Detached notes + PS

Recordings recently released by Pinecastle Records include albums by Dale Ann Bradley and Lorraine Jordan. as well as singles by them and by Danny Burns and Danny Paisley. YouTube videos of the singles can be seen on the Pinecastle press release. 'I loved 'em every one', the new single by Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road, had its radio debut on 30 June and will be available on digital platforms on 14 July.

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Bluegrass Unlimited's Newsletter no. 138 announces that in the coming weeks Jesse McReynolds and Bobby Osborne will be commemorated by archive articles and Spotify playlists. A 1977 article on the Osborne Brothers by Pete Kuykendall, BU editor, can be read here.

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Turnberry Records announce the release of an official video of Mike Mitchell's rendition of 'Love of the mountains', a song written by Allen Mills, bass player of the influential Lost and Found band. The song was sung by Larry Cohea of California's High Country at one of the first (possibly the first) of the Athy bluegrass festivals, and again two months ago by High Plains Tradition at the Durrow Mini-Bluegrass Festival. The Mitchell video can be seen on the Turnberry press release, on Bluegrass Today, and on YouTube.

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Finally, yesterday on Bluegrass Today Richard Thompson commemorated 4 July 1941, when Doc Watson, then 18 years old, played for the first time into a microphone, resulting in the first audio recording of his playing.

PS: John Lawless has reported on Bluegrass Today that Willie Nelson's next album will comprise a dozen of his classic songs, newly recorded with backing by first-class bluegrass musicians. A video of a debut single, 'You left me a long, long time ago', can be seen on Bluegrass Today and on YouTube. His admirers will be relieved to know that Willie's characteristic vocal delivery and sense of timing have not been bluegrassified.

© Richard Hawkins

New recordings from Rick Faris, Alison Brown (update)

Dark Shadow Recording announces the release of Uncommon skies, the latest album by Rick Faris, who wrote or co-wrote eleven of the twelve songs and contributes lead and harmony vocals and guitar. Other artists on the recording are Laura Orshaw (fiddle), Harry Clark and Ronnie McCoury (mandolin), Zak McLamb (bass), Jerry Douglas (resonator guitar), Russ Carson and Luke Munday (banjo), and vocalists Del McCoury, Ronnie McCoury, Dani Flowers, Stephen Mougin, Eddie Faris, and Ben James. The album was produced, engineered, and mixed by Stephen Mougin. More details are on the Dark Shadow press release.

As well as being an alumnus of Special Consensus and an award-winning musician in his own right, Rick is a highly respected luthier - does anyone in this country own a Faris guitar or have one on order?

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A week ago the BIB mentioned an interview with Alison Brown by Lee Zimmerman on Bluegrass Today. She has since been interviewed by Lonnie Lee Hood on the Bluegrass Situation (BGS), again with the focus on her new album On banjo, in which one of her aims was to show the instrument's power to tackle a range of music as wide as in the past. Asked 'What did you learn while making On banjo?', she replies:

The deep dive to find new melodies, and that process of discovery of the instrument, is the process of self-discovery. You get to the end and it teaches you something new about yourself.

Update 13/14 June: Alison Brown will be featured on episode 89 of Deering Live tomorrow (Wed. 14 June) at midnight, Irish time, when she will play, talk about the new album, and advise on ways of playing blues tunes. Her 'Sun and water' (a blend of George Harrison's 'Here comes the sun' and Antonio Carlos Jobim's 'Waters of March') can be seen on YouTube.

© Richard Hawkins

Folkways at 75

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings are celebrating the 75th anniversary of the founding of Folkways Records in NYC by Marian Distler and Moses Asch. The celebration will be observed in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on 6 July, and the Brooklyn Folk Festival in November; Smithsonian will also be reissuing many classic Folkways LPs on vinyl. Some of the details are given on the Smithsonian Folkways Facebook.

BIB editor's note: Folkways recordings (and their accompanying booklets) had an immeasurable influence on my own generation, especially those of us who were edging our way through the folk revival towards bluegrass and old-time music. I owe a particular debt to Pete Seeger's instructional albums on guitar- and banjo-playing; to the LPs recorded by Mike Seeger, American banjo: songs and tunes in Scruggs style and Mountain music bluegrass style; and to albums by the Country Gentlemen and the New Lost City Ramblers.

