Bluegrass Blog

Fred Robbins has spent many years chronicling bluegrass music, as a photographer and audio recordist starting in the 1960s, and more recently as a videographer as well. He has had articles published in Bluegrass Unlimited and is an active member of the Hudson Valley Bluegrass Association where he lives in eastern New York state.

Fred has graciously granted us permission to publish a number of his classic photos this past few years on The Bluegrass Blog, and he maintains a tremendous archive of these images on his web site.

Over the past few months, Fred has been videotaping Bluegrass In The Schools presentations sponsored by the HVBA at the Poughkeepsie Day School in Poughkeepsie, NY. He has videos online for the banjo, resonator guitar, fiddle, bass and mandolin sessions.

But the one that has him especially psyched is the video of Greg Cahill and Special Consensus doing their presentation to the school.

“After living in this area for 40 years, I finally got involved with the Hudson Valley Bluegrass Association thanks to longtime friend, banjo player Jerry Oland, currently with Buddy Merriam & Back Roads. I caught up with Jerry a few years ago and he encouraged me to join the HVBA. I enjoy shooting bluegrass video, so when the project came up I was asked to help out. I actually shot the pilot program over a year ago. It’s also on my Picking Page. Thanks to HVBA jams, I’m slowly getting my rhythm guitar chops and runs back too.

We’re so thrilled and honored that Greg Cahill approved my video sampler of Special Consensus’ school program. It’s the first time ever that SpecialC has authorized any web video! What a pleasure to work with such a terrific guy like Greg.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

See the rest of Fred’s Bluegrass In The Schools videos on his web site.

The new CD from Audie Blaylock and Redline, Cryin’ Heart Blues, is set for a March 30 release on Rural Rhythm.

We wrote last year during the IBMA convention about what an impressive showcase Audie and the boys delivered during their Wednesday brunch showcase. It was a very impressive performance, even

“Blaylock is a singularly powerful vocalist, and this group blends with him perfectly. Their trios were matched breath for breath, and the quartet number they did, Goodbye – from their self-titled debut CD – was stunning. And it was no fluke… I heard them again this evening and they nailed this song both times.”

At the time, mandolinist and tenor vocalist Darrell Webb was transitioning out of Redline and into his own band, but he was with Audie during IBMA week.

For Cryin’ Heart Blues Audie had his crackerjack road band in the studio with him: Patrick MacAvinue on fiddle and mandolin, Evan Ward on banjo, and Matt Wallace on bass. Audie handles guitar and lead vocals, with all of the band members helping out on harmony with Audie handling most of the tenor.

The title track, written by Joe Brown, will be released as the first single next week on the 7th edition of Rural Rhythm’s Fresh Cuts & Key Tracks CD sampler. As you would expect, it’s an uptempo, hard-driving song in the inimitable Audie Blaylock style. It’s the first song up in this sampler from Cryin’ Heart Blues, which also includes pieces of Matches (Keith Stegall and Charles F. Craig), You Can Keep Your Nine Pound Hammer (Pete Goble and Leroy Drumm), Drink Up And Go Home (Freddie Hart), He Is Near (Don Parmley) and Can’t Keep On Runnin’ (Harley Allen).

Cryin’ Heart Blues sampler     

Other tracks include Bill Monroe’s Stay Away From Me, Red Allen and Frank Wakefield’s Troubles Round My Door and Jimmy Martin and Paul Williams’ Pray The Clouds Away.

Audie tells us that he is still looking for a mando guy who is a “perfect fit,” and since McAvinue is solid on both madolin and fiddle, they are working as a four piece for the time being. You can find their tour schedule online.

We posted a sneak peek last week of the upcoming Doyle Lawson Gospel CD, Light On My Feet, Ready To Go. It was in the form of an audio sample from the first single – the title track, written and sung by new Quicksilver guitarist Corey Hensley.

The new album will be released March 30 on Horizon Records, a Crossroads Music imprint.

