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Legendary mandolinist and band leader Sam Bush will deliver the keynote address at this year’s International Bluegrass Music Association Business Conference. The address is to be delivered on Monday, 27th September 2010.

13th September marks the 100th birthday of Bill Monroe, who is widely recognized as the father of bluegrass music and thus Bush will talk about that milestone and its significance in the world of bluegrass music.  Among other issues, Bush will reflect on how we might best celebrate a 100 years Monroe’s influence in the world of music.

The theme for World of Bluegrass 2010 is Face Time—It Matters, because these seven days—more than any other week or place on the planet—are about the relationships folks who care about and work in the business of bluegrass music build and keep for a lifetime. IBMA events are where artists, DJs, journalists, talent buyers and fans interact and share new music. It’s where merchandisers and luthiers unveil new products and instruments, as well as meet artists who will endorse their products. It’s also where everyone in the industry meets to sharpen and share their professional skills – IBMA.

Neurum Creek Festival 10th – 12th September 2010.

Here’s a new festival which is not strictly a bluegrass festival but there appears to be plenty of bluegrass music on stage. Indeed, Innes Campbell is running a flatpick guitar workshop as part of the festival workshop program.

I asked Innes Campbell what can we expect from his workshop?

I tend to focus a lot on technique especially right hand as this is the one thing that is very hard to get from other sources – books, youtube etc and is very often overlooked or thought of as being of a lesser importance than the other skills.
I usually start with a tune, hopefully there will be a couple of members of the band to help me, then I will talk everyone through simple backup guitar starting very simply and progressing to include chord substitutions and bass runs - Innes Campbell.

The Neurum Creek Music Festival is a local acoustic music camping weekend held at Neurum Creek Bush Retreat in September each year. The festival’s aim is to provide an atmosphere of community and inclusion for the south-east corner of Queensland by showcasing the established and up and coming talents of this corner of the world, as well as featuring acts from around Australia and at times internationally.

Innes Campbell and his band Present Company will be performing at the Neurum Festival on Sunday  at 1:30pm.

Innes Campbell’s flatpick wprkshop is on Saturday at 11:30pm.

A highlight of this year’s festival will once again be tune and singing sessions. It’s a place to pick up new songs and tunes, to experience playing with lots of different people, and most importantly to have fun.  On Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings, the campfires will be stocked, stoked and ready to burn most of the night (if not all of the night) for those of you who really like to session, or just absorb the atmosphere - Neil Murray.

Neurum Creek Music Festival – 10, 11, 12 September 2010 – www.neurumcreekfestival.com

A few months ago we posted an article from the Deering Banjo Company’s new  website on how to tension your banjo head. This was quite useful if you happen to play a banjo, but not so if you’re a mandolin player.

This  month Deering Banjos has posted  an article on banjo bridges.

The lyrics like a bridge over troubled waters might well have been written by a banjo player and his search for the Holy Grail of bridges for his banjo! Bridges do play a critical role in the sound of a banjo. Thick ones, thin ones, compensated ones, which is best? That is something every banjo player can decide for themselves but there are a few basics that I hope can help lead you to the best choice for your playing needs.

Read the full article on the Deering Website

Here’s another review of the Tony Rice Story by Lonesome Road Review.

Until this remarkable book by Tim Stafford (a great guitarist, singer and songwriter in his own right) and Carolyn Wright, I knew little of the man who has stood as the master craftsman of the bluegrass and acoustic guitar for about 40 years, taking time to also carve out a niche as one of the finest bluegrass lead singers ever.

In short, this book—which is exceedingly well-made and attractive—is everything you ever wanted to know about a musical giant, with the material presented clearly and readably by Stafford and Wright. It will send you to your record collection for the Rice that you do have, and to eBay, County Sales or the record store for what you don’t. It’s a major piece of bluegrass and acoustic music scholarship that belongs on any music fan’s bookshelf - Aaron Keith Harris.

Read the whole review at The Lonsome Road Review

Banjo player Alison Brown spent her her teenage years  in Alison Krauss’ band and now runs her own successful record label, Compass Records, with her husband Garry West.

Alison Brown by Carol Rifkin for North Carolina’s Acheville Citizen Times.

Read the full interview at www.citizen-times.com.

SkaggsFamily Records has advised us that Cherryholmes’ new album Cherryholmes IV Common Threads, debuted at #1 on the Billboard Bluegrass Album charts this week. The all family band album, landed ahead of Dierks Bentley, Carolina Chocolate Drops and Steve Martin.

This is the four-time Grammy Award nominees fourth straight top five start on the Bluegrass chart, and second #1.

Mandolin Cafe has just posted an extensive interview with Roland White an early modern bluegrass pioneer who went on to become one of bluegrass music’s achievers in a variety of bands and lineups.

Roland is a pioneer of the West Coast bluegrass scene beginning in the 1950s with his groundbreaking work with and leadership of first the Country Boys, then the Kentucky Colonels. The live tapes of the band, distributed as underground treasures, showed the Colonels with a traditional repertoire but with a new and wildly rhythmically and melodically exciting approach. The band featured guitar wizard Clarence White; banjo spectacular Billy Ray Latham, bass whacker without equal, Roger Bush; and the brilliantly innovative playing of Roland on the mandolin. The Colonels singing style was set by the tonalities of Roland’s tenor voice – Mandolin Cafe.

Read the full interview at the Mandolin Cafe.

Bendigo bluegrass presenter Geoff Morris reports that this coming Tuesday, 8th June, on his Wall-To-Wall Bluegrass show, aired twice a week on worldwidebluegrass.com, that he will be playing a special interview he recorded recently with International Bluegrass Museum Executive Director Gabrielle Grey.

This is a delightful talk with the passionate Executive Director of the Bluegrass Museum in Owensborough, Kentucky and focuses chiefly on what will undoubtedly be four astonishing and memorable days from June 23rd to the 27th in and around the Museum .

The River Of Music Party (ROMP) will commence with two full days focussing on a large number of people who played at one time or another with Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys, all of which, (stories, experiences and performances) will be filmed. These two days also will feature plaque installations  to the Bluegrass Hall Of Fame, a Bluegrass Pioneers Recognition ceremony and Legends concert - Geoff Morris.

This special interview will go to air in the first hour of Geoff’s Tuesday program on 8th June. For Australian audiences that’s between eleven a.m. and midday Eastern Australian Standard Time. FOr US audiences it’s 9:00pm to 10:00pm on Monday 7th June, eastern Daylight Saving Time.

Wall-To-Wall Bluegrass, which recently celebrated its 300th show, airs twice a week: Tuesdays from 11:00am. to 2:00pm and Saturday mornings between 8:00am and 11:00am, both Eastern Australian Standard Time.