World of Bluegrass

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Wide Open Bluegrass Late Night ( Raleigh venues, independently booked)

It has been said that the loudest word in the world is your name, because it is who you are, it is how you have been identified to the world for the length of time you have had your name, and it is a huge part of your self-perception for your whole life.  A lot of people who live in Western North Carolina claim the antiquated names of the peaks and valleys and the lakes and rivers of this beautiful part of the Southern Appalachian Mountains as part of their language in ways that might equate to sharing a warm story with an old friend. Place-names can create strong mental images and add building blocks of self-identity that give way to a treasured sense of “where I’m from” or “who I really am.”  These feelings of place to which we mountain folk cling help define a majestic home shared by those lucky enough to live here.  And these mountain names often undergo a metamorphosis from the memories of “what I’ve experienced here” to virtually become extensions of ourselves.

Many of the names found on WNC maps are names of people or names taken from some early event that took place here…and some names on the map evoke images of strength and spirituality.  These names of ridges and hollers…trout streams and ruby mines…and roads and trails define areas of culture and heritage meaningful to those who cling to treasured memories of time spent growing up or living here.  These mountain places of beauty are reflected within us and have become part of who we are as a people.

Such is the name BALSAM RANGE to a group of five outstanding acoustic musicians and singers from Haywood County, North Carolina.  For their band name, they thoughtfully and respectfully adopted the name of a majestic range of mountains that surround part of their home county…where the Smokies meet the Blue Ridge…the BALSAM RANGE.

Now meet the band…BALSAM RANGE.  To encapsulate, Tim Surrett delivers entertaining MC work as well as seasoned lead and harmony singing.  Tim also plays bass most of the time, and he will occasionally move his talents to the resonator guitar.  His presentations are spontaneous, polished and professional.  Buddy Melton is one of the most gifted tenor voices in bluegrass and Americana today.  His range and tones largely give BALSAM RANGE its identifying sound, and his stellar fiddle playing supports the band’s programs equally.  Caleb Smith has been called “one of the top young guns of guitar.” His envied unique guitar style pairs perfectly with his energetic power singing.  Caleb also delivers ballads with a perfectly toned, believable tenderness.  Darren Nicholson is one of the most gifted mandolins players and harmony singers ever to come from the Southern Mountains.  Darren’s studied, energetic performances rival those of the classic old guard performers, and his enthusiasm for American heritage music styles has no bounds.  Marc Pruett plays traditional three finger banjo in intuitive and powerful ways that blend and compliment the influences in the band of jazz and bluegrass…country and gospel…and swing and old-time. Marc adds a credible entertainment experience of over 40 years to this fresh, unique Southern band…BALSAM RANGE.

Share an enjoyable evening of fabulous American acoustic music with these five men…BALSAM RANGE.

O  Brother, O Sister: THE ROYS

After years of hard work, siblings Lee and Elaine Roy have firmly established themselves as one of the pre-eminent acts in Bluegrass today. As THE ROYS they bring immaculate harmonies, impeccable musicianship and strong songwriting to their music, combining a traditional vocal styling with a progressive instrumental attitude to enchant fans around the world. Proud to continue the “family harmony” sound started by such groups as Hall of Fame inductees The Carter Family, The Louvin Brothers and The Osborne Brothers, THE ROYS revel in exploring new facets of the genre while remaining true to their roots.

Born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts and raised across the border in Coal Branch, New Brunswick, Canada, THE ROYS’ early childhood days were filled with music. “Our Grandma LeBlanc played Acadian tunes on her fiddle while my aunts and uncles joined in,” Elaine recalls. “It was truly ‘Roots’ music. We fell in love with that ‘honest’ sound, and our harmonies seemed to fit that style of music,” adds Lee. Growing up in a family where guitar pulls were a normal occurrence, Lee became adept on drums, bass and mandolin and joined his first Bluegrass band at the age of nine. Elaine learned guitar and began singing at age five, making her first on-stage appearance at the tender age of 10.

Though the siblings were keenly aware of each other’s talent, they had no idea that they shared a common hope for the future. “I had always dreamed about going to Nashville,” states Elaine. “I was amazed when I learned my brother shared that vision as well.” For Lee, “It was something that we both wanted – and it just seemed natural to pursue it.”

Since making the decision to move to Nashville seven years ago, it’s been one success story after another for the duo. Growing up on traditional Country and Bluegrass music had given them a strong stylistic base, and their sound developed into a blend of Bluegrass, Country, Folk, Roots and Gospel music that resonates with the listener. Songs like the rollicking “Workin’ Girl Blues” and the timeless “Beautiful” earned them a strong following among fans while helping them forge strong bonds with programmers, talent buyers and critics across the country. Phone lines began to light up with requests for their music, and the crowds at their live appearances began to grow.

The accolades started rolling in with their wins for Inspirational Country Music (ICM) Duo of the Year in 2009 and 2010. The release of their first Rural Rhythm Records’ (RRR) album, LONESOME WHISTLE, kicked their career into high gear. The disc debuted at No. 7 on BILLBOARD's Bluegrass Albums Chart and earned them a spot on BILLBOARD'S Top 50 Bluegrass Albums of 2011 chart. The CD’s success helped land them the award for the ICM Bluegrass Artist of the Year in 2011, as well as a No. 1 single, “Coal Minin’ Man.”

THE ROYS’ sophomore project for the label, NEW DAY DAWNING, followed in 2012. The landmark EP debuted at #2 on the BILLBOARD Bluegrass Albums Chart, reached #1 on Amazon's Bluegrass Best- Sellers list, and landed on BLUEGRASS UNLIMITED MAGAZINE's Top 15 Albums chart. Additionally, the disc’s first single, “Still Standing,” and other tracks from the EP continually dominated the weekly and monthly Top 20 BLUEGRASS TODAY charts. Additionally, in 2012, Lee and Elaine were named ICM Bluegrass Artist of the Year and their song, “I Wonder What God’s Thinking,” was named the ICM Inspirational Country Single of the Year.

Keeping the award-winning sibling duo on the fast track, THE ROYS released GYPSY RUNAWAY TRAIN in 2013, their third CD for RRR containing six Roys’ originals and some of their all-time favorite Bluegrass and Country classics. The album earned a Top 5 on Billboard’s Bluegrass Album Chart and hit #1 on Sirius XM Bluegrass Junction’s Most-Played Albums chart (Oct. 2013), with the “hot and active” track: “Those Memories Of You” landing at #5 on Sirius XM Radio Bluegrass Junction’s Most-Played Tracks. 2013 also found THE ROYS performing at the official unveiling of the Johnny Cash US Postage Stamp, the well-regarded Country Thunder Wisconsin festival and at the historic and highly-publicized “Playin’ Possum: George Jones’ Final No Show” Tribute Concert. They were also invited to make their debut appearance on the Grand Ole’ Opry, realizing one of the duo’s major “life/career goals” and achieving what only a handful of Bluegrass acts have accomplished.

2014 found THE ROYS aboard the Inaugural Country Music Cruise, winning the hearts of traditional Country Music fans and earning a coveted performance spot aboard the 2015 cruise. They were also named the #1 Bluegrass Artist of the 2014 International Acoustic Music Awards (IAMA) and were a featured act at the Folk Alliance International.

Throughout the years, THE ROYS have played some of the top stages in America and beyond, bringing their unique sound to Dollywood, Country Thunder, Tamworth (Australia), Folk Alliance, CMA Music Festival and countless Bluegrass festivals. Last year, the siblings made their European debut with shows in Germany, the U.K. and Denmark. The sought-after duo has performed the National Anthem for fans of NASCAR, NFL and Major League Baseball. They have hosted radio shows as well, including the legendary Ernest Tubb Midnite Jamboree and 650 AM WSM’s popular Guest Artist Series. THE ROYS’ debut appearance at The Ryman Auditorium’s SPRINGER MOUNTAIN FARMS Bluegrass Nights At The Ryman series was a rousing success, and they were prominently featured in the PBS television special Pa’s Fiddle: Charles Ingalls, American Fiddler. The duo has hosted seven episodes of the Bluegrass Mountains television show and appeared on such popular television series as Fox & Friends, Better TV, Praise the Lord with Jason Crabb, RFD-TV's Country’s Family Reunion: Kinfolk, Hallmark Channel’s Marie show and most recently, Country’s Family Reunion: Simply Bluegrass. Lee (along with Matthew Rogers) wrote the theme song for the popular RFD-TV program, Campfire Café. THE ROYS were featured artists in the high-profile 2012 Vietti vinyl campaign. Lee and Elaine aligned with Team RealTree™ Outdoor Energy Drink for sponsorship of their 2012-2013 tour.