Crossroads has also released a pair of video teasers to give fans a taste of what to expect from Light On My Feet, Ready To Go. In this first we see the guys working up an arrangement for Mountainview Missionary Baptist Church.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Then, we hear the recorded version as Doyle works on final mixes with engineer Van Atkins.

Click here to view the embedded video.

And yes, folks…. that is Dale Perry on banjo, looking hale and healthy. Of course Doyle is on mandolin, Jason barrie on fiddle, and Jason Leek bass. Reso man Josh Swift is playing guitar in teh first video as they work up the song. Hensley is not pictured in that first clip.

The bluegrass world has been abuzz since the end of 2009 when it was announced that Adam Steffey, Ron Stewart, Harold Nixon, Keith Garrett and John Bowman had assembled a new band.

Billed as The Boxcars, the band has as of early Spring 2010, played only a very shows and the anticipation of hearing them live or recorded is palpable. Nixon tells us that they have completed several tracks for a debut CD, with plans to finish it up in the next few months.

“So far we’ve cut three tunes for that IBMA showcase deadline. One is called December 13th that Keith wrote and sings…another is In God’s Hands sung by John (I can’t remember who wrote it)…and the last on is a tune Ron wrote called I Went Back To My Old Home Today.”

Harold says that most of the material has been chosen, and that they just need to get everyone’s schedule together and get at it.

Mandolinist Adam Steffey is psyched about the new group, and suggests that some major Boxcars news is in the offing…

“We should be able to announce a label affiliation soon as we are in contract talks right now.

The response that the band has received thus far has been very exciting. Anytime that you form a new group I think that you have the underlying question, ‘how will this go over with the fans?’ It’s all been very positive and inspiring.

We are very encouraged by the response from both the fans and promoters who have booked us to come and perform. It’s going to be a fun year and all of us in The Boxcars are excited to get out and play!!”

Class Act Entertainment is managing the band’s booking, and lead agent Mike Drudge hasn’t seen this sort of buzz about a new group in quite some time.

“I can say that we’re thrilled with the level of interest in this band already, even before having an album or even a band photo available! They are already booked at Gettysburg, Three Sisters Festival in Chattanooga and a bunch of others.”

The Boxcars have a web site which Harold is in the process of updating now, where they keep the schedule posted. Here are their show dates as of March 10.

03/06/10 Hiltons, VA Carter Family Fold 03/20/10 East Tawas, MI Tawas United Methodist Church 03/21/10 Ann Arbor, MI The Ark 05/13/10 Gettysburg, PA Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival 05/14/10 Roanoke, VA Kirk Avenue Music Hall 05/24-27/10 Branson, MO Silver Dollar City 06/11/10 Kodak, TN Dumplin’ Valley 06/18/10 Waldron, AR Turkey Track Park 06/30/10 Morganton, NC Downtown Morganton 07/10/10 Carlisle, PA Dickinson College 09/04/10 Snow Camp, NC Little John’s Mountain Music Fest 09/18/10 Bristol, TN Rhythm & Roots Reunion 10/02/10 Chattanooga, TN 3 Sisters Music Festival 10/16/10 Farmers Branch, TX Farmers Branch Historical Park 11/13/10 Springfield, IL Crowne Plaza Hotel 11/20/10 Milton/Ona, WV Mountaineer Opry House 02/26/11 Hamilton, OH Parrish Aud. – Miami Univ.

You can get a taste of the band’s sound in this clip of them performing Pretty Polly at The Down Home in Johnson City, TN last month.

Click here to view the embedded video.

..and catch an interview with the guys from the dressing room of The Bijou Theater in Knoxville prior to their appearance on Tennessee Shines.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We have been made aware of the theft of a number of left-handed instruments that may show up within the bluegrass community.

In what may have come as an unpleasant surprise to the thief, all of the instruments taken were left-handed models, making them not only harder to sell quickly, but also much easier to identify on the secondary market.

