John Lawless' Acutab News Snippets
 By John Lawless
AcuTab is looking at a number of video releases this year, the
previously-mentioned All Star Jam Concert we did in Bristol, TN in January
(see NWBN May, 2000), a Steve Huber video on "Killer Tone" and some instructional
videos with various of the AcUtab guys. My question is: do folks prefer VHS
or DVD? We are likely to give DVD a try but the market seems to be of very
mixed opinion about their sales viability. I would be very curious how many
people use DVD players and would be interested in seeing releases of this
sort in DVD format. Feedback please: very much appreciated!
We have a web site set up at www.acutabsessions.com with lots of info including sound clips from each song, lots of studio photos and comments from the artists and yours truly. I am really proud of this CD project and think that anyone with a taste for bluegrass or acoustic music will enjoy it. The tab books aren't too far away. All of the transcriptions are done (banjo, guitar, mandolin) and mostly proofed aswell. I was very pleased with the audio quality. We recorded about half of the material at Doobie Shea Studio near Roanoke and the rest at Monkey Finger Studio in Nashville. The two engineers (Tim Austin and Brent Truitt) are among the best in the business and with Tim Stafford producing, it is no wonder that we got such a great sound. For those who pay attention to such things, most of the instruments were stereo miked (all except fiddle and bass). Everything was recorded digitally using the Tascam D-88 system. I've had comments that Bill Monroe recorded a Rebel album called Knee Deep In Bluegrass, wondering were we breaking copyright by calling our CD by the same title.
Well, Terry Baucom wrote the song Knee Deep In Bluegrass and chose the
title as a tribute to Mr. Monroe, whose album carried that title but not
a song. There is no copyright issue regarding song/album titles. Anyone doing
searches on song titles at the BMI web site (as I do quite regularly) might
be surprised just how many songs there are in publication using the exact
same titles.
News on a couple of tablature books in the line: the Sonny Osborne (AcuTab) book is still being completed an will be ready by the end of the summer, hopefully. The Jim Mills books will actually be coming out as a Mel Bay title. The new Lonesome River Band CD is now available and Sammy Schelor has plans to start working on a second solo project later this year... and there will be another Shelor tab book! I just received this exciting news from Pete Wernick "There will be a live Hot Rize album out probably this year, recorded multitrack at the Boulder Theater in 1996. It is some of our best stuff, recorded when we were all warmed up, right in the middle of a reunion tour. For a while the tapes were lost which was sort of tragic, but they were recently relocated and we will be mixing in July." I'm certainly be looking forward to that! Pete also reports that he is setting up his own web site. I have heard dozens of recent Mastertones which have been converted with a new Huber tone ring. They are manufactured as closely as possible to the old pre wars - have you heard one yet? If you have seen or heard one of Sonny Osborne's Chief banjos you have heard Steve's ring. If you have caught Jim Mills, Ron Stewart, Rob McCoury, Ben Eldridge, Sonny Osborne, Steve Dilling recently (to name a few) you will have heard the sound that a Huber ring delivers. Of course, without a pre war rim, flange or resonator, you can not absolutely replicate the sound but you can move a long way in that direction with one of his rings. John Lawless, AcuTab Publications - Artist-approved transcriptions from the playing of top bluegrass pickers. E-mail | Web site P O Box 21061 Roanoke, VA 24018-0108 540-776-6822 (Tel) 540-776-6827 (fax)
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