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The Bartley Brothers Hit the Road

News from our friends ar Rural Rhythm Records is a new single from their soon to be released CD Hit the Road by Kentucky bluegrass music veterans The Bartley Brothers featuring Rick and Shayne Bartley, Jayd Raines, and Josh Hymer.

The first single to be released from the album is the title track that showcases The Bartley Brothers’ traditional sound including their beautifully blended brother harmonies. Combine that with Rick and Shayne’s top notch songwriting talents and you have a truly winning formula for this, their debut album. Rural Rhythm suggests that these powerful elements are the reason why so much attention is being drawn to this emerging new group of respected veteran bluegrass musicians – The Bartley Brothers.

Hit the Road is available at Amazon, Borders, Barnes & Noble, Ernest Tubbs, County Sales, Music Shed and other fine outlets from 31st August.

Homecoming: Bluegrass Album.

Early this year we announced Grand Ole Opry member Joe Diffie’s return to bluegrass music with his new album Homecoming: The Bluegrass Album. At that time it was due out in August. Rounder Records has advised the album is now due for release on 26th October.

Homecoming was co-produced by Diffie and Luke Wooten and features a who’s who of bluegrass A-listers including The Grascals, Rhonda Vincent, Bradley Walker, and Alecia Nugent.  He also enlisted Rob Ickes, Aubrey Haynie, Mike Compton, Bryan Sutton, Mark Fain and Charlie Cushman to back this set of songs that are sure to appeal to Diffie’s long-time fans and bluegrass traditionalists alike.

Homecoming: Bluegrass Album – 24th October.

Innes Campbell and Present Company - Something Quick and Neat.

To describe Innes Campbell as a guitar player is somewhat of an understatement. In 2009 the folks at Tamworth awarded him the title of National Guitar Champion. This CD highlights Innes’s extraordinary guitar work and gives credence to the fact that his is not only one of the country’s best flatpickers, but a talented songwriter also.

Innes Campbell has delivered a range of music styles in this CD. Seven of the fourteen tracks are original songs or tunes with influences from the folk, country, swing and bluegrass. As a very capable song writer he covers topics ranging from the serious (with questions to the overly serious Richard Dawkins) to the absurd (bemoaning the fact that his baby has contracted a case of the dreaded the swine flu). His arrangements of traditional tunes like St Anne’s Reel, Clinch Mountain Backstep, Big Sandy River and Beaumont Rag are further testament to his musical dexterity.

This CD features a host of other great musicians in his band Present Company with Luke Moller on mandolin, Mark Webber on bass, George Jackson on fiddle and The Davidson Brothers also playing banjo and mandolin.

I have had this CD playing in my car for the past three weeks. Nothing disappoints in this CD and there is every reason to add it to your collection.

Innes Campbell and Present Company – Something Quick and Neat.

The Banjo – misunderstood, maligned, magic – out today.

News from the ABC this morning reveals that John Kane and Ian Simpson have released an album of banjo tunes today.

Ian Simpson and John Kane are two of Australia’s most accomplished musicians. On this new CD they bring you the most loved and famous banjo tunes from the much maligned instrument’s vast and growing repertoire.

Tunes on this CD range from Foggy Mountain Breakdown and Cripple Creek to  Scott Joplin classics The Entertainer and The Maple Leaf Rag. Even the music of Beethoven and Bach is given new life by this most enigmatic of instruments.

We have seen it in the chart-topping success of groups like Mumford & Sons proudly brandishing banjos as symbols of their rustic masculinity. It appears in the thousands of YouTube videos and popular comedians Steve Martin and Billy Connolly are both accomplished banjoists. There is no escaping it, this instrument is well and truly part of popular culture and it’s here to stay.

The banjo’s magical charms are impossible to deny.

We will be in Sydney doing some media around the weekend of the 18th September, and a few days either side. We will also be doing a gig at the The Guitar Factory in Gladesville, Sydney on one of the days in this period. More info later. We are still looking for another gig whilst Ian is over from Perth - John Kane.

Track Listing:

Rural Rhythm Records has advised us of the release the first radio single Time To Be Movin’ On from Blue Moon Rising’s anticipated new album, Strange New World.
The single was released to radio via the label’s Fresh Cuts & Key Tracks, #8 and is also available now via Airplay Direct.

Time To Be Movin’ On was written by band leader and songwriter, Chris West who describes the song as kicking off with a little Johnny Cash / Del Reeves and will surely please Blue Moon Rising fans once again.  Chris also contributes his signature vocals and guitar, along with the exciting new line up of: Brandon Bostic on mandolin; Tony Mowell on bass; Owen Piatt on banjo with special guests, Tim Crouch on fiddle and Randy Kohrs on the Dobro.

Strange New World is Blue Moon Rising’s fifth career album and their first recording on Rural Rhythm Records.  The project combines a very eclectic mix of new original material with West contributing 7 of the 13 tracks.  Other writers include:  Mike Dekle, Kevin Denney, Becky Buller, Jon Weisberger/Jeremy Garrett and Clint Wilson.

