The Ricky Skaggs controversy

The BIB editor writes:

Thanks to Uri Kohen for drawing our attention to a controversy that over the last two weeks has become increasingly divisive among bluegrass people. It originated in an hour-long interview with Ricky Skaggs on the ElijahStreams YouTube channel, entitled 'Ricky Skaggs: Believe in God's timing', released on 13 Apr.

In the interview Ricky Skaggs spoke (as one would expect) about his career, his book Kentucky traveler: my life in music, and his views as a dedicated Christian. For over a quarter of it, however, he put forward his belief that the presidency of Donald Trump was ordained by God to combat the evils of paedophile 'cabals' and the shedding of innocent blood; and that the 2020 election result was therefore a crime, which God will set right.

He is shown making these points in a three-minute clip from the interview, included in Kyle Mantyla's feature 'Famous musician Ricky Skaggs says the election was ‘a crime’ and God will return Trump to office' on the Right Wing Watch website. Uri reports that in the first few days after this appeared, not less than 170 messages about it were posted in a heated discussion on the e-mail forum for alumni of the IBMA's Leadership Bluegrass Program.

Thanks again to Uri for the link to 'Ricky Skaggs breaks the code', posted on 25 Apr. by Craig Havighurst on his String Theories blog. Havighurst is an award-winning communicator with a thorough knowledge of bluegrass, country music, and Ricky Skaggs's place in the history of both, and a profound admiration of Skaggs both as a musician and as a man. He is all the more appalled by what he sees as the interview's irresponsible promotion of unfounded, defamatory, and - above all - divisive statements. Both the full interview and the three-minute clip can be seen in this feature, which anyone interested in the issues should read.

It should be noted that Skaggs does not endorse or incite to violence, or indeed any course of human action; his position is that what is to be done will be done by God in His own time. 'We've got to practise patience and praise [...] and not try to force God's hand.'

Update 4 May: Craig Havighurst's subsequent post of today's date should also be read.

© Richard Hawkins

JigJam feature in new digital Deering catalogue

The Deering Banjo Company announce that they are saving paper and going fully digital with their new 2021 catalogue, which illustrates their extensive range of banjos, comprising several series - all made in Spring Valley, California - as well as strings, cases, accessories, and garments.

Different models are shown with artists associated with them; and the Mullingar-cum-Tipperary band JigJam appear as shown above, with Gavin Strappe (extreme right) playing his Golden Era - a model that has found favour with several young Irish 5-string players. The band also use Clareen banjos, made by Tom Cussen in Clarinbridge, Co. Galway.

© Richard Hawkins

FOAOTMAD Spring Camp in England, 21-4 May 2021

The news blog of FOAOTMAD, the UK's organisation for old-time music and dance, announces that FOAOTMAD's Spring Camp will be held on the long weekend Fri. 21 May-Mon. 24 May at Croft Farm Water Park, Bredons Hardwick, Tewkesbury, Gloucs. GL20 7EE, in western England. Booking is essential because of the pandemic; FOAOTMAD members qualify for a discount. Under present official restrictions, all notmal facilities should be available.

© Richard Hawkins

Another side of J.P. Harris

In the last week of May 2015 J.P. Harris & the Tough Choices (USA) toured in Ireland, playing seven dates with their tough honky-tonk country sound, and winding up the tour at the Red Room, Cookstown, Co. Tyrone. An image of J.P. is still at the head of the Red Room's Facebook page.

Before the tour, the BIB remarked: 'With steel guitar and fiddle to the fore [...], J.P. Harris's world is one in which the 'Murder on Music Row' of Larry Cordle's song has not been committed.' The BIB also noted that the photo then at the head of his website included an open-back 5-string with what looked like at least a 12" pot.

Now, in 2021, thanks to Hearth Music for the news that Harris will release on 25 June Don't you marry no railroad man, a ten-track album of old-time songs with banjo and fiddle, under the name 'JP Harris' Dreadful Wind & Rain', comprising J.P. and his old friend Chance McCoy (Old Crow Medicine Show), who in 2019 also toured here and played the Red Room.