These were stolen within the jurisdiction of Botetourt County, VA and include:

• Michael Kelly Dragonfly mandolin
• Taylor acoustic guitar
• Morgan Monroe mandolin
• Dobro guitar, round neck

All are lefties.

Any information about these instruments should be sent to David Dillow with the Botetourt County Sheriff’s Department. (540-473-8631, 540-473-7920, 540-793-1353)

AcuTab Publications has announced March 16 as the release date for their newest instructional DVD, Secrets Songs & Tunes by Sierra Hull. It offers four hours of insight and instruction from this young mandolin prodigy on two DVDs, with a printed booklet.

If you are plugged in to the bluegrass scene, you may have been hearing about Sierra for the past 6 years, well before the release of her debut CD, Secrets, on Rounder Records in May of 2008. She had been featured on stage with Alison Krauss at age 13 and was recruited by Rounder as she entered high school. Sierra said that she was very flattered by their early interest, but wisely decided that she need to be artistically prepared before putting herself forward on a major release – so she waited until the ripe old age of 16.

She was similarly recruited by the prestigious Berklee College Of Music, who offered a full, four year scholarship to attend the school in Boston. At the IBMA convention during her senior year, then new Berklee President Roger Brown tailed her like a college recruiter chasing a star tailback. Though initially uncertain about college with an active touring schedule in the offing, Sierra ultimately accepted a Berklee Presidential Scholarship and began her studies there in the Fall of 2009.

In her AcuTab DVD, Sierra teaches 7 songs and solos from Secrets, plus two tunes from a limited-release CD she recorded at age 13. She goes into great detail demonstrating the solos, putting even the more complex pieces (like Smashville and Hullarious) within the reach of intermediate level mandolinists. There is also a wealth of wisdom – wise well beyond her years – imparted as the material is presented, whether it is fingering, attack, arrangement advice or suggestions about pick direction.

Watching the video, it becomes clear that she is not only a poised and confident musician, but also a natural teacher and a charming young lady. Here’s a glimpse from the video trailer.

Sierra is assisted in the studio by Kenny Smith on guitar, Ron Block on banjo and Zak McLamb on bass.

Secrets Songs & Tunes will be available from AcuTab and wherever instructional DVDs are sold on March 16. Pre-orders are being accepted now from both AcuTab and Sierra’s web site.

Lou and Christy Reid grace the cover of the March/April 2010 issue of Bluegrass Music Profiles. The lengthy interview with Lou covers his growing up with bluegrass, his first bands, his days with Doyle Lawson and Ricky Skaggs, and his current activities with Seldom Scene, Longview and Lou Reid & Carolina.

Here’s Lou recalling a memory of John Duffey…

“When we pulled into the Festival of the Bluegrass, someone at the gate didn’t know who he was. He got out of the car, opened the trunk, got a record out and showed it to the gatekeeper  saying, ‘See, I’m that guy right there.’ “

BMP publisher Kevin Kerfoot gives a thumbnail sketch of the new issue:

“The new issue also includes a color glossy Blue Highway poster; DJ Profile of Tom Henderson; Bill McBee’s Thoughts From Masters Of Ceremony; Blue Grass Boys Memories with Bob Jones; a two-page interview with Monroe Crossing; Shop Talk with IBMA Mandolin Player of the Year Jesse Brock; Eric Gibson and Woody Platt’s Bluegrass Favorites; a feature story on The European World Of Bluegrass; and a Songwriter Profile with Grass Cats’ Russell Johnson.”

You can find subscription details online.

Rebel Records has announced that the latest in their Vault Series, Dark As A Dungeon – Songs Of The Mines, will be released at the end of March. The CD will include mining songs from 14 Rebel artists including Blue Highway, Seldom Scene, Larry Sparks, The Country Gentlemen in the mix.

The Vault Series is Rebel’s budget-minded reissue inventory, offering material from their deep bluegrass catalog. Some of these tracks date back 25 years or more, some are fairly new, and one track has never been previously released.