The songs on the album showcase Blue Moon Rising’s range, versatility and maturity as it continually shifts between hard-core traditional bluegrass, blues, gospel, country and singer-songwriter influenced music.

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Chris West enlisted the help of his artist friend, Jason Jones, who created the album artwork for the band’s previous album, One Lonely Shadow.

I asked Jason to create a very artsy vision of a strange new world where things aren’t quite right in comparison to the world we live in.  I wanted every single image on the CD to tie in directly with a song in some way.  I wrote a blues song about temptation and the struggle between good and evil on this project called ‘He’s All Around Us’, hence the transparent devil behind the tree on the cover.  There’s a love song on the CD called ‘Stone by Stone’ for a girl named Jenny where the lovelorn singer says ‘My Jenny belongs in an Ivory Tower.’ So Jason made the tower the centerpiece on the cover.  We also married several songs together within the art.  I wrote song on the CD called ‘Hard Luck Joe’ about a homeless man who used to have a much better life.  If you’ll notice the tree on the cover, there’s a heart carved in it that says ‘Joe -n- Jenny’ where we’ve married the songs ‘Hard Luck Joe’ and ‘Stone by Stone.’  When you give the CD a thorough listen, you’ll be able to go back and look at this great piece of art and know what every single image is about – Chris West.

Rural Rhythm Christian has announced the upcoming September 28, 2010 album release, Sounds Like Heaven To Me by Lou Reid and Carolina.  The first radio single, God’s Front Porch has been released to bluegrass radio via the label’s Fresh Cuts & Key Tracks and is also available to Southern Gospel and other stations via Airplay Direct.

Lou Reid and Carolina includes the talents of Lou Reid (lead vocals, mandolin, guitar), Christy Reid (bass and vocals), Shannon Slaughter (guitar and vocals), and Trevor Watson (banjo and vocals).

I am excited about the band’s first bluegrass gospel album. I hope that my style of faith-based music is inspiring to people as I have tried to combine music with a positive message.  Our time on earth is so short and the longer I live, the more sure I am of God’s plan.  If I can touch one heart with this record, I will deem it a success - Lou Reid.

Sounds Like Heaven To Me also includes two beautiful a cappella songs: Oh Lord Have Mercy on My Soul co-written by Lou Reid and T. Michael Coleman, plus, It’s So Hard to Stumble (When You’re Down on Your Knees) co-written by Shannon Slaughter and Lou Reid.  It’s So Hard to Stumble made a huge impact on Country, Bluegrass and Gospel radio, garnered a nomination for the 2009 IBMA Gospel Song of the Year Award, and was nominated for the 2010 GMA Dove Award for Bluegrass Gospel Song of the Year.

Lou Reid and Carolina fans received a preview of the group’s bluegrass gospel roots as It’s So Hard to Stumble was also featured on the band’s current award winning mainstream bluegrass album, My Own Set of Rules.  That album also contained another hit song, Amanda Lynn that won the 2010 SPBGMA Song of the Year Award and garnered #1 chart positions for both the album and single on the Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine and Bluegrass Music Profiles charts.

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Lou Reid and Carolina have been chosen as a 2010 International Bluegrass Music Association Showcase Artist and will perform during the IBMA’s World of Bluegrass convention this September in Nashville, Tennessee.   Lou is certainly one of the hottest touring artists on the road as he also performs with the Seldom Scene and the bluegrass superstar group, Longview.

Release Date – 24th August, 2010.

Rural Rhythm Records has announced the album release, Hit the Road by Kentucky bluegrass music veterans, The Bartley Brothers.

The first single is the title track from this new album and is already out to bluegrass radio via the label’s Fresh Cuts & Key Tracks radio sampler.

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‘Hit the Road‘  showcases the bands tight vocals, rock solid instrumentation and song writing abilities and is sure to propel them to top of the charts’ - Radio Host, Charlie Hall (WCYO FM).

Rick and Shayne Bartley have begun a new chapter in their careers and are now fronting their own band joined by Jayd Raines (formerly with Marty Raybon) and Josh Hymer (formerly with Ernie Thacker and Coal Town).

Hit the Road sees Rick Bartley delivery bluegrass fans 8 new original songs from home and real life which has been his songwriting trademark for years.  Such songs as; Blue Side of the Blueridge which was the single and title track for Junior Sisk’s hit album and I’m a Hobo recorded on the recent J. D. Crowe & The New South album.  Lou Reid has recorded My Whole Word in His Hands (from his #1 album Time) and was co-written by Shayne Bartley.

Hit the Road is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Rural Rhythm, and other fine outlets.

Peter Rowan and his Bluegrass Band have been in the Compass Records studio finishing up tracks for their first band project Legacy,  and is scheduled for release in August.

Produced by Compass co-founder Alison Brown, the album captures the raw bluegrass energy of this veteran outfit which includes Jody Stecher, Keith Little, and Paul Knight. Legacy features many songs from the band’s live show such as the grassy Jailer Jailer and the haunting The Raven.

Del McCoury and Ricky Skaggs are guests on the brand new hymn God’s Own Child. The CD also features Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings.