hard to find a prettier place. In my opinion, Harlan County doesn’t get enough credit.

I finished this tune in late April. That day, I was thinking about the ‘feel’ of a lot of 1950s/60s bluegrass and country music, (which is my favorite,) and I wanted to write a cheerful little tune with a bit of a bounce. I played around with the tune for about an hour and had it finished, and I recorded it the same evening. I had the tune finished for a couple of weeks before I decided on a title for it, but I knew that I wanted the title to reflect where I’m from.” 

Check it out.

The Harlan County CD is available for sale from the Natalie Tomlinson web site. Radio programmers will find the tracks at AirPlay Direct.

Posted in Lyrics | Leave a comment |

Billy Troy’s battle with COVID – a close brush with mortality

Posted on July 30, 2021 by Azlyrics

“It’s been tough for all of us entertainers,” began Billy Troy, son of famed reso-guitarist, Josh Graves.

The past year was especially difficult for this professional singer/musician in particular. He nearly died after contracting COVID-19.

In 2007, Troy had left his Nashville home with his wife and youngest son and headed west, relocating in Omaha, Nebraska, to become the entertainment director for a casino. 

“It was too good an offer to turn down. It got me off the road. I had been performing 275 days a year. I thought we’d only be there a few years.”

The Graves family (Troy uses his middle name on stage) still reside there in our nation’s heartland. 

“As I worked for the casino, I also developed my own show about my life with my dad, and growing up on the Grand Ole Opry, that I was performing in and around the Omaha area. From those shows, I was asked if I’d like to join a non-profit organization called The Merrymakers Association, and I also began performing for several types of retirement communities for senior citizens. It’s been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career. I was doing two shows per day for over 120 senior centers.”

His hour-long shows were a huge success. 

“I was told what a difference it made in their lives.”

Then the pandemic hit.

“The shows as well as the centers all went on lock down. There was no work. My wife, Sheryl said, ‘Why don’t you do videos for the seniors?’”

So that is what the 67-year-old did. He started making music videos for the groups he had been performing for live. He created Billy Troy’s In-House Sessions, posting 45 episodes on Facebook.

“Reaction has been great,” the father of five happily shared.

Even during a worldwide pandemic, things were going well for Troy and his family.

“When COVID came, we were very careful. We didn’t go anywhere. We had our groceries delivered, dropped off at the garage. We picked them up with gloves and wiped them down with a bleach solution my wife made. We didn’t eat out. Sheryl cooked the entire time. My wife is very germ-conscious.”

Then they unknowingly were exposed to the coronavirus. 

“Our grandbabies that live with us were dropped off by their mother on a Saturday. She called on Tuesday and said that she had tested positive for the virus. She is a health care worker.”

On January 15, the entire Graves household (Troy, his wife, son, and two grandchildren) all came down with COVID-19.

“We all had it, but mine was the worst.”

Troy described what happened next.

“I did a virtual call with my doctor. I was told to stay put, treat the symptoms with over-the-counter meds, and go to the hospital if necessary. 

Seven days later I got worse. I was struggling to breathe. I made a mistake and thought I’m a guy, I can handle this.”

Troy almost died at home.

“After three days, my wife said, ‘I’m calling 911. Your face is turning blue.’ I wasn’t really with it. I barely remember them taking me to the hospital.”

 It was during the biggest snow storm of the year in Nebraska.

“The ambulance got stuck in our driveway. Neighbors came and helped shovel it out. It was a terrible night.”

Troy’s condition worsened and he was transferred from his local hospital to Methodist Hospital in Omaha. 

“The first week there they called my wife and told her to prepare herself and the family because I had taken a turn for the worse. They didn’t think I was going to make it. She couldn’t be there. No one was there to be an advocate for you. I saw terrible things.

I didn’t want to go on a ventilator. I knew I wouldn’t recover. I told the doctor, ‘I don’t want this. I won’t make it.’ They put a DNR (a do-not-resuscitate order) bracelet on me. I feel I survived because of that. It was a lot to go through. It was bad.”

Fans, friends, and family reached out anyway that they could.

“I had so much support. Cards and letters came from all over the country. Their prayers lifted me up. It meant so much. It touched me.”

After almost two weeks in the hospital, his wife negotiated with the medical staff to bring her husband home.

“She took every step to get me well. Handing me a ukulele and encouraging me to exercise my lungs by singing just a little. I started getting stronger. After a few weeks, I wanted to see if I could really still sing.”

Earning his living as a vocalist, it was crucial that he hadn’t lost his God-given talent to Covid. “I had no problems,” he thankfully admitted.

His first project after contracting the virus was a collaborative music video with his longtime North Carolina banjo-pickin’ buddy, Hugh Moore, Sea of Heartbreak.

He started performing again, but found he lacked the stamina.

“I made it through May fairly well. In June, I did a theater in South Dakota along with six other shows that same week. Then started feeling weak. I thought I had COVID again. I cancelled the whole last week of June. I was fine, just trying too hard, too soon.”

Now he’s back in front of the microphone entertaining seniors and performing his regular venues, but limiting his performances to 5-6 shows per week. Troy continues to experience some side effects from his bout with COVID, but thankfully, his singing voice isn’t one of them.

“It was quite the ordeal. I had COVID pneumonia. My lungs were full of it. I still have trouble with strength and stamina. Another residual effect is throughout the day I smell gasoline when it’s not there. It’s got to do with the smell sensory nerves.

It was close to two months before I started performing again. I think it’s because I’m a singer that I was able to survive this. I have strong lungs. I think that saved me.”

Reflecting on his life-threatening illness, Troy stressed his concern for others.

“People should take this disease seriously. My advice is if you feel sick, get it checked out. Go to the doctor and get treated. Men, listen to your wife!”

The whole horrible ordeal has been life-changing for the singer.

“I have a different perspective. You just want to hug everybody,” Troy concluded.

Posted in Lyrics | Tags: Billy Troy, COVID | Leave a comment |

Mike Rogers and Billy Contreras to Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder

Posted on July 29, 2021 by Azlyrics

Ricky Skaggs has announced two new members of his barnstorming bluegrass group, Kentucky Thunder. Mike Rogers will come aboard as tenor singer and Billy Contreras as fiddler. Both are highly celebrated artists in their own right, and will surely add excitement and virtuosity to Ricky’s already strong touring band.

The changes were necessitated by the retirement of long time Skaggs guitarist and singer Paul Brewster, and the continued recuperation and recovery of fiddler Mike Barnett. Both Mike’s brain injury and Paul’s stepping down took place during the COVID shutdowns in 2020, but now that live music is back again in earnest, new troopers were needed for the Skaggs bluegrass army.

Brewster has been a lifelong bluegrass stalwart who first received national attention with The Knoxville Grass in the 1970s. From there he worked with The Osborne Brothers for a decade until the death of his friend Keith Whitley soured him on the touring life. He moved to Florida and worked as a golf pro but returned to Knoxville and sang at Dollywood until Skaggs called in 1995.

Ricky says it will be hard to look to his left and not see Brewster there with his guitar.

“As Paul’s been with me for more than 25 years, he made a huge impact in the sound and makeup of Kentucky Thunder. He’s one of the best tenor singers in bluegrass music, a first-class musician, and a good friend. Paul is a wonderful Christian brother as well, which has been more important to him than his great singing gift. His presence on stage and off will be missed!”

Rogers, however, is more than up to the task. Also a veteran grasser, he did his time as a member of Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, singing the high parts and playing guitar for three years. He has worked around Nashville since leaving Doyle in 2013, working as a drummer and a vocalist, and was featured prominently on a recent Gaither Music release with Jimmy Fortune, Bradley Walker, and Ben Isaacs.

Mike Barnett joined Kentucky Thunder back in 2016 and quickly earned the respect of not only his bandmates, but the wider bluegrass community, for his fiery fiddling and general good nature. Both were shocked to learn last summer that he had suffered a brain aneurysm and would require substantial therapy to return to a normal life. He and his wife, Analise, are committed to the necessary steps to complete a full recovery.

Of course, from the band perspective, the show must go on, but Ricky offers him all the support he can.

“Our hearts were heavy upon hearing the news of Mike’s brain aneurysm back last summer. He has overcome so much and is working hard towards recovery. We can’t wait to see him get back to fiddling, of which he is a master at such a young age. My wife Sharon and I, along with the band and crew, look forward to seeing him perform again soon, and all of our prayers are with him at this time for God to heal him completely.”

Contreras comes in with a sterling reputation in the fiddle world, as an experienced performer, educator, arranger and producer. Known as a fearless improvisor, seeing him on stage should provide quite a thrill for audiences at Ricky Skaggs shows coming up. By day Billy teaches in the music department at Belmont University in Nashville.

Billy and Mike join other regular bandmates Russ Carson on banjo, Jake Workman on guitar, Dennis Parker on harmony vocals, and Jeff Picker on bass, Ricky, of course, primarily plays mandolin and sings lead, though you may see him grab a guitar from time to time.

Here’s a look at Kentucky Thunder doing Uncle Pen with Rogers and Contreras from a recent show, though Seth Taylor is subbing on guitar and Mark Fain on bass.

More information about Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder can be found on his official web site.

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Track Premiere: Can’t Sleep from Kentucky Shine

Posted on July 29, 2021 by Azlyrics

If you are involved closely with bluegrass music, you’ll be at least a bit familiar with Owensboro, KY. It was where the International Bluegrass Music Association was formed and initially located, and is currently the home of the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum.

It is worth a trip to northwestern Kentucky along the Ohio River to visit the museum, or take in their annual festival, ROMP. But is there a native bluegrass music scene in Owensboro?

It turns out that the answer is yes, as evidenced by Kentucky Shine, a bluegrass quartet that calls Owensboro home. They have just released a six-song EP, Leavin’ Town, featuring original music written within the band, a taste of which we are delighted to premiere today.

The group got its start as a partnership between guitarist and singer Jordan Wood, and fiddler Steven Stewart. Wood’s original songs were the glue that held things together, and they quickly added banjo player Jordan Riehm and J.B. Miller on bass. They play a hard driving, mountain-style bluegrass with echoes of early pioneers like The Stanley Brothers and Bill Monroe.

They have selected a track written by Jordan Wood to share with our readers, Can’t Sleep. It retains the primal energy that has long attracted people to the plaintive mountain sound in a mournful story of lost love.

Wood says that the pain in the lyrics came from a real episode in his life.

“I wrote the song Can’t Sleep about a year after a really hard breakup. I wanted to write something that could express my pain and experience, while also bringing out my heavy bluegrass roots.”

Have a listen…

Leavin’ Town is available now from popular streaming and download sites.

You can learn more about Kentucky Shine by visiting their web site. They will be featured on the 2021 ROMP festival, and invite everyone to come on out in September and see them there.