Frank Godbey gives a taste of the theme this project presents in the conclusion to his liner notes.

“Through these songs we can picture the world’s largest shovel overseeing an open-pit landscape, imagine trying to peer through the darkness at the bottom of a deep shaft where daylight never reaches, visualize wives and sweethearts waiting at a mine’s entrance for news of loved ones trapped below, and listen to labored breathing caused by black lung disease—is it any wonder that people sing about the hardships and hazards associated with mining?

Despite the tragic nature of many of these songs, the impact is enhanced immeasurably by their quiet yet undeniable eloquence.   These performances give us powerful glimpses into the lives and innermost feelings of miners and their families.”

Perhaps some of these are familiar?

• Green Rolling Hills – Bill Harrell & The Virginians
• A Miner’s Life – The Country Gentlemen
• Paradise – Seldom Scene
• Call The Captain – Steep Canyon Rangers
• Dream Of A Miner’s Child – Whitley & Skaggs
• Black Dust Fever - Wildwood Valley Boys
• In Those Mines – Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike
• Daddy’s Dinner Bucket – Ralph Stanley II
• Digging In The Ground – Larry Sparks
• Coaltown Saturday Night – Randall Hylton
• The River Ran Black – David Davis & The Warrior River Boys
• West Virginia’s Last Hand Loader – Blue Highway
• The Hermit Miner – Perfect Strangers
• Dark As A Dungeon – James Alan Shelton

Dark As A Dungeon – Songs Of The Mines is set for a March 30 release.

Northern Lights has been the premier progressive bluegrass band in northeastern Massachusetts for the past 35 years. Other than a brief hiatus from 1977-1982, the band has been the home for adventurous string musicians in the Boston area, often including students at the many various institutions of higher learning.

Former members include banjo pickers Alison Brown and Mike Kropp, both of whom continue to make their mark in the music business. Today’s edition features a number of long timers, even though there are no founding members remaining. Bill Henry and Alex MacLeod are on guitar, John Daniel on bass, Mike Barnett on fiddle and Eric Robertson on mandolin. Keeping with the tradition, both Barnett and Robertson are current students at The Berklee College of Music.

But all good things come to an end, as they say. Northern Lights will play their last show on Saturday, March 13 at the Rose Garden Coffeehouse in Mansfield, MA.

Steve Ide, who runs the Folk, Bluegrass & Traditional Music blog on the Wicked Local web site, has a nice piece up about the end of this era, including a slide show of images from the band’s long history. Steve describes his reaction upon discovering Northern Lights when he first moved to Boston in 1988.

But here was this local band, with performers from Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island at that time, forging their own style, building a fan base and stretching the genre in ways few bluegrass bands dared to do. Maybe it was a New England thing to push the envelope. I mean, a bluegrass band from New England? They might as well play what they want to, since the southern-based bluegrass establishment might be less accepting anyway. And yet, there were no lack of great bluegrass musicians who came out of New England, from Joe Val to Peter Rowan.

For me, it was special to watch. It was a gathering of everyday guys – performers with day jobs, mostly – who played for the love of the music, enjoyment of their craft, the camaraderie and the occasional free meal. And when the show was over, they crawled the music festivals for after-hours picking, jamming into the night. The cool thing about bluegrass music and its participants is that this is not unique. They all do it, and they love it.

Read the full article online.

Ide also agreed to let us share his slide show on The Bluegrass Blog. It not only offers a ton of memories for fans of Northern Lights, but details the band’s history in the captions.

The Gibson Brothers are celebrating three months with the title track of their Ring The Bell CD atop the Bluegrass Unlimited Top 30 Survey of bluegrass songs. Another track getting attention from the album is Farm Of Yesterday, an autobiographical song that Eric and Leigh Gibson wrote about growing up on their family’s dairy farm in northeastern New York

Eric said that they had received many requests for more information about the farm, and he passed along an aerial photo and these details.