© Richard Hawkins

'Don't hold back' from Rick Faris

The latest Dark Shadow Recording press release announces a new single from Rick Faris - 'Don't hold back', the third single from his forthcoming album Uncommon sky. The idea for the song came from Evan Dickerson, who co-wrote it with Rick. The Dark Shadow release classifies it as a motivational gospel song; Rick says it 'resonated with my running routine of praying and asking God to reveal where I am falling short. Boy, you wanna talk about a prayer that works!'

For anyone who didn't become acquainted with Rick during his eleven years on mandolin or guitar with Special Consensus, including several tours of Ireland, more details on his career are on the press release. Coincidentally, today (Fri. 12 May) Compass Records release the Special C.'s latest album: their tribute to Canada, Great blue North.

© Richard Hawkins

For guitarists (and others)

The latest e-newsletter from the Fretboard Journal (FJ) is entitled 'Ten things we love right now'. The list includes:

• A video (also on YouTube) of the 1936 Martin D-18 shown on the cover (right) of Norman Blake's album Whiskey before breakfast, being played by Chris Eldridge, Bob Minner, Kenny Smith, and Bryan Sutton. The FJ says of the video: 'This is basically a 45-minute-long love letter to a guitar and it's full of insights on Blake.'
• A raffle ($25 a ticket) for a new Jackson Cunningham slope-shoulder jumbo guitar, which is fully described here;
• The news that Rhiannon Giddens has won a Pulitzer Prize for her opera Omar, and has just announced her next album, You're the one, due for release on 18 Aug. 2023 and available for pre-order.
• The life of Chris Strachwitz, founder of Arhoolie Records, who died last Friday (5 May) at the age of 91.

The FJ includes a link to David Katznelson's 'The down home music man', a fine obituary of Chris Strachwitz, concentrating on the many blues and zydeco artists he recorded, but also mentioning the first album by Del McCoury (left) as a bandleader. For a much fuller account of the debt bluegrass and related music owes to Arhoolie recordings, see Richard Thompson's major obituary of him on Bluegrass Today, with no fewer than twenty-three embedded videos from YouTube.

Update 12 May: Daniel Sheehy, director and curator emeritus of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, which took over the Arhoolie catalogue, has a major article celebrating Chris Strachwitz on the Smithsonian website.

© Richard Hawkins

News from Compass Records

A fair bit of news comes from the Compass Records Group, among which we choose to start with this video of the Special Consensus playing 'Pretty Kate and the rabbit' together with April Verch and Darol Anger (fiddles) and Alison Brown (banjo). All the members of the Special C. are up for nomination as 'Player of the Year' on their respective instruments in this year's IBMA awards (and Greg Blake as Male Vocalist of the Year), and 'Pretty Kate and the rabbit' is up for nomination as Instrumental Recording of the Year.

Alison Brown released yesterday (21 Apr.) a new single, 'Porches', with the Kronos Quartet. The official video is on YouTube. It will appear on her forthcoming album On banjo, due for release on 5 May and available now for pre-order. Alison, who has visited Ireland several times with her jazz-oriented Quartet, founded Compass Records, has produced the Special C.'s albums on the label, and was inducted into the American Banjo Museum Hall of Fame in 2019. Her duet with Steve Martin on 'Foggy morning breaking' is up for nomination as Collaborative Recording of the Year and Instrumental Recording of the Year.

Grass roots is a new album (due out on 19 May) by the Colorado-based acoustic/newgrass/jam band Leftover Salmon, for whom Compass also have in stock new T-shirts. A track from the album, the Delmore Brothers classic 'Blue railroad train', which Leftover Salmon recorded with Billy Strings, was released yesterday (21 Apr.).

Update 23 Apr.: The Salmon/Strings recording of 'Blue railroad train' can be heard on the Bluegrass Situation and on YouTube.

© Richard Hawkins

New single from Rick Faris

The award-winning Rick Faris (singer, songwriter, luthier, and veteran of eleven years with Special Consensus, including several tours of Ireland) has just had a new single released on the Dark Shadow Recording label. The song is one of Rick's own compositions, 'Too lonely, way too long', and the musicians assisting on the recording include Del McCoury (vocal), Jerry Douglas (dobro), Harry Clark (mandolin), Laura Orshaw (fiddle), Zak McLamb (bass) and Luke Munday (banjo). Rick adds: 'I wrote this song to be the swanky bluegrass groove I've been dreaming of my whole music career.' More details are on the Dark Shadow press release.