A video of the first single from the album, 'Closer to the mill (Going to California)', is on YouTube. Their source for the tune was Reed Martin's 'Off to California' (see YouTube). J.P. made the fretless banjo he plays here, and he has a powerful and dynamic style. Hearth Music refer to his 'detuned banjo', but don't worry - they only mean that it's tuned below normal pitch, giving a strong, clear, rumbling sound. The album, in either CD or LP format, can be pre-ordered here for $15.

© Richard Hawkins

Homage to past masters - from Mules & Men

Many thanks to Mules & Men (Luke Coffey, banjo; Lily Sheehan, guitar; Patrick Cummins, mandolin; Niall Hughes, bass) for this news - and an advanced taste - of their forthcoming second album, A tribute to Johnnie Whisnant and other bluegrass legends, due for release on digital platforms at the end of May. On their Facebook, the band announce:

We recorded it last September in Dublin. It's all mastered and mixed and ready to go. Just a few technicalities to be ironed out. It's very much a homage to '70s style grass, Joe Val, Bob Paisley, that kinda stuff! No smooth overdubs, no messing around, just a few microphones... Plenty of classics, as well a few freshly penned numbers. It has twenty songs on it, recorded in two days! Exhausting! Stay tuned.

Mules & Men released today the leading single from the album, 'Watermelon on the vine', learned from the recording by Benny and Vallie Cain on their 1969 Rebel album Benny and Vallie Cain and the Country Clan, featuring the great Johnnie Whisnant on banjo. The BIB warmly recommends the new single, which can be heard on Mules & Men's Facebook, on YouTube, and here.

A detailed, insightful musical biography of Johnnie (or 'Johnny') Whisnant, one of the pioneers of Carolina three-finger banjo-picking, was contributed by Walter V. Saunders to Bluegrass Unlimited magazine in 1970 and can now be read online.

© Richard Hawkins

Terry and Cindy Baucom on Deering Live TONIGHT (22 Apr. 2021)

Deering Banjos announce: 'We are very excited to welcome Terry and Cindy Baucom to Deering Live, just a few days after the 42nd anniversary of the formation of the original Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver!'

Terry Baucom, the 'Duke of Drive', is one of the most respected traditional-style bluegrass banjoists now living, and his wife Cindy is similarly prominent as a bluegrass broadcaster. The interview can be seen on Deering Live and YouTube. Deering make a Terry Baucom model banjo at $5,299.00, which he plays and talks about in the video.

© Richard Hawkins

Music Network present 'digital tour' by 10 String Symphony (USA), 26 May-11 June 2021

Music Network announce their spring and summer 'digital touring' programme, covering the period 12 May-1 July 2021, for which tickets can now be booked. Details of the programme can be seen here.

BIB readers should particularly note that 10 String Symphony (Rachel Baiman and Christian Sedelmayer), who would have toured Ireland last spring but for the pandemic, are scheduled to give a series of ten concerts from 26 May to 11 June inclusive. The full schedule is shown here. Tickets for the 10 String Symphony shows are €10 each, and can be bought here or through the links shown for local concert venues.

© Richard Hawkins

A new voice for bluegrass in Brazil

The BIB editor writes:

On 6 April we reported that César Benzoni (based at present in Galway city) was preparing to relaunch the São Paulo Bluegrass Music Association (SPBMA), in his native Brazil, as the Brazilian Bluegrass Music Association, serving the whole of that vast country, with today (21 Apr.) as the target date in memory of the SPBMA's original founder, Erio Meili (see the BIB for 25 Apr. 2011). Thanks to César for today's news:

I'm writing you to tell you that the website is now online! I put a lot of work and passion into it, and I believe it will help a lot of people in Brazil that want to get into bluegrass.