“The farm in the northern foothills of the Adirondacks was in our family from 1865 until our father’s health forced him out in 2000.  At one point he went 23 years without taking a single day off, not even for holidays or Sundays. We owned 650 acres and had about a 110 head herd of Holsteins. We still own the woods that you can see north of the barn.

We wrote this for our parents, but we are finding that it is catching on with many people.”

Here’s video of the guys doing Farm Of Yesterday at the Wind Gap festival in Pennsylvania last year.

The DC Bluegrass Union is a strong and growing organization dedicated to promoting bluegrass music in the Washington, DC area, which includes the heavily populated Northern Virginia and Southern Maryland regions. They are hosting their first festival on March 27 at Langley High School in McLean, VA.

They hope to see this festival become a larger, annual event that will help restore the prominence that The District and its environs once enjoyed in bluegrass lore. After all, it was from this area that Bluegrass Unlimited, The Country Gentlemen, Seldom Scene and The Johnson Mountain Boys emerged. Not to mention bluegrass radio on WAMU, which has grown now into the 24/7 online station, Bluegrass Country.

In addition to performances by Mountain Heart, Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper and a number of other fine acts, the DC Bluegrass Festival will present their first Washington Monument Award to Bill Emerson, a DC native whose impact on the 5 string banjo and bluegrass music can scarcely be overstated. According to DCBU, this award celebrates Washington, DC-area musicians who have been instrumental in shaping the direction of bluegrass music nationwide.

Emerson has been at the cusp of several important events in bluegrass history. He was a founding member of The Country Gentlemen, recorded the very first version of Fox On The Run in a grassy style, blazed the trail for bringing banjo into the US Navy Band program, and deposited a substantial legacy of banjo standards into the repertoire. His time with Jimmy Martin & The Sunny Mountain Boys helped define the Jimmy Martin sound, and saw the debut of Theme Time, a banjo tune played at jams and in parking lots to this day.

Stelling Banjo Works created a signature banjo for Bill in the mid-1990s and this Red Fox model remains a staple in their line. Emerson’s banjo albums, Gold Plated Banjo and Home Of The Red Fox are essential listening for students of bluegrass banjo and, after a period of semi-retirement, he is back with his own band, Bill Emerson & Sweet Dixie and a new CD, Southern, on Rural Rhythm.

Though accustomed to receiving awards for his accomplishments in our music, Bill tells us that this one in his hometown is special.

“The Washington Monument Award is truly the honor of a lifetime for me. It has been my good fortune to be a part of many successful Washington bands. I take pride in the fact that I grew up in this area which has long been considered the Bluegrass Capitol of America. I would like to thank all those who have encouraged and inspired me during my 57 year career in Bluegrass Music.”

Well deserved. Kudos to a banjo legend!

We’ve noted several times that country heartthrob Dierks Bentley is a serious bluegrass music fan, and that he has been a supporter of the music since long before he hit it big in Nashville. He has appeared on albums by The Grascals and The Infamous Stringdusters, and featured The Grascals on one of his recordings.

Well today comes official word that his next album for Capitol Nashville, Up On The Ridge, will be a bluegrass-themed project, encompassing a variety of acoustic, folk and Americana sounds as well. Instead of an all-star band of session players, Bentley recorded with such stellar ensembles as The Del McCoury Band and Punch Brothers (with Chris Thile), with guest appearances from Sam Bush and Tim O’Brien as well.

The record is being produced by Jon Randall Stewart, whose acoustic/bluegrass chops are beyond reproach, and engineered by Gary Paczosa who has worked on masterpieces with Alison Krauss, Blue Highway, Adam Steffey and the ‘Dusters among others.

For his part, Dierks is looking forward to getting the new CD out, and thinks all of his fans will enjoy it.

“This album won’t come as a surprise to my hard core fans. They’ve asked me: ‘when are you going to make a bluegrass record?’ And I was just waiting for the right time.”

Dierks handles the lead vocals, of course, but has some help from Alison Krauss and Miranda Lambert.

“I didn’t want this to be ‘Dierks Bentley and friends’ or a ‘Dierks does bluegrass’ kind of album. I wanted each song to have something special about it, and in the end I think each song really does have its own thing going on.

It’s my version of bluegrass music. It’s not just banjos cranked up to eleven. It throws out a big net.”

I’ve not had a chance to hear it yet, but friends who have say that it’s a fine record – tasteful and smooth.

Capitol is anticipating a release this summer. Hope there will be some acoustic tour support!

I just discovered The Cleverlys this morning, even though their facebook page says they’ve been around since 1952. It’s a family band according to their Facebook bio, which I have no reason to disbelieve.

Their music isn’t exactly traditional bluegrass. I guess that’s to be expected from a band that lists Bill Monroe, Fergie, and U2 as their main influences!

I’m going to try to tell you who plays what in the band, but I had some trouble unraveling all the names so I may not have it exactly correctly. As best I can tell, this is the lineup.

Digger Cleverly plays guitar and sings. Digger’s brother Miles plays the upright bass. Miles is blind incidentally. Vernon Dean Cleverly, is the youngest brother and plays the banjo. Digger’s youngest boy, Digger Jr Jr, plays several instruments and sings with the trio. And finally, Miles’ boy Otto Cleverly also performs on several instruments with the family band.

I’m not sure, but I think I may know one or two of those boys, but I can’t remember from where.

The band performs a fair number of originals, but also do a handful of covers. Below I’ve embedded their unique version of In The Pines. Be sure to visit the Cleverly Youtube channel for some other great covers. Their bound to have cut something you’ll enjoy.

Joy Kills Sorrow is a young alternative string band based in Boston – yet another musical endeavor to bubble up from Beantown’s simmering cauldron of musical youth. Their music is fresh and original… creative and expressive.. honest and sincere, played on bluegrass instruments but not defined explicitly by the style

This is music from a generation of acoustic string players for whom Newgrass Revival, The David Grisman Quintet and Alison Krauss have always existed, and what may sound like a stark departure from settled norms to more timeworn ears, looks simply like a new branch from the same old tree to those in the thick of it. They use the form of the traditional bluegrass band, but their sound bears only the faintest resemblance to the string bands of the 1930s, or what Bill Monroe culled from them for his own radical departures a few years hence.

The latest JKS CD, Darkness Sure Becomes This City, was released February 23 on Signature Sounds, and it shows that this very talented bunch has continued to grow and mature since their eponymous debut release in 2006. What sets them apart to my ear is how well they navigate the minefield that any artist in a pioneering genre faces: crafting intelligent music without sounding pretentious; paying tribute to immediate precursors without being derivative; charting a daring and original course without a whiff of preciousness.

Like the wildly popular folk/bluegrass hybrids Crooked Still (also based in Boston), Joy Kills Sorrow is focused on airy female vocals – here in the person of Emma Beaton – with inventive accompaniment provided by Wes Corbett on banjo, Jacob Joliff on mandolin, Matt Arcara on guitar and Bridget Kearney on bass. Each is a high-level instrumentalist in their own right, with awards and encomia aplenty, and they work well as a unit creating arrangements that are typically sparse, as befits music that leans so heavily on lyrics and melodies.

The band has three tracks from Darkness available on their web site, and we asked songwriters Beaton and Kearney to share a few words about the songs. First up is Emma and her composition, You Will Change Me.

“The visually descriptive nature of this song came from some traveling I’d been doing recently. The evenings of my trips to the south had been particularly beautiful, so I really tried to capture that in writing this song.”

You Will Change Me: 

Bridget wrote these next two, Kill My Sorrow and Books.