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Bluegrass Beyond Borders: Adeline responds to shutdowns with new music

Posted on July 29, 2021 by Azlyrics

When is a supergroup not a supergroup? Answer: when they eschew any serious suggestion that they are. Consequently, when a gathering of seasoned Canadian old time and bluegrass players sequestered themselves for three productive days in a cabin set in the remote reaches of Ontario’s wilderness, the intention wasn’t aimed at grabbing headlines, but rather, simply making some music. 

The musicians involved — Adrian Gross on mandolin (The Slocan Ramblers), Mark Kilianski on guitar (Golden Shoals), Sam Allison on upright bass and bass harmonica (Sheesham and Lotus), John Showman on fiddle, and Chris Coole on banjo (The Lonesome Ace Stringband), took an opportunity to join together during their bands’ respective breaks from touring due to the pandemic. Inspired by the methods used by John Hartford to make music in the old-time tradition, the group opted for sheer spontaneity in a string band setting. 

The result, an album titled Adeline, gives the group its name, although they deny whatever formality might have been involved. Indeed, as is often the case with groupings like this, the partnership evolved naturally. 

“I came up to Toronto to spend time with my partner during the pandemic touring hiatus, and essentially moved here,” Kilianski recalls. “John, Chris, and I collaborated on some cross-promotional videos, and a video for the Brooklyn, New York-based Flatfoot Flatbush event that transitioned online this year. I’d also been jamming with John and Adrian on John’s porch when the weather was warm enough. If I remember correctly, Chris pitched the idea, but I think we all collectively had the thought of creating something together as long as the pandemic was keeping us in Toronto. We all saw this as a rare moment in time to collaborate on a full-length piece of work.”

After sizing up the situation, things seemed to click fairly quickly. “We settled on the tunes beforehand, so we were all familiar with the material going in,” Kilianski explains. “None of us had played in a group or band setting for a year, so we all took some time to settle into it again. Sam and I had never even met, so we had to feel each other out. Since we play bass and guitar respectively, we were both keenly aware of how those two instruments form the foundational groove together, especially within old time music. We never really talked about it though, and after an hour or two, we were basically on the same page. Most of all, the excitement and release of finally playing music like this was palpable. We’re talking about five musicians who have been doing this as a profession and a passion for years — decades, even. The rust gets knocked off quickly. It’s like coming back to a place you’ve lived for a long time after a year abroad. You revisit all your favorite spots, see your favorite people, while taking the backstreet shortcuts and scenic routes. You get to play in ways that are not satisfying to do alone, flexing skills that you’ve spent your whole life honing. You’re creating vibrations that crash into each other, bouncing off and meshing together, and being absorbed by your body. It’s something we take for granted in normal times, much like hugging. We all hugged when we got to the cabin and that was really special.”

Naturally then, everything evolved rather naturally.

“With the exception of Chris’ song, Paul David, these are all more or less standard old time and bluegrass tunes,” Kilianski continues. “I think a big reason these five individual musicians got together is that we all love old time and bluegrass equally, and really appreciate how much the two overlap. This is a musical space that John Hartford occupied frequently. He also was open to experimenting between and outside the standard formats of these types of music. In bluegrass, you tend to have improvised solos passed around among each of the musicians. In old time, you usually have a constant melody on the fiddle, with the other instruments supporting and accentuating the inherent driving rhythm of the piece. Hartford adopted both of these, and a host of other possibilities in his ‘windows’ system of playing as a band. He’d take an old fiddle tune, and each musician could do something different every four, eight, sixteen or however many bars. We took this system as inspiration to try different things and explore different textures on our instruments. That’s really what makes the music unique here. We were basically improvising the texture of the sound the whole time.”

Not surprisingly then, the players made the most of their time making music together. Again, Kilianski picks up the narrative.

“After some set-up and a nice meal, we got right to playing,” he continues. “We only had a few days, so being holed up in this remote cabin helped us focus on playing as much as possible. It was really like being at a tiny festival. Wake up, have some coffee, play some tunes, eat a meal, play tunes, go for a walk, play tunes, etcetera. We stayed up later and later every night. Lots of stories, lots of laughs, irreverence, music talk. It’s really how old time music is meant to exist… just hanging out with friends and playing tunes. We’d choose a tune, talk briefly about the chords, do a few takes, and move on to the next. We all like getting weird, and this was our chance to get as weird as possible. In a full time band, I think there’s pressure — both internal and external — on striving for perfection. Since we were alone and not playing with our regular bands, this was an opportunity to get as weird as we wanted, without the usual nagging perfectionism.”

Unfortunately, the prospects for making this an ongoing entity appear rather small. “This ‘band’ will probably never play a gig other than one we did for the Quarantine Happy Hour page on Facebook in June,” Kilianski says. “That’s kind of the beauty of it. We have four different bands represented here. We all came together to make the best of a bad situation. I mean, if they wanna hire us for Bonnaroo, we could probably make that work, but we’re all excited to get back to touring with our regular bands.”

Kilianski is also quick to note that Canadians have a similar affinity for bluegrass, roots, and folk music as those living south of the border, and for good reason. “They’re almost as popular in Canada as in the US, by my estimation, perhaps, even more popular,” he suggests. “There’s a lot of support for the arts here. Culturally, these two countries are pretty similar. They share the continued effects of European colonization. Alongside a lot of grim realities, you have the mixing of European, African, and Indigenous musical traditions. Bluegrass is a prime example of this, and Canada’s own traditional musics are very similar, with a different flavor. As with so many other elements of humanity, music does not adhere to the arbitrary borders of nations. Toronto specifically has a thriving bluegrass and old time scene, and the musicians here are less preoccupied with the lines of genre. I find a lot of folks here might have one primary style, and will dabble in many others, as well as be open to mixing and experimenting across genres. This goes for bluegrass, old time, and any other style really, traditional or otherwise.”

Kilianski’s own influences reflect that sort of timeless trajectory as well. “When I was learning about the guitar, and about music, I was really into the blues rock bands of the ’60s and ’70s, particularly Led Zeppelin,” he explains. “That stuff introduced me to elements of Delta and Chicago blues, Celtic, and bluegrass music. Growing up in New Jersey, I didn’t know anybody who played that stuff. Then in college at Berklee, I met a ton of fiddle, mandolin, and banjo players. The sound and the feel drew me in, and the ethos of jamming anywhere, anytime sealed the deal.”

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The Girl on Sugar Pie Lane from Magnolia Drive

Posted on July 28, 2021 by Azlyrics

Mountain Fever Records has released another single from Mississippi’s Magnolia Drive, a real crackerjack of a song from the early catalog of the great Buck Owens.

You can tell by the title, The Girl on Sugar Pie Lane, that this one is a lighthearted number, and the guys in Magnolia Drive give it a perfect bluegrass sendup. They capture all the fun and frivolity of Buck’s 1968 release, and even the vocal harmonies from the original cut, songwriter Tommy Collins’ recording from 1966.

Bluegrass fans surely know some of Collins’ work, as he also wrote High On A Hilltop, famously recorded by Merle Haggard, and done up grass style by several artists including The Osborne Brothers, Seldom Scene, and The Grascals.

Through their decade-long career, Magnolia Drive has specialized in a clean throwback sound, referencing the classic bluegrass from the 1960s and ’70s. But they truly have their own distinct sound, as you can clearly hear on this latest single.

The band consists of Don Robinson on banjo, Mike Nowell on guitar, his brother Steve “Speed” Nowell on bass, and Cory Burton on mandolin. All four share the vocal duties, with Don taking the lead on this one, jumping to tenor on the choruses. Glen Harrell adds fiddle and Tim Hathorn reso-guitar.

Steve offered a few words about the new track.

“The Girl on Sugar Pie Lane is a great song. Tommy Collins wrote many fantastic tunes, with some becoming instant hits. This one is on the lighter side of love but no less a hit to us. Some of Buck’s recordings did not receive as much notoriety as others, but this one was certainly a chart-topper to us when we first heard this song. With the upbeat bounce of the music and the beckoning cry for love in the lyrics, it just checked all the boxes for a fine Magnolia Drive bluegrass recording! It’s a fun song to perform, and we can’t wait for everyone to hear it on the radio and other platforms.”

If this doesn’t make you smile, you’ve got the lonesome mighty bad.

The Girl on Sugar Pie Lane from Magnolia Drive is available now wherever you stream or download music online. Radio programmers will find the track at AirPlay Direct.

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Anders Beck talks Greensky Bluegrass and the two paths they tread

Posted on July 28, 2021 by Azlyrics

Anders Beck and Greensky Bluegrass at Shagbark Farm in Michigan (7/16/21) – photo © Bryan Bolea

Greensky Bluegrass straddles two worlds, one that nods towards bluegrass and the other that uses it as a springboard for seeking other plateaus. While their name clearly indicates their affection for traditional picking and singing, the band make it a point not to be confined to any particular parameters. Those that insist on labeling their sound often refer to it as nu-grass, grassicana, Americana, or jamgrass, but one thing is well established — their mix of classic and contemporary sounds definitely defies any easy description. While banjo, mandolin, and dobro play a decided role in their instrumental make-up, spontaneity and improvisation allow them to pursue other avenues, and keep them in tune to a wide realm of possibilities.

Formed in 2000 in Kalamazoo, Michigan by banjo player Michael Arlen Blount and guitarist Dave Bruzza, the band has undergone several changes in personnel over the past 20 years, resulting in the current line-up consisting of Blount, Bruzza, Anders Beck (dobro, resophonic guitar), Michael Devol (bass, vocals), and Paul Hoffman (mandolin, vocals). A win at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival Competition in 2006 elevated their visibility, and now they currently count ten albums released between 2004 and 2019. With the pandemic slowing their outside activity and bringing their touring to a halt, they opted to make the most of their time off by releasing a series of digital only offerings which they dubbed The Leap Year Sessions.

“There was a lot going on,” Beck insisted when Bluegrass Today spoke with him by phone. “We all went to St. Louis and recorded a series of closed performances on high definition video in an empty venue. They’re high quality recordings that were well shot and well edited, and we released them during quarantine. We wanted to create something for people that were stuck at home, and the best thing we came up with were these video sessions. And then we released them every week or so. We got great a reaction from people who saw it as a further way for fans to experience the music without having to go anywhere, or leave the safety of their living rooms. For us, it’s a little window in time. We were really excited to be playing together, but also, it was really freaking weird to be playing in a venue with no people in it.”

To an outside observer however, the bigger challenge might be how to keep their influences aligned while trying to ensure their appeal to a decidedly diverse audience.

