• Geoff Bowers says “There's to be a picking session at the Pheasant, Sheffield Lane, in Sheffield organised by Mitzi (an American lady who promotes the American Bluegrass bands there) to demonstrate to the venue landlord that there is a viable following to support a regular Bluegrass club.
• North West Bluegrass is suffering from accidents: Tom Degney has broken his leg, so the Rainy City Bluegrass band is out of action and Ian Reynolds has broken his, too, and is quite poorly, so no articles for NWBN! We send our best wishes for speedy recoveries to both.
• The demise of The East Coast Bluegrass Band and Them Harvey Boys has led to a new Norwich-based band - The Flatland Mountain Boys. The line-up is Paul Lest (vocals/guitar) Thomas Leat (fiddle), Steve McNally (banjo), Phil Wells (bass) and Dave Tricker (mandolin/vocals). Info: Paul on 01603 738816.
• Pete Wraith and Chris Metcalf have started a new acoustic club in Huddersfield, on the first Thursday monthly, at Marsh Liberal Club. It will be concert format with no floor singers. The organisers welcome competent musicians or touring bands looking for Northern gigs Tel: 01484-307424
  Write to Peter
• Richard Collins (banjo, A Band Like Alice) and Lorraine Baker (bass, Bakers Fabulous Boys) have been backing Sharon Cort on tour in Ireland recently.
• Russell Cooper reports:Write to Russell
  • “John Herald, ex-Greenbriars Boys and Woodstock Mountain Revue, played in Glasgow and Edinburgh recently. The Edinburgh gig was well attended and, coming on after two bands, this veteran songsmith had the audience in the palm of his hands. He is an authentic old American folk singer and entertainer.
  • “Scots band Goldrush have just completed their first CD Panning for Gold. It features some standard Bluegrass songs, plus several self-penned songs and tunes. Betty Cooper guests, singing lead vocal on one of the tracks Foggy Mountain Top.
• Simon Sprott (guitar, vocals) has left Whitehouse reunion for logistical reasons and has joined a group more local. Rehearsals involved a 550 mile round trip!!!
• Percy Copley is reported to have run the guantlet down a double aisle of pickers at the 1999 Silsden Festival while playing Old Joe Clark on the bagpipes. That’s what working at Eurodisney does for you?
• The future of Old-Time band Same Train Different Teapot, which has done much to help introduce the public to our type of music, looks uncertain. Their new CD The Star and The Rose can be obtained from Andrea Preston for £10. Tel 01425-618286.Write to Andrea
• We have an e-mail from Canada inquiring about what radio stations in the UK play Bluegrass music - they obviously want to target their demo CDs. If you have any radio contacts or information on the subject which you think might be useful please send let the Editor know. We already have a partial list of radio stations and this could be extended so that British Bluegrass releases could be sent to all the most promising stations.

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  Rest-Of-The-World-News
• Scott Zimmerman says “For the best collection of bluegrass lyrics for the money, you can’t beat Slim Richey's two books. Each has words to 300 songs!! And they only cost about $7.00 each. You can order them from Jack Hatfield (Write to: hatfield@tds.net).
• Rex Jones, Tokyo, writes: “The world famous Japanese banjo player Yoshiro Arita (U.S. National Banjo Champion 1984) recently released a video on playing the banjo. Not an all comprehensive course mind you but really smooth playing. He shows how to incorporate a simple melody (in this case, Grandfather's Clock) into banjo playing roll by roll (starting out with the double pinch, then the alternating roll, and then adding the forward roll, etc.) and goes on to include a fantastic rendition of Ol' Joe Clark starting with a bluegrass version and branching off into free form improvisational jazz!! Arita's ability as a banjo player is well known in the world of bluegrass as is his guitar playing (he plays some fantastic gypsy style as well) but to me his mandolin playing is the hottest I have ever heard. He has two albums out so if you get a chance try picking one up.”Write to Rex
• If you want to see a photo album of Earl and Louise Scruggs 50th wedding anniversary, visit this link: http://www.gibson.com/whatsnew/pressrelease/1998/May5b.html
• According to Dan Tyminski, Alison Krauss and Union Station is not even planning to start doing promotional appearances (TV, etc.) until October with no touring until November. It seems that this schedule was all planned in advance with Alison's pregnancy in mind.
• The new name of the Santa Cruz Bluegrass Society is the Northern California Bluegrass Society -- NCBS. The Society will continue to serve the San Francisco Bay Area and the Monterey Bay Area. It will continue to use the Santa Cruz Bluegrass Society name in Santa Cruz County.
• Czech band Fragment has just earned itself a place in the prestigious IBMA World of Bluegrass showcase taking place in Louisville, Kentucky in October 1999.
• The Early Grass Revival from Prague, Czech Republic, has released its debut album Picking The Old Style. The CD contains 20 songs (13 originals written by band members) over 50 minutes total time. Hard-core traditional bluegrass, all sung in English. For more info write to Ivo Drbohlav at drbohlav@FZU.CZ
• Author Paul Hawthorne reports:

  “I expect a December release for Gestalt Banjo Vol. 2. It is presently on the left hand, the fingerboard connection and musician skills. All this can change as it really is a matter of how it all comes together,because like Vol. 1, it has its own life. This is new and/or seldom addressed material and the inspirations come as they come. I don't expect it to take the 7 years Vol. 1 did.
  