The work and the passion are both evident; it's a handsome, well organised website, packed with content, and with links to the Association's Facebook, YouTube channel, Instagram, and Spotify. César adds:

Interesting fact. I decided to launch the website on the 21st of April 'cause it was the day that Erio passed, also it would give me a good amount of time to work on it and a special date to celebrate Erio's life. But reading some old posts on the files that I have here from Erio's old website, I found out that he launched São Paulo Bluegrass Music Association on the 21st of April, 1996! So we're also celebrating 25 years. Nuts, isn't it?!

Congratulations to César (below left) for this commemoration of his predecessor, friend, and mentor, Erio (below right).



© Richard Hawkins

JigJam online concert TONIGHT (18 Apr. 2021)

JigJam, originators of I-Grass, send a reminder that they will be playing a fifty-minute livestream concert on StageIt, as a tribute to the Eagles, tonight (Sun. 18 Apr.) at 9.00 p.m. Irish time - see the BIB for 14 Apr. Tickets ('pay what you can') can be bought on the StageIt website.

© Richard Hawkins

By, for, and about banjo-players

The Bitter Southerner online magazine uses as a subtitle 'Better stories * Better South * Better world', and yesterday it lived up to that slogan by publishing 'Love in the minor key', a short story by Elizabeth Johnson with photographs by Bates Littlehales. The covering note on the BS Facebook describes how a few years ago the author

[...] restored an 1890s Buckbee banjo as a way to get her mind off a breakup. Other people run marathons or go backpacking, but she found a broken banjo in the back of a barn, and it just seemed like it might be her way through it. / Turns out it was. / This is the story of how a broken banjo helped fix a broken heart. We love it. Enjoy.

With that as a basis, what's not to enjoy? This is a story by a banjo-player and about banjo-players and banjo-builders - especially Bates Littlehales, whose name will be familiar to many old-time banjo enthusiasts. Now 93, he was before retirement a National Geographic photographer, pioneering in underwater photography.

© Richard Hawkins

Ned Luberecki on Deering Live

At the time of writing this post, Ned Luberecki is being interviewed on YouTube in the Deering Live series. Deering's blurb describes him (with complete accuracy) as 'an award-winning banjo player, Sirius XM radio host on 'The Bluegrass Junction', and a highly respected banjo teacher'. He is also, among other things, an in-demand session player, author of the three-part Complete banjo method, formerly banjo player for Chris Jones & the Night Drivers and currently banjo player for the Becky Buller Band.

In the image below, he is shown playing a Deering John Hartford banjo, which on the Deering website is demonstrated by Jens Kruger. On the interview, he also brings out his Deering Crossfire electric banjo (Crossfires are no longer made).

© Richard Hawkins

News of past visitors (instalment 2)

Chris Thile announces that his new solo album Laysongs on the Nonesuch Records label will be released on 4 June and can now be pre-ordered. He describes it on his Facebook as 'an ode to singing hymns in a roomful of people with your mind bouncing from God to the possible lack thereof to what to drink with dinner.'

A video of 'Laysong', the first single from the album, can be heard here or on YouTube, and also in the media: John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today and Stacy Chandler's review, 'Chris Thile announces album of songs exploring spirituality' on No Depression.

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Rachel Baiman, who has toured here with Molly Tuttle and was to have toured here last year as half of 10 String Symphony, contributes articles to No Depression under the series title 'The long haul', with a recent sub-series headed 'Being a musician without touring'. In the third and last under this heading, she interviews Tristan Scroggins on the advantages, disadvantages, and opportunities of a musician's life off the road, on which he has much to say from his personal experience.

© Richard Hawkins

News of past visitors (instalment 1)

On 8 April the BIB mentioned a brief feature on Peggy Seeger by the staff of the Bluegrass Situation (BGS) online magazine. The previous day, No Depression published a substantial review by John Amen of Seeger's latest (and perhaps last) album, First farewell. The review includes two videos: one, of the song 'The invisible woman', was also in the BGS feature; the second (also on YouTube) is 'All in the mind'.

