australianbluegrass.com

Town and Country Fiddler by Donal Baylor

Reviewed by G. McGrath editor, australianbluegrass.com

Town and Country Fiddler is about as good a name as one could come up with for this album as it not only describes the fiddle and guitar master responsible for it, but it conjures up great imagery of the music contained therein.

Donal Baylor is one of this country’s most respected fiddle players and one of life’s true gentlemen. Not to put too finer point on it but his guitar playing is far from ordinary also. Donal’s dexterity on both guitar and fiddle has won him honours at national picking championships and earned him great respect from his international peers. So much for the man, on to the CD.

On this album Donal plays guitar and fiddle on all but 2 of the very generous offering of 15 tracks on this album. He is also accompanied by some of this nation’s finest bluegrass musicians in Hamish Davidson on banjo, Lachlan Davidson on mandolin, Mick Harrison on banjo, Andy Baylor (Donal’s brother) on guitar, Steve Gilchrist on mandolin and Pete Fidler on Dobro. It’s an exciting collection pickers which bears out in the music.

The album opens with a 30 second teaser featuring Donal and the Davidson Brothers in a fast yet sweet rendition of the old Stanly Brother’s tune Daybreak in Dixie. It closes with a wonderful duet of When I Grow Too Old To Dream featuring Donal on fiddle and his brother Andy on guitar.

The album holds many surprises not the least of which is the title track, Howdy Forrester’s Town and Country Fiddler, which Donal does great credit to on both fiddle and guitar, as does Hamish Davidson on banjo and his brother Lachlan on mandolin.

Another gem is Marshall Wilborn’s composition Goodbye to the Blues. For this arrangement Donal has pulled in Chris Jacobs one of Australia’s most highly regarded bluegrass vocalists along with Steve Gilchrist on mandolin, Mick Harrison on banjo and Ruth Hazleton delivering some fine harmony vocals.

A track worth highlighting is Bill Monroe’s haunting Farewell to Long Hollow, again featuring Donal, Mick Harrison and Steve Gilchrist. These boys play it like it should be played – Monroe pleased would be well pleased.

There are a total of 15 tracks on the CD and all equally worth commenting on, but space prohibits. There is nothing left to say now but to urge you to go out and buy this CD. Help keep Australian bluegrass music alive. This is an album worth collecting.

For a full track listing and some sample tracks on our previous post announcing the CD’s launch. Or you could simply visit Donal’s website.

Artists, Review Donal Baylor

News from Rural Rhythm Records is that Audie Blaylock and Redline hit the fast lane with a brand new album, Cryin’ Heart Blues. This album is to be released on 30th March this year on Rural Rhythm Records.

This new release comes on the heels of their successful debut album on the label last year that yielded a #1 album and two Top 10 singles.  The band was also honored by being selected for the 2009 International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Artist Showcase, along with a 2009 IBMA Award Nomination for Gospel Performance of the Year.

Cryin Heart Blues was produced by Audie Blaylock and includes musicians: Audie Blaylock on guitar, Evan Ward on banjo, Patrick McAvinue on fiddle and mandolin and Matt Wallace on bass.  The first single, Cryin Heart Blues will be released next week to radio via Rural Rhythm’s new Fresh Cuts & Key Tracks No. 7 radio CD.

Audie Blaylock & Redline will be part of the Rural Rhythm Records 55 Year Anniversary Celebration – a live recorded event to be held in Syria, Virginia at the Graves Mountain of Music Festival on Friday, 4th June, 2010.

For more information on Cryin’ Heart Blues, please visit Audie Blaylock and Redline or Rural Rhythm Records.

CD Release Audie Blaylock, Rural Rhythm Records

Jan Dale from PBS’s Southern Style has advised us that next Tuesday Old Time fiddle player Charlie Walden and his partner Patt Plunkett will be chatting and playing live to air on her program, Southern Style – PBS FM 106.7, from 1:00pm to 3:00 pm.

The pair are in Australia to give workshops and performances at the National Folk Festival in Canberra over the Easter weekend.