The duo has shared the stage with superstars George Jones, Ricky Skaggs, Alan Jackson, Lady Antebellum, Doyle Lawson, Jason Aldean, Blake Shelton, Rhonda Vincent, Chris Young, Sara Evans, J.D. Crowe, The Oak Ridge Boys, Janie Fricke, Dailey & Vincent, Neal McCoy and Collin Raye. THE ROYS are active in charities here and abroad and return as co-hosts of the annual Christmas 4 Kids® Celebrity Golf Tournament again this year (an honor they shared in 2012 with Tennessee Titans’ placekicker Rob Bironas). In August 2010 the twosome traveled to Bogota, Colombia, South America with Compassion International on a trip that warmed their hearts and touched their lives forever. Since their return, they have sponsored several children through the program. They served as spokespersons for the organization during 2011 and 2012.

A string band with a decidedly modern 21st century pop, punk, and rock approach to acoustic music, Boston's the Deadly Gentlemen, led by songwriter and banjoist Greg Liszt and also featuring mandolin player Dominick Leslie, fiddler Mike Barnett, guitarist Stash Wyslouch, and upright bassist Samson Grisman, may look like a traditional bluegrass band, but they aren't by any but the slimmest of definitions. Incorporating spoken word, rap elements, and everything under the sun into their material, the band released The Bastard Masterpiece in 2008, following it with Carry Me to Home in 2011, an album that saw the group moving more toward standard pop structures and arrangements, and by the time their third album, and first for Rounder Records, Roll Me, Tumble Me, appeared in 2013, the Deadly Gentlemen had dropped most of the kitchen-sink approach and completed a transformation into an acoustic pop band with sharp melodies, intelligent lyrics, and a subtle and song-supportive sound.

"There's a lot of growing up in this record," muses Dave Wilson, Chatham County Line's vocalist and guitarist. "The next generation is coming. We're maturing in this world and seeing things through a different set of eyes – and that materializes in a lot of these songs..."

Entering their second decade as an ensemble, Chatham County Line elegantly reconcile the past and future, tradition and innovation, on the fittingly titled Tightrope, available May 20, 2014 on Yep Roc Records. The sixth studio album from the Raleigh-based four-piece follows 2010's winsome, soulful Wildwood and the career-spanning concert album and film undertaking Sight & Sound, which was released in 2012. "With anything you've done for a while," Wilson explains, "a period of reflection helps you identify your strengths. Doing the live album did that, and in a way, we do that every night with the songs we choose to play at a live show. We usually don't use set lists, we just play the songs that come to mind. That really helped us prepare for this record."

Stirring, provocative, and disarmingly poignant, Tightrope was born out of a year's worth of intense focus, during which the band examined their own legacy while carefully honing new material. All the while, the band's four members – Wilson (guitar), John Teer (mandolin, fiddle), Chandler Holt (banjo), and Greg Readling (bass, pedal steel, piano) – welcomed spontaneity and the sometimes palpable will of the songs themselves into the process.

"At the end of the day," Wilson continues, "you really want to write songs that have a reason for existing. For Tightrope, we worked together very closely on every decision and every word and every bit of everything to try to make it fit. We want every song to be on the greatest hits or the live album.

The sound of the award-winning group Town Mountain can best be described as traditional bluegrass, albeit with a rough-hewn side to it that is not too slick or glossy. They are a band of the here-and-now, yet they have a groove that is based on the bluesy and swinging sounds explored by the first generation of bluegrass pioneers of the last century. With the success of their latest album, Leave The Bottle, the word is out with some of their best reviews yet.

 

“Thank god that Town Mountain are around to blow a hole in all the genre-juggling games of which music writers like myself are so fond,” said Devon Leger, of Ed Helms’ The Bluegrass Situation. “They play bluegrass. Period. They play it hard, they play it fast, and they play it like their fingers are bleeding and their picks are breaking.”

 

“Phil Barker’s ‘Lawdog’ sounds like an unearthed classic, and the group’s tight harmonies alone make this record a treat for any bluegrass fan,” said Juli Thanki of Engine 145, the 2011 IBMA Print Media Person of the Year award winner.

 

David Morris of Bluegrass Today adds more praise, “The songs are new and mostly written by band members, but they sound like they could have come from the exciting early days of bluegrass…..The band sounds the part – tight picking and comfortable harmonies that aren’t overdubbed to soulless perfection. And the songs sound the part, too – murder ballads, endless highways, a nod to bluegrass’ Celtic roots and even a tip of the hat to a moonshiner.”

 

Riding on the momentum of Leave the Bottle, Town Mountain came away from the 2013 International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) World of Bluegrass convention with a couple of IBMA Momentum Awards in had for “Band of the Year” and lead singer Robert Greer for “Vocalist of the Year”. Town Mountain includes Greer on vocals and guitar, Jesse Langlais on banjo and vocals, Bobby Britt on fiddle, Phil Barker on mandolin and vocals, and Nick  DiSebastian on bass. The band plans on recording a new album in 2014.

 

Town Mountain was formed out of the fertile music scene of Asheville, located in the mountains of western North Carolina. After recording their first two albums, Town Mountain signed with Pinecastle Records label. That led to a pair of acclaimed recordings with 2011’s Steady Operator as well as Leave The Bottle. Both projects were produced by Mike Bub, a recipient of five IBMA Bass Player of the Year awards as well as many other IBMA honors won during his time with the Del McCoury Band.

 

The members of Town Mountain have thought long and hard about their cultivated roots music groove. The group has focused on the goal of creating a unique sound and brand while still giving a nod and a wink to the traditional side of the bluegrass genre.

 

“I feel like we’re closer to original bluegrass than a lot of bands out there today,” says Langlais. “I listened to a radio show recently that featured Ricky Skaggs and he flat-out said that Bill Monroe influenced rock and roll. He said that folks like Elvis and Carl Perkins and those guys were looking up to Bill Monroe. So, I feel like our band has a lot of that influence as well, of the blues and early rock. If you go back and listen to Monroe pre-Chuck Berry, those are Chuck Berry licks. A lot of music in the 1940s and 50s was so over-lapping. It is easy to put genre labels on it today, 60 years later. But to be honest, it was all so new and it was influencing each other at the same time.”

 

Town Mountain will make appearances at many venues and festivals around the country including performances at MerleFest, the all-star Mountain Song at Sea cruise, Wintergrass, Suwannee Springfest and more. As the year progresses, Town Mountain will appear at the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, the Grand Targhee Festival, the California Bluegrass Association’s Father’s Day festival and other events.

 

A good chunk of popular music’s real estate has been carved up along lines of age these last half-dozen decades, and we’re used to seeing young musicians aim exclusively for young audiences then flounder as they outgrow teenaged listeners’ tastes and concerns. Pan-generational mentoring and mingling has done much to insulate bluegrass from this coming-of-age quandary. Still, Sierra Hull is the rare soul to make it through these years entirely unscathed.

Secrets—the debut album she recorded at 15, and released at 16—struck the ear with sensibilities that seemed both seasoned and fresh; kids’ stuff this was not. Three years and a move from her family’s home in tiny Byrdstown, Ten. to Boston’s Berklee College of Music later, she’s followed with one of the most surefooted transitions into early adulthood put to record. Thirty seconds into the opening track, she sings a line that puts a fine point on it: “I’m not a child anymore.”

Of course, the evidence of Sierra’s uncommon maturity—musical and personal (one might say she embodies the perfect balance of humility and capability)—has been there all along, and won her formidable fans: by age 11, Alison Krauss had called with an invitation to the Opry stage; by 12, Rounder was expressing interest; first Ron Block and now Barry Bales have served as co-producers, and her studio bands have featured the cream of the contemporary bluegrass crop—Stuart Duncan, Randy Kohrs and Bryan Sutton this time, alongside members of Sierra’s own crack band. Then there’s the fact that Berklee gave her the school’s most prestigious award, the Presidential Scholarship, a first for a bluegrass musician; her choice to accept it, to delay her dream of hitting the road full-time after high school in favor of expanding her musical worldview, was hardly a light one.

If ever the “child prodigy” label did Sierra justice, its usefulness has completely fallen away and a distinctive new identity emerged. What you hear on Daybreak is one of bluegrass’s few full-fledged virtuosic instrumentalist/singer/songwriters, and one who’s gracefully grown into her gifts. While her mandolin playing has always possessed clarity and fleet-fingered precision, here she attacks her solos with newfound spontaneity and depth of feeling; she calls it “playing with a point to prove.” Her singing—always straight and true—has more heartfelt power behind it, to results Bales describes, simply, as “doing the songs justice.”

