Music

It can now be confirmed. The long-rumored and oft-promised debut CD from Ned Luberecki and Stephen Mougin will be available in late September, roughly during the IBMA World Of Bluegrass convention in Nashville.

This is a side project for these noted industry pros. Luberecki is the regular banjo player with Chris Jones and the Night Drivers, an in-demand instructor, and a regular host on Sirius-XM’s Bluegrass Junction 24/7 bluegrass station. Mougin holds down the guitar slot with Sam Bush, and also operates Dark Shadow Recording, which both functions as a full-service studio and the publisher of a line of audio CD instructional methods.

These guys know what’s up, OK? Both are talented multi-instrumentalists, songwriters, vocalists and entertainers – and they complement each other’s skills in many ways. Ned is a natural comedian, and Stephen a soulful singer. Together they create music that is insightful one moment, and hilarious the next.

The album is Nedski & Mojo, the name of their duo act, and the much-easier-to-figure-out-and-pronounce monikers they have adopted as nicknames. The music largely follows the theme of their live shows, with the pair alternating lead vocals and swapping out instruments in a set of original music. Ned has two new banjo instrumentals, and the songs (save 1) are written by the two of them, either jointly, on their own, or with capable co-writers like Jon Weisberger, Jenee Fleenor, Justin Carbone, and Craig Market.

You can see the lighter side in these songs from Ned…

Click here to view the embedded video.

… and the more serious in this performance of Stephen’s Find Another Way To Get To You on Music City Roots this past March.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We’ll be looking forward to hearing the music from Nedski & Mojo, and hope to have some audio samples to share soon on The Bluegrass Blog.

On Monday, September 6, just one month before the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival takes over Golden Gate Park, Amnesia will host a truly strictly bluegrass night. In honor of the 99th birthday of the man who founded the genre, Bill Monroe, three acts will be performing all Monroe music–from different eras of his career–all night long at this free event. ...

Nashville, TN -- Americana sage Guy Clark leads the latest talent-packed slate of performers added to the 2010 Americana Music Festival September 8-11 in Nashville, Tennessee. Clark’s Wednesday-night live lesson in greatness caps off the first night of the four-night festival schedule that now includes legend and 2010 AMA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Wanda Jackson,www.AmericanaMusic.org soul-shouter Mike Farris, Texas rockabilly cat Dale Watson, acclaimed journeyman Darrell Scott, spoken-word favorite Minton Sparks, a cappella gospel pioneers the Fairfield Four, Americana stalwart and award show host Jim Lauderdale, AmericanaMusic.org picker and songwriter extraordinaire Shawn Camp, tropical trendsetter Courtney Jaye, potent rising star Holly Williams, and roots rockabilly crooner James Intveld, plus more to come. ...

A new collection of live songs from the live music download site FestivaLink.net will benefit the Bluegrass Trust Fund, an emergency financial aid program administered by the International Bluegrass Music Association. The songs were recorded earlier this year at the North Carolina roots music festival MerleFest, and confirmed contributors to the collection include well-known bluegrass, country and folk artists such as Doc Watson, Sam Bush, Travelin' McCourys, Steve Martin, Jim Lauderdale, the Waybacks and Donna the Buffalo. ...

My very own hometown newspaper, The Roanoke Times, published a very nice feature on the venerable County Sales in their Sunday (8/29) edition. It was written by Tad Dickens, music reporter for the paper.

As a young student of bluegrass banjo growing up in the Tidewater region of coastal Virginia, County Sales was my lifeline to recorded music, as it was to many other fans of the music with no local outlet for retail bluegrass purchases. Seeing the postman arriving with that distinctively thin, 12” cardboard box always meant that some new music was headed for the turntable.

On top of that, County Sales’ founder Dave Freeman’s monthly newsletters offered the first notice for many of us of new releases – not to mention thumbnail reviews and some brief historical references. And it was such a treat to be able to ring them up and place an order for “the new Seldom Scene album,” and know that it would be properly filled without the need for a catalog number.

These days, of course, County Sales does most of their business online, though they still have a knowledgeable staff on site to answer questions and accept orders by phone. They also receive a large number of live-and-in-person visits from customers and interested travelers from all over the world.

Dickens begins his Times piece by describing the business’ brick-and-mortar home in the tiny community of Floyd, VA – a site with a history of its own.

The hub of a bluegrass and old-time music mini-empire thrives in a building where legendary performers played and sang decades ago.

For more than 35 years, County Sales has operated out of a rambling portion of what was once called the Pix Theater, on West Main Street in Floyd. In its day, 1935-1936, such entertainers as The Monroe Brothers (Bill and Charlie) and Roy Hall put on shows there, according to the Floyd Historical Society.

These days, you can still find recordings featuring those players, along with at least 4,500 other titles from musicians both famous and obscure. People from all over the country, even the world, can be found milling through the bins at County Sales.

The lengthy article covers the history of the company, and where County Sales is headed in the future. It will make for a very interesting read for anyone who has done business with them since the mid-1970s.

You can read the entire piece online.

The International Bluegrass Music Museum is celebrating Bill Monroe’s birthday early.

Actually, they are simply taking two years to celebrate his 100th birthday as part of a worldwide Bill Monroe Centennial Celebration.

The IBMM has three exhibits planned as part of the celebration. The first exhibit opened during a Blue Grass Boys Reunion show earlier this year at the museum’s annual festival. The Bill Monroe Centennial Art Exhibit includes original paintings, drawings, pottery, and other craftwork celebrating the life and music of Bill Monroe. All the pieces on display are for sale with 60% of the funds going directly to the artist, and the other 40% going to the museum.

The second exhibit the museum has planned is the Bill Monroe Centennial Exhibit, set to open on September 10, 2010. This display features artifacts which were personally owned by Bill Monroe and illustrate the influence of his lengthy career. Two items in particular are of interest because they have never before been displaying in a public museum setting. The first is Uncle Pen’s fiddle.

Bluegrass musicians and fans know that this fiddle and its owner, Pendleton Vandiver, were enormously influential in Bill Monroe’s life.

Uncle Pen’s fiddle was acquired by one of the most instrumental people in establishing the IBMM, Terry Woodward of Owensboro, Kentucky, who has gifted the instrument to the museum for the duration of the Centennial celebration. This fiddle has been used in recent recording sessions by fiddlers Ricky Skaggs, Stuart Duncan, Fletcher Bright and Tim O’Brien, among many others, to record a soundtrack for a motion picture being made of Bill Monroe’s life starring Golden Globe-nominated actor Peter Sarsgaard as Monroe, his real-life wife Maggie Gyllenhaal as Bessie Lee Mauldin, T-Bone Burnett as music director and Callie Khouri as script writer. Sounds like an Oscar-winning combination to us!!

The European Bluegrass Blog recently had a story with some information about this upcoming movie production.

The second item of interest in the museum’s display is the headstock veneer from Monroe’s mandolin.

The other major artifact, the original headstock veneer from Bill Monroe’s world-famous Gibson 1923 F-5 Lloyd Loar mandolin, is part of a legend well-known to fans and considered by some to be the quintessential bluegrass relic. Following a disagreement with Gibson, Monroe removed the company’s name from the headstock with a pocketknife, leaving only the word “The.”

The veneer was auctioned at Christie’s in New York City in December of 2009. The IBMM’s executive director, Gabrielle Gray, made the trip from Owensboro hoping to be the top bidder and acquire the artifact for the museum. She was outbid by Laura Weber Cash, an accomplished vocalist and national award-winning fiddler, who, along with her husband, John Carter Cash, graciously agreed to place it on loan to the museum for the duration of the Centennial celebration.

More information about the exhibit can be found on the IBMM blog.

The third, and final exhibit will open next year on September 13, 2011, Monroe’s 100th birthday. The exhibit will feature pieces of bluegrass history focused on the various members of Bill Monroe’s band, the Blue Grass Boys.

Barry Bales has chosen the Grand Prize winner in our Have Bass Will Travel video contest. It was selected from among the six finalists chosen last week by readers of The Bluegrass Blog.

May we have the envelope please? [drum roll...]

The prize goes to David Morris of Gaithersburg, MD for his entry that contemplated a number of bass travel solutions, including an inflatable bass and a dehydrated variation. He ultimately settled on a scenario that allowed him to safely transport both his beloved bass and his charming wife in the same vehicle.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In addition to a set of D’Addario HH610 Helicore bass strings (3/4 size, medium tension) and an autographed copy of Barry’s AcuTab bass DVD, A Solid Foundation to Acoustic Bass (both of which went to all six finalists), David will receive:

• Custom Colorado Case bass case valued at $449.95.
• Registration and accommodations at Bass Stummit III valued at $330.