No Depression also carries a review by Doug Heselgrave of They're calling me home, the latest album from Rhiannon Giddens, on the Nonesuch Records label. Heselgrave's review begins:

Recorded during the lockdown at a rural studio near Dublin, Ireland, where Rhiannon Giddens and her partner, Francesco Turrisi, have been riding out the pandemic, They’re calling me home is, without reservation, her finest work to date. Intimately recorded and emotionally accessible, it is a near perfect album in which the diversity of Giddens’ musical interests coalesces.

© Richard Hawkins

Online old-time fiddle and banjo workshops, 8-9 May 2021

This news is primarily for members of FOAOTMAD (the UK's association for old-time music and dance), who will already know about it; but if you're not in FOAOTMAD, it's an example of what is on offer to members - in this case, online workshops in clawhammer banjo (Sat. 8 May) and old-time fiddle (Sun. 9 May). both at 3.00 p.m., both given by Joseph Decosimo (USA), a dedicated and enthusiastic teacher. Workshops are free to FOAOTMAD members, but a tip box will be available. Click on the image to enlarge it.

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FOAOTMAD also report that Reelear.com

are looking for volunteers to take pat in a six-month free trial of their latest online course for fiddle players. The course provides the tools and methodology to help train the ear to learn tunes without sheet music or the need for abstract music theory. Each volunteer would get six months free access to the course in exchange for occasional feedback on their progress. The course is aimed at those fiddle players who have difficulty in picking up tunes by ear no matter what skill level.

© Richard Hawkins

JigJam play an Eagles tribute concert, 18 Apr. 2021

JigJam, originators of I-Grass, announce that they will be playing a fifty-minute livestream concert on StageIt, as a tribute to the Eagles, on Sunday 18 April at 9.00 p.m. Irish time. A three-minute video trailer for the show can be seen on YouTube. Tickets ('pay what you can') can be bought on the StageIt website.

JigJam (Jamie McKeogh, Cathal Guinan, and Daithi Melia from Mullingar, and Gavin Strappe from Co. Tipperary) add: 'As always, we are supported by our management at Take 2 Promotions and the wonderful people at Culture Ireland!'

© Richard Hawkins

Mikes for banjos: a video omnibus

Following the BIB post of 18 Mar. 2021 on the use of microphones for getting optimum results in recording banjos, Deering Banjos have co-created five brief videos giving basic information, featuring Alison Brown and her low-tuned Deering Julia Belle; Stuart Duncan, playing clawhammer on an open-backed Vega Vintage Star; and Matt Coles (studio engineer at Compass Sound Studio). All five can be watched inside a quarter of an hour, and all are grouped on this page of the Deering website.

© Richard Hawkins

Another tragedy

Following upon yesterday's BIB post, thanks to Des Butler, who writes:

I was very sorry to hear of the terrible tragedy that has befallen Yves Aerts and his girlfriend in Sweden. Yves was guitarist with The Sons of Navarone. I must admit to not having had heard this band before the Shannonside Winter Fest of 2020; but I have to say having attended their concert there in Sixmilebridge I realised I had been missing out on a great bluegrass four-piece band.

They gave a tremendous performance in the GAA club on the Sunday afternoon concert there. The accompanying photos were taken at that concert. Another sad loss to bluegrass music.

An example of the regard in which Yves was held among flatpickers in Europe is this introduction to his guitar workshop at the Strenger i Gress Bluegrassfestival in Norway.

© Richard Hawkins

Yves Aerts

The BIB learns with great regret of the death of Yves Aerts (right), guitarist with the Sons of Navarone (B), who played in Ireland fifteen months ago when the band took part in the 2020 Shannonside Winter Music Festival in Co. Clare.

Yves and his girlfriend are believed to have died either by drowning or from exposure as the result of a canoeing accident in Sweden, where he has lived and worked for years. The sad news was announced last Thursday (8 Apr.) on the Sons of Navarone Facebook, and John Lawless has today published more details on Bluegrass Today, together with tributes from friends of Yves, a video, and a fine photo of Yves at the microphone, taken by Ann Jansen.

As a reminder of happier times, the photo below from the Sons' Facebook shows all the band's lineup: (l-r) Yves, Paul van Vlodrop (banjo), Guido Bos (bass), Thierry Schoysman (mandolin).