As for the songs, Sierra’s first album held just a few originals, but she wrote seven of these twelve, a collection that stands up quite well next to the outside material. There’s a pair of sprightly instrumentals, her first-ever western swing number and several that show her emotional sophistication: in songs that fall squarely in the bluegrass tradition, feelings are out in the open; during country-leaning compositions, she ponders relationships from more introspective angles; and the title track—a breathtaking pop ballad—is the most ruminative moment of all.

Boundaries—age, genre or otherwise—don’t hamper an artist like Sierra. She’s already earned considerable respect in the bluegrass world, the IBMA’s voting members having nominated her for no fewer than five awards over three years—there’s a good chance she’ll be the first woman to win the mandolin category. But as a player, a singer and a songwriter, she also has remarkable range, the potential to win over ears unfamiliar with Bill Monroe and give performances of broad cultural importance, as she’s done at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and the National Prayer Breakfast. Matt Glaser—head of Berklee’s American Roots Music Program—put it this way: “She has no limitations as a musician.” Daybreak is certainly a noteworthy arrival; you can’t help but feel it’s also just the beginning.

- Jewly Hight, Nashville, Tennessee, January 2011

Jerry Douglas presents The Earls of Leicester with Shawn Camp, Time O'Brien, Johnny Warren, Charlie Cushman and Barry Bales


JERRY DOUGLAS Traveler bio

 

"I've reached a point in my life where I'm not afraid to try anything," states Jerry Douglas. "That's what this record's about."

 

That fearlessness is manifested in spades on Traveler, the artist's 14th solo release and his first in three years. The 11-song album finds the world-renowned Dobro master—described as "the Muhammad Ali of the Dobro" by James Taylor and "my favorite musician" by John Fogerty—defying expectations and ignoring genre restrictions to deliver his most stylistically expansive, personally-charged effort to date. 

 

Recorded in New Orleans, New York, Montreal and Banbury, England as well as in Douglas' homebase of Nashville, Traveler finds the 13-time Grammy winner and three-time Country Music Association Musician of the Year delivering an audaciously eclectic set that teams him with such world-class talents (and avowed Douglas admirers) as Eric Clapton, Paul Simon, Mumford & Sons, Keb' Mo', Marc Cohn, Dr. John, Del McCoury, Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Jon Cleary, Viktor Krauss and Omar Hakim, as well as Alison Krauss & Union Station, of which Douglas has been a member since 1998.

 

Traveler's title reflects the broad range of musical ground that it traverses, and the many miles that Douglas and producer Russ Titelman covered in order to capture the album's diverse array of performances. Their visit to New Orleans, for instance, yielded four memorable tracks, including horn-laden readings of the R&B standards "Something You Got" (featuring Clapton on vocals and guitar and Dr. John on piano) and "High Blood Pressure" (with vocals by Keb' Mo'). Douglas' acoustic roots are showcased on his Nashville-recorded instrumental originals "Duke and Cookie" and "King Silkie," and on the haunting "Frozen Fields," featuring the vocal and instrumental talents of Alison Krauss & Union Station.

 

Traveler's numerous highlights also include Douglas' heartfelt reworkings of a pair of Paul Simon classics: "American Tune," included here in an affecting solo Dobro medley with Chick Corea's "Spain"; and an epic yet intimate reinterpretation of "The Boxer," recorded in England with U.K. folk-rockers Mumford & Sons providing backup, and in New York with Simon (with whom Douglas has worked extensively, both on tour as an opening act and as a collaborator in the studio) adding an exotic assortment of electric and acoustic guitar parts, Tibetan percussion and high harmony vocals.

 

"Every song on this record was like an adventure," Douglas notes, adding, "The idea was to take myself out of my comfort zone, and to keep putting myself in unfamiliar situations. I wasn't worried about failing, and I wasn't trying to prove anything. It just felt right to just go for it and try everything."

 

In addition to confidently exploring a broad range of material from across the stylistic spectrum, Traveler marks some notable firsts for Douglas. For instance, it's the first time he's recorded an album with an outside producer. 

 

"It was different letting someone else wear the big hat, but it worked out great," Douglas says of studio vet Titelman, whose resume includes classic releases by the likes of Randy Newman, Ry Cooder, Rickie Lee Jones and Little Feat, as well as Traveler participants Clapton and Simon. "Russ is wide open to all kinds of things, and because he was there, I didn't have to worry about things like booking the studio or keeping track of the budget. I just had to show up and play my best. That was quite a luxury, and it made this a better record."

 

Traveler also showcases his soulful, wailing lap steel guitar work alongside his Dobro skills. His lap steel is featured on seven tracks, including the original instrumentals "So Here We Are" and "Gone to Fortingall," both of which are products of Douglas' budding collaboration with the stellar rhythm section of bassist Viktor Krauss and drummer Omar Hakim, who also provide the foundation of his current touring band.

 

"Playing lap steel is very liberating to me, especially after working in the acoustic world for most of my life," Douglas says. "It's a very different instrument, and it takes me to a different part of my brain. With lap steel, I have access to sustain and distortion, which is something you just don't get with Dobro. Distortion isn't big in bluegrass, but it can be your friend."

 

Traveler is also notable for featuring Douglas' first recorded lead vocal, i.e. his persuasive take on the Leadbelly number "On A Monday," which opens the album (and which Douglas recently performed on “The Late Show With David Letterman”).  He actually made his public lead-singing debut in 2011 in no less auspicious a venue than Carnegie Hall, singing "Hey Joe" as part of the “Roots” themed show in James Taylor’s “Perspectives” series.

 

"I originally wanted to call this record Firsts, but I didn't because the word's too hard to say," Douglas confides. "I even drew up a cover concept, with this little scrawny kid standing on a high-dive board about to jump into a pool, and there's a shark in the water. That's what this whole record felt like to me. That's kind of what I've been doing for the last couple of years: drawing up the list of things that I'm afraid to do and then doing them."

 

The fact that Douglas' multiple talents command the respect of the A-list singers and players who populate Traveler won't come as a surprise to anyone who's familiar with his history. As a solo artist, band member, collaborator and session musician, his distinctive playing graces over 2000 albums by artists as varied as Garth Brooks, Ray Charles, Elvis Costello, John Fogerty, Bill Frisell, Charlie Haden, Emmylou Harris, George Jones, Dolly Parton, Earl Scruggs, Phish and the Chieftains, as well as the eight-million-plus selling soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou? and its spinoff live disc Down from the Mountain. As a producer, he's helmed albums by such notable acts as the Del McCoury Band, Maura O'Connell, Jesse Winchester and the Nashville Bluegrass Band.

 

The Ohio-born Douglas began playing Dobro at the age of eight, after his father—a steelworker who played bluegrass in his spare time—brought him to a Flatt and Scruggs concert, where he was entranced by the sound of Dobro player Josh Graves. After playing with his dad's group the West Virginia Travelers for several years, a 17-year-old Douglas joined the pioneering progressive-bluegrass band the Country Gentlemen in 1973. Two years later, he became a member of the seminal J.D. Crowe and the New South, which also included future solo stars Ricky Skaggs and Tony Rice. In 1976, Douglas and Skaggs co-founded the now-legendary bluegrass combo Boone Creek. 

 

In 1979, Douglas launched his solo career with his LP Fluxology, and also became a full-time member of the beloved family country group the Whites. By the time he left the Whites in 1985, Douglas was Nashville's most in-demand session Dobro player, while continuing to develop his blossoming solo career with a series of acclaimed and influential albums. In the late '80s, he formed the acoustic supergroup Strength in Numbers with Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer and Mark O'Connor. He also continued to collaborate on such forward-looking recording projects,

Lonesome River Band has been one of the most popular and influential acts on the bluegrass festival and concert circuit since the release of their breakout CD, Carrying The Tradition, back in 1991. That band line-up included current LRB band leader Sammy Shelor, as well as Dan Tyminski, Ronnie Bowman and Lonesome River Band founder, Tim Austin. They recorded a second project for Rebel Records, Old Country Town, before Tyminski accepted a gig with Alison Krauss & Union Station, and Austin decided to leave the road to focus on his recording studio, Doobie Shea.

During his years with LRB, Sammy Shelor has enjoyed performing with such stellar musicians as Kenny Smith, Don Rigsby, Ron Stewart, Rickie Simpkins and Mike Hartgrove (who returned in 2005) – each of whom had moved on to pursue other musical endeavors. With each personnel change, Shelor looked for new musicians who could not only fill a spot that had been left vacant, but also bring in an artist with talents of their own.