Congratulations to David from The Bluegrass Blog!

Thanks again to our generous sponsors, to all the entrants for their creativity and good humor, and to everyone who cast a vote for the finalists last week. You can take a look at all the entries here.

Willis, VA -- Mountain Fever Records is proud to announce the release of Calm Before The Storm, the debut CD from No One You Know. The project officially hit the stores yesterday. No One You Know is a talented and fresh bluegrass band comprised of five seasoned musicians - Rachel Burge; mandolin and vocals, Don Anderson; bass and vocals, Ramie Bennett; banjo and vocals, Bruce Jones; dobro, and Lance Gainer; guitar and vocals. ...

Nashville, TN -- Six years after the chart-topping success of their album Green Day Blue Grass, which spent over a year in the Top 10 of Billboard's Bluegrass Albums chart, the boys from the "newgrass" trio Honeywagon have released a tribute to the King of Pop just in time to celebrate his August 29 birthday. Songs from Neverland - a Bluegrass Tribute to Michael Jackson (Rainfeather Records/N2U), is available now on iTunes. ...

The International Association of Independent Recording Artists, IAIRA, who recognizes and honors artistic achievement, technical proficiency, and overall excellence in sound recording by monitoring chart activity has qualified the song, "Amanda Lynn," written by James Cain and Ronnie Vines and performed by Lou Reid and Carolina, as a Certified International Top 10. The song appears on Lou Reid and Carolina's album, My Own Set of Rules released in July 2009 on Rural Rhythm Records. ...

The next instructional CD release from Dark Shadow Recording will be Bluegrass – The Comprehensive Fiddler, featuring Megan Lynch.

It will include five familiar bluegrass songs (Little Cabin Home On The Hill, Mr. Engineer, Blue Ridge Cabin Home, Little Georgia Rose, How Mountain Girls Can Love) as play-along tracks, with Megan breaking down the details for solos, fills and backup on fiddle.

She also includes several useful exercises for fiddlers.

The Comprehensive Fiddler is intended for all students of the fiddle, from beginning through advanced levels.  Dark Shadow expects to have the new CDs available during IBMA week in Nashville.

Rounder Records has announced the October 12 release of The Rounder Records Story, a 4 CD box set that covers the 4 decades of alternative, folk, bluegrass, blues and rock music the pioneering label has released in its 40 year history.

The 4 discs are collated by decade, and the set includes a 100 page booklet with extensive notes and commentary from Geoff Himes, long-time pop music writer for The Washington Post.

It would take a full page to list all the artists whose previously-released tracks are collected here. David Grisman, Alison Krauss, JD Crowe & The New South, Tony Trischka, Keith Whitley, Jerry Douglas, Johnson Mountain Boys, Longview, Rhonda Vincent, Tony Rice, Dailey & Vincent, Blue Highway and The Grascals are all represented on the bluegrass side of the ledger.

Folk artists like Rory Block, Ola Belle Reed and Nanci Griffith make an appearance, as do blues-rockers George Thoroughgood & the Destroyers and Roomfull Of Blues. It’s quite a varied compilation, with plenty of great music for any diverse musical taste.

More details and audio samples should be available soon on the Rounder web site.

The first annual Artist Management Conference has been scheduled for October 14-15, 2010 in New York City (venue TBA). The conference is billed as an opportunity for artist managers and self-managed artists to meet for networking, education, strategizing and business opportunities.

Registration is available both for in-person attendance on site, and online with a Virtual Conference registration. Online attendees will be able to ask questions and participate in panel discussions via webcam.

AmCon 2010 offers this thumbnail description of the event:

Conference topics include discussions of current and future music industry trends and how they affect the artist management community, how deals are being structured, factors that make for a good artist-manager relationship, building a team around the artist, growing the fan base, how managers evaluate artists and bands for signing, live show production and touring, mentor sessions and business corner, “I Need Management” sessions for musicians seeking management representation, and lots more.

Pertinent details can be found online.

Lorraine Jordan has a new bass player in her band, Carolina Road.