© Richard Hawkins

Fundraising begins for Beyond the Tagus River

Following on from the BIB posts of 31 Mar. and 6 Apr., we report that André Dal has today (Fri. 9 Apr.) launched the Crowdfunding Campaign for his forthcoming album Beyond the Tagus River. The campaign, with a target of €1,800, is to end on 17 May, a month ahead of the scheduled album launch. André writes:

As rewards, there's the album itself, T-shirts, a banjo tablature book of all the tunes in the album, and the logo or website link printed in the album. Here is the link, and thank you so much for helping me to spread the word about 'a global potpourri of acoustic excellence', as Tony Trischka puts it.

Update 21 Apr.: André reported on Mon. 19 Apr. that the response to his campaign has already achieved the target sum. The campaign will remain open till 17 May.

© Richard Hawkins

The Deering Banjo Company announces that Tony Trischka, supreme performer, teacher, and scholar of the 5-string banjo, is making his second appearance on Deering Live tonight (Thurs. 8 Apr.) at 11.00 p.m. to talk about his new album Shall we hope, play a few tunes, and answer your banjo questions in the live chat.

Deering add: 'Simply one of the nicest people in banjo, we can't wait for this one. Get your questions ready!' The session can also be seen on YouTube. Details of the Tony Trischka Silver Clipper model banjo can be seen here.

© Richard Hawkins

Bluegrass and more in the Bluegrass Situation

The latest Weekly Dispatch issued by the Bluegrass Situation (BGS) online magazine includes a further instalment of the series 'Bluegrass Memoirs' by the premier bluegrass historian, Neil V. Rosenberg. This is the second episode of his account of attending the 1987 Earl Scruggs Celebration in Boiling Springs, NC, in which he meets Earl's brother Horace and visits the Scruggs homeplace. Among the musicians taking part in the Celebration were Etta Baker and Snuffy Jenkins. Several YouTube videos of them are included in the Memoir.

The Bluegrass Situation also announces that Peggy Seeger (left) is its April Artist of the Month. A brief article on her has been prepared by BGS staff, with videos of two of her original songs: one, 'The invisible woman', accompanied by her two sons, Neill and Calum MacColl, and 'Gotta get home by midnight' from her latest album. There is also a link to 'The essential Peggy Seeger playlist' on Spotify, comprising twenty-seven songs.

BIB editor's note: Peggy Seeger has never been bluegrass, but she is one of the main reasons why I began trying to play the banjo.

© Richard Hawkins

Banjo setup tips from Nechville

Tom Nechville of Nechville Musical Products (also on Facebook) sends advice on adjusting the truss rod on a banjo to correct action that has become either too low or too high because of changes in atmospheric humidity, causing problems in playability or intonation.

For any banjo players wishing to adjust the action on their instruments, Tom provides the flow chart above (click to enlarge), plus a detailed twelve-minute video on the setup page of the Nechville website, where there are seven other videos dealing with technical issues, as well as other advice.

© Richard Hawkins

A new era for bluegrass in Brazil: the Irish connection

Thanks to César Benzoni (right) for this news, all the way from Galway city, where as well as playing mandolin and guitar in the Rocky River Bluegrass Show, he is a sound engineer and video maker, operating Yodel Recording Services (see the BIB for 2 Sept. 2020). César comes originally from some way further west: Brazil, where he ran the São Paulo Bluegrass Music Association in succession to its founder, Erio Meili. César writes:

I'm touching bases to let you know that I'm in the process of converting São Paulo Bluegrass Music Association to Brazilian Bluegrass Music Association. It is a huge country, and a lot of new artists that are willing to learn bluegrass there don't feel represented for something aiming only for São Paulo.

I'm working on the brand new website, where we'll have news, bluegrass history, interviews, lessons, teachers, and so on. I want it to be a big resource for people getting into the genre. On 21 April it's gonna be ten years since Erio passed, that's the day I will release the website, honouring his memory.