© Richard Hawkins

National Banjo Day

The Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol, TN/VA, is celebrating National Banjo Day today with a brief outline of banjo history and a photo of the oldest surviving instrument that can be called a banjo, the 'Creole bania' obtained in the 1770s in Suriname, South America, by John Gabriel Stedman (1744-97). The photo is credited to Kristina R. Gaddy, who describes the instrument and Stedman's association with it in chapters of her book Well of souls: uncovering the banjo's hidden history. Another photo of the 'bania' is on the Banjo Roots Blog, at the head of Shlomo Pestcoe's 2011 article 'The Stedman "Creole bania": a look at the world’s oldest banjo'.

The venerable instrument is in the collection of the national museum of ethnology at Leiden (NL). Unfortunately, it is not currently on public display. Update: A photo can also be seen on the 'Banjo Roots: Banjo Beginnings' Facebook.

National Banjo Day is also being celebrated by the Compass Records Group with a Banjo Day Sale, offering 25% off select titles from their extensive catalogue of banjo-centric music. The Deering Banjo Company are (coincidentally?) introducing a new line of merchandise with the image of their newly designed character 'Banjohead'.

© Richard Hawkins

Ron Spears's voice heard again (update)

Coming shortly after the death of Ron Spears (right; see the BIB for 23 Mar.), the Engelhardt Music Group (EMG) announce the release yesterday (5 Apr.) of a further single from Heartache and trouble, the latest album by Fast Track. Ron played bass and sang lead and harmonies in the band, and on this single, 'You'll never find another so true', Ron can be heard with mandolinist Shayne Bartley singing harmonies to the lead voice of Steve Day (fiddle). More details are on the EMG press release.

Update 7 Apr.: Richard Thompson announces on Bluegrass Today that a memorial service will be held in Sandy, UT, at noon on Friday 14 April, with a celebration of Ron's life to be held in Nashville at a later date. Richard adds: 'In lieu of flowers, Ron’s loved ones invite you to turn on your local bluegrass station and donate to a charity of your choice.'

© Richard Hawkins

Detached notes

Master fiddler Michael Cleveland (above; photo: Amy Richmond) is the Bluegrass Situation's Artist of the Month for March, and the BGS staff have marked this with an article that heralds his latest album Lovin' of the game (released last Friday), together with a video of the title track and a playlist of his recordings. There is also a link to a 2018 interview (well worth reading) in which he explains why Benny Martin is his favourite fiddler.

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For fans of Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley, the Fretboard Journal features them in a one-hour podcast in which they talk about many things, including their latest album Living in a song. The FJ includes a link to the YouTube video of them playing and singing 'Moonshine run'.

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The Compass Records Group - in addition to Compass itself, a major bluegrass label - has a world-class catalogue of recorded Irish and Celtic music, on which the Group is holding a St Patrick's day sale with 20% off selected titles. The scores of albums in the sale can be browsed and shopped here.

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The Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol, TN/VA, announces its new special exhibition, 'I’ve endured: women in old time music', which will begin on 23 March and continue till the end of 2023. More details are in John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today.

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Today's bluegrass world is fortunate to have a crop of astounding young musicians. In the 1970s a similar wave of outstanding young talent included Ricky Skaggs and Keith Whitley, Tim O'Brien, Carl Jackson, Jerry Douglas, and Mark O'Connor. Mark O'Connor, who won the Grand Masters fiddle championship at the age of 13, is now releasing two books on his life and a CD of his early recordings. John Lawless on Bluegrass Today gives an overview (with video and audio recordings) of 'his meteoric rise from a teenaged phenom to a bluegrass music powerhouse in little more than a decade'.

© Richard Hawkins

More celebrations of Doc Watson at 100

John Nyhan's celebration of Doc Watson appeared on the BIB yesterday. Jason Verlinde, the Fretboard Journal editor, has now collected several of his 'favorite Doc-inspired moments from the magazine' to mark the occasion. They include a video (also on YouTube) of Billy Strings playing 'Tennessee Stud', plus one of 'John Henry'. Billy Strings is tonight leading a Doc Watson tribute concert in North Carolina, where in June the North Carolina Guitar Celebration will feature a Doc tribute concert led by Bryan Sutton. A story of how two young Californians made a 1966 pilgrimage across the States to see Doc can be read here; a video of Jack Lawrence playing 'Red rockin' chair' is here; Bryan Sutton and a heap of leading pickers play 'Sitting on top of the world' (also on YouTube); banjoist Tray Wellington tells in a podcast how Doc's music changed his direction; and Doc's legacy is illustrated by a video (also on Bluegrass Today) of Tommy Emmanuel and Molly Tuttle playing 'White freightliner blues'.