“The answer to that can run a gamut of responses, depending on whatever day we’re talking about,” Beck muses. “It works because we are raising the reverence for bluegrass while varying the template at the same time. I like listening to bluegrass music as much as I like to listen to rock and roll music, or jazz music, or reggae music, or whatever. Our influences are just all across the gamut, and of course, bluegrass is one of them. But just because we sort of stumbled on playing music on bluegrass instruments doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to stick with bluegrass. For me, learning that style of music was incredibly important. It gave us a jumping off point to do what we like to do. That’s our reverence for the music right there in a nutshell. You have to be able to play bluegrass, quote, unquote, correctly or properly, and play it well in order to start to monkey with it.”

Still, that begs the question of how the band attempts to please traditional bluegrass lovers while still bringing newer fans into the fold. Asked if they might worry about alienating anyone in that process, Beck quickly demurs. 

“I’ll tell you, we don’t worry about it anymore,” he insists “Honestly, we sort of forget about that. The key to understanding the name is that green sky is literally the complete opposite of blue grass. Okay, so we are bluegrass, but we are also the complete opposite. Now that we’ve grown into that name, it’s become a witty little pun. The name itself has really come home to roost, because we are often so far away from bluegrass a lot of the time during our shows. For so long, we felt like we were trying to appease this bluegrass audience, or else those people would get mad at us if we didn’t do bluegrass the way the traditional camp expected us to. We thought they would hate us. We’d be screwed. We felt we needed to do it the right way and all that other stuff. But what we found is that no one was really getting mad at us ever. At least they didn’t express it. We never got the death threats we were expecting.”

Beck attributes some of that acceptance to the bands that came before, noting that Leftover Salmon, String Cheese Incident, and Yonder Mountain String Band actually made that transition earlier. “They were starting to bend the genre a little bit, so it wasn’t like we were doing anything different on that level,” he suggests. “We were just sort of continuing on this evolution, and we certainly invested our Midwest roots into it as well.”

In a sense, it’s that combination of credence and confidence that allows the band to move forward without having to second guess their own MO. Beck readily agrees. 

These days it’s less about having to stand up for ourselves,” he maintains. “We can just say we do what we do, and if people like it, that’s awesome. We didn’t do that for a long time because we were really nervous about it. Because bluegrass was in the name of the band, we felt like we had this need to show that side of the band. We have these bluegrass chops, but now it’s sort of just evolved into something past that.”

That said, Beck is quick to counter any notion that bluegrass is no longer an important additive as far as their sound. “We play anywhere from two to ten traditional bluegrass songs in any given show,” he says. “And we enjoy the hell out of it. Our catalog is pretty big. We still love to play that kind of thing. We definitely still play those songs and enjoy them. Sometimes, after a show in front of 4,000 people, when it’s around one in the morning, we’ll go and play a set of bluegrass songs around a single microphone on a small flatbed trailer. We’ll focus on traditional songs for maybe about an hour. That’s our traditional connection. It kind of reminds us of our musical juxtaposition, which I think is still very obvious.”

With the pandemic slowed, at least at the moment, Greensky Bluegrass is back on the road, in a scaled down mode. They’re playing mostly on weekends at the moment as they navigate the course of COVID while trying to calculate what they’re able to do.

“We’re really trying to figure out how to play music in weird times,” Beck admits. “But it’s starting to feel kind of normal out there I suppose. We’re looking forward to a bunch of really cool events. We’ve got three nights at Red Rocks in Colorado, which is my favorite venue in the world. We’re doing the 4848 festival in West Virginia, which is something we love to do. We’re actually kind of partners in that festival. We’ll be doing Bonnarroo again and we’re gonna be in Alaska pretty soon as well. There’s a thing up there called the Salmon Fest that we did a few years ago. Then we’re doing two nights at the Ryman Theater in Nashville for Halloween which I’m excited about as well. We’re also gonna have some fun Nashville special guests there but I can’t tell you about that just yet.”

That said, Beck does admit that it can be a challenge at times when it comes to capturing that live energy and spontaneity in their studio recordings.

“I think that we straddle the line of both those things very well,” he allows. “One of the reasons is due to the fact that we really take pride in creating albums that are unique, because they’re the ones that really represent what we’re going to do in the long run, like, say, 50 years from now. The albums need to stand the test of time. So, we put a lot of effort into creating really good studio albums. We’re not necessarily trying to make it like the live experience all the time. Sometimes we do, but we prefer not having to be tied to that so much. I guess what I’m saying is that I’m proud that we can we can exist in both worlds. That’s a big deal for us. We really felt like we had to prove ourselves, because there was this fear that there would be this mob of traditional people coming over the hill, and that certain people would be saying, ‘that’s not bluegrass or that’s not what it’s supposed to be, or those guys aren’t good,’ or whatever it might be. It was just a weird thought that I had.”

Ultimately though, Beck says the band arey content to do their best at whatever they attempt, and continue to progress and go forward. “We put a lot of blood sweat and tears into this,” he insists. “We’re just trying to evolve, but mainly, we’re just trying to be ourselves.”

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CTBA – Connecticut’s first statewide bluegrass association

Posted on July 28, 2021 by Azlyrics

On July 12th, Austin Scelzo, a Connecticut native and professional fiddle player, launched the Connecticut Bluegrass Association (CTBA) web site. Scelzo shared his idea to create the state’s first bluegrass association with the already thriving bluegrass associations in the state, as well as every Connecticut contact he has made in the bluegrass community over the years. They unanimously supported his desire to create a central location to share and spread news, events, and information about their active state bluegrass scene.

Unfortunately, most of those people just haven’t found time to put one together. Scelzo decided that between gigs, festivals, bluegrass camps, and teaching fiddle, he would make time to get the CTBA website up and running.

The site, still in its infancy, currently maintains an active calendar of all statewide jams, concerts, festivals, and performances, as well as a contact list for Connecticut bluegrass bands. Future additions to the site will include a Learner Loaner Program like the one offered by the Rhode Island Bluegrass Alliance where folks can loan out bluegrass instruments to try them out for 6 months at a time. The association also plans to expand Podunk’s Kids Academy and to offer year-long bluegrass instruction for interested young musicians. CTBA hopes to one day sponsor and host events like the Podunk sponsored event, A Taste of Bluegrass, which brought Michael Cleveland to Connecticut for a concert this past spring. 

While the CTBA online presence has begun, Scelzo plans to launch the Connecticut Bluegrass Association in person at the Podunk Bluegrass Festival in Goshen, Connecticut this August. The Podunk organizers, huge supporters of the CTBA, have provided Scelzo with a booth where he can begin to spread the news. He is thrilled about the support he has received from the state’s bluegrass fans and other New England bluegrass associations. 

Scelzo grew up in Wallingford, CT and says that attending a Berklee and Mark O’Connor Summer String Camp during high school opened a whole new world of music to him, one which he loves. He currently works in the Darian Public School system, teaching students of all ages instruments, ranging from strings to brass. He also offers on-line courses in creative string playing, harmony vocals, and country/bluegrass fiddle, and hosts Wernick Method group jam classes. In what little time he has left, he sings and plays fiddle in the bluegrass groups The Rock Hearts, the Angry O’Hara’s, and On the Trail. You can check him out online.

To see what is happening in Connecticut Bluegrass scene or list your band, visit the CTBA website. You can also see what is happening in Connecticut’s bluegrass scene by visiting the CTBA Facebook page. If, however you are one of those people who prefer speaking with someone in person, and you are in Connecticut between August 11-15, you can meet Austin at his Podunk booth and see for yourself what is happening in bluegrass here in Connecticut!

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Béla Fleck back to grass with My Bluegrass Heart – first listen

Posted on July 28, 2021 by Azlyrics

Banjo maestro Béla Fleck started his professional music career in bluegrass music, and though he has swept through many other regions of contemporary music over the years – jazz, funk, classical, and world music among them – at heart, he still retains a special fondness for the sound of bluegrass banjo. And he has a new release and tour in 2022 that celebrates it, My Bluegrass Heart.

Despite being a serious student and aficionado of the playing Earl Scruggs and J.D. Crowe, Béla’s sort of grass has a different type of flavor, blending in elements of the many stylistic adventures he has traversed during a 45 year career. It’s still primarily three-finger picking, with some single-string deviations, but the melody and harmony of the music he writes encompasses a wider range of sounds.

We all saw it during his time with New Grass Revival, when a fresh faced young Béla wowed us all with stunning runs and tasteful accompaniment behind the singing of John Cowan and Sam Bush. He expanded the limits of bluegrass banjo on his classic Drive album in 1988, recorded with fellow trailblazers Mark O’Connor, Jerry Douglas, Tony Rice, and Stuart Duncan, and again with The Bluegrass Sessions in 1999 with a similar cast, also including vocalists like Ricky Skaggs, Tim O’Brien, and John Hartford.

Of course these projects had been interspersed between records with The Flecktones, his own classical compositions, work with The Sparrow Quartet, collaborations with Chick Corea, Edgar Meyer, and Tony Trischka, and solo projects.

Even with these deviations, Béla has retained a solid core of admirers in the bluegrass world, among banjo pickers in particular, and his sporadic returns to his roots are genuinely celebrated by his followers.

Simply put, Béla has taken the banjo places that Earl Scruggs never imagined, and played it before audiences who might never have heard it otherwise, who had no appreciation or even willingness to consider bluegrass music. I recall even meeting one man who was horrified and disappointed to discover after being a fan of Béla’s jazz and funk music with The Flecktones, that he also played bluegrass on his banjo.

But as Fleck has said…

“I don’t come from the South, and I always felt like there were people who were more truly focused on doing that bluegrass thing really well. What I tended to want to do more was expand the banjo’s role and look for new things to do with it. Despite that, I was always a bluegrass guy first and foremost. That was certainly the root of my musical soul.”

This year, he lays out another all-star alliance for a set of new bluegrass and bluegrass-flavored tunes, featuring a new generation of youthful string pioneers who grew up on Béla Fleck records. There are some other veterans here on My Bluegrass Heart, like David Grisman, Sam Bush, Stuart Duncan, Mark Schatz, and Tony Trischka, but many are of today’s class of enfant terribles – Molly Tuttle, Sierra Hull, Billy Strings, Justin Moses, and Billy Contreras. Several established artists can also be found, among them Michael Cleveland, Bryan Sutton, Edgar Meyer, Mark Schatz, and Chris Thile.

Fleck says not to expect Foggy Mountain Banjo on this two-disc set, but a modern interpretation of what the ensemble can produce.

“This is not a straight bluegrass album, but it’s written for a bluegrass band. I like taking that instrumentation, and seeing what I can do with it – how I can stretch it, what I can take from what I’ve learned from other kinds of music, and what can apply for this combination of musicians, the very particularly ‘bluegrass’ idea of how music works, and what can be accomplished that might be unexpected, but still has deep connections to the origins.” 