Besides that, social media is huge there (more than I can follow, actually), so I'm making an Instagram page to help promote it as well. This way we can spread bluegrass a bit more and help to bring a community together. I was impressed by the number of new people learning the banjo or mandolin there.

BIB editor's note: Erio Meili was an admirable man, full of good humour and goodwill, and before his regrettably early death he kept Brazil represented at every annual IBMA World of Bluegrass. Everyone who knew him will be glad that his memory is being honoured in this way. César's new logo for the new association is at the head of this post.

© Richard Hawkins

'Beyond the Tagus River' (II)

Following on from the BIB post of 31 Mar., thanks to André Dal in Portugal for this video, which he published on YouTube on 1 Apr. It is the title track of his debut album project, Beyond the Tagus River; a highly accomplished original composition, delivered with precision and passion by Meade Richter (USA), fiddle; Olivier Uldry (CH), dobro; Reuben Agnew (NI), guitar; Jean-Michel Pache (CH), mandolin; Gil Pereira (PT), upright bass; and André himself on banjo. Mixing and mastering is by Jason Borisoff and graphics by Hildebrando Soares. The press release explains that this single is

[...] a tune in which André crosses his rural south Portugal origins, a region called Alentejo (which literally means 'Beyond Tagus'), and the traditional background of bluegrass music. 'Beyond the Tagus River' is, therefore, a bluegrass medium tempo with a very strong Alentejo feeling.

and, on the whole album project,

With the participation of 16 musicians from 10 different countries, Beyond the Tagus River is, in fact, a bridge between continents, between the past and the future, which unites the friendship of all who love this style of music.

The great US banjoist Tony Trischka comments:

All in all, this is a fantastic project, worthy of many repeated listenings…. Beyond the Tagus River is a global potpourri of acoustic excellence. Thank you André for this gift.

André (who is also on Instagram) will run a crowdfunding campaign between this coming Friday, 9 April, and 17 May. The album is scheduled for release on 17 June. The single can be pre-saved on Spotify.

© Richard Hawkins

Q&A session ends Jens Kruger masterclass series TODAY

A week ago Jens Kruger delivered the fifth and last in his series of master-classes for Deering Banjos, on the subjects of musical structure and chord movement. It can be watched (all 71 minutes) on the Deering Live web page or on YouTube. The web page includes a form for submitting a question to Jens, who will be answering questions today (6 Apr.) at 11.00 p.m. on Deering Live and YouTube. 

 © Richard Hawkins

Earl Scruggs in tablature: an important new book

Thanks to John Lawless on Bluegrass Today for news of The Earl Scruggs banjo songbook: selected banjo tab accurately transcribed for over 80 tunes. Ample details are given: the book presents in tab eighty-four tunes (all listed in the BT feature) in 192 pages, including - according to the foreword by Jim MIlls - tunes that could only have been recorded from live shows. John Lawless writes:

This is a book that every banjo player will want to own, and could become the ultimate reference point for students and historians of the music of the one and only Earl Scruggs.

BT says this publication is expected in May and can be pre-ordered; however, on Amazon.co.uk (where you can inspect a sample of the text) it is dated 26 Feb. 2021, with a note that says 'Temporarily out of stock. We are working hard to be back in stock as soon as possible', so it may be available this side of the Atlantic earlier than May.

© Richard Hawkins

Happy birthday, Bill Clifton

Bill Clifton was born William August Marburg in Riderwood, MD, on 5 April 1931. The image on the left is from the cover of Bill C. Malone's biography Bill Clifton: America's bluegrass ambassador to the world (2016), published by the University of Illinois Press.

The Press's blurb begins: 'Pioneer, pathfinder, and proponent - the journey of an unlikely bluegrass icon', and calls him 'the most atypical of bluegrass artists'. This means (among other things) that his achievements are so varied that his career cannot be easily summed up. Perhaps the central factor is his warmth and ability to communicate, form connections, and bring people together. He was inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2008. Happy birthday, Bill Clifton!