The year 2001 brought a lot of new changes with the addition of Brandon Rickman and Jeff Parker along with fiddler Mike Hartgrove who had just left IIIrd Tyme Out, along with bassist Irl Hees.  The band was rewarded rave reviews for Window of Time, the first recording with that band configuration. John Wade soon replaced Hees on bass, and the group the recorded Head On Into Heartache CD.

In 2005, Hartgrove left to join Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, and Rickman chose to give up touring to spend more time focusing on songwriting, but more importantly much needed time with his family.  With Jeff Parker’s contributions on mandolin and tenor vocals, this took LRB into the next generation returning to the bands aggressive, four piece sound that had brought them to prominence years earlier.  Shelor brought on a strong picker and a distinctive singer, Barry Berrier on bass who had made a name singing lead and playing guitar with The Lost & Found.  Shannon Slaughter then came onboard after initially being hired to fill in during the search for a new guitar man.

When this newest version of Lonesome River Band, you can be assured their prominence as one of the most influential acts in bluegrass music is here to stay.

A No Depression blogger referred to members of the band as "..the Gibson Brothers who don’t share the Gibson name." But there’s no doubt they’re a band of musical brothers as Steve Leftridge of PopMatters described them this way:  "Eric and Leigh Gibson might have, pound-for-pound, the most impeccably fine-sounding traditional bluegrass band on the contemporary scene. ...the reason these guys can’t lose is that, quite simply, they sound so great. Eric and Leigh sing bluegrass’ tightest harmony blend, and, instrumentally the group plays with unmatched alacrity and taste. "

Just in case you aren’t familiar with Béla Fleck, there are some who say he’s the premiere banjo player in the world. Others claim that Béla has virtually reinvented the image and the sound of the banjo through a remarkable performing and recording career that has taken him all over the musical map and on a range of solo projects and collaborations. If you are familiar with Béla, you know that he just loves to play the banjo, and put it into unique settings.

Any world-class musician born with the names Béla (for Bartok), Anton (for Dvorak) and Leos (for Janacek) would seem destined to play classical music. Already a powerfully creative force in bluegrass, jazz, pop, rock and world beat, Béla at last made the classical connection with “Perpetual Motion”, his critically acclaimed 2001 Sony Classical recording that went on to win a pair of Grammys, including Best Classical Crossover Album, in the 44th annual Grammy Awards. Collaborating with Fleck on “Perpetual Motion” was his long time friend and colleague Edgar Meyer, a bassist whose virtuosity defies labels and also an acclaimed composer. Béla and Edgar co-wrote and performed a double concerto for banjo, bass and the Nashville Symphony, which debuted in November 2003. They also co-wrote a triple concerto for banjo, bass and tabla, with world renown tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain entitled The Melody of Rhythm.

In 2011, Béla wrote his first stand alone banjo concerto, on commission with the Nashville Symphony. This work, entitled “The Impostor”, along with his new quintet for banjo and string quartet will be released in August on the Deutche Gramaphone label.

These days he bounces between various intriguing touring situations, such as performing his concerto with symphonies, in a duo with Chick Corea, a trio with Zakir Hussain and Edgar Meyer, concerts with the Brooklyn Rider string quartet, duos with Abigail Washburn, with African artists such as Oumou Sangare and Toumani Diabate, in a jazz collaboration with The Marcus Roberts Trio, doing bluegrass with his old friends, and rare solo concerts. And Béla Fleck and the Flecktones still perform together, 25 years after the band’s inception.

The recipient of Multiple Grammy Awards going back to 1998, Béla Flecks’ total Grammy count is 15 Grammys won, and 30 nominations. He has been nominated in more different musical categories than anyone in Grammy history.

Although they received a boost in popularity when actor/banjo player Steve Martin joined their ranks in 2009, the Steep Canyon Rangers had already earned an audience with their progressive bluegrass sound. Graham Sharp (banjo, harmony vocals) met future bandmates Woody Platt (guitar, lead vocals) and Charles R. Humphrey III (bass, harmony vocals) in 1999, while all three were attending the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Drawn together by their love of acoustic music, they began playing impromptu jam sessions. As things progressed, they were drawn more and more to bluegrass and started learning the genre's classic tunes. The main impetus to "go bluegrass" was the input of mandolin player Mike Guggino, an old friend of Platt's. He also owned a cabin in the mountains near the school, and the quartet used that as its rehearsal space.

At first, the members were all busy with school and planning professional careers, with no thought of making music full time. None of them had ever been in a band before, but as they created a style all their own -- equal parts traditional and progressive bluegrass, with a bit of country and rock throw into the mix -- they began to realize they were more than just a bunch of friends jamming. By the time they graduated, fiddler Nicky Sanders had also joined the band's ranks, and the Steep Canyon Rangers were getting enough gigs to quit their day jobs and become full-time musicians.

Although they threw the occasional bluegrass cover into their sets, the main strength of the Rangers quickly became their songwriting. Sharp, Humphrey, and Guggino all contributed to the band's canon with original compositions that appealed to bluegrass, country, folk, blues, and jam band fans. Upon graduation, the Rangers hit the road, playing folk and rock clubs as well as traditional bluegrass venues. Their first album, Old Dreams and New Dreams, was released in 2001 of the band's own label. Mr. Taylor's New Home appeared in 2002 courtesy of the small indie label Bonfire, and the self-titled Steep Canyon Rangers marked the band's first release for Rebel in 2004. Its follow-up, One Dime at a Time, was recorded mostly live in the studio and won the IBMA's Emerging Artist Award in 2006, with the title tune going to number one on the Bluegrass Unlimited chart.

Although no stranger to the jam band crowd, the Steep Canyon Rangers further endeared themselves to that audience with a ragtime cover of the Grateful Dead's "Don't Ease Me In." The song appeared on Lovin' Pretty Women, which was nominated for IBMA's Album of the Year, and 2009's Deep in the Shade showed off their continuing love of gospel music. Meanwhile, the bandmates kept themselves busy collaborating with other artists. In 2008, they played with Flatt & Scruggs vocalist Curly Seckler, and in 2009 comedian/banjo player Steve Martin asked the Rangers to serve as his backing band on a tour in support of his own banjo album, The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo. Their 2009 gig at San Francisco's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival introduced the group to a whole new audience of former hippies and boomers, and Martin remained on board for 2011's Rare Bird Alert, which featured guest appearances by Paul McCartney and the Dixie Chicks. Nobody Knows You, the group's debut album for Rounder Records, appeared in 2012. Tell the Ones I Love from 2013, also on Rounder Records, was produced by Larry Campbell and recorded mostly live at the late Levon Helm's studio in Woodstock, New York.

With their popularity growing, the Steep Canyon Rangers toured steadily, both on their own and accompanying Martin. In 2013, Martin collaborated with singer and songwriter Edie Brickell on an album called Love Has Come for You; when Martin and Brickell played a handful of concert dates in support, the Steep Canyon Rangers joined them, and one performance was released in both audio and video under the title Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers featuring Edie Brickell Live. ~ j. poet, Rovi

Colorado band Hot Rize formed in 1978 with a unique and exciting style of bluegrass. Named after the secret ingredient in Martha White Flour, a long-term sponsor of bluegrass music, the band started. Hot Rize was considered both a progressive bluegrass band and a traditional bluegrass band, taking the bluegrass world by storm with their fresh, contemporary approach to traditional music. Their dynamic stage show made them stars on the major festival circuit, and their powerful original songs constantly topped radio playlists.
In 1990 Hot Rize was named Entertainer of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association, the first such award ever given out by the organization. The band included Tim O'Brien (vocals, mandolin, fiddle), Pete Wernick (banjo, vocals), Charles Sawtelle (guitar, vocals), and Nick Forster (guitar, bass guitar, vocals, and the band's emcee). This lineup lasted 12 years without change.

Their final studio album, Take It Home, came out in 1990; O'Brien and
Wernick subsequently went on to pursue solo careers, and Nick Forster began and still hosts and co-produces the syndicated radio music program, e-town. Many Hot Rize reunion shows and festival appearances took place throughout the 90s until the untimely death of Charles Sawtelle in 1999.

Hot Rize appeared frequently on such national broadcasts as NPR's "A Prairie Home Companion" and The Nashville Network's "Ralph Emery Show". Their stage show gained renown, featuring their strong and soulful bluegrass combined with their wacky but musically deft "alter-ego" country swing band, Red Knuckles and the Trailblazers. The group performed in almost every state, as well as Europe, Japan, and Australia. That year also saw the band re-form for several major festival appearances, with O'Brien, Wernick, Forster, along with the great Bryan Sutton on guitar.