You can also catch the program by streaming broadcast on www.psfm.org.au.

Radio Stations Southern Style

Late last year we brought you news of Curly’s 90th birthday celebrations. Following on from his 90th, Curly has no plans to slow down. This year marks Curly Seckler’s 75th Anniversary in music.  He kicks off the celebration playing two concerts with Constant Change, and special guest Dudley Connell.

Bluegrass legend Curly Seckler began his musical career in 1935, over WSTP radio in Salisbury, North Carolina.  He went on to perform with a number of the top names in bluegrass music, including Charlie Monroe, Jim & Jesse, Mac Wiseman, The Stanley Brothers, and The Sauceman Brothers.

In 1949 Curly joined Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs’ Foggy Mountain Boys, and remained with them for almost 12 years, recording over 130 songs with them.  His distinctive, razor-sharp tenor harmonies grace many of their classic hits, setting the standard for countless bluegrass singers who have followed.

Curly joined Lester Flatt’s Nashville Grass in 1973, and then took over leadership of the band after Flatt passed away in 1979.  Seckler led the Nashville Grass for another fifteen years before retiring from full-time touring in 1994.  In 2004 he was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Hall of Fame.  Curly continued to perform and record, and his 2005 release, Down in Caroline, was a finalist for IBMA Recorded Event of the Year.  His most recent recording, Bluegrass, Don’t You Know, was picked among the Top 10 CDs of 2006 by the Chicago Tribune.

Artists, International News Curly Seckler, Earl Scruggs, Lester Flatt

News just in from Rural Rhythm Records is that on Friday, 27th March, Bill Emerson will be honored with the very first Washington Monument Award, presented by the DC Bluegrass Union in recognition of this 50 year career in bluegrass music.  The following night, Saturday, 28th March, Bill Emerson & Sweet Dixie will hold their official CD release party for their new album, Southern.

The Washington Monument Award will be presented to Emerson at the DC Bluegrass Festival. The award celebrates Washington, DC-area musicians who have been instrumental in shaping the direction of bluegrass music nationwide.

For more information  you can visit www.dcbluegrassfest.org.

Artists, Bluegrass News, International News Bill Emmerson, Rural Rhythm Records

Once again Steve Martin has secured the award-winning bluegrass group the Steep Canyon Rangers to tour with him in support of his Grammy winning Rounder Records release, The Crow:  New Songs for the Five-String Banjo. The Banjo Tour will begin on 19th April in Detroit and is expected to continue into October, with performances scheduled at the New Orleans JazzFest, MerleFest and Bonnaroo.

I am very excited to begin my banjo tour with the Steep Canyon Rangers. It has been a long time dream of mine to travel around the country with a bunch of guys - Steve Martin.

For their part, the Steep Canyon Rangers also earned rave reviews while on tour with Martin in the fall, during which they had an opportunity to perform songs from their fourth studio album for Rebel Records, Deep in the Shade.
The tour included performances at the 20th Annual International Bluegrass Music Awards Show, The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, Carnegie Hall, Nashville’s famous Ryman Auditorium, Royal Festival Hall in London, and other venues in cities including Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, Charlotte, Washington, Toronto, Chicago, Denver and Santa Fe. The Rangers also performed with Martin on The Late Show with David Letterman, The View, NPR’s World Café, and the BBC’s Later with Jools Holland.

No Australian dates sadly.

Artists, Bluegrass News, International News Steve Martin, The Steep Canyon Rangers

Thinking of Going to Merlfest?

The deadline for Early Bird ticket prices to MerleFest 2010, presented by Lowe’s, has been extended to Tuesday, 6th April, at 5:00 p.m. EDT.  That is the last day to purchase 4-day and 3-day tickets at the Early Bird price, representing an average 10% discount.

Ticket purchases can be made on the web at http://www.merlefest.org or by calling 1-800-343-7857.   Free parking is available, and children 12 years of age and younger are admitted free to the festival when accompanied by an adult with paid admission.

MerleFest 2010, presented by Lowe’s, will celebrate its 23rd year from 29th April – 2nd May, 2010 on the campus of Wilkes Community College.  There will be over 100 acts performing on 15 stages during the course of the event, with a complete list of confirmed performers is available at www.merlefest.org. As in previous years, the list of performers fits the traditional plus definition offered by Doc Watson when describing the rich musical diversity that is a hallmark of the event.

MerleFest was founded in 1988 in memory of Eddy Merle Watson as a fundraiser for Wilkes Community College and a celebration of “traditional plus” music.

Festivals Merlfest

Rounder Records has released a series of excerpts from their 40th Anniversary video featuring Alison Krauss and Union Station. Each of the band members providing some insight on the band, their sound and the musicians.

Check out the Rounder Records website for the selection of videos.

International News, Record Company Alison Krauss, Rounder Records

The Lonesome Road Review – Southern

Bill Emerson has a more impressive bluegrass pedigree than most. A founding member of the Country Gentlemen, Emerson has packed on the years playing with Jimmy Martin’s Sunny Mountain Boys, co-leading an influential bluegrass band with Cliff Waldron, spending years fronting Country Current, and now appearing under his own name with Sweet Dixie, a different lineup of which previously released an album on Rebel Records…

You can read the whole review by Aaron Keith Harris on Lonesome Road Review.

Review Bill Emmerson

Gibson Learn & Master Guitar Application

Play guitar? Got and iPhone?

Gibson Guitars is known worldwide for producing classic models in every major style of fretted instrument, including acoustic and electric guitars, mandolins, and banjos.

Now you can have Gibson on your iPhone with the Gibson Learn & Master Guitar App. Gibson has partnered with Legacy Learning Systems, producers of the Learn & Master Guitar course, the most comprehensive guitar instructional series on the market, to provide you with a must-have application for any guitar player. This application provides you with essential tools to help you become a better guitar player as well as free full length lessons from the award winning Learn & Master Guitar course that will take you from beginner or intermediate to advanced.

Watch as instructor Steve Krenz gets you started on your way to mastering the guitar. You will also be directed to printable resources to accompany these lessons on www.learnandmaster.com.
Quick access to Gibson.com’s mobile site where you can keep up with the latest in music industry news, artists and events.

Not ready to take it that far? Nevermind it has loads of useful features.

• A professional quality Chromatic Tuner that will allow you to tune any instrument using the iPhone microphone (or iPod Touch with microphone attachment)
• Alternate Tuning settings so you can quickly and easily tune your guitar to various alternate tunings, including Open G, Low C, Drop D, Eb and others
• A Standard Mode Tuner that allows you to tune each string to a sample tone
• An accurate Metronome with multiple time signatures, visual and audio options, and a set-your-own tempo tap pad
• A Chord Library with a sample of the essential chords for every player beginner to advanced
• Free Videos Lessons – Watch full length lessons from the Award Winning Learn & Master Guitar course.

Promotions Apple, Gibson

Some good news for all you Bluestone Junction fans in Victoria, is that will be playing support for Uncle Earl at the East Brunswick Hotel, next Thursday, 11th March.

Pete Fidler tells us that the show kicks off at 8.30pm and that Donal Baylor is coming down from the ACT to join them. They will be playing a tune or two from Donal’s new CD.

It will be a great night of home-grown bluegrass and all-girl old timey music.
Tickets are available from Brunswick Music Festival office on ph: 03 93881460.

Bluegrass News, Promotions Bluestone Junction, Donal Baylor, Uncle Earl

Laura Barton, UK Guardian, Interviews Mumford and Sons

The pub is filling up: City boys in pinstriped suits, women clutching dry white wines; candles are lit on upstairs tables, voices rise to fill the room. In a back booth, far away from the clamour of the bar, four fastidiously attired young men nurse pints of ale. Mumford & Sons are here on a break from a nearby studio, where they have been rehearsing in ­preparation for an upcoming tour that will take them from Australia to the US and back to the UK for a run of sold-out dates, and which will likely cement their reputation as one of the best live bands in Britain…

I find it easier to sing songs over and over if they feel honest, if we feel passionate about them. That’s an important thing: we need to be able to feel what we sing every night, and believe it - Marcus Mumford.

