Grass Cuttings & News in Brief write to us
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British News Rest of the World Hiscox cases of Staffordshire, England, make great guitar cases that are extremely strong. Apparently once closed you can stand on them... They don’t make banjo or mandolin cases yet but they will do if demand is high enough. They are light weight and the price is very good. In September David Brightmore organised a “Sore Fingers” type event at his home village of Rhys Ddu in Snowdonia. The tutors were Russell Williams (bass/mandolin), Stuart Williams (guitar), Bryn Williams (beginner banjo) and Jonny Hulme (banjo). There were jam sessions in the local pub Friday and Saturday evenings and we hear that all the locals were amazed and thoroughly enjoyed the proceedings. (This report was somehow lost from the November mag... ) (See What’s On). Pete Stanley & Brian Golbey, Rick Townend & Rosie Davies and Laurie Harper all played at the wedding of Martin Jerrold (son of the late Jan Jerrold) and his wife Helen. Pete said “It was a great do - everyone played all the instruments! And I met up with Jan’s brother Alan.” The Anglian Bluegrass Boys is a new band led by John Pearman. The line-up is John (bass/vocals), Howard Burton (banjo/tenor vocals), Roger Birch (guitar/lead vocals) and Charlie Ogunremi (mandolin/baritone vocals). They play only traditional bluegrass. Details: phone John at 01763-852721 The Down County Boys are still looking for of suitable mandolin player. All offers to Peter Parker on 01203-619730 or Write to gjc61@dial.Pipex.com The Friends Of Old-Time Music And Dance (FOAOTMAD) have produced a 74-minute CD with 25 tracks by different artists, mostly British but also from Ireland and the Continent. The final title had not been decided at the time of writing but the sub-title is Appalachian Music, Song and Dance performed by FOAOTMAD from Britain and Beyond. The CD should be ready for the FOAOTMAD Festival in February. Details: Steve Read on 01298-871645 The weekly Sunday Planetarium Bluegrass Venue is closed for the winter and will re-open in Spring. Contact John Keegan on 01706-816964 for details. Andy Owens (IBMA) new label, 1-800-Bluegrass, has released a new CD timberline featuring the late Randy Howard (fiddle), Alan O’Bryant (vocals), Gary Ferguson (vocals & guitar), Tom Gray (bass), Ned Luberecki (banjo, guitar & vocals) and Ron Pennington (mandolin & vocals). After a four year run by Sammy Shelor, the voting membership of the IBMA has crowned a new banjo man. Jim Mills was selected as the Banjo Player of the Year Dolly Parton was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame on September 22. Known world-wide for her work in music, film and television, Parton is not only respected for her vocal and acting gifts, but also as “one of the most prolific and incisive country songwriters ever.” The Fox Tower Bluegrass Band recently returned to Germany after a 10 week tour of the United States. While in this country they performed in eight states, spent a week at the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) trade show and FanFest, were part of a CNN report on the IBMA, and won the Best Of Texas Award as Best International Bluegrass Band. They will celebrate 15 years as a band on December 17. Roger Swanson, Minnesota reports “I have found the answer to finger picks slipping off. It’s a rubberised liquid called Plastidip, available from hardware stores, into which you dip your finger picks (which must be free of oil). Each dipping adds a thin coat of rubber which you let dry for about half an hour. It may take three or four dips. Then you just rub off the coating on the picking surface. It works great on the metal finger picks. What’s the UK equivalent? swanson2000@hotmail.com Leftover Salmon has a new CD The Nashville Sessions on Hollywood Records. Produced by Randy Scrubs it includes guests Jerry Douglas, Del McCoury, Ronnie McCoury, Earl Scruggs, Taj Mahal, Sally Van Meter, Bela Fleck, Sam Bush and more. Re-released on CD is the Tony Trishka, Bill Keith, Bela Fleck album Fiddle Tunes For Banjo or with at least two bonus tracks which are not on the original vinyl or cassette formats. One of the songs is a triple version of John Hardy. Banjo picker Ross Knickerson now has a tab book to accompany his CD Blazing The West. Book $20 and CD $15. Contact: 7139 Maple Avenue #1, Tacoma Park, MD 20912. Tel: (301) 891-3240 (USA) or Frets Old And New (see trade ads). The Dillards were saddened to learn of the death of Paul York.People who have followed their career over the years will remember Paul as one of the first drummers to play in a Bluegrass band. Paul, who joined in 1968 was a friend of Herb Pederson, the banjo player who replaced Douglas when he left The Dillards and went with Gene Clark to form The Dillards & Clark Expedition. Wilene “Sally Ann” Forrester, former accordion player with Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys, died on November 17 at 3:00am. It was reported that she had been suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease and that her son Bob was by her side when she died. Forrester, who was married to fiddle player Howdy Forrester, was a member of the Bluegrass Boys from 1943-1946. Also The Dillards have released (via Varese Sarabande) The First Time Live, a new album recorded live in 1962 at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri. This recording was made prior to their moving to California and before the Andy Griffith Show. Distributed by MCA Records.