In 2003, with the same lineup, Hot Rize's festival schedule includes Merlefest (NC), Telluride (CO), Grey Fox (NY), Grand Targhee (WY), and Strictly Bluegrass (CA). Devotees from past years are joined by many younger fans hearing the band for the first time, and the response has been electric. Having reached the 25-year mark since its inception, Hot Rize continues to enhance its reputation as one of the leading bluegrass bands of its day.

“Hot Rize is the great modern bluegrass band. They're the connective tissue that links the great founders of bluegrass with the modern tradition." – Steve Martin

Hamish and Lachlan Davidson grew up in the rural Victorian town of Yinnar. Raised in a musical family, the brothers began playing music and performing from a young age. With seven albums under their belt, they have built the reputation of being one of Australia’s hottest bluegrass acts – multi instrumentalists on banjo, fiddle, mandolin and great entertainers with an enormous respect for the traditions of the genre.

“All music should be this much fun.” – The Age

Australian Country Music Award winners in 2009, 2010 and 2012, and Group of the Year at the 2010 Australian Independent Country Music Awards, Hamish and Lachlan Davidson are “the best young bluegrass pickers we have seen for a long while in Australia and a very exciting live act,” according to Troy Cassar-Daley.

Their latest album, Wanderlust was released in June 2014 and contains eleven original tracks, three of which are instrumentals. It features the Davidson Brothers' live band - Jacob McGuffie on guitar and Louis Gill on upright bass. Whilst Wanderlust remains steeped in bluegrass tradition, it contains a dash of folk and roots, and is patented with Davidson Brothers’ live energy.

In recent years, the Davidson Brothers have toured extensively throughout Australia and America, which included representing Australia at the IBMA’s World of Bluegrass in the USA in 2004 and 2009. They were later invited to present at the 2010 International Bluegrass Awards held at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. In June 2011, the brothers completed their first European tour and performed at the 2011 European World of Bluegrass in the Netherlands.

The brothers have toured with Australian country music veterans such as Troy Cassar-Daley and Lee Kernaghan, shared the stage with household names like Tommy Emmanuel, Kasey Chambers and Dan Sultan. They have also performed on many national television programs including Spicks & Specks and Good Morning Australia.

Both Hamish and Lachlan are graduates of the Australian Country Music College. In 2003 they won the State Final and were Runner Up in the Grand Final of the National University Band Competition, which also saw Hamish win Best Overall Musician. At the Australian Bluegrass Championships, Lachlan took out the Mandolin Championship three years in a row from 2008 – 2010, with Hamish winning the Fiddle Championship in 2000, then later, the Banjo Championship in 2009. Together, they were recognised as finalists in the Most Outstanding Musicians category of the 2010 Melbourne Prize for Music.

The Davidson Brothers are currently touring nationally with their new album, Wanderlust. For tour dates and upcoming appearances, head to www.davidsonbrothersband.com.

Wide Open Bluegrass Amphitheater Stage Open - Red Hat Amphitheater

The first band album was released in 1979 when the band began touring on a national basis. In 1984, The Special Consensus initiated the Traditional American Music (TAM) Program in schools across the country and began appearing on cable television and National Public Radio shows. The band has since appeared on The Nashville Network “Fire On The Mountain” show, toured for three seasons as 4/5 of the cast in the musical Cotton Patch Gospel (music and lyrics by Harry Chapin), and released fifteen additional recordings. The Northern Indiana Bluegrass Association sponsored a video production of the TAM Program and copies were sent to schools around the world by the Nashville-based International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA). In 2000, Pinecastle Records released the first band performance video, filmed for Iowa Public Television’s “Old Time Country Music” show, and The Special Consensus 25th Anniversary recording to mark this milestone year for the band. The band has been featured in cover stories of the renowned bluegrass publication Bluegrass Unlimited in 1998, 2005 and 2010 and several of the band recordings have received Highlight Reviews and appeared on the National Bluegrass Survey chart in that publication. In November 2003, The Special Consensus received a standing ovation after the first band performance on the Grand Ole Opry at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium. International tours have brought The Special Consensus to the United Kingdom, Canada, Europe, Ireland and South America. In 1993, the band performed the first of many concerts with a symphony orchestra, complete with orchestral arrangements of songs from the band repertoire. The fifteenth band recording “35″ was released in 2010 by Compass Records in celebration of the 35th anniversary of the formation of the band as a professional touring and recording entity. The sixteenth band recording, “Scratch Gravel Road,” was released by Compass Records in March 2012 and was nominated for the Best Bluegrass Album GRAMMY Award. The song “Monroe’s Doctrine” from that recording was nominated for the IBMA Recorded Event of the Year award in 2012. Compass Records released the seventeenth band recording “Country Boy: A Bluegrass Tribute To John Denver” in March, 2014. Many award winning bluegrass artist friends of Special C appeared with the band on this recording to make it a very “special” release. 

For Junior Sisk and Ramblers Choice, 2012 was not just a banner year, but a vindication—and with the release of their fourth Rebel Records album, The Story Of The Day That I Died, it’s a safe bet that 2013 is going to be even better. Building on the strengths of its IBMA Album of the Year predecessor, The Story Of The Day That I Died serves up another dozen classics and classics-in-the-making that prove the honors bestowed on The Heart Of A Song and its opening track, “A Far Cry From Lester And Earl,” were no accidents. And though Junior and the guys have kept squarely in their winning groove, there are some new aspects to their music that promise to take the group even farther down the road to bluegrass immortality.

Taking pride of place in the news about the latest release is the addition of Chris Davis to the quintet. For fans of soulful singing in the mountain style, it’s a welcome step, for Davis has earned a reputation as one of the music’s most powerful tenors—and most dynamic onstage personalities—through his work with Larry Cordle & Lonesome Standard Time and Marty Raybon. Indeed, from the moment he began making appearances with Ramblers Choice, Davis’s vocal contributions helped to bring an already outstanding vocal combination to a new level and, like his young but veteran colleague in the band, Jason Tomlin, he takes on all three vocal roles here—lead, tenor and baritone. Add his assertive mandolin playing into the mix, and it’s plain just how much Chris brings to the Ramblers Choice sound.

In a similar vein, Jason Davis has become a banjo player to watch, earning a growing reputation for his deepening mastery of every facet of the instrument’s classic sounds. Though he’s deservedly front and center on a blistering version of “Jesse James” and puts the hammer down on the album’s up-tempo numbers, he’s equally at home in the too-often neglected C tuning of more restrained numbers like the title track and “Prayers Go Up,” where he shows just how adeptly he can back a singer. Fiddler Billy Hawks, too, stands ready to tear it up when called upon to do so, but is equally at ease in playing a supporting role. Like their colleagues, they’re musicians who understand that bluegrass is fundamentally an ensemble music, and bring all their talent to bear on serving each song.

And what a strong set of songs appear on The Story Of The Day That I Died. A writer of no small ability himself—check out “Walking In Good Company,” written with Junior’s favorite co-writer, his dad—Sisk was clearly “in the zone” when it came time to choose material. Russell Johnson and Daniel Salyer, who contributed to The Heart Of A Song are back with distinctive new entries, as is Ashby Frank, whose sardonic “I Did The Leaving For You” on the Junior Sisk & Ramblers Choice debut is matched, if not excelled by the title track here. Long-time buddy and former neighbor Ronnie Bowman, who produced that debut, returns with a thoughtful contemporary number that stretches the group in a different direction.

Yet there are new names among the songwriters, too; Kentucky traditionalist David Carroll, who’s written for IIIrd Tyme Out, Blue Moon Rising, the Lonesome River Band and more furnishes a lonesome waltz, while in a bold move that may surprise a few folks, Junior snatched up a modern piece of wisdom from Cadillac Sky’s Bryan Simpson before it disappeared into the studios of Music Row. And, on the other end of the spectrum, he revives an obscure Larry Sparks classic, and teams up with fellow traditionalist—and fellow Rebel artist—Joe Mullins for the inevitable Stanley Brothers number, “Lover’s Quarrel.”

Add it all up, and The Story Of The Day That I Died is quintessential Junior Sisk & Ramblers Choice. There’s a little bit of just about everything to be found on this disc, but it’s mostly bluegrass done just the way it’s always been done the best—with a whole lot of talent and a whole lot of soul!