Read the full interview here

Article, International News Mumford & Sons

The Latest Edition of Capital News Hits The Newsagents

Highlights from another news and feature packed issue of Australia’s country music monthly – Capital News.

Produced by Rural Press in Australia’s Country Music Capital, Tamworth, Country Music Capital News is Australia’s longest running monthly Country Music magazine featuring news from all over Australia and from around the world.

Capital News carries the latest news, views, CD reviews, gig guides, charts and interviews and is considered to be the voice of Australian Country Music.

Promotions Capital News, Tamworth

Gibson Contributing Editor Ellen Barnes talks to Randy Scruggs.

Randy Scruggs grew up watching wide-eyed as his dad — legendary banjo player Earl Scruggs — took part in jam sessions at the family’s Nashville home with artists like Johnny Cash, Ravi Shankar and Linda Ronstadt. Besides his enviable vantage point, Randy also received personal tutelage from Mother Maybelle Carter.

When Randy was six, it was Carter who taught Randy to play autoharp. She instilled in him a lifelong affinity for Gibson guitars. Her Gibson of choice was an L-5, while his ultimately would become the Advanced Jumbo, a model he turned to so long ago that he can’t recall when or where he first fell in love with it.

It didn’t take long for Randy to earn his reputation as an artist in his own right; he was barely out of his twenties before he became a first-call session player and producer for artists like Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, George Strait and Alison Krauss. He’s since won a Grammy and has thrice been named Musician of the Year at the Country Music Awards, among other honors. But at the end of the day, Randy says he is grounded by the guitar and by the example of his famous father.

Read the whole article at Gibson Guitars

Article, Artists, International News Gibson, Guitar

Rural Rhythm Records has announced the upcoming 23rd March, 2010 release of two CD’s from first generation bluegrass legends. Bluegrass 1963 by Reno & Smiley with special guests Carter and Ralph Stanley, and Bluegrass 1971 by Mac Wiseman with special guest, Lester Flatt & Chubby Wise.

These are the first two album projects by a new and exciting joint venture between Rural Rhythm Records and Ronnie Reno. These historic albums will be available for purchase wherever bluegrass music is sold including; Walmart, Amazon, Borders, iTunes, Rhapsody, e-music, County Sales, Music Shed, plus the Rural Rhythm website.

Bluegrass 1963 by Reno & Smiley

This album was produced by Ronnie Reno, is a welcomed treasure for those lucky enough to have seen and heard Reno & Smiley perform on their legendary Top O’ the Morning daily TV show in Roanoke, Virginia during the early 1960’s.   This 18 song collection features their long time sideman, The Tennessee Cut-Ups, Mac Magaha on fiddle, John Palmer on bass, guitarist Steve Chapman, plus a young Ronnie Reno on mandolin.  There are fine renditions of their classics like I Know You’re Married, I’m the Talk of the Town, Love Please Come Home, I Wouldn’t Change You If I Could, and I’m Using My Bible for a Roadmap.

Bluegrass 1971 by Mac Wiseman

This album features Mac Wiseman with special guests Lester Flatt & Chubby Wise.  Mac Wiseman has been a very important part of the Country and Bluegrass music scene for many decades recording a tremendous amount of successful albums that have contained a long list of big hits in both genres.  Towards the end of 1970, Mac Wiseman and Lester Flatt talked about teaming up for an album that would re-create the mood and spirit of the late 1940s.  Lester had split acrimoniously from Earl Scruggs, so Lester and Mac began touring and recording together.  During this period, their albums were musically and commercially successful including their album, Lester ‘N Mac reaching #42 on the Billboard Top Country Album Chart.

Bluegrass News, CD Release Mac Wiesman, Reno & Smiley, Rural Rhythm Records