“Part of our band’s sound is based around having these instruments that come from the country and the hills and bringing them into the big city. Kill My Sorrow does that lyrically as well as instrumentally. The guitar and mandolin and banjo are ‘not in Kansas anymore’ and are playing in 12/8 and doing some crazy metric modulations and playing some ‘funny notes’ which I think appropriately compliments the singer’s story about finding herself far from home and drunk on a broken subway line.”

Kill My Sorrow: 

“I wrote Books while I was reading A Moveable Feast, by Ernest Hemingway and it’s sort of loosely inspired by it. The book is a memoir that Hemingway wrote just before he died, but it is about when he was in his 20s, living in Paris and just beginning his career. Looking back at this period of his life, he finds a real sense of peace in uncertainties and relishes the simple pleasures he enjoyed when he was young and poor and figuring out what to do with his life.

I am young and poor right now…and trying to figure out what to do with my life! So I felt a connection to that and wrote this song. Jacob Jolliff came up with the instrumental interlude which ROCKS and I think really made the song work by adding an element of darkness to all of the supposed peace.”

Books:

Give this clever, creative band a listen. They’ve earned a shot.

Rob Iery has been a devoted bluegrass fan for nearly 40 years, but with his career as a middle school teacher consuming his time, he had to content himself as a part-time picker and avid consumer. Now that he has retired, Rob has been able to focus his energies on musical passions, and has produced a bluegrass trivia board game called Bluegrass Routes.

Four years in the making, and released just last month, Bluegrass Routes, is designed to be a fun and educational experience for anyone who has a love for the music. For Iery, it was a desire to “give back” to the music that has given him so much joy.

“I’m not the greatest picker, so I wanted to do something that would help promote our wonderful music and give the bluegrass fans something other than records to be entertained by.”

So Rob set to work, creating a concept (board design, rules of play), enlisting an artist to complete the graphics, and finding a manufacturer. Oh… and coming up with triva questions.

“I researched websites, back issues of bluegrass magazines, personal interviews with the musicians, and other sources for about a year.

I actually had 1650 questions to start with, but had to cut it down to 1200 due to cost.”

The game sells for $29.95 and ships with a 20” x 20” game board, a box of trivia cards, 20 instrument cards, 4 game pieces and 1 die. It can be played by 2 to 4 players or teams.

The questions are broken into five categories to test your knowledge of bluegrass history and lore.

• Legends & Pioneers
• Brothers & Misfits
• Songs
• Bands & Bandleaders
• Sidemen

Ron said the finding the right name for his game was the toughest part.

“Finally, I came up with Bluegrass Routes as a play on words, and a way of life for the bluegrass musician. It is a ‘roots’ music and bands travel the ‘routes’ to try and make it to that special bluegrass venue that shows they have arrived as a bluegrass band.”

Iery is distributing the game himself, and copies can be ordered from his web site.

I spoke earlier this week with Ty Gilpin of Crossroads Music, and he shared some news sure to be of interest to bluegrass fans. First up is word that the next Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver CD, Light On My Feet, Ready To Fly, will be released soon on Horizon Records.

Sometimes it seems like 10% of the news we publish on The Bluegrass Blog falls into the “new member of Quicksilver” category, and yet year-after-year, Doyle puts a tight, professional band on stage. This new, all-Gospel project was recorded with the most recent iteration on the band: Dale Perry on banjo, Jason Leek on bass, Josh Swift on resonator guitar, Corey Hensley on guitar and Doyle on mandolin.

The title cut will be released as a single, written and sung by Corey Hensley. It shows that Quicksilver 2010 is as strong as ever.

Light On My Feet, Ready To Fly:     

Doyle and the boys also have a Gospel DVD to release later this year, again with Crossroads. We will have more details about both of these new projects later today.

Gilpin told us that Balsam Range will be in the studio soon as well. They will start recording this summer, with a fall release on Mountain Home anticipated.

UPDATE 11:35 a.m. – The release date for Light On My Feet, Ready To Fly is March 30.

The Grascals are back in the good ole USA after a trip to Europe in February.