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BIB readers who can recall the early 1960s may have seen Bill Clifton, with Ethan Signer of the Charles River Valley Boys on mandolin, playing a daytime show in the Grafton Cinema in Dublin.

Memories of the Bluegrass Patriots

Following our post of Good Friday, which mentioned the Bluegrass Patriots from Colorado, the BIB thanks Des Butler for these photos of the band in action at Athy in 2009. Des writes:

I must agree with your very apt choice of music for the season of Eastertide that we are in at present, namely the Bluegrass Patriots' renditions of 'Six hours on the cross, a Bluegrass Brothers song, and 'Just as the sun went down', written by Luther G. Presley.

I had the pleasure of being entertained by the Bluegrass Patriots at the 2009 Athy Bluegrass Festival (see attached photos), and purchased an album of theirs called The first decade, which has 'Six hours on the cross' on it. They gave a great performance at the festival with some Ozark Mountain music, gospel, and some great vocal harmonies.

The Patriots formed in 1980 and their first album was released in 1983 entitled The Bluegrass Patriots and contained a variety of music from original songs to folk classics to bluegrass classics. The follow up album Someone new, released in 1986, had elements similar to the first release. One of the great bluegrass bands...

Des's photos show Willie McDonald (mandolin), Danny Rogers (bass), and Glenn Zankey (guitar) of the 'classic' Patriots lineup, supplemented for this tour by Bobby Vickery (fiddle) and Mark Leslie (banjo) from High Plains Tradition. For the Patriots' 'retirement', see the BIB for 10 Oct. 2011.

© Richard Hawkins

Easter Day

A month ago Sideline,'the embodiment of the North Carolina bluegrass sound', released on the Mountain Home label a new gospel single, 'When the Son rose up that morning', telling the Easter story. As a small detail, it marks guitarist Skip Cherryholmes's recorded debut as a slide guitar player. Much more detail is on the Mountain Home press release, and the song can be heard in full on Bluegrass Today. Thanks to the mygrassisblue.com team, Sideline toured Ireland in July 2019.

© Richard Hawkins

Jim Hurst on Song of the Mountains tonight

Following the BIB post of 22 Mar., here's a reminder that tonight (Sat. 3 Apr.) at 7.00 p.m. Song of the Mountains, the organisation holding monthly concerts in the historic Lincoln Theatre at Marion, VA, will present a concert featuring guitar wizard Jim Hurst (photo) and two North Carolina bluegrass bands, Nick Chandler & Delivered and Deeper Shade of Blue. As with other Song of the Mountains concerts, the show will be taped for broadcasting across the USA on public TV, and can also be watched on live stream.

If you enjoy this concert, and/or have enjoyed other Song of the Mountains productions such as those by Carolina Blue in February or the Kody Norris Show in March, consider supporting Song of the Mountains with a donation through the website. Tim White writes:

Many think that we are funded by PBS... NOT SO. We must raise our own dollars through donations and underwriters for our show to be brought to you. The past twelve months has been very difficult for the music business including Song of the Mountains. Covid-19 had us shut down for 10 months and now we are operating again to a very limited audience size. We have started a GoFundMe page and ask that you go to our website and make a tax deductible donation. The Appalachia Music Heritage Foundation/Song of the Mountains is a non-profit 501c3 organization.

PS: Jim Hurst released yesterday (2 Apr.) a new single, 'It's a beautiful day'. Full details are on this Wilson Pickins press release.

© Richard Hawkins

Oldtime Central: Guitar Retreat a week away, and other new items

The editors of Oldtime Central (OTC) send a reminder that next weekend (9-11 Apr. 2021) their Oldtime Guitar Retreat (see this earlier BIB report) will be held online, the latest in a series of events with which they have been working to bring the old-time community together despite this period of forced separation.