Highly regarded as one of Bluegrass Music's finest High Lead and Tenor vocalist, Larry Stephenson has been a headliner for over twenty years. Larry formed his band in 1989 while living in his home state of Virginia. Stephenson has been a touring bluegrass musician since he played with his Dad beginning in the middle seventies. Born in Harrisonburg, VA and raised in King George, his Dad started him on the mandolin at age five, cutting his first record at age 13. He credits the rich music scene of Virginia for much of his musical success, having seen and heard the first generation bluegrass performers at festivals, shows, and on the radio. After high school graduation, he worked and recorded with Cliff Waldron and Leon Morris while soaking up the Washington, D.C. rich musical scene, which included cutting edge bands like The Country Gentlemen and The Seldom Scene as well as traditional bluegrass and old-time music. Moving onward in 1979 Larry spent 4 ½ years with Bill Harrell & The Virginians. And in 1983 joined the famed Bluegrass Cardinals for 5 ½ years. This combination has been called "...one of the classic lineups of the Bluegrass Cardinals". Recording with both groups.

In 1992 Larry moved to Nashville, Tennessee and since then, The Larry Stephenson Band has toured widely, recorded frequently, nurturing it’s own sound, based on Larry’s crystal clear, easily recognizable tenor voice, while providing a musical home for some of the finest sidemen in contemporary bluegrass history. Many appearance's on the Grand Ole Opry and RFD TV have made The Larry Stephenson Band a fan favorite all across the US and Canada. In 1996, Stephenson was made a member of the Virginia Country Music Hall of Fame by the Virginia Folk Music Association.

While Larry Stephenson is best known as a touring musician whose voice sets a standard of melody, clarity, and storytelling, he has had an active and well-awarded recording career. He recorded with Webco Records and then spent eighteen years with Pinecastle Records, releasing eighteen CD's during that period. Signature songs in Larry Stephenson's vast catalog include "Patches," "Yes, I See God," "Clinch Mountain Mystery," "Many Hills Of Time", "The Knoxville Girl", "The Knoxville Boy," The Pretty Blue Dress" and "The Violet and the Rose." Another Stephenson fan favorite is his version of Bill Monroe's classic "Mule Skinner Blues," often performed as an encore and showcasing his flexible and reliable tenor voice. These songs, always delivered with commitment and conviction are often requested in his live performances at festivals, concerts, and other appearances.

While many other Stephenson’s songs from most of his recordings have charted, 2004 brought a hi-light as "Clinch Mountain Mystery" reached #1 on the bluegrass charts. This veteran performer continues to deliver new and fresh material while never straying far from his deep traditional roots. Throughout his now over twenty-year career fronting his own band, and almost forty years as a major, touring performer, Larry Stephenson has been well-recognized and awarded by fans and his peers in the recording industry. He's been named Male Vocalist of the Year at SPBGMA (The Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America) five times. His 2010 award winning release "20th Anniversary" on his own label Whysper Dream Music, included guest performers like Ricky Skaggs, Connie Smith, Marty Stuart, Del McCoury, Dale Ann Bradley, Dudley Connell, and Sonny Osborne. "Give This Message to Your Heart" with Dailey and Vincent won Recorded Event of the Year from IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association) in the same year. In 2011, he signed a recording contract with Nashville based, premier label Compass Records.

Larry lives on the outskirts of Nashville, TN with his wife Dreama, an accomplished child photographer and hairdresser, and their long-awaited and much-loved daughter.

With his older brother Jim McReynolds, mandolin and fiddle player Jesse McReynolds was part of the longstanding bluegrass duo Jim & Jesse, who formed just after World War II and performed until Jim McReynolds' death on December 31, 2002.

 After fashioning a posthumous Jim & Jesse release, ‘Tis Sweet to Be Remembered (released April 15, 2003, by Pinecastle Records), Jesse McReynolds launched a solo career at the age of 73. Actually, he had released his first solo album, Me and My Fiddle, in 1968. But his formal debut came with New Horizons, released on April 13, 2004. Bending the Rules followed on November 9, 2004. Next, McReynolds paired with Charlie Whitstein for A Tribute to Brother Duets (June 28, 2005). Dixie Road appeared in 2007, and on October 5, 2010, McReynolds "& Friends" (the friends being David Nelson of New Riders of the Purple Sage fame and Stu Allen of the Jerry Garcia Band) delivered Songs of the Grateful Dead on Woodstock Records, for which McReynolds penned a new song, "Day by Day," with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi

In a relatively short period of time, Della Mae has become a sensation in the music world. Commanding a powerful collective chemistry with vocal, instrumental, and songwriting talent to spare, the Boston-based combo mines time-honored elements to create music that's unmistakably fresh and contemporary.

The group quickly won an enthusiastic following through their high-energy live performances at festivals around the country. The band expanded its reputation with their self-released first album, 2011's I Built This Heart, which won an impressive amount of attention for a D.I.Y. release.

This World Oft Can Be, Della Mae's second album and Rounder debut, shows that like the Avett Brothers, Lumineers, and Punch Brothers, these five multitalented young women are respectful of American musical tradition, but not restricted by it, combining centuries' worth of musical influences with an emotionally tough, undeniably modern songwriting sensibility.

This World Oft Can Be's 12 songs—including such engaging originals as "Empire," "Paper Prince," "Maybeline" and the feisty title track—showcase the fivesome's world-class instrumental abilities, lilting harmonies and subtly commanding lead vocals. Although the musicians' sublime skills have already won them numerous individual honors, the album's focus is squarely on the band's emotionally potent songs and spirited, effortlessly expressive performances.

"The identity that we've developed as a band is a melting pot of our different personalities and backgrounds," asserts founder, Kimber Ludiker. After having the idea at a summer festival, Kimber hand picked musicians from all over the country: singer Celia Woodsmith comes from a blues/rock background, guitarist Courtney Hartman studied at Berklee College of Music, bassist Shelby Means played with various bands in Nashville, and mandolin player Jenni Lyn Gardner was schooled in traditional bluegrass. Della Mae's members hail from all over the United States, and the five women each bring impressive musical resumes amassed in their previous ventures.

Della Mae recorded This World Oft Can Be at Cash Cabin Studio, Johnny Cash's former recording base, in Hendersonville, Tennessee, with noted guitarist Bryan Sutton in the producer's chair. (Artists who have recorded at Cash Cabin over the years include Rosanne Cash, Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, Merle Haggard, and George Jones). In addition to absorbing the studio's inspirational vibes, Courtney Hartman played June Carter Cash's vintage 1933 Gibson L5 Round Hole guitar on "Some Roads Lead On," while Ludiker had the honor of borrowing John Hartford's custom carved fiddle on "Letter From Down The Road." The album was mixed by Paul Q. Kolderie, whose production resume includes albums with the likes of Hole, Radiohead and Dinosaur Jr.

"The whole band had a big part in arranging the songs, most written by Celia and Courtney, and together we molded them into what you'll hear on the album," Ludiker notes, adding, "The vibe at Cash Cabin Studio is incredible, and we did a lot of live recording. We overdubbed vocal harmonies and solos here and there, but it's basically just us playing together in the same room. 'Some Roads Lead On' was captured on one microphone, in one take."

In addition to playing festivals and clubs throughout the United States, Della Mae recently expanded the scale of its touring efforts after participating in the U.S. State Department's American Music Abroad program. Selected as cultural ambassadors, the band spent 43 days traveling in Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, where they collaborated with local musicians, taught educational programs for children, and played concerts for local audiences.

"It's been a life-changing experience for us, individually and as a band," Ludiker says of the tour. "A cool thing about playing music in Central Asian countries is in the lack of distinction their audience places between musical genres. We found that if music is played with feeling, all people connected to it. They find themselves smiling and relating without even understanding the language."

Indeed, Della Mae demonstrates how effectively music builds bridges and transcends artificially constructed borders, whether they're national or genre-based. Ludiker concludes: "All five ladies are individually driven, and we are working towards the same goal. This band definitely feels like a calling, a labor of love."

Great musicians will always find a way to make good music, but for great musicians to make great music, they must form a bond – one that, more often than not, goes beyond the purely musical to the personal. For The Grascals, that bond has been forged at the intersection of personal friendships, shared professional resumes and an appreciation for the innovative mingling of bluegrass and country music that has been a hallmark of the Nashville scene for more than forty years.

Their cutting-edge modern bluegrass is delivered with a deep knowledge of, and admiration for, the work of the music’s founding fathers. Timely yet timeless, The Grascals make music that is entirely relevant to the here and now, yet immersed in traditional values of soul and musicianship. It’s a unique sound that has earned three Grammy® nominations and two Entertainer of the Year awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association, as well as national media attention that seems to perpetually elude acts entrenched in niche genres. Such appearances include The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Fox & Friends, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, and CBS’ The Talk. All the while, stages that represent the strongest bastions of tradition continually welcome them, as evidenced by the over 150 performances on the Grand Ole Opry. Honors also include performing twice for President George W. Bush and at President Barack Obama’s inaugural ball at the Smithsonian.