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings have also marked Doc's centenary with a display of the many recordings he made for their catalogue, and a video of him playing 'Deep river blues' can be seen on the Smithsonian Folkways Facebook.

© Richard Hawkins

More news of past visitors

The latest Dark Shadow Recording company press release announces that Rick Faris (singer, songwriter, luthier, and IBMA New Artist of the Year 2022) is releasing today a new single, 'The power of love', a hit song in the pop world of the 1980s. It will appear on his third Dark Shadow album, Uncommon sky, which is due for release in June 2023.

Rick was a member of Special Consensus for eleven years on mandolin and (later) guitar, and toured Ireland several times with the band. As the press release says, 'Under Greg Cahill, he learned the meaning of professionalism and giving back to the bluegrass community.' More details are in John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today, where you can see a video of the song being recorded (also on YouTube).

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The BIB mentioned in June 2020 an important album, The John Hartford fiddle tune project, involving many outstanding musicians. Two of them - Megan Lynch Chowning (fiddle) and Tristan Scroggins (mandolin), both of whom have toured here - have joined with Adam Hurt (banjo) to form a touring trio playing the tunes live on stage. They can be seen and heard on Bluegrass Today and YouTube playing a sprightly Hartford composition, 'Tennessee politics'. Warmly recommended.

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Joe Mullins & the Radio Ramblers, Omagh headliners in 2019, will have their new twelve-track album Let time ride released on St Patrick's day, a single 'Black and white' released a week today (3 Mar.), and a 'fun concept video' on 10 Mar. More details are on the East Public Relations press release.

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Chris Jones & the Night Drivers, who also played Omagh 2019 as part of their last tour here, have a new single, 'The price of falling', on Mountain Home Music. Chris says: 'We really had fun with this one in the studio.' It can be heard on Bluegrass Today and SoundCloud.

Update 11/16 Mar.: The band have now released a video of 'The price of falling', which can be seen on Bluegrass Today, on YouTube, and on this Mountain Home Music Company press release.

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Danny Paisley & the Southern Grass have a new single on Pinecastle, the song 'What crosses your mind', written by David Stewart and Sage Palser and featuring Palser herself (lead singer and mandolin player of the Wyoming-based band Prairie Wildfire). More details are on the Pinecastle Records press release, and on John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today.

© Richard Hawkins

'One glass of whiskey' from Robbie Fulks

Robbie Fulks - Grammy-nominated Americana singer, recording artist, instrumentalist, composer, and songwriter - was a member of the Special Consensus in the 1980s; his name came up in Eilis Boland's January interview with Greg Cahill for Lonesome Highway; and Greg in turn mentioned him from the stage during the recent Special C. tour. By coincidence (if that's what it is) Robbie Fulks has just had released on Compass Records a distinctly bluegrassy single, 'One glass of whiskey', from his album Bluegrass vacation which is due for release in April. More details, and a chance to hear the new single, are on Bluegrass Today.

© Richard Hawkins

More news of past visitors

A fortnight ago the BIB reported on the release of a single from Darkest hour, the new album by the Gibson Brothers. Their latest e-newsletter announces that the album is out today (27 Jan.), and the Brothers began last night a fourteen-show tour in its support, with the first half in Connecticut, Maine, and New York, and the second in Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina. They are also making the CD version of their earlier album Mocking bird available at $10.00, via this link.

Compass Records announce that Living in a song, the new twelve-track album by Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley, is due for release on 10 Feb. and can now be pre-ordered. The Compass press release includes this video of the duo (plus bass and drums) on stage, performing 'Moonshine run'.

Nickel Creek (Chris Thile, Sara Watkins, and Sean Watkins) have reunited to record Celebrants, their first album in nine years, which is due for release on 24 March. Three concerts by them on three successive nights in Nashville, TN, at the end of April, are already sold out. The Bluegrass Situation (BGS) has produced this short feature, focused on Nickel Creek's official video (also on YouTube) of the song 'Strangers', the first to be released from the new album.

Update: Stacey Chandler has a feature on Nickel Creek and the new album on No Depression.

Also on the BGS, Tristan Scroggins interviews flatpicking prodigy Jake Eddy, with several recorded examples of Eddy's masterful playing, in this feature.

© Richard Hawkins

Compass Records holiday sale

The Compass Records Group, with their ample catalogues of Americana, bluegrass, Celtic music (including I Draw Slow), and beyond, have opened their Holiday Sale with 25% off 'sitewide', including hoodies, T-shirts, hats, bags, CDs, LPs, digital music, books, and more - the only items excluded from the sale are last month's releases and bundles. The sale can be browsed here. Compass Records was fouded and is run by Alison Brown, who has produced the recent recordings by the Special Consensus. Banjo-players interested in the gear she uses for performing and recording can see the details here.

© Richard Hawkins

Compass Records: 60% off in Fall Cleaning sale (updates)

Compass Records announce their Fall Cleaning sale, with 60% off selected records, including some of the leading artists in bluegrass and in Celtic musics. The records on offer can be seen here.

Update 18 Oct.: Titles in the Compass and Red House Records catalogues are still being added to the sale.

Update 25 Oct.: The sales from the Compass and Red House Records catalogues end tonight at midnight.

© Richard Hawkins

New chapter from Cedar Hill

Cedar Hill, the fine traditional bluegrass band from the Ozark region, have made many friends and fans in Ireland from performances at Omagh and elsewhere. Their latest album, New chapter, was recently released as their first on the Mountain Fever Records label. John Curtis Goad reviews it in detail on Bluegrass Today, with a playlist giving samples of all eleven tracks, and sums up: 'an extremely strong album that fits right into today’s popular country-tinged traditional bluegrass sound, featuring fine musicians who certainly know what they’re doing'. One-minute excerpts of all tracks can also be heard on the band's website.

The BIB has already reported on singles from the album: 'How deep is the lonesome', 'The art of love', and 'Smilin''. Other artists on the Mountain Fever label include Seth Mulder & Midnight Run, whose new album In dreams I go back is released today (see the BIB for 24 Aug.).

© Richard Hawkins

Danny Roberts - a lament for small towns

The BIB doesn't often draw attention to record releases by bands that aren't already familiar (or about to be familiar) to audiences in Ireland; but the latest recording by Danny Roberts, mandolinist with the Grascals, is on a theme that may strike a chord with listeners here. His 'Small town America', released today on the Mountain Home Music Company label, mourns the towns that have had their life sucked away by the out-of-town shopping centre. John Lawless writes about it on Bluegrass Today.

More details, together with a link to streaming and purchase, are on the Mountain Home press release. Oh, and there is a link with Ireland: Danny's wife Andrea, who plays bass and sings harmony on the record, was over here as bass player with the Special Consensus in 1998.

© Richard Hawkins

Quote of the month

I’ve noticed that bluegrass has gone to this place where the traditional side is sort of stuck singing songs about how everything use to be and the progressive side is so far in left field that, while extremely technically impressive, it doesn’t have that ‘everybody can play it’ appeal anymore.

Jeff Kennedy, musician and operator of Mother Mountain Records in western Virginia, quoted on Bluegrass Today. The image above is from the Mother Mountain Facebook.

© Richard Hawkins

News of bands who came to Westport and Omagh 2022

Three of the bands from abroad who played at this year's Westport and Omagh bluegrass festivals have since been featured on our distinguished contemporary Bluegrass Today; two of them, who were both on the Saturday night concert at Westport, are also signed with Stephen Mougin's Dark Shadow Recording label. The Colorado trio Stillhouse Junkies have released a new single from their forthcoming album Small towns (cover image, above): it is a cover of the 1977 Fleetwood Mac song 'Never going back again'. Details are in John Lawless's article on Bluegrass Today, where the song (also on YouTube) can be heard.

Dark Shadow announced last week that Chicago's Henhouse Prowlers have signed with the label. From John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today, it seems a very congenial partnership for both label and band, and a new album by the Prowlers is expected in the near future. The feature includes a half-hour video (also on YouTube) of a set the Prowlers recorded two years ago for Paste magazine, in which they talk about their experiences as bluegrass ambassadors.

The multinational Fountaineers, who formed and are based in Glasgow, played at Bluegrass Omagh 2022 in May. A week ago (11 Aug.) Bluegrass Today carried an interview by Lee Zimmerman in his 'Bluegrass beyond borders' series with the Fountaineers' Australian fiddler Jeri Foreman, who has a good explanation of why bluegrass appeals to people. The interview includes two videos.

© Richard Hawkins