Charley Oakley, from Roxboro, NC will hold down the rhythm section, do a bit of buck dancing in the show, and keep everybody in line out on the road. In addition to working with a long string of bluegrass Gospel bands, Charley has a career in law enforcement.

Hmmm…  that could come in handy when a state trooper finds fault with the way the bus is moving down the highway, yes?

He joins Ben Greene on banjo, Dustin Benson on guitar, Josh Goforth on fiddle, and Jordan on mandolin in Carolina Road.

You can follow their tour schedule online.

Burlington, MA -- For forty years, Rounder Records has been on a singular mission, recording a glorious range of American roots music – bluegrass, New Orleans R&B, old time fiddling, singer-songwriter, blues, country, rockabilly, roots rock, Cajun and a few that cross enough boundaries to be genres of their own. On October 12, Rounder Records will release The Rounder Records Story, a 4 CD box set that includes 87 songs (see complete list below) selected to tell the label's 40 year story and show the true breadth of their catalog. ...

Bands with the ETSU Bluegrass and Country Music Program have performed at the Fold since the beginning of the program at ETSU in 1982. Daniel Boner and Roy Andrade now serve as the program's directors. The ETSU program has grown so popular that students travel from all over the world to study there. There are now nearly twenty different bands maintained by the program. ETSU's bands have performed in Japan, Belgium, and Russia. Some of the finest students the Bluegrass and Country Music Program has to offer will be performing with the ETSU Bluegrass Band. Daniel Boner will be heading up the group. The Carter Family Fold in Hiltons, Virginia, will present a concert by the ETSU Bluegrass Band Saturday, September 18th, 2010, at 7:30 p.m. Admission to the concert is $7 for adults, $1 for children 6 to 11, under age 6 free. ...

Moss, TN -- Honest Abe Log Homes, a leading manufacture of log cabins throughout the United States, recently forged a unique and active marketing relationship with Mountain Heart, a well established progressive roots/alt-bluegrass band. As Honest Abe lead a search for talent to appear in a series of new commercials, Mountain Heart leaped from the pool of talent surrounding Nashville, Tennessee and became an obvious choice to partner with. This pairing is a new approach for each organization as they partner to market and expand their target demographics. ...

We got some very good news today about James King, who had been hospitalized last week for treatment after a number of blood clots were found in his lungs and his legs.

Julie King sent along this update just a few minutes ago, which will be welcome news to James’ many fans and friends in the bluegrass world.

“I am pleased to report that James was released from the hospital Friday evening, and has been at home resting.  He’s currently on numerous blood thinners, and a very strict diet, managing to keep the fever away. Prayer definitely works!

I printed and/or read every message sent to him the last few days. For James, that was the best medicine.

Once again, thanks to all who sent well wishes, and hopefully he’ll be back on stage, at least for a part-time schedule soon.”

Cards and notes can be sent to…

James King
P.O. Box 10179
Danville, VA  24543

…or by email to jameskingband@yahoo.com.

Larkin Poe, the sister duo formed when The Lovell Sisters disbanded earlier this year, have just released Summer, their debut EP project, along with a music video for the song Long Hard Fall.

Their music is more pop than bluegrass, a direction that The Lovell Sisters had been taking this past two years while they were touring together. But Larkin Poe still heavily features Rebecca Lovell on acoustic guitar and mandolin, and Megan on resonator guitar. Rebecca’s voice is remarkably strong, and she shows great promise in the rough and tumble, highly competitive pop music world.

Here’s a look at the video, which includes heavy doses of the bluegrass sound on which they cut their musical teeth.

Click here to view the embedded video.

You can listen to the 9 tracks on Summer in full at the Larkin Poe web site.

We were sorry to learn that the Lovells were parting ways (Jessica left to attend college and get married), but wish Rebecca and Megan best of luck in their future endeavors.

Here is a gallery of photos I have been meaning to get up for three weeks now! Thanks so much to Lilly Pavlak who took these at the La Roche Bluegrass Festival in France which ran from July 28-August 1.

Lily was especially proud to note that the top three bands in the European Band contest at La Roche were from the Czech Republic. 1st place went to G-Runs & Roses, 2nd to Blackjack and 3rd to Dessert.

As Lilly put it…

“It shows once again, that the Czech Bluegrass rules the Europe!”

Well OK then. Without specifically endorsing her sentiments, here is a sampling of the many fine photos she sent from the La Roche fest.