Track Listing: John Hardy; Old Man At The Mill; Green Corn; Katie Cline;
Banjo In The Hollow; Old Blue; Buckin’ Mule; Hard Ain’t It Hard;
Traveling Dobro Blues; Groundhog; Cripple Creek; Little Maggie; Cannonball,
Blues; Watermelon On The Vine; Whitehouse Blues; Cumberland Gap.
The “2000 Bluegrass Calendar” by Gary B Reid is now available through Bluegrass News in association with Amazon.com. It’s just $11.95. Buy it at: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1880010097/acousticcorner Tony Rice, Larry Rice, Chris Hillman and Herb Pederson will visit the recording studio in January to begin recording a third project together. According to Larry, their current CD Rice, Rice, Hillman & Pedersen (released on October 5) is outselling their first one (Out Of The Woodwork) and is headed for the Americana charts. Willie Nelson will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the next Grammy awards show. Echoes of America, originally produced about 10 years ago for UK’s Channel Four TV, will soon be available on video in both PAL and NTSC formats. It combines great music with the extraordinary history of America’s love/hate relationship with the 5-string banjo (its’ only native instrument). The video features Earl Scruggs, Don Reno, Bill Keith, Tony Trischka, Bela Fleck, John Hartford, Tony Ellis, Eddie Adcock, Leroy Troy, Pete Seeger, Clarke Beuhling and many others. http://www.btinternet.com/~grasshopperfilms/ Steve Kaufman's popular books series Bluegrass Guitar Solos That Every Parking Lot Pickers Should Know is now available on CD. He also has four CDs with 49 songs with a tab book called The Four Hour Bluegrass Banjo Work Out available for $45. Details from steve@flatpick.com http://www.Flatpick.com SPBGMA (Society For The Preservation Of Bluegrass Music Of America) has announced that banjo great Bill Emerson will be inducted into Preservation Hall Of Greats. The ceremony will be held during the SPBGMA Awards Show at the Sheraton Music City Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee on Sunday, February 6, 2000. Emerson was an original member of the Country Gentlemen. Along with Cliff Waldron, he fronted a group called the New Shades Of Grass. They were the first bluegrass band to record the classic, “Fox On The Run.” But he spent most of his time (20 years) in the US Navy, playing with a group called Country Current. He retired from the Navy in 1993 and was then active in bluegrass music until his retirement earlier this year. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has started a full-scale international attack on music sites that carry pirated music. The popular Internet format, MP3 (MPEG Layer 3), is the primary target for shutting down sites that carry unlicensed or pirated music. All web sites that carry illegal (unlicensed or pirated) music are being targeted whether the music is in MP3, RealAudio or other formats. Need a belated Christmas present? Now could be a good time to buy your copy of Inside Bluegrass, a 100 page book of black & white photographs taken over a 20 year period by Becky Johnson. It features such famous Bluegrass artists as Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys,Ricky Skaggs, Peter Rowan, Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys, Don Reno,John Duffey, Del McCoury, Don Stover, The Lewis Family, The Seldom Scene, The Nashville Bluegrass Band, The Green Grass Gringoes, The Johnson Mountain Boys, and many more. It was Beckie who provided the Frank Wakefield photo in the Jan 1998 NWBN. There were only a limited number of these books printed. Now, you can get an autographed copy for only $22 ($25 outside the United States). For more information on how to order, visit http://www.mindspring.com/~artmenius/july1997.htm or Write to Becky: mrsbluegrass@mindspring.com Ralph Stanley And The Clinch Mountain Boys. Song And Memory Book Vol 2. 56 pages of mostly photos as collected and presented by Stanley’s lead guitar picker, James Allen Shelton. This is the slightly revised edition of the booklet that was on sale a couple of years ago. $9, available from Counter Sales, PO Box 191, Floyd, VA 24091 USA. or www.countysales.com Ralph Stanley won both Album of the Year and Recorded Event of the Year honours at the 1999 IBMA awards show. These were in recognition of his 1999 Rebel Records 2-CD set Clinch Mountain Country. It was Ralph’s 30th in thirty years with Rebel Records. See Nov 1999 “Cuttings” for the star-studded personnel list.
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