A first listen is available today, in the form of Charm School, where Béla is supported by Chris Thile on mandolin, Billy Strings on guitar, Billy Contreras on fiddle, and Royal mast on bass.

Buckle up…

There will be a pair of My Bluegrass Heart tours this year, in September and December, the first with Michael Cleveland, Sierra Hull, Justin Moses, Mark Schatz, and Bryan Sutton, and the second with Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Bryan Sutton. The tour will conclude at The Ryman in Nashville on January 7, 2022 with the whole Hee-Haw gang. Tickets for many of these shows are available now online, and more dates are still to be added.

My Bluegrass Heart is scheduled for a September 10 release on Renew Records, a BMG property. Pre-orders are enabled now online for the two CD or two LP sets.

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From The Side of the Road… concerns about IBMA voting changes

Posted on July 28, 2021 by Azlyrics

Hello from North Carolina. This week I’m in the studio recording some Christmas songs with the Night Drivers. Between writing charts, and watching A Christmas Carol and Elfto get into the Christmas spirit in late July, I’m a little pressed for time, so I chose this column to rerun, and unlike Christmas music, it’s actually seasonally appropriate.<

Last week I said we’d spend some time discussing recent changes in the IBMA awards procedure, naming, and criteria, most of which have been covered here in Bluegrass Today.

It’s only natural there would be adjustments in this area through the years, either to adapt to changing times, or often just to correct problems that may have arisen in what is never a perfect process.

These are certainly not the first changes in the awards procedure. Many don’t remember that in the early Owensboro years, the “Entertainer of the Year” award was given to any artist or band that “demonstrated the greatest ability to entertain an audience, using any of the following methods: clogging while yodeling, fiddling while singing, playing Orange Blossom Special behind one’s back, playing spoons against one’s head, or having a bass player with enormous shoes.” Today, after an extensive rewriting of the criteria, the “Entertainer of the Year” award is understood to mean simply the “Artist of the Year.”

All members of the IBMA should appreciate the effort and hours that go into revisions like this. Many of this year’s changes addressed some of the redundancy in the award names: for example, “Bluegrass Broadcaster of the Year” is now simply called “Broadcaster of the Year.” Clearly, since it’s the International Bluegrass Music Awards, it’s going to be an award for a bluegrass broadcaster. When the CMA (Country Music Association) holds its awards show, they don’t feel the need to call their “Single of the Year” the “Country Single of the Year.” Obviously if it’s voted on by the Country Music Association, the music is going to be . . . Maybe that’s not a good example. 

In any case, it was worth fixing the redundancies in our awards. I’m especially glad the award “Bluegrass Banjo Player of the Year Who Plays Bluegrass-style 5-String Banjo” has been shortened to “Banjo Player of the Year.”

Meanwhile, the “Special Awards” are now called the “Industry Awards,” thus avoiding the possible stigma associated with the word “special.” “Oh, you won one of the special awards? How nice for you.”

Some other changes received less coverage, though (possibly because they don’t want you to know about them!), and I think they’re worth at least mentioning here. After all, I’m all about keeping people inaccurately informed.

Feeling that the final nominations had a tendency to go to the same people and groups over the years, leaving a number of trending artists, and even some veterans, under-recognized, an effort has been made to broaden the voting pool for the second round: some of the rigorous ID requirements introduced in the last 10 years have now been relaxed. It’s no longer necessary to show three pieces of government-issued photo ID, plus a photo of yourself playing one of the six acceptable bluegrass instruments, and looking like you can actually play the thing. The pre-voting exam, asking for answers to questions like, “Who were Molly and Tenbrooks?” and “Who was Lloyd Loar and why do we care?” has also been dispensed with.

Now, it’s possible to cast your IBMA nominations ballot vote when registering your car, with no questions asked (I mean, they won’t ask questions about your ballot; I make no promises about your car). McDonalds is also now making it possible to vote during the semi-final round when ordering a Happy Meal. Simply jot your choices down on your used hamburger wrapper, and give back two French fries as a service charge.

New categories were added in what are now called the “Music Awards,” given out during the Thursday night awards show. In addition to the new award you’ve already heard plenty about, “Bluegrass Drummer of the Year” (soon to be just “Drummer of the Year”), the IBMA has announced the following new awards:

Best Collaboration By People Who Can’t Stand Each Other

Best Gospel Hand Gestures While Still Trying to Play an Instrument

Openly-Pandering-For-Airplay Song of the Year

The awards show itself has also undergone some much-needed reform: an annual problem has been the show’s length, which has traditionally run between 45 minutes to a few days longer than its estimated time. Since no musical numbers are running particularly long, the primary culprit seemed to be the awards and Hall of Fame induction acceptance speeches. Beginning this year, all awards acceptance speeches will be limited to no more than three words in length.

For those who might not be able to handle that kind of brevity in this situation, some examples of effective three-word speeches might be:

“I finally won!”

“Man I’m good!”

“Well I’m speechless”

“Somebody pinch me”

“You’re surprised? Shhh.”

“Me again. Wow.”

“Like the dress?”

In honor of their age and contribution to the music, it was agreed to give Hall of Fame inductees a full five words. Here are a few ideas for ultra-brief induction speeches:

“Do you even know me?”

“Nice presentation. Who was that?”

“Now stop wrecking my music.”

“A word limit, huh? Tough!”

“I’m still alive, you know.”

Don’t forget to vote.

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Russell Moore with Doyle Lawson and Adam Steffey at the Down Home

Posted on July 27, 2021 by Azlyrics

Here’s a special opportunity for folks in east Tennessee – if they act fast!

This weekend’s two-night engagement with Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out at The Down Home in Johnson City will feature two special guests in an exciting and uncommon format. In addition to performances featuring 30 years of music from Russell and the guys, Moore will welcome Doyle Lawson and Adam Steffey to share the stage with him on Friday and Saturday evening.

But this won’t be just be the kind of “sit in for a song or two” sort of collaboration we’ve seen many times at festivals and concerts all over the country. After the first set of music from the band, Russell will have one of these bluegrass giants join him for a lengthy on stage discussion, followed by another set of bluegrass.

Imagine the gems that will come from a frank exchange between such veterans of the bluegrass scene. Typically these conversations only occur backstage, at the supper table, or on the phone.

Doyle will join Russell on Friday, July 30, and Adam on Saturday the 31st. Since The Down Home is a small-to-medium sized venue, tickets are limited and advance purchase is highly recommended.

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Lydia Jacoby – gold medal swimmer with a bluegrass background

Posted on July 27, 2021 by Azlyrics

Bluegrass is one of the unheralded stars of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, thanks to 17-year-old Alaskan, Lydia Jacoby.

After she was a surprise winner of the gold medal in the 100-yard breaststroke, reporters clamored to know more about the new US star. So, there she was in the interview room with reporters, talking about her love of bluegrass.

“In my town (Seward), we used to have a bluegrass camp for kids every summer,” she said. “There’s a group of us that really enjoyed it, so our parents kind of brought us together.”

The result was the Snow River String Band, with Lydia playing upright bass and singing. She also plays guitar. The band’s videos lived quietly on YouTube for several years before some of them went viral this week when Lydia became an overnight sensation.

“We played together for five or six years at different festivals in Alaska,” the Olympic champion said. Alas, as different members of the Snow River String Band drifted off to college, the band dissolved.

Her success in the pool, after becoming the first swimmer from Alaska to qualify for an Olympic berth, led to prominent mentions of her bluegrass experience on a multitude of platforms, including in The Washington Post and on National Public Radio.

Jacoby will head to college after her senior year in high school, attending the University of Texas on a scholarship. Despite the crazy schedule that comes with being part of a powerhouse college team, Lydia told reporters that music will remain a part of her life.

“I still enjoy playing music,” she told reporters. “It’s a great thing to do.”

One think seems certain: After a swimming performance in front of millions of television viewers, and after swimming for one of the most competitive collegiate swimming programs in the United States, Lydia is unlikely to experience stage fright the next time she steps onto the stage at a bluegrass festival, whenever and wherever that may be.

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Travis Stewart passes

Posted on July 27, 2021 by Azlyrics

Travis Stewart at Capitol City Sound Studios in Baton Rouge (May 24, 1969) – photo © Fred Robbins

Louisiana bluegrass music pioneer Travis Stewart passed away on July 21, 2021, at Sabine Medical Center in Many, Louisiana. He was 86 years old. 

Obie Travis Stewart, Sr. was born in Many on April 19, 1935, and was best known for his talent as a guitar player (although he played bass also), his high-lonesome tenor voice, and ability to tell a beautiful story in singing ballads.

During his long music career Stewart played with The Country Cut-Ups, helped form The Southern Bluegrass Boys and fronted a group with his own children, The New Crop of Grass.

The highlight was playing with Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys at Bean Blossom (June 1971)…

(Bill Monroe mandolin, Travis Stewart guitar, Kenny Baker fiddle
Jack Hicks banjo, Monroe Fields bass. Audio courtesy of Fred Robbins.)

Additionally, he has played with Byron Berline, Allen Shelton, Luke Thompson, Mitchell Land, Tootie Williams and Lonnie Craft in an active Louisiana bluegrass scene. 

He devoted his life to cabinet making, being notable for his craftsmanship in wood working.

He will be remembered for his storytelling and the ability to make everyone around him laugh.

R.I.P. Travis Stewart.

A Discography 

Country Cut-Ups

  • The Country Cut-Ups Go To College (Towne House THLP-1000, 1967) 

The Traditional Grass

  • Haulin’ Grass (Jaa Cee Records TG-142, 1978) 

Funeral services for Obie Travis Stewart, Sr. took place on Friday, July 23, 2021, at Mount Carmel Baptist Church in Colmesneil, Texas. 

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Charlie Cushman – Banjo Doctor is in

Posted on July 27, 2021 by Azlyrics

Is your five-string ailing? If so, contact the doctor.

Charlie Cushman, banjoist with the Earls of Leicester and an Earl Scruggs devotee, is a top-notch banjo set-up man as well. Working out of his north Tennessee home, Cush has a shop filled with antique radios, vintage microphones, and everything that he needs to get banjos sounding their absolute best. His clientele includes current bluegrass A-listers such as Ron Block, Billy Strings, and Vince Gill, plus the banjos of past greats like Earl Scruggs and Uncle Dave Macon.

“I’ve played an old Mastertone since I was 21, and know what the sound is. I use that as my measuring stick. I have owned many fine original pre-war flathead Mastertones and have learned a great deal about their tonal abilities, and more importantly, how to achieve and retrieve the tone from the instrument.”

“Your banjo should be adjusted to perform in harmony with your current ability as a player. After 35 years of playing the banjo, I personally can say that as your ability to play progresses, the set-up of your instrument will become an extremely important component in your quest to be the musician you want to be,” stressed Cushman. 

‘I got interested when I was four years old,” the TN native explained. “Watching Flatt and Scruggs’ TV show made me want to play the banjo.”

He took a few lessons when he was seven to “get off the ground,” but is basically self-taught. 

“I started dissecting records, slowing 33 1/3 down to 16 to learn the licks.”

The professional musician began his career performing six days a week on Nashville’s Carl Tipton Bluegrass TV show when he was just 14 years old. He held the steady gig for five years.

As a young man, Cushman hit the road. First, he played a year with James Monroe, then a year with Jimmy Martin. Next, he performed for country singer, Mel Tillis.

“I started doing numerous banjo recording sessions. It got me off the road.”

During this time period, Cush also held a day job and partnered with fellow banjoist, Stan Brown (Wilma Lee Cooper), running a carpet cleaning business. He became a member of the Opryland Theme Park’s bluegrass band, performing five years on the Martin stage.

Cushman then joined Mike Snider’s Band, playing guitar alongside him for 14 years on the Grand Ole Opry. During the holiday season, the band also played the Ryman Auditorium.

“It’s the best stage in the country for acoustic music,” he readily affirmed.

Vince Gill petitioned the five string picker to record on his These Days boxed-set album and then tour. Cush performed on the bluegrass portion of the recorded and live productions.

“Vince had a monstrous touring band of 17 people. We played 115 dates. It was a great experience,” he fondly recalled.

Then the picker became involved in the mechanics of the banjo. He found his second calling.

“I worked for Gibson in 2004-05 as set-up guy in their factory. I was the banjo inspector and did all the set-ups.”

In January 2006, he started working in the repair shop of Gruhn Guitars for George Gruhn.

“It was a 60 mile round trip. That was when gas prices went so high. In 2007, I went into business for myself.”

That leap of faith proved profitable. Pickers began to seek out the banjo repairman at his Cottontown address.

“I got a lot of referrals from word-of-mouth. The best advertising is when someone hears a banjo and asks, ‘How did you get it to sound that way?’ Then in 2010-2011, social media (Facebook, Banjo Hangout) gave us an opportunity to create our own image. I learned how to build interest in my set-ups.”

The banjo technician outlined his process for improving a banjo’s sound.

“The term ‘Set-Up’ refers partially to the adjustment of string height, neck pitch, bridge height, proper alignment of strings, and several other key tolerance issues that result in correct intonation, ease of playing the instrument, and the maximum output of volume and tone.”

Another service Cushman provides is tone chamber tuning. “I have earned an income performing on a number of vintage 1930s Gibson flathead banjos. I am of the opinion that even the newer banjos of this quality and design are capable of producing vintage sound, similar to what we all want, through this process of tuning the tone chamber. I have seen very favorable results from new banjos time and time again. I have developed a methodical approach to achieve those results from most any new high quality Mastertone-style banjo.”

The 61 year old explained the term “Pre-War Sound” that many banjo enthusiasts strive to achieve in their instruments.

“The ‘Pre-War’ sound of these ‘acoustic marvels from old Kalamazoo’ must first ‘live’ and ‘be’ in your mind and memory before you can truly acquire the ability to recognize ‘Pre-War’ sound when you hear it. We have the luxury today to buy tone-rings to try this new pre-war formula and go for the ‘pre-war’ sound. The reality of the matter is until you have heard in person, the many different voices (actual pre-war flathead banjos) of this tonal phenomenon, for many years, day in and day out, as I have, you may not be grasping the full understanding of the of ‘Pre-War Sound.’ A common thread these banjos possess is in their tone and sheer power.”

 This Tonal Awareness is the unmistakable sound that Cushman has developed a trained ear for, and strives to replicate.

“It is my desire to further explore and bring forth a similar tone and power found in these vintage banjos to others’ banjos. This is the most time consuming aspect of the service I render. Working in a consistent, clean, smoke-free/pet-free environment, I know I can improve the performance of a banjo. I have standing of most products on the market today that relate to pre-war banjo specs such as tone-rings, etc.”

“I am devoting my time to build this business to go along with my present musical career. I am looking forward to helping folks achieve their desires which lie from within their banjo. I am very fortunate to have this knowledge, to have owned several great pre-war flathead Gibson banjos in the past, and to have learned this aspect of the Gibson banjo from the many great banjo players and innovators who have carved out their careers on these special instruments.”

“If I sound like I’m some kind of privileged character, you’d better believe that I am! To be in the same community with so many of these legendary masters of the banjo, and to share with them in the interest of these old flatheads, I am truly privileged.”

Here is a brief video of Charlie playing my RB-150 after completing his set up.

To set up an appointment for banjo work with Charlie Cushman, call (615) 708-5075, email him directly, or send him a Facebook message.

The doctor is in.

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These Days I Stand Alone from Don Rigsby

Posted on July 27, 2021 by Azlyrics

Don Rigsby has been a major actor in bluegrass music for three decades now. During that time he has been a part of several of the top acts in our business, from The Bluegrass Cardinals and Lonesome River Band, to J.D. Crowe & The New South to Longview, and his current assignment as a founding member of Flashback with other Crowe alums Richard Bennett and Curt Chapman.

While there have been notable solo projects from Rigsby along the way, most of his output has been in ensemble settings. A first single is available this week from a new project for RBR Entertainment with Don out front, and it finds the singer and mandolinist in an uncharacteristic position.

These Days I Stand Alone, co-written with Billy Droze, is the story of Don’s life in song, and an announcement of his career as a front man and solo artist. For most of this past thirty years he has been focused on older music and the traditions of bluegrass, with hardly a peek into his private life which, like all of ours, has had its up and downs.

Rigsby is supported on the track by Jason Roller on guitar, Greg Martin on bass, Tim Crouch on fiddle, and Elmer Burchett on banjo. Larry Cordle and Billy Droze provide vocal harmonies.

It’s a truly thoughtful and engaging song with a powerful and positive message, sung and played beautifully by this veteran grasser.

These Days I Stand Alone by Don Rigsby is available now wherever you stream or download music online. Radio programmers will find the track at AirPlay Direct.

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Tony Rice’s passion for Accutron watches profiled in HODINKEE

Posted on July 27, 2021 by Azlyrics

Tony Rice with his Accutron (on right) – photo © Scott Simontacchi

There are many avid fans of the late Tony Rice who knew about his passion for vintage Accutron timepieces, one as deep and enduring as his love for bluegrass music, and playing it as it should be played. Though typically a very private person, this was something he shared freely with his friends and associates in the music business, which led to finding these classics on the wrists of many bluegrass artists from the 1980s forward.

When you consider the fact that Tony was quite literally a master of time in his music, and the fact that the Accutron series from Bulova maintained accuracy using a tiny tuning fork built into the mechanism of an early electronic watch design, it begins to make perfect sense. Users who wear these watches regularly become accustomed to the faint audible hum the watch emits, a pitch just below an F# on the musical scale.

This very aspect of the legendary flatpicker is the subject of a lengthy article by Mark Kauzlarich in HODINKEE, a web site devoted to all things chronograph, as well as to horology, the study of time and the instruments that measure it. Titled Tony Rice’s Hands: How the Bulova Accutron Spaceview Became the Watch of Bluegrass, covers the subject in great depth, including discussions with a number of Tony’ peers in the music business who adopted the Spaceview through evangelization by Rice.

In one snippet, Mark quotes Richard Bennet explaining how the master first came across one of these watches while living in Lexington, working for J.D. Crowe & The New South. Tony initially learned about Accutrons in discussion with John Hartford backstage in 1973.

“Tony was just intrigued by the whole look of the watch and the fact that it was operated by a tuning fork,” says Richard Bennett, a bluegrass guitarist whose playing and Accutron collecting and repair work was influenced heavily by his friendship with Rice. “He carried a tuning fork with him everywhere when he was playing,” so it naturally caught his eye. But then there was the accuracy of the watch.

He endured ribbing from his bandmates at the time, working at the Holiday Inn in Lexington during 1974, including Crowe, for spending $135 for a watch back then. But it was only the start of a relationship with the Spaceview that lasted the rest of his life, which included becoming a widely-recognized expert on this series of timepieces, and a sought-after restorer and repairman.

Any fan of Tony Rice – or Accutron watches – should really read this entire piece, published online. This excerpt nicely captures the tone of the story.

One morning in the 1980s, he told Burleson, “I got up and looked at it and thought, ‘I have no idea how this sonofabitch works, but I’m gonna find out.’”

There was a limited amount of information available on the watch, which had stopped being made in 1977, and it was no small feat to learn the intricacies of a timepiece that was far more electric than mechanical. Rice sought out factory-certified technicians and hunted down the only available manual.

The manual is basic, says Kenny Smith, the International Bluegrass Music Association’s two-time Guitar Player of the Year. “It’s vague, at most. But what’s really incredible about what he did, he took that book and learned everything.”

We reached out to Kauzlarich last week to discuss this carefully-researched article in preparation for recommending it to our readers, which we do unreservedly. That exchange uncovered the fact that while he was a guitarist himself, Mark had never even listened to Tony’s music until he started delving into details for this piece. He readily admitted his diligence in running down particulars, with an eye towards not offending Rice-heads with the final product.

“One of the great challenges of the article was that both subjects, Tony Rice the man and Accutron watches, are so esoteric, and yet the acolytes of each are so fanatical that any missteps accounting for the broader strokes of their history would be easily apparent to a number of passionate readers. That was made even more difficult by the fact that I actually had never heard Tony Rice play until his death.”

Sometime around Christmas I decided to look Tony up on YouTube, and was captivated by a live performance of Wayfaring Stranger in 2011, and how it wasn’t the driving banjo-heavy bluegrass that I guess I had stereotyped all bluegrass as being. I heard influences from the jazz greats that I grew up listening to and admired, but done on an instrument that I had always felt more comfortable with (the acoustic guitar) than the electric I played throughout high school in my own jazz bands. My only exposure to bluegrass prior to that was an affinity for Nickel Creek, and Chris Thile’s genre-bending as well.”

Mark received a crash course in Tony Rice through his investigations for the article, and says that he has developed a personal fascination for his playing along the way.

“In a way, researching this story was a twofold effort that I think and hope Tony would have appreciated. I got to call some of the greatest living bluegrass legends, a lot of them guitarists, and the friend that told me that Tony was an Accutron guy would somewhat exasperatedly respond how cool it was I was talking to all these great players. To me, they were just people who were also passionate about watches and, like I said in the article, it seemed like those are the friendships he really cherished, so it seemed appropriate.

Meanwhile I was picking up my guitar every day, never having flatpicked in my life, and learned Tony’s version of Church Street Blues when I needed to take a break from writing. Since then I’ve been working on trying to understand the ‘language’ of Tony, despite lacking the speed and dexterity, working my way through the freeform intros to Wayfaring Stranger and Manzanita, and even using them to go back to the jazz phrasings I never could understand as a teenager. I probably won’t ever play at a jam; I’ll never be quick enough on my feet for that. But in a way it feels like Tony was helping me through the process of the story in a lot of ways.”

Well said. That’s a sentiment a good many bluegrass guitarists know well.

Congratulations to Mark Kauzarlich and HODINKEE for this timely piece. Read the full article online.

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Happy Again – Bill & The Belles

Posted on July 26, 2021 by Azlyrics

Sometimes titles can be misleading, or even a misnomer. That’s clearly the case with Bill & The Belles’ deceptively titled sophomore set, Happy Again. At first, the discrepancy isn’t very obvious other than the fact that it’s in parenthesis; the group’s giddy saunter and retro ragtime — similar in style to an old-time string band with banjo, fiddle, and some perky piano playing — is generally conveyed with what appears to be an irreverent attitude.

The sway and swoon of the campy and contrived Make It Look Easy, the nonsensical nursery rhyme imbued in The Corn Shuckin’ Song, and the fiddling finesse of Taking Back My Yesterday add to the impression that this quintet is an upbeat bunch. So too, the folksy faux weeping on Sobbin’ the Blues (think Alice Guthrie reciting Alice’s Restaurant), and faux yodeling heard on Blue So Blues, also add a mix of kitsch and catchiness. 

Still, there’s a dark demeanor present at the heart of these songs which seem to suggest that the happiness they strive for is well beyond reach. Leader Kris Truelsen wrote these songs in the aftermath of his divorce, and for all the confidence and clarity that seems to shine on the surface, depression and disappointment are predominant themes. 

“I need to be happy, I used to be gay, the sun used to shine down upon me each day,” Truelsen laments on the title track, before continuing, “…now I am lonesome, and lost in a daze, cuz she’s gone, she’s gone away.”

There’s no shortage of songs that echo those sentiments. “I’m indifferent, I don’t care,” he insists on the deceptively simple Make It Look Easy, while Sobbin’ the Blues, Blue So Blue, and People Gonna Talk add to a litany of sad circumstance. While a song such as Bye Bye Bill — a fanciful tale of a man’s drinking date with a whale (!?) — provides a rare carefree caress, but it’s an exception rather than a rule as far as the overall theme is concerned. Indeed, Happy Again revolves around contradiction. Delightfully giddy on the surface, it’s an album mired in sorrowful circumstance, and as a result, that despair can’t be dismissed. 

Happily, there’s at least some mirth in the music that prevents Happy Again from belying its title entirely, and producer Teddy Thompson is careful to ensure that’s evident. “Get up and give it one more try,” the group urges on the song of the same name.  They then end the set with the otherwise optimistic Good Friends Are Hard To Find, a genuine ode to friendship and fidelity. The lesson offered is this — life may not be easy, but it’s worth any price in perseverance.

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Photos from RockyGrass 2021

Posted on July 26, 2021 by Azlyrics

The Del McCoury Band at RockyGrass 2021 – photo by Kevin Slick

This RockyGrass 2021 report is a contribution from Kevin Slick, President of The Colorado Bluegrass Music Society, and an avid picker and photographer in the region.

RockyGrass returned to Lyons, Colorado with an incredible weekend that, while having smaller crowds (by design) featured all the things that “Festavarians” have come to expect from this iconic event.

RockyGrass is known for it’s all star jams, usually at the end of the night where musicians tear through old standards and while that happened on schedule this year, two of the highlights featured all star ensembles that didn’t jam but rather played carefully arranged works.

Friday night was the Tony Rice Tribute that put Chris Eldridge, Béla Fleck, Sam Bush, Mark Schatz, David Grisman, Jerry Douglas, Bryan Sutton, and Michael Cleveland on stage to honor the music and life of Tony Rice. Several of the musicians on stage shared memories of Rice and it was the event people were talking about all weekend. The festival closed with Béla Fleck’s new project, “My Bluegrass Heart,” with a similar all star line up: Sierra Hull, Justin Moses, Michael Cleveland, Bryan Sutton, and Mark Schatz. Justin Moses gets the MVP award as he played dobro, fiddle, mandolin, and banjo during the set, at one point even putting down his dobro after a break and running to the other side of the stage mid-song to pick up a fiddle and join Michael Cleveland in some twin fiddle work.

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Maybe I’m Crazy from Dewey & Leslie Brown

Posted on July 26, 2021 by Azlyrics

Dewey & Leslie Brown have released a third single from their upcoming sophomore album, Jealousy. The married couple from North Carolina specialize in traditional bluegrass and mountain music, of the type Dewey learned playing fiddle for Ralph Stanley as a Clinch Mountain Boy for more than a decade.

With Dewey handling the bow work, and harmony vocals, Leslie plays bass and serves as primary lead vocalist for their band, The Carolina Gentlemen. Her voice is as powerful as her hubby’s fiddling, offering a high-impact bluegrass sound wherever they perform.

This latest single is one Leslie wrote, Maybe I’m Crazy, which she sings supported by harmony vocals from Donna Ulisse and Valerie Smith. Dewey lays down rhythm guitar along with his fiddle, Kendall Gales plays mandolin, Brandon Henson is on banjo, and Tim Spence adds lead guitar.

Brown describes this furious lament thusly…

“I have experienced heartbreak in my life, and have watched many of my loved ones also struggle with relationships. I wrote this song to express the stressful and unsure feelings that one may go through when love does not go the right way.

The lyrics describe a soul longing for love and attention from someone who has pulled away their love, time and time again. The back and forth attention and rejection can eventually drive both people involved in this tumultuous relationship crazy, hence the title. Love can cause people to act out crazy behaviors and sometimes feel the helplessness of wanting to die. I think this song really expresses that struggle.

I hope you enjoy Maybe I’m Crazy! I’m honored to have two amazingly talented legends in the music industry singing with me on this track, Valerie Smith and Donna Ulisse; they really made this song and the lyrics come to life.”

Have a listen…

Maybe I’m Crazy is available now from popular download and streaming sites online. Radio programmers will find the track at AirPlay Direct.

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Charles Sawtelle Memorial Bench gets a much needed tidying up

Posted on July 26, 2021 by Azlyrics

A local San Francisco Bay Area pickin’ buddy friend, Scott Dailey, from the Stoney Mountain Ramblers, reached out to me about a project he initiated to spruce up the Charles Sawtelle Memorial Bench in Boulder, Colorado. The original bench was a collaboration between Charles’ parents, the late Dan and Polly Sawtelle, and the Colorado Chautauqua Association. It was inscribed and dedicated with members of Hot Rize in 2012. Charles played guitar with Hot Rize from their early days in the late ’70s until his untimely passing in 1999. He also played bass as Slade with Hot Rize’s alter ego band, Red Knuckles and the Trailblazers. 

Charles, who came to be known as the Bluegrass Mystery, also published this instruction book, the Bluegrass Guitar Style of Charles Sawtelle.

Scott tells it this way… “One night in March, I happened to be walking my dog Stanley on the grounds of beautiful Chautauqua Park in Boulder, Colorado when I discovered the Charles Sawtelle Memorial Bench. I was unaware of it but stoked as Hot Rize has been one of my all-time favorite bands. The bench was badly weathered and needed some TLC. I found this article about the dedication in 2012. I contacted Hot Rize banjo player Pete Wernick, who put me in touch with Hot Rize bass player Nick Forster, who was instrumental in having the bench created and placed at Chautauqua. Sadly, I never met Charles, but he has been influential in my life and many others. Charles had a style all his own. He was open-minded regarding genres while still deeply appreciating the details of the bluegrass sound. He put together the RockyGrass Academy songbook and CD, which was my bible for years.”

Nick told Scott that Charles had designated his ashes to be scattered at sea, whereas his parents really wanted a memorial on land and in Boulder. So Nick led a multi-year effort that raised $10K to have the bench built and installed. It was meant to be a place where people could gather, play music, and think about Charles Sawtelle.

The bench sits on a dedicated pedestal made of sandstone and concrete, with views of the iconic Flatirons and the greater Boulder Valley. Nick had brass guitar picks made and inlaid into the surface of the concrete. Scott noticed that some of the guitar picks are connected with lines, resembling a constellation. Nick said the concrete guy took some unplanned liberties with the design. He recalled the guy asking him, “what was Charles’ sign?” To which Nick replied, “Charles was a triple Virgo.” Nick knew this as Charles was fond of noting that there has been an uncanny number of bluegrass and country stars who are also Virgos, including Bill Monroe, Carter Stanley, Hank Williams, George Jones, Jerry Lee Lewis, Patsy Cline, Kitty Wells, Gene Autry, Jimmie Rodgers and more! 

Scott being out of work had some time on my hands, so he volunteered to restore the bench in Boulder’s historic Chautauqua Auditorium. With encouragement from Nick and Hot Rize banjo player, Pete Wernick, and Nick, Scott and Jeff Medanich, and his wonderful Chautauqua preservation team, dragged the bench into the back of the auditorium and started sanding. Several picking buddies showed up to help, including Mike Wichmann, Garth Lewis, Gannon Kashiwa, Jay Genender, and Lindsay Meeks. 

Scott said, “Of course, working in a historic music venue – which had hosted too many bands to count – including Hot Rize of course, we couldn’t help but play a few tunes on stage! We even got to play a few tunes with Nick, which was a real treat.”

Chautauqua Auditorium, which was built in 45 days for $6,700 and opened on July 4, 1898, was cold and windy inside, but it kept them and the bench dry. The bench is now looking good as new and back in its prime location, and ready for more gatherings and music. The bench will be rededicated on July 27th at noon. On hand to celebrate and remember will be Charles’ many friends and fans from his years as The Bluegrass Mystery and the puzzling “Slade,” including Charles’ Hot Rize bandmates, Nick, Tim O’Brien, and Pete.

His Hot Rize bandmates shared the following about Charles and the bench. 

Nick Forster says… “The bench was designed to be a place where people could gather and play music, and I know it has fulfilled its purpose many times. There will be another gathering on Tuesday, July 27th at noon, to remember Charles, celebrate his influence on the bluegrass community, and rededicate the Charles Sawtelle Memorial Bench to last another 20 years or more.”

Pete Wernick had this to say… “Charles Sawtelle earned the two titles he was most known by: The Bluegrass Mystery, and simply Expert — the only word on his business card. Charles hasn’t been seen in this century (he passed in March of 1999), but his memory burns strong for fans who saw him in the first 20 years of Hot Rize (1978-98), and remember his distinctive, expressive, and mysterious guitar playing. Charles’ loss was profound and stirred many tributes. The one lasting tangible memorial is the handsome bench that’s stood by the Chautauqua Auditorium for 20 years. The renewal of the bench is symbolic of how we’d like to remember Charles: solid, smooth, and artful. Charles took good care of his treasured possessions and I’m sure he’d be touched by a tribute like this. It’s a great time to gather in his memory, and Nick, Tim, and I will all be there to remember our fallen comrade.”