As their records prove, The Grascals’ rare musical empathy gives them an unerring ear for just the right touch to illuminate each offering’s deepest spirit – whether they’re digging into one of their original songs or reworking a bluegrass classic or a pop standard. Take for instance, fan favorite, “Last Train to Clarksville.” Non-bluegrass listeners enjoy a new take on a familiar song, while diehard bluegrass audiences who may have never heard the Monkees classic, respond in-kind, not even realizing that the song has been Grascalized.

 

“Playing music is the easy part,” says Russell Moore with an ever-so-slightly rueful laugh as he looks back on more than thirty years of doing what he grew up wanting to do.  “By the time we put this band together”—he’s talking about IIIrd Tyme Out, his musical vehicle for over twenty years now—“I was realistic enough to know that bands come and go.  Being able to stay together is the hurdle that everyone faces.  So I didn’t have a preconceived notion that someday I’d be celebrating twenty years with IIIrd Tyme Out—but I did feel like I would be playing music for the rest of my life.”  

As it turns out, while many bands have come and gone since that May in 1991, Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out have endured.  In the process, they’ve managed to climb to the top not just once, but twice—winning a slew of IBMA vocal awards, including two Male Vocalist of the Year honors, in the mid and late 1990s, then persevering through rough times to see Moore recapturing the Male Vocalist trophy for the past three years.  Along the way, they’ve made a whole new generation of fans, and with the release of Timeless Hits From The Past…BLUEGRASSED by Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, the quintet are poised to deliver their distinctive kind of music more widely than ever. 

For Moore, it’s been a long journey from his childhood Texas home.  Raised in Pasadena, near Houston, he heard a lot of country music growing up—“I was five miles from Gilley’s right during the Urban Cowboy craze,” he notes—but it was bluegrass that really turned his head as he moved into his teen years.  “Bluegrass was accessible,” he recalls.  “The bands, the musicians, they were so approachable—and even though we weren’t in the bluegrass mainstream geographically, I was able to see artists like Bill Monroe, Larry Sparks ands the Lewis Family, and you could just be around them.  That was intriguing to me.”  

Within a few years, Russell was playing mandolin in a regional band, and by the time he was in his early 20s, he had teamed up with a couple of like-minded youngsters to create Southern Connection, making the move to North Carolina to pursue bluegrass success—though it turned out that when he first found it, it was as a guitar-playing sideman.  Joining Bluegrass Hall of Famer Doyle Lawson and his legendary band, Quicksilver, Moore quickly found himself in the bluegrass forefront, remaining there with Lawson through six years and as many bluegrass and bluegrass gospel albums.  And though his tenure with Quicksilver barely overlapped the establishment of the IBMA’s awards, Moore shared in the first of many to come when the group took home the Song Of The Year crystal in 1990 for “The Little Mountain Church House.”

Still, a desire to make his own mark impelled Russell, along with bandmates Mike Hartgrove and Ray Deaton, to take the bold step of creating their own group in 1991.  Naming themselves IIIrd Tyme Out—a reference to the number of professional bands they’d already been in, complete with a memorable twist on spelling—the group hit the ground running, releasing three well-received albums on the venerable Rebel Records label in just four years.  “We weren’t immune from the same things that any other band starting up has to endure,” Moore recalls.  “You have to prove yourself—you have to let people know that you’re sincere, and that you’re going to work hard.  But once we were able to get enough show dates that we didn’t have to have day jobs, we felt pretty good that as long as we continued to work hard, put the music out that we knew we were capable of, be personable and humble and appreciative—we felt that we could continue on if we chose to.”

And continue on they did.  In 1994, they earned the first of an unsurpassed seven consecutive IBMA awards for Vocal Group of the Year, along with Russell’s first Male Vocalist of the Year title.  For the remainder of the decade and into the new century, IIIrd Tyme Out was among the most important acts in the field, earning acclaim for the compelling artistry—especially vocal—they brought both to a string of well-received albums and to stages across the United States.  Yet all was not well within the group, and in the early part of the new century, partnership tensions and personnel instability came to a head—and with them, the very real possibility of an end to the group.

It was at that point that Russell Moore stepped up.  “I was stubborn,” he says with a smile.  “I knew there was a lot that could be done with this group, and I was stubborn enough to say, I have put too much into this to let it just get away.  So when everything came down to it, I knew that it was time.  I could have started something brand new, but I would have had to give up everything that we had worked for.  So I decided to stick it out.  I kept hoping that everyone would start pulling in the same direction—and I kept praying, too.”

With Moore in charge—and with his name now in front, recognizing both his new leadership role and the group’s single biggest musical focus—IIIrd Tyme Out began to rebuild.  Signing with Rural Rhythm Records in 2007, the quintet solidified a new lineup, and the 2009 release of Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out, with its hit single, “Hard Rock Mountain Prison,” paved the way for Moore to take another Male Vocalist honor in 2010.  Prime Tyme and its irresistibly catchy “Pretty Little Girl From Galax” followed in 2011, as did another Male Vocalist trophy, and Moore was called to the stage yet again at 2012’s IBMA awards to accept still further recognition of his preeminence as a singer.  

Yet IIIrd Tyme Out is hardly a one-man show, even with a frontman as spectacular as Moore. Wayne Benson, who joined the band nearly 20 years ago—just in time for the aptly titled Grandpa’s Mandolin—and stayed for nearly a decade before taking a job with the John Cowan Band, returned in 2007; his tasteful, influential approach to the mandolin is a focal point of the group’s instrumental prowess even as he continues to contribute in the vocal department.  Behind him comes fiddler Justen Haynes; a member for nearly a decade, he’s a second-generation bluegrasser who’s earned the admiration of peers and fans alike for his supple melodic lines and tasteful vocal support.  

Joining the veterans are two new members who, Moore says, have fit quickly and easily into IIIrd Tyme Out’s signature sound.  Blake Johnson, a long-time member of The Hagar’s Mountain Boys and, for the past year, guitarist for Grasstowne, returns to his preferred role as bass player, while Keith McKinnon, who served memorable stints with his brother Kevin in singer Carrie Hassler’s band and in their own Still-House, takes over the banjo slot.  Both men will also contribute to the group’s award-winning harmonies.  

“As a band,” Russell notes, “it’s sometimes important to reinvent yourselves, your music and your show, to keep things exciting and fans engaged. Quite often a band member change can be the spark that lights that creative fire. I know the feel and excitement of being a new member of an established band, dating back to my days when I joined Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, and it’s great to see and feel that same excitement from Keith and Blake.”

The quintet’s latest release, Timeless Hits From The Past…BLUEGRASSED, is one of the first fruits of the quintet’s latest business relationship, as Moonstruck Management’s Peter

Ask any musicologist about the origins of old time and bluegrass music, and a disquisition on banjo and fiddle music won’t be far behind. Particularly in the Appalachian regions where self-sufficient immigrants from the British isles and their descendants tended to aggregate – and where scarcity and frugality were the norm – a neighbor with a fiddle was sufficient for a dance, and a fiddle and a banjo was a band in the days before radio brought musical entertainment into the home.
As the American folk string tradition developed in the 20th century, both bluegrass and old time musicians held on to the power and majesty of just a banjo and a fiddle. Whether played in the clawhammer or three finger style, the banjo provides a perfect complement to the fiddle, and the sound of the two together is irresistible.

Now, in a modern society where technology can deliver a vast library of recorded music to the pocket of nearly every living person, the charm of the banjo/fiddle duet still holds sway. Especially when practiced by such masters of their instruments as Stuart Duncan and Noam Pikelny, who have announced a duo tour for this Spring and Summer to demonstrate that point.

This talented pair will be performing at small concert venues and large festivals all across the US.



 

 

Bluegrass is a music steeped in tradition, but over the past decade and a half -- much of it spent on the road -- Yonder Mountain String Band has spearheaded a renegade movement to rewrite the definition of the genre. Alongside other neo-bluegrass friends such as Leftover Salmon, Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, The Travelin' McCourys, and Railroad Earth, YMSB has thoroughly revitalized and contemporized bluegrass and introduced it to many thousands of new fans. Rolling Stone said that YMSB "liberates bluegrass' hot-shit riffing and blue-sky harmonies from its hidebound formalism," while Paste Magazine wrote, "The Yonder Mountain boys have found a formula that works: take rootsy bluegrass influences, add in some rock 'n' roll, and seek out an adventurous audience."

