Grass Cuttings and News In Brief
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SilverHill (John 'JK' Keegan and Bill Hyde, Rochdale, UK) is looking for gigs, offering 1½ hours of original electric bluegrass/country songs and instrumentals with JK (vocal, guitar) and Bill (banjo) plus synth bass /percussion backing tracks. Details 01706 816964 or write to Paolo Dettwiler (Bloezenweg 17 CH-4133 Pratteln Switzerland fax +41-61-8218364) says "Bluegrass Europe is very proud to announce the 1st Bluegrass Europe Festival on July 26, 2000 at the Landgasthof Riene in Riehen/Basel. The Lonesome River Band (USA) will headline this festival, for which we're still looking for additional sponsors. Supporting acts include Nugget (A) and Movingrass (Switzerland). Please note our new Write to address: BluegrassEurope@datacam.ch " John Les & Gill Williams (Highly Strung) have released their first CD Highly Strung, which we hope to review very soon. The 2000 Uncle Dave Macon Days Heritage Award will be presented to Grand Ole Opry star, bluegrass veteran, and old-time country music preservationist Marty Stuart on Saturday, July 9, as part of the 23rd annual Uncle Dave Macon Days, held at Cannonsburgh Pioneer Village in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Also on Saturday, Stuart will be Grand Marshall of the Uncle Dave Macon Motorless Parade through the streets of historic Murfreesboro. Special Consensus, who have rescheduled their UK and Ireland tour to early next year, have released their first band video by Pinecastle Records. Their 25th Anniversary recording was released by Pinecastle on May 6th. BluegrassTV is a new Internet show broadcast every Friday at 4 p.m., in English. It is hosted by Mick Larrie and Jean-Marie Redon (President, French Bluegrass assn). Many artists will be featured. www.canalweb.net/vers/bluegrasstv Apparently in the movie Mission To Mars astronaut Jim McConnell uses D'Addario's Gripmaster hand and finger exerciser - something to keep an eye open for? Bill Stokes of Showcase (bstokes@wans.net) writes "The Pick Strop is a real favorite with many of the pros... it is a piece of leather that has been specially treated to buff and polish picks, metal or plastic or whatever. It lasts a very long time, is packaged in a plastic sheath and comes with a piece of 400 grit sandpaper to smooth the ribbed edges before buffing." Richard Collins has been recording with Sharon Cort in the USA with other American bluegrass stars, ending up at Bluegrass Europe. Apparently Mark Newton And Friends - Live at the Birchmere, Recorded May 6, 1998, features Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys, Tony Rice, Jerry Douglas, Alan O'Bryant, Rickie Simpkins, The Lonesome River Band, IIIrd Tyme Out, John Starling, Mike Auldridge, Mark Johnson, Dudley Connell, Ronnie Simpkins - 3½ hours in all. You can listen to it free now in RealAudio at http://www.bluegrassradio.com The Winamp MP3 player is well-known, but lesser known is the Chronotron freeware add-on which can be used to slow down the music without changing the pitch - great for learning licks, etc. Get winamp from http://www.winamp.com and Chronotron from http://www.gmixon.com Dutch label Strictly Country Records reports: "Bluegrass greats Auldridge, Bennett & Gaudreau are in the studio at this moment recording Liz Meyer's song Blue Lonesome Wind for their new CD. Blue Lonesome Wind also appears on Kate MacKenzie's lovely Age of Innocence CD, where Kate was backed by members of the Nashville Bluegrass Band and the old Hot Rize. "Another song of Liz Meyer's, Dancing To The Change has just been recorded by Canadian bluegrass artist Tammy Fassaert. Other artists currently recording Liz Meyer compositions for new albums include some of Europe's top bluegrass groups: Nugget (A), Monogram (CZ), and Fifty Fingers (CZ).
"Liz Meyer tours in a duo with US National Flatpicking Guitar Champion,
Mark Cosgrove. They have become very popular on the European acoustic music
scene since they began touring together in Dec. 1998, and will make their
US debut in November 2000 at the Wings & Strings Festival near Orlando,
Florida. They are about to release a new live CD entitled Regions of the
Soul on Strictly Music, a division of Strictly Country Records."
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