The back seat of the bench is inscribed with one of Charles’ favorite sayings, “Never Turn Anything All The Way Up.” His close friends know that he had a good many colorful aphorisms the he loved to recount, some unfit for family consumption. Scott says of the inscription, “Not particularly Rock & Roll, but it’s probably wise advice! Indeed, I joked with the guys ‘the heck with that – this sander is cranked to 11’ … and sadly, I melted the sanding head. Charles was right!”

If you are planning on come to the rededication event on July 27th, be sure to bring your instrument as there will be jamming afterward and lots of thinking about Charles.

All photographs by Scott Dailey.

Charles leading the fiddle tune Sally Ann with Hot Rize on the Lonesome Pine Specials.

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When He Calls My Name video debut from Alan Bibey & Grasstowne

Posted on July 24, 2021 by Azlyrics

Gospel bluegrass has been very good to Alan Bibey & Grasstowne this past few years, probably because they are so good at playing and singing it. Their cut of Gonna Rise and Shine won the Gospel Recording of the Year in 2020 at the IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards, and it sat atop our Bluegrass Today Gospel Weekly airplay chart for much of the year.

They have been nominated again this year in that same category for a cut from their first album with Billy Blue Records, Hitchhiking To California. The track in question is When He Calls My Name, and the band has a new music video we are happy to debut today.

Bibey tells us that he feels a bit overwhelmed seeing their name on the list of Gospel nominees again in 2021.

“Having just won the Gospel Recording of the Year award last year for Gonna Rise and Shine, we feel so honored to be included in the final round again this year. We are just humbled to be mentioned alongside some of our dear friends and labelmates in a category that means so much to us.

We had a lot of fun shooting this video for When He Calls My Name, and we are grateful for all the help we had on it from Jerry Salley and everyone at Billy Blue Records, as well as my cousin, co-writer Ronnie Bowman. We are really pleased with how well it turned out and we hope it’ll be a blessing to folks out there.”

The video finds Bibey on mandolin and lead vocal, supported by his Grasstowne bandmates Justin Jenkins on banjo, Zak McLamb on bass, Tony Watt on guitar, and Kati Penn on fiddle. Watch as they play through the song in a old barn. How perfectly bluegrass!

Alan and Grasstowne are nominated in the prestigious Song Of The Year category as well this year for the title track, another that spent considerable time at #1 on our Bluegrass Today weekly airplay chart.

“We are also so thankful to have been included in the Song Of The Year category this year with the title track of our latest album, Hitchhiking to California. It’s truly just an honor to have made it to the final five for such a competitive award, and we thank the IBMA voters for supporting this song. We are really excited for Wes Golding, who originally wrote this tune. He has long been a hero of ours. We are also very proud of the video for Hitchhiking to California. It’s more of a story-type than a straight performance-type video, and we are just tickled with how well it came out!”

Here’s a look back at that one as well.

Best of luck to Grasstowne and all the other nominees for 2021!

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Hope River Entertainment celebrates 20 years, and a new client

Posted on July 24, 2021 by Azlyrics

We’ve mentioned many times how hard the people behind the scenes in the bluegrass music industry work, putting in long hours and many weekends promoting, recording, and publicizing the artists and the events where its played. Every year the IBMA honors these folks through their Industry Awards, giving extra note to five such with the Distinguished Achievement Awards.

Certainly among the most diligent worked are publicists, toiling long and hard far from the limelight so that you know about a new album or video, or a festival you would enjoy attending. One among them, to whose assiduity I can attest personally, is Penni McDaniel of Hope River Entertainment, who is this year celebrating 20 years in the business of bluegrass publicity.

Despite a brief period working directly with another larger management company, Penni has worked on her own for a long list of clients that includes artists and labels we all know well. Her current artist roster boasts of names like Larry Cordle, Larry Stephenson, Volume Five, Donna Hughes, Dave Adkins, and Shannon Slaughter.

She has just signed her latest client, James Reams, who will work with Hope River for consulting, media, and booking representation. His long career in bluegrass has included recording, touring, film, songwriting, podcasting, and leading a band, The Barnstormers, for nearly three decades. His film, Pioneers of Bluegrass, has been praised for its interviews with Jimmy Martin, Mac Wiseman, and Jesse McReynolds about how bluegrass music developed and grew from Bill Monroe onward.

He tells us that he is delighted with this new partnership.

“I am so excited to be working with Penni. She is dedicated to the people she works with and has worked with for many years. We are already busy, including preparing for the upcoming release of James Reams Like a Flowing River & Soundtrack Album, so we hope you stay tuned.”

McDaniel accepts the challenge of another client with a commendation of his work to date.

“James is going into his 30th year as a true bluegrass balladeer. I am happy to celebrate this milestone with him as I celebrate the 20th anniversary of Hope River Entertainment. Not only is he an acclaimed songwriter and performer, but he is a talented storyteller and hardworking ambassador for bluegrass music. I highly recommend watching his documentary on Amazon to learn more about his music and his life. In addition, the film leaves viewers with a deeper appreciation of James Reams and his band, the Barnstormers.”

For more information on Hope River Entertainment and their client services, visit them online. You can learn much more about James Reams James Reams.

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Rick Faris drops an old fashioned single – two new tracks from next album

Posted on July 23, 2021 by Azlyrics

Back in the day, when 78 and then 45 rpm vinyl disks were the way new music was made available to fans and radio alike, each would typically include two new songs. Record labels would mark them as the A and B sides, with the track of primary interest being the A side, and the B basically there because the technology allowed two sides, so why not put something there.

On rare occasions, artists and labels would be caught by surprise when a B side took off with fans, and would have to quickly pivot their promotional efforts in a different direction. But as a rule, disk jockeys played the A side and everything went exactly as planned.

Notable exceptions include Elvis Presley’s Hound Dog, which was the B side on his Don’t Be Cruel single, as well as his recording of Blue Moon of Kentucky, which was the flip side of his debut single, That’s All Right. The same happened for The Beach Boys in 1964 when Don’t Worry Baby charted higher than the intended focus track, I Get Around.

It seems that nostalgia for the old ways has struck Rick Faris and Dark Shadow Recording, who have released a two-song single today which they are calling a Dark Shadow Double. Both tracks are to be included on Rick’s next album with the label, See You On The Other Side, a new project with a bevy of guest performers.

First up (the A side?) is the album’s title track, written by Faris and Rick Lang, which comes in hot and fast. An old time quartet marks the choruses, sung by Rick, Sam Bush, Stephen Mougin, and Jason Carter, with a band consisting of Faris on guitar, Bush on mandolin, Carter on fiddle, Russ Carson on banjo, and Mike Bub on bass.

Rick tells us that having these guys in the studio was enchanting.

“I am beyond thrilled to have some of my heros on these two cuts. Sam Bush has formed the way the mandolin and bluegrass groove is supposed to sound to me. He brings energy and drive that is enhanced by Mike Bub, Jason Carter, Russ Carson and Stephen Mougin. Having these legends and monster pickers on a song I co-wrote with fellow DSR artist Rick Lang was just the icing atop this bluegrass cake!”

Have a listen.

The second track out today is Can’t Build A Bridge To Glory, a Rick Faris/Becky Buller cowrite. This one has more of a funky groove, with Rick on slack key, finger style guitar, accompanied by Laura Orshaw on fiddle and Zak McLamb on bass. Again a quartet number, but this time one made up of Faris, Ronnie Bowman, Eddie Faris, and Dale Perry.

For Rick, singing this one brought back memories from his youth.

“Ronnie Bowman’s singing has been in my ear since age 13 and seeing him at Poppy Mountain, just a couple years later, forever cemented him at the pinnacle of bluegrass cool. Here’s a guy who’s not only an incredible singer but also a world class songwriter, and has been on so many of my formative album collection stalwarts. Dale Perry, also on Ronnie’s records and Lonesome River Band’s early Gospel cuts featuring his demonstrative bass vocals. Brother Eddie Faris perfectly rounded out this amazing vocal trio that is set in the swampy groove laid down by Zak McLamb and Laura Orshaw.”

Check it out.

Both tracks are available today from the popular streaming and download sites. Radio programmers can get both via AirPlay Direct.

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Ask Sonny Anything… did you play baseball with Bill Monroe?

Posted on July 23, 2021 by Azlyrics

Terry Herd decided to go to Oregon. He had to cross them Rocky Mountains to get there and I’m wondering if he got Larry Stephenson to drive him out there in his luxury bus and, if so, my hope is that Larry charged him from 2 to 3 dollars a mile because, boys, I’ll betcha going over them ‘air Rocky Mountains puts an awful strain on them ‘air bus engines, and when them ‘air engines blow up it’s “Katie bar the door!”

S

=============

You talked about Bill Monroe’s poor vision and bad driving, but I wonder how he managed to be a good baseball player if he couldn’t see well. Were you ever involved with him when he was playing ball with the Blue Grass Boys? Butch Robins says that when he first joined the band Monroe threw a baseball at him, as an intimidation move. Did you ever see anything like that? Did you ever see him play baseball?

Jim L.

Jim L. Thank you for your time. It’s appreciated a great deal.

Bill Monroe had poor vision and was not a good driver. I was there and saw this with my own eyes. As far as Bill being a good baseball player, I don’t know that for sure because I was not involved with him when the Blue Grass Boys had a baseball team. At one point, you said that Bill threw a baseball at Butch Robbins as an intimidation move. I don’t know how that could be an intimidation move…if he had hit Butch with that baseball, it appears to me as though that would be cause for a lawsuit. I never saw anything like that, and I never saw him play baseball although, while riding along from one date to another in the car, Bill would lean over the front seat and tell whoever was listening up there to turn the radio on and see if he could find a baseball game.

I will say this about his love for the game of baseball. When I went to work with him, in 1952, while we were in the city of Detroit, he took us to see the Tigers and Yankees play. I don’t remember who went to the game, but I know I did and Bill did, and if I remember correctly Mickey Mantle was playing center field for the Yankees. We went to Briggs Stadium in Detroit. I never saw Bill play baseball but he did love the game and I think as time passed up into the ’60s, Bill and I grew a fondness for each other and sometimes I miss him terribly.
S

—–

Sonny, you’ve kindly answered questions before about the Osborne Brothers’ studio setups. Were all the sessions, including the great trio vocals and instrumentals, done standing…or seated?

Many thanks,

Sandy

Sandy…so good to hear from you again, although it has been too long.