The Retreat is a virtual weekend focused on the guitar in old-time music. Full details are on the OTC website. Other new items from Oldtime Central are:

Capturing the Magic

FWAAMFest: Just What the Doctor Ordered

Antisocial Media

Highlander's Farewell: Fiddle lesson with George Jackson

Instrument Maker Finds Life Calling in Scraps of the Past

© Richard Hawkins

Good Friday

BIB readers who have recordings by the Bluegrass Patriots of Colorado, may already have been listening to two gospel songs from their repertoire that are appropriate for today,: 'Six hours on the cross' and 'Just as the sun went down', with the outstanding lead singing of Glenn Zankey and fine harmony vocals. No one who heard this band at Dunmore East (where they headlined the first bluegrass festival in 1995, thanks to Gerry Madden's advice to the organisers), at Athy, Ardara, or anywhere else they played in Ireland, is likely to forget them.

Both these songs were on their 2005 gospel compilation Kneel at the cross, as well as on earlier albums that are no longer available. Unfortunately, though many recordings of 'Six hours on the cross' and 'Just as the sun went down' are on YouTube, the Patriots' versions are elusive. 'Just as the sun went down' can be found at the end of their 1993 album The last waltz - and a live performance of the song by the late James King and his band is here. A 1974 recording of 'Six hours on the cross' by the Goins Brothers can be heard here.

© Richard Hawkins

California looks at bluegrass around the world (including Ireland)

Thanks to the California Bluegrass Association (CBA) for a copy of the April 2021 issue (vol. 51, no. 20) of their magazine Bluegrass Breakdown. The main feature in this issue, 'Bluegrass bloodlines', reviews six countries from around the world - Argentina, the Netherlands, Catalonia, the Czech Republic, Sweden, and Ireland - choosing a band from each to show how bluegrass has spread and developed.

Among those who contributed to the feature are Christopher Howard-Williams (IBMA board member for the International constituency, and chief organiser of the big La Roche Bluegrass Festival in France); Loes van Schaijk (bassist of Red Herring, who played the 2019 Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival, and text author of the splendid book High lonesome below sea level); and Chris Keenan (co-founder and organiser of the much-missed Johnny Keenan Banjo Festivals in Longford and Tullamore). Chris of course deals with Ireland, devoting three-quarters of her space to Galway's We Banjo 3 whose 'Celtgrass' explores 'the unsinkable spirit and energy of the banjo' and embodies a musical and spiritual connection between Ireland and Appalachia.

The issue, which can be downloaded from the CBA website, also has a front-page feature on Butch Waller (left), leader of High Country, the premier hardcore California bluegrass band that took part in the first Athy bluegrass festival in 1991, returned by popular demand in 1993, and then again fifteen years later; in the photo, Butch is shown on stage at Athy in 2008. He has been an Honorary Lifetime Member of the CBA since 1990.

© Richard Hawkins

Maturing the sound

The popularity of microphones from Ear Trumpet Labs (Portland, OR) among acoustic musicians owes a good deal to their original designs and production methods. Ear Trumpet now announce a further innovative step: a collaboration with the Culmination Brewing Company to produce three of their 'Edwina' model mikes in a special edition, aged for a full year in a white-oak Heaven Hill bourbon barrel. 'The results', as Ear Trumpet modestly remark in this striking YouTube video, 'were better than we expected.'

© Richard Hawkins

$20 for a chance to win a $5,000 mandolin+HSC

Thanks to Lotos Nile Media and Nancy Cardwell of the IBMA Foundation for the news that for six weeks starting today (1 April) the Foundation will be raffling a carbon-fibre Z Mandolin - and not just any Z mandolin, but the last of a limited edition of twenty-five, and the last Z Mandolin available. All others have sold out.

Nancy Cardwell contributed a major article on Z Mandolins to the August 2020 issue of Bluegrass Unlimited (see the BIB for 6 Aug. 2020). This instrument, with an updated F-style body, comes with a Calton case for a combined value of $5,000. Raffle tickets ($20 each or six for $100) can be bought here. All proceeds will benefit the IBMA Foundation's scholarship endowment fund. More details and photos are on the Foundation website and the Lotos Nile newsletter.

PS: See also John Lawless's piece on Bluegrass Today, with a brief but telling expository video.

© Richard Hawkins