While on the continent at the end of the month, they played concerts in Switzerland and Belgium, and Lilly Pavlak snapped some great photos of the band at the 26th Annual International Country Music Festival in Zurich.

From all accounts, they tore the house down and thoroughly enjoyed their time overseas. You can see several more photos from the festival at the European Bluegrass Blog.

The guys – and gal – have a full plate this month, with the release of their fourth CD, The Famous Lefty Flynn’s, scheduled for March 30. It will mark the recorded debut of newest member Kristin Scott Benson on banjo, and a duet with Hank Williams Jr.

The music is classic Grascals – fun, high octane bluegrass. You can almost see them cutting up on stage on some of the lighthearted songs, like the opening track, a remake of the Monkee’s mega-hit, Last Train To Clarksville, written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart.

You can hear audio samples for all 12 tracks on the Rounder Records web site.

But things won’t slow down once the album hits. The Grascals start their April on the Rowdy Friends Tour 2010, with Hank Jr. and country artists Jamey Johnson and Eric Church. They will open the shows, and also provide entertainment before the concerts begin for the tailgaters in the parking lot. What a way to launch a new CD!

You can find all the Rowdy Friends dates at www.grascals.com.

Gibson Guitars has released a free iPhone app that, while visually targeted at electric guitarists, contains a number of valuable features for any six stringer.

Called appropriately enough, The Gibson Guitar App, it features a number of different tuners. There is an automatic chromatic tuner that will identify and track whatever note is played, a simple tuner that only tracks the six open guitar string tones, and tuners that will track the open strings of a number of popular open tunings.

The app works on both the iPhone and the iPod Touch, but since the Touch has no microphone, it’s functionality as a tuner is limited. The iPhone will display graphically when a note is in tune, or whether it is sharp or flat, while the Touch interface allows you to select specific notes to be played through the headset.

There is also a metronome that can play back whatever bpm you select, or a speed you determine by tapping the screen. Chord shapes and voicings can also be displayed, and Gibson promises to offer regular updates to what can be accessed through this app.

Gibson has clearly presented this as a guitar-specific app, but the chromatic tuner and metronome would be equally useful for banjo, mandolin, fiddle, bass and reso players as well.

There is no charge for this app, which can be downloaded from the iTunes app store online.

Regular Google users have long recognized that the search engine giant creates custom graphics for their home page, incorporating the Google logo.

Many of these custom logo graphics are themed for holidays or other special events, but today’s (3/4) image features a quartet of stylized fiddles. Each of the four have a different vibe – color and style – and a more classically-minded musician might see a group of violins.

In any event, thanks Google for featuring our beloved fiddle!

UPDATE 3/5 – I just got this nice response from Anne Espiritu at Google to my question about their reason for including the violin-themed logo:

“Yesterday, we honorted Antonio Vivaldi with a doodle that depicts one of his most beloved works, The Four Seasons. Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter are each represented within a violin representing each movement of the piece. We wanted to celebrate his work because his style broke against tradition with concertos and is much more uplifting and fanciful than other works of the time. His innovative contributions to music are still very popular and enjoyed by people around the world.”

If we can’t get a Bill Monroe poatage stamp, maybe we can get Google to honor him with a mandolin graphic on September 13!

Among the guests on last night’s (3/3) edition of Music City Roots were Nedski & Mojo (Ned Luberecki and Stephen Mougin).

Both are familiar faces (and voices) in the bluegrass world, but typically in supporting roles. The Nedski & Mojo Show is their joint venture into the spotlight, as a side project when they are free from other commitments.

Ned is a regular DJ on Sirius-XM satellite radio’s Bluegrass Junction, and the banjo player with Chris Jones & The Night Drivers. Stephen plays guitar with Sam Bush, and operates a recording studio (Dark Shadow Recording) near Nashville.

Their appearance on Music City Roots, a weekly live radio program on WSM, was captured on video, so without further ado…