The Osborne Brothers’ studio setups, including the trio vocals and instrumentals, were done with me sitting facing Bobby who was standing, and the 3rd part on my right would be standing. I didn’t realize it at the time, I wish I had, that I played better standing than I did sitting. Had I known that at the time, I would have stood and perhaps would have become a great banjo player.
S

—–

I’m throughly enjoying this column each week. My question is, would you ever consider making a book of this Ask Sonny Anything column. I’d like to see all these compiled into a book someday.

They’re interesting to read each week, and I’d buy the book. I’ll also buy your autobiography book if it ever gets printed.

Thanks for this fun column.

Raynae R.

This is to Raynae. Thank you for your time and involvement in our chaotic free-for-all.

Would I ever consider making a book of this Ask Me Anything column? It had not occurred to me to do that, and maybe someday in the future somebody will take that idea and run with it. But I doubt that it will be me. So if that ever happens, and I sell one book, I will know that it was you who bought it.

If my autobiography book ever sees the light of day, I will also know that Raynae was the buyer, and that my son and daughter were not. And that’s not saying much for my wife, Judy, is it? Because in my present condition she’s doing all the typing, and any mistake you see was probably on poipose.
S

—–

Sonny, absolutely LOVING this column. Thank you for all you done and continue to do for us fans. Here’s my question: If there were a list of holy sites to visit for bluegrass music, what would be on it? Example: Bill Monroe’s Homeplace, Uncle Pen’s Cabin, etc?

Johnny B.G.

Johnny Be Good, whoever you are I’m sure that’s not your name, and that concept is far from my realm of knowledge which ended in the 3rd month of the 10th grade, and from there on it was Bill Monroe, Jimmy Martin, Charley Cline, and many others, which explains a lot.

When you say holy sites to visit for bluegrass music, I would first of all say:

  • The Ryman Auditorium which would be the beginning of bluegrass music.
  • Earl Scruggs homeplace.
  • The spot where Jimmy Martin’s house sat in Hermitage, TN and was bulldozed down recently.
  • The studio in Cincinnati, OH where Foggy Mountain Breakdown was recorded.
  • Castle Studio in Nashville, where Rawhide and Rudy Lyle’s infamous banjo break was created.

That’s all. Seeya later Johnny B. G.
S

If you have something you would like to ask Sonny, be sure to post it in the comments below, or send it to us directly.

Posted in Lyrics | Tags: Ask Sonny Anything, Bill Monroe, Blue Grass Boys, Butch Robins | Leave a comment |

Hugh Moore – making music during the pandemic

Posted on July 23, 2021 by Azlyrics

Hugh Moore, an accomplished banjo picker from Raleigh, NC, learned how to utilize modern technology, to pick with friends, and share their collaborative music with others while doing it all safely and tastefully during the midst of a global pandemic. 

“I wanted to play music, but like everyone, we were serious about social distancing so we made it work,” stated the retired portfolio manager.

First, he developed a plan. “I decided if I’m going to do recordings and videos, I need to have people with their own in-home recording studios. I wanted the videos to look good, but most importantly, the audio needed to be as good as our studio recordings.”

So the 62-year-old reached out to his musical cronies across the continent to meet that requirement.

“My first project was Never Ending Love for You, a popular 1970’s hit by Delaney and Bonnie. I started out with a click to establish the timing track. I then played scratch guitar and vocal to the click track, and left spaces for the breaks as I worked out the musical format of the song.”

Next, Moore contacted Chris Sharp (John Hartford String Band) from Durham, to be guitarist, and Canadian Ray Legere (Tony Rice Unit) to play fiddle. Then he petitioned Raleigh resident, Allyn Love ( Steve Wariner Band), to play pedal steel, and Billy Troy, Josh Graves’ son, who lives in Nebraska, to sing the lead vocals. As the song began to come together, Moore had an epiphany.

“I was talking to Bobby Osborne and said I had this crazy idea that I wanted him to sing high tenor. He said he’d love to do it. I had learned that his son, Boj, had a studio, and I knew he could play upright bass on the project.”

Moore elected to pick the five-string to complete the on-line ensemble. “I didn’t want to promote me, but I wanted to be involved in it.”

His brainchild took two months to come to fruition. He released it on his OMS Records YouTube channel in April 2020.

“There was, of course, no profit motive for this or any of the other videos. That’s not what it’s about. It was about making good music with friends,” the creative picker stressed.

Since that first project, there have been numerous others. 

“I did one, I Still Miss Someone, with my nephew, Joseph Terrell, of Mipsoas as the lead singer. Billy Troy was featured on Someone Took My Place With You. I did a black and white video which features a re-creation of the August 29, 1953 recording by Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. Probably the most popular videos have been: I Can’t Stop Loving You with Bobby Osborne, Ronnie Reno, and Glen Duncan, with over 300,000 views on Facebook, and I’ll Go Stepping Too, with over 50,000 views on Youtube.

The latter is a good example of the enterprising business man and his associates gradually becoming higher tech. Moore, Legere, Sharp, and Troy acquired green screens and began to utilize the magic of technology so that even though the musicians recorded in separate locations, they appeared to be together on the screen.

Troy expressed, “I love what we’re doing. We did these videos because of COVID,” but their friendship spans decades. “My dad (Josh Graves) hooked me up with Hugh in 1999.”

Graves’ son had been recording remotely, including producing audio files with Moore. “We got to talking. I give Hugh a lot of credit. He took the pieces and put it together.”

Another musician on the video was bassist, Zack Mondry, a longtime friend and former bandmate of Moore. “Around 2009, we formed the classic bluegrass band, Rye Mountain Boys. That was a fun band that really studied the sounds of Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, and the Stanleys, and audiences seemed to appreciate that.”

“When Hugh asked if I wanted to play on some of his COVID sessions, I had just been listening to some recordings of Ray Legere, and was excited to get to play with him virtually! He sounds absolutely fabulous on I’ll Go Steppin Too and Someone Took My Place With You, as does Hugh and the rest of the pickers and singers. Leave it to Hugh Moore to dream up and create something cool and fun out of the pandemic lockdown!”

As Moore gradually became more a techno nerd, the Raleigh native decided to tackle a creative exploit with the green screen, which allows objects or actors in a video to be removed from the backdrop, using his own dock as the background with just himself, singing all the parts and playing all the instruments.

“I videoed about three minutes of my dock to use as the background. Then I sat in front of a microphone in my studio, using Pro Tools for the audio, and started with the guitar and sang the lead. I’d say, ‘banjo break here’ while the click track was going, then mandolin break here. I added the bass and harmonies.”

Under spotlights, the married father of two performed in front of the camera on his iPhone, wearing ear buds, and gradually recorded each segment. Using an Apple product, Final Cut, he formulated his own one man band. The end product was a 2 minute, 11 second version of Jonathan Edwards How Long Have I Been Waiting For You featuring Moore playing guitar, banjo, mandolin, and bass, and singing three part harmony on his own dock.

His comments on the YouTube production, posted on April 30 of this year include: “Hugh Moore (me) on all instruments and vocals, utilizing lots of modern technology. Personally, it’s too much me, even for me. This is just a fun experiment by me as I hone my pandemic video skills. Again, it’s too much me for me, but I hope you enjoy it in the context it is presented.”

The North Carolina musician was not born into a musical family. In his mid-teens, he heard Earl Scruggs on a banjo compilation record, A Bushel of Banjos, and was smitten.

“I told my parents that I wanted a banjo. I took lessons from Tom Garren in Cary. He did tablature in a really different way,” but Moore soaked it up like a sponge. 

Moore and Linda, his wife of 34 years, started their own independently-owned and operated recording production company, OMS Records, with a studio in their Raleigh home. The acronym derives from the “Original Music Showcase” concert series that Moore started in Durham. It began with audio productions and recently expanded to video projects.

“I got into recording through Benny Martin,” the CEO of OMS Records explained. “I became friends with him through the concert series. He had a speech disorder, spasmodic dysphonia. I learned about his disease and took him to the Vanderbilt speech clinic to get him Botox treatment for his voice. It helped him. Linda and I started OMS Records and recorded 18 releases over 20 years. Two of the first were Benny’s: Big Tiger Roars Again (Parts 1 and 2).”

With an impressive stable of national artists, OMS has produced and released a portfolio of creative acoustic and classic country music. His company sports recordings by country and bluegrass music greats such as Vassar Clements, Buddy Spicher, Josh Graves, Bobby Osborne, Jeannie Seely, Glen Duncan, Johnny Russell, Benny Martin, Jesse McReynolds, Pam Gadd, and Billy Troy. Guests included people like Dolly Parton, Earl Scruggs, Ricky Skaggs, Vince Gill, Tom T. Hall, Béla Fleck, Alison Krauss, Buck Owens, Rhonda Vincent, and many others.

“One song I had a lot of fun with was the 2000 OMS recording of Act Naturally with Johnny Russell (who wrote the song) singing with Buck Owens, and Marty Stuart on mandolin, Benny Martin on fiddle, and Earl Scruggs on banjo. Those were all personal heroes.” The full CD, Actin’ Naturally, had an impressive line-up of well-known artists that also included Parton, Crystal Gayle, Bobby Bare, and the Whites.

“We more or less stopped releasing new CD in about 2006. With the changing of the industry towards streaming, it just wasn’t sustainable or profitable. Some of the artists who were on our roster didn’t do much touring since they were late in their careers. Benny Martin, Kenny Baker, Vassar Clements, Johnny Russell, Josh Graves, and Jesse McReynolds had all slowed down a lot. Bobby Osborne and some of the others were still touring.”

After living on Wild Goose, their sailboat, for four years and traveling the world visiting 28 countries, Hugh and Linda returned to their Raleigh residence, their home since 1990. Just as they were learning to be landlubbers again, COVID-19 hit. With their recording studio being dormant, the pandemic seemed the perfect time to resume production. Through the aid of modern technology and the accessibility to social media, a whole new world of music recording opened up for the Moores.

“There’s no deadline. That’s the beauty of it. There isn’t a rush and we all just wanted to make music and prove the remote concept. All I did was post it on Facebook and Youtube.”

As the world reopens and life returns to normal, Hugh and Linda are enjoying retired life and becoming grandparents for the first time. They welcomed a granddaughter, Georgia Everett, into the Moore fold on June 20, but that doesn’t mean the music or the creative projects will cease.

“We’ve probably just scratched the surface,” he readily admitted.

The musical entrepreneur concluded, “I wasn’t trying to make any kind of big splash. I was just trying to find a way to continue to play music through the pandemic, and it has been a lot of fun.”

To learn more about his projects, visit the web site or subscribe to his YouTube channels: OMS Records (collaborative sessions) and Hugh M (all him).

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