Yonder Mountain String Band is comprised of Adam Aijala (guitar, vocals), Dave Johnston (banjo, vocals), Ben Kaufmann (bass, vocals), and select special guest artists who will appear with the band throughout 2014. Two standout musicians regularly performing live with YMSB are Jake Jolliff (mandolin, vocals) and Allie Kral (fiddle, vocals). Jolliff is an award-winning mandolin player (First Place, National Mandolin Championship 2012, Walnut Valley Festival), and was a founding member of the disbanded Americana outfit, Joy Kills Sorrow. Kral is well-known as the former fiddle player for Cornmeal (2003 - 2013), and she's worked alongside various notable artists including moe., Railroad Earth, Warren Haynes, and others. For confirmed line-up information, please see the tour dates listed below.

With the band having one of the strongest touring bases in the industry, fans and critics alike have been drawn to both their live shows and singular studio albums. Reporting from the All Good Music Festival (2009), journalist Jarrett Bellini from CNN Showbiz Tonight notes, "The trophy for best musical set goes to Yonder Mountain String Band who, as the sun began to set, left it all on the stage for an hour and a half. The pickers from Colorado had the audience dancing and shaking, kicking up a joyful storm of dust into the cool summer sky."

YMSB has evolved into something of a phenomenon on the concert and festival circuit. The band has sold out Colorado's famed Red Rocks several times, and played sold-out shows with Grateful Dead and Furthur bassist Phil Lesh at his Terrapin Crossroads venue in August 2012. They also host three singular music festivals every year -- Northwest String Summit (now in its 14th year and hosted by YMSB every year), Harvest Music Festival (where they will host for the fifth time in October 2014), and Strings & Sol (Yonder hosts for the third year-in-a-row in Mexico in December 2014) -- and have consecutively sold out runs of shows at Telluride Bluegrass Festival year after year. Every other year, YMSB also hosts Kinfolk Festival @ Planet Bluegrass. In all, Yonder Mountain logs over 100 live dates per year.

Yonder has always played music by its own design. Bending bluegrass, rock and countless other influences, they've come to pioneer a sound that they alone could only champion. With a traditional lineup of instruments, they may appear to be a traditional bluegrass band at first glance but they've taken the customary old-timey instrumentation to new heights, transcending any single genre. Yonder has become a regular performer at major music festivals like the iconic Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Summer Camp, and DelFest as well as massive multi-stage events like Bonnaroo and Austin City Limits Festival.

YMSB is currently working on a new full-length studio recording; fans can expect a new album to be released in early 2015.

Vince Gill says it simply, and maybe best: “I’d rather hear Del McCoury sing ‘Are You Teasing Me’ than just about anything.” For fifty years, Del’s music has defined authenticity for hard core bluegrass fans-count Gill among them-as well as a growing number of fans among those only vaguely familiar with the genre. And while the box set Celebrating 50 Years of Del McCoury, like its distilled companion, By Request-both in stores on May 12th-provides an opportunity to look back on a unique legacy, it’s also one that Del McCoury’s rolling past with a wave and a grin and some of the best music he’s ever made.
“It gives hope to everybody-fifty years is a long time to be playing music in any field,” says another fan, Elvis Costello. “But to keep the purity that you need to do this kind of music, and the drive and the energy …takes a special kind of guy.” And indeed, McCoury is something special, a living link to the days when bluegrass was made only in hillbilly honkytonks, schoolhouse shows and on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry, yet also a commandingly vital presence today, from prime time and late night talk show TV to music festivals where audiences number in the hundreds of thousands. “Here’s a guy who has been playing for fifty years, and he’s still experimenting-still looking to do things outside the box, to bring other kinds of music into bluegrass form,” says Americana music icon Richard Thompson, who saw his “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” turned into a bluegrass standard when McCoury brought it into the fold. “I think that’s the best bluegrass band, period. That’s it.”

Born in York County, PA seventy years ago, Del McCoury would once have seemed an unlikely candidate for legendary status. Bitten hard by the bluegrass bug when he heard Earl Scruggs’ banjo in the early 50s-”everybody else was crazy about Elvis, but I loved Earl,” he says with a chuckle-McCoury became a banjo picker himself, working in the rough but lively Baltimore and D.C. bar scene into the early 1960s. He got his first taste of the limelight when he joined Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys in early 1963; the Father of Bluegrass moved McCoury from the banjo to guitar, made him his lead singer, and gave him a lifetime’s worth of bluegrass tutelage direct from the source in the course of little more than a year. But rather than parlay his gig with the master into a full-time career of his own, he returned to Pennsylvania in the mid-60s to provide steady support for his new and growing family.

Within a few years, McCoury had settled into work in the logging industry-and formed his own band, the Dixie Pals. For the next decade and a half, he piloted the group through a part-time career built mostly around weekend appearances at bluegrass festivals and recordings for labels ranging from the short-lived and obscure to roots music institutions like Arhoolie and Rounder Records. And while there were the inevitable personnel changes and struggles to contend with, McCoury was also building a songbook filled with classics remade in his own image and a growing number of originals-songs like “High On A Mountain,” “Are You Teasing Me,” “Dark Hollow,” “Bluest Man In Town,” “Rain And Snow,” “Good Man Like Me, “Rain Please Go Away” and more-that would become an important part of his legacy in years to come.

The first big sign of change came in 1981, when McCoury’s 14 year old son, Ronnie, joined the Dixie Pals as their mandolin player. Banjo playing younger brother Rob came on board five years later, and by the end of the decade, the three McCourys were ready to make a move. “We came to Nashville in 1992,” Ron recalls, “and it was dad’s idea. He’d been watching bluegrass on TNN-Bill Monroe, the Osborne Brothers, Jim & Jesse-and thought that it was the place to be, that we’d have a new outlet there, where we could get some more attention. And without a doubt, moving to Nashville and just going for it turned out to be really big.”

If anything, the younger McCoury’s understating the case. Armed with a new Rounder Records association-and a newly named Del McCoury Band that soon included not only his sons but a complete cast of youngsters-Del McCoury’s career soared. Del himself got the ball rolling early in the decade with three consecutive Male Vocalist of the Year awards from the prestigious International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA), and in 1994 the quintet began an astonishing streak of top Entertainer of the Year honors that would net them 9 trophies in an 11 year stretch-along with ongoing honors for Ronnie (8 straight Mandolin Player of the Year awards), fiddler Jason Carter (3 Fiddle Player of the Year trophies), and a wide array of projects featuring Del and the ensemble.

But though the 90s propelled the Del McCoury Band to the top of the bluegrass world, they also gave birth to a more startling phenomenon: the emergence of the group onto the larger musical scene as a unique torchbearer for the entire sweep of bluegrass and its history. For it turned out that the unmistakable authenticity of McCoury’s music-along with his good-natured willingness to keep alert for new sounds and new opportunities-had bred fans in some unlikely places.

That bluegrass-bred stars like Gill and Alison Krauss (who first met Del at a bluegrass festival when she filled in for a missing fiddler of his) would sing his praises wasn’t surprising, but who would have expected country-rock icons like Steve Earle or jam bands like the supremely popular Phish to have joined in the chorus? “Jon Fishman, the drummer for Phish, told me that they did an article on him for a drum magazine,” Del says. “They asked him what were some of his early influences, and he told them that one of them was Don’t Stop the Music, a record I put out back at the beginning of the 90s.”

By the second half of the 90s, the acclaim-and Del’s open-mindedness-put McCourys in onstage jams with Phish and on the road and in the studio with Earle, bringing the Del McCoury Band’s fierce musicianship and its leader’s instantaneous, easygoing connection with listeners to new arenas. The group appeared on prime time television and began an ongoing series of visits to popular late night TV talk shows, toured rock clubs and college campuses, and found itself welcome at country and even jazz-oriented music festivals and venues.

Ronnie McCoury tells a story from a recent appearance that underlines just how broad an appeal the Band’s music has these days. “You know, we’ve really been getting outside of the bluegrass box,” he says with a laugh. “I mean, dad’s voice is what you’d call traditional, but he’s open-minded, too. And so it seems like in the last few years, especially, he’s become more than bluegrass-he’s being recognized as just a great singer, period. So that’s really been bridging the gap between bluegrass and other kinds of music and musicians. Last year we played at the Austin City Limits festival, and the limo driver who picked us up said he’d just taken [platinum-selling international pop star] Bjork out to the festival-and she was telling him that she wanted to see us. It’s just unbelievable.”

Yet even as they reach out to almost unimaginable audiences, Del’s music retains its signature characteristics. “What I most admire about someone like Del,” says Gill, “is that he’s one of the last patriarchs that really played the music in its authentic way. And even though he’s willing to bend a little bit, to be out there playing at jam band festivals and things like that, it doesn’t sound like what the new people do with bluegrass. He’s done a great job of

Wide Open Bluegrass Late Night (Raleigh Venues, Independently booked)