  “For those interested, there is a page about it in the For Sale section on the BANJO-L website.”

  Paul Hawthorne, The Banjo Conservatory - Gestalt Banjo Epicenter, 26701 Sutter Court, Tehachapi, CA 93561 Write to 5string@tminet.com Tel: 661-821-BANJO (i.e. 2265). NWBN will be reviewing the book.

• Dudley Connell has left the Smithsonian Folkway Recordings to devote himself more fully to music-making and his mail-order operation, started in the late 1980s.
• Doyle Lawson will be added to Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Hall Of Fame on Saturday, September 25, 1999. He will be the twenty-second member of this elite group.
• Rumour has it that members of the NittyGritty Dirt Band are working on Will The Circle Be Unbroken, Volume 3
• The Dolly Parton Bluegrass Album (The Grass Is Blue on Sugar Hill) is due in October 26, 1999 on Dolly's own Blue Eye label. Reportedly Dolly showed up at the recording session with some home-cooked chicken and dumplings and that everyone was ‘in the mood’ for some good bluegrass music. The band consists of Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush, Stuart Duncan, Bryan Sutton, Jim Milles, Barry Bales and Steve Buckingham.
• While on tour recently in California, Tony Rice strained his picking hand wrist opening a car door and was replaced by Brian Sutton from Ricky Skaggs’ band.

News fromJohn Lawless (AcuTab Transcriptions)

John Lawless & Stealth banjo

• I recently got the brand new release from Blue Ridge “Common Ground” (Sugar Hill 3895), and Terry Baucomb’s playing is simply breathtaking. Flawless - incomparably so. I don’t gush all that often, but here goes: To me, Terry is one of those very few players who can do no wrong.Like Scruggs, Terry sticks to a somewhat limited “bag of licks,” but I forgive him for repeatedly quoting himself. It just doesn’t matter because it sounds so good!!!!
  
  I saw Blue Ridge at the Graves Mountain festival and Baucom just kicked my butt. His tone and time are impeccable. I would donate my manhood to get that sound from a banjo! But the album would great even without Terry. Alan Bibey sounds terrific and the songs are very well chosen. This should be a very popular and successful release and it could not happen to a nicer and more dedicated bunch of guy. This is a must have CD.

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• Sammy Shelor tells me that Dan Tyminski is performing with The Lonesome River Band (on fiddle!) for the rest of this season, or until Alison Krauss & Union Station go out again in the fall. Sammy says that Dan is singing a few tunes now and will likely add more as the summer progresses.
  
  Dan plays the banjo quite well, but with a decidedly unorthodox style. He reverses his index and middle fingers on the right hand, using the index to pick the first string and the middle to pick the second/third. I have tried this just fooling around and it is a bear.

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• I just got my new Bluegrass Unlimited mag which contains a great feature on Jim Mills. He discusses the recording of the Bound To Ride album (on Sugar Hill) and states that the album was recorded almost 100% live (no overdubs) and that they recorded and mixed the whole thing in 3 days. Wow!
  
  For anyone who is not familiar with this great recording, I certainly can recommend it highly. This is Jim's first solo release under his own name and it is a real winner. Featured artists include Tim Stafford, Barry Bales, Adam Steffey, Stuart Duncan, Ricky Skaggs, Alan O'Bryant and Don Rigsby.

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• I finally got a copy of the new Blue Highway CD. I had been looking forward to hearing Tom Adams with the band and I was not disappointed! His playing is so clean and meticulous and the materialis superb - a great album.
  
  I had been very fond of Jason Burleson's playing on the first three Blue Highway recordings so it was with mixed feelings that I heard that Tom was taking over last year.
  
  I caught the band live recently and foundthat Tom kept the same feel as Jason’s playing on the older material, even playing the same breaks on occasion. Of course, there are some subtle differences even where Tom was trying to "play Jason," but the remarkable thing is how similar the older stuff sounded to the recordings.
  
  After the Blue Highway set, Lonesome River Band came out and did a fabulous show. Ron Stewart was on fiddle - a terrific fiddler and a great guy. He (along with Jason Carter) is keeping the great old time bluegrass fiddle sound alive. LRB kicks it up a notch any time Ron is with them.
• I'm off now to hook up with Sonny Osborne to get some final details straight for his book and finish up another project that we'll announce before too much longer.
• Following on the success of the first two AcuTab Banjo Seminars and in response to many requests for a multi-instrument weekend, AcuTab Publications and Flatpicking Guitar Magazine are delighted to jointly announce the 1st Annual Roanoke Bluegrass Weekend.
  
  This three-day event (November 19-21 at the historic Hotel Roanoke in Roanoke, VA) will feature both instrumental seminars and concerts with some of the very best pickers in bluegrass music. Our registrants will havethe option of choosing from banjo, mandolin and guitar workshops each day.
  
  Newly added (7 Oct 99) is a Sunday afternoon guitar workshop during which Roland White and David Grier will conduct a special 3-hour session on "Clarence White's guitar style." Full seminar details

Until next time,
John Lawless, AcuTab Publications
P.O. Box 21061 Roanoke, VA 24018-0108. 540-776-6822. 540-776-6827 (FAX)
Response@acutab.com| http://www.acutab.com

15th Sept 1999