Grass Cuttings - News in
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Click for John Lawless (Acutab)
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The Acme Band are appearing at the First Saltburn Folk Festival (North Yorks) 30th July to 2nd August - it must be a good way to promote Bluegrass! Details: Festival office: 01947-840928 Festival home page As part of the ‘Traveller’s Tales’ event at the National Railway Museum, York, 27 & 28 June, Tom Travis will sing 2 hours of train songs. Asked if he could manage 2 hours Tom replied “I’ve been training” (groan...) Canada's oldest performing banjo picker, William Johnson, went to the next life on March 10th 1998. To promote May as International Bluegrass Month BBMA Chairman Tom Travis appeared on David Alan’s BBC Radio 2 Country Club on Thursday 30th April. Listeners were invited to call the Radio 2 line 0800-022022 for information on how to join the BBMA. Local DJs around the country have also agreed to help with the project. Alison Krauss & Union Station won the Bluegrass Grammy Award, plus two more for Country Group or Duet performance with vocal and country instrumental. Vince Gill won Country Male Vocalist. After dropping hints in a previous issue, about a possible visit to the UK by The Dillards, Tom Travis has got them fixed up with a gig at 1998 Cambridge Folk Festival. Bob Armstrong of The Acme Band (Bluegrass & Gospel) reports they are progressing with the production of their CD, but it won’t be finished until after midsummer. Tel: 01434-382609. Seen on the Internet: “Or if you don’t want to buy polishing compound... try tooth paste. This is an old furniture refinishers trick... the tooth paste has a very fine abrasive...” If you gotta pick, pick a winner!! Nick Wroughton (of String Post) reports that they now stock a new type of very long-life guitar string, the Gore Elixir. Reportedly these have a special “Polyweb” corrosion-resistant coating which drastically reduces wear and makes them easier to play. Townsend’s Special Bluegrass Service have already repaid £750 of the £1000 support loan they received from the BBMA to help in the production of their recently-released CD Fracas On The Frets. Stay-In-Tune (SIT) strings, made by the SIT Strings Corp, Akron, Ohio, are claimed to be somehow pre-tensioned so that they don’t continue to stretch after they are installed on the instrument. SIT claims that their discoveries such as “Universal Dampening”, “Adjustable Pin Chuck”, “Negative Pressure Anvils”, and a host of others, are responsible. http://www.sitstrings.com Mal Salisbury plans to develop a summer school week of music, dance and craft workshops as an add-on to the Ironbridge Bluegrass & Roots Festival starting 1999. Reportedly it is already beginning to arouse interest from the media, so they are very interested in hearing from companies/organisations with regard to sponsorship. Details: see "NW Festivals"  From
John Lawless, AcuTab Publications:
ACUTAB IS LOOKING INTO the possibility of publishing a couple of songbooks
designed to showcase the work of prominent bluegrass songwriters. This project
is currently only in the “conceptualisation” stage and they’re
hoping that folks might be willing to offer some input, namely RICHARD GREENE VIOLIN TRANSCRIPTIONS: AcuTab is delighted to be able to offer Richard Greene's fine set of transcriptions which he prepared from his terrific CD, The Grass Is Greener (Rebel 1714). More info at: http://www.acutab.com/greene.html I have been meaning to pass along a recommendation for this album. It is a weird hybrid - a reissue of Ready For The Times, by The New Quicksilver in 1985 plus 3 new tunes by the same guys in their new configuration as Blue Ridge. It is great fun to hear the subtle differences in Terry Baucom’s playing over 23 years. All of the material is good, though the older stuff sounds a bit dated. One of the new cuts is the classic Stanley tune, Our Last Goodbye, and Terry eats it up. Great stuff! Rebel 1743. SAMMY SHELOR TOLD ME that he and Ronnie Bowman had a mighty close call in April while finishing up the next Lonesome River Band album for Sugar Hill. This project was very nearly a casualty of the recent tornadoes that devastated the Nashville area! The studio where they were finishing the mix was among the few buildings in the vicinity not levelled by the storm and Jerry Douglas' car had a tree fall across it. No title has yet been selected, but Sammy suggested that a “storm and/or survivor” theme may rise to the top.... They still hope to have it out late this summer. It marks the first time they have used an outside producer. All their previous efforts had been self-produced, but this time they brought in Nashville studio wizard Jerry Douglas to produce (and pick!). Sammy said “I really enjoyed being able to focus solely on his banjo playing without worrying about recording and production issues.” He is very ‘high’ on the new project and looking forward to its release. Further info: John Lawless, AcuTab Publications acutab@roanoke.infi.nethttp://www.acutab.com P.O. Box 21061 Roanoke, VA 24018-0108 Tel: 001-540-776-6822 Fax: 001-540-776-6827
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