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Late last year we brought you news of Curly’s 90th birthday celebrations. Following on from his 90th, Curly has no plans to slow down. This year marks Curly Seckler’s 75th Anniversary in music.  He kicks off the celebration playing two concerts with Constant Change, and special guest Dudley Connell.

Bluegrass legend Curly Seckler began his musical career in 1935, over WSTP radio in Salisbury, North Carolina.  He went on to perform with a number of the top names in bluegrass music, including Charlie Monroe, Jim & Jesse, Mac Wiseman, The Stanley Brothers, and The Sauceman Brothers.

In 1949 Curly joined Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs’ Foggy Mountain Boys, and remained with them for almost 12 years, recording over 130 songs with them.  His distinctive, razor-sharp tenor harmonies grace many of their classic hits, setting the standard for countless bluegrass singers who have followed.

Curly joined Lester Flatt’s Nashville Grass in 1973, and then took over leadership of the band after Flatt passed away in 1979.  Seckler led the Nashville Grass for another fifteen years before retiring from full-time touring in 1994.  In 2004 he was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Hall of Fame.  Curly continued to perform and record, and his 2005 release, Down in Caroline, was a finalist for IBMA Recorded Event of the Year.  His most recent recording, Bluegrass, Don’t You Know, was picked among the Top 10 CDs of 2006 by the Chicago Tribune.

Artists, International News Curly Seckler, Earl Scruggs, Lester Flatt

News just in from Rural Rhythm Records is that on Friday, 27th March, Bill Emerson will be honored with the very first Washington Monument Award, presented by the DC Bluegrass Union in recognition of this 50 year career in bluegrass music.  The following night, Saturday, 28th March, Bill Emerson & Sweet Dixie will hold their official CD release party for their new album, Southern.

The Washington Monument Award will be presented to Emerson at the DC Bluegrass Festival. The award celebrates Washington, DC-area musicians who have been instrumental in shaping the direction of bluegrass music nationwide.

For more information  you can visit www.dcbluegrassfest.org.

Artists, Bluegrass News, International News Bill Emmerson, Rural Rhythm Records

Once again Steve Martin has secured the award-winning bluegrass group the Steep Canyon Rangers to tour with him in support of his Grammy winning Rounder Records release, The Crow:  New Songs for the Five-String Banjo. The Banjo Tour will begin on 19th April in Detroit and is expected to continue into October, with performances scheduled at the New Orleans JazzFest, MerleFest and Bonnaroo.

I am very excited to begin my banjo tour with the Steep Canyon Rangers. It has been a long time dream of mine to travel around the country with a bunch of guys - Steve Martin.

For their part, the Steep Canyon Rangers also earned rave reviews while on tour with Martin in the fall, during which they had an opportunity to perform songs from their fourth studio album for Rebel Records, Deep in the Shade.
The tour included performances at the 20th Annual International Bluegrass Music Awards Show, The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, Carnegie Hall, Nashville’s famous Ryman Auditorium, Royal Festival Hall in London, and other venues in cities including Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, Charlotte, Washington, Toronto, Chicago, Denver and Santa Fe. The Rangers also performed with Martin on The Late Show with David Letterman, The View, NPR’s World Café, and the BBC’s Later with Jools Holland.

No Australian dates sadly.

Artists, Bluegrass News, International News Steve Martin, The Steep Canyon Rangers

Rounder Records has released a series of excerpts from their 40th Anniversary video featuring Alison Krauss and Union Station. Each of the band members providing some insight on the band, their sound and the musicians.

Check out the Rounder Records website for the selection of videos.

International News, Record Company Alison Krauss, Rounder Records

Laura Barton, UK Guardian, Interviews Mumford and Sons

The pub is filling up: City boys in pinstriped suits, women clutching dry white wines; candles are lit on upstairs tables, voices rise to fill the room. In a back booth, far away from the clamour of the bar, four fastidiously attired young men nurse pints of ale. Mumford & Sons are here on a break from a nearby studio, where they have been rehearsing in ­preparation for an upcoming tour that will take them from Australia to the US and back to the UK for a run of sold-out dates, and which will likely cement their reputation as one of the best live bands in Britain…

I find it easier to sing songs over and over if they feel honest, if we feel passionate about them. That’s an important thing: we need to be able to feel what we sing every night, and believe it - Marcus Mumford.

Read the full interview here

Article, International News Mumford & Sons

Gibson Contributing Editor Ellen Barnes talks to Randy Scruggs.

Randy Scruggs grew up watching wide-eyed as his dad — legendary banjo player Earl Scruggs — took part in jam sessions at the family’s Nashville home with artists like Johnny Cash, Ravi Shankar and Linda Ronstadt. Besides his enviable vantage point, Randy also received personal tutelage from Mother Maybelle Carter.

When Randy was six, it was Carter who taught Randy to play autoharp. She instilled in him a lifelong affinity for Gibson guitars. Her Gibson of choice was an L-5, while his ultimately would become the Advanced Jumbo, a model he turned to so long ago that he can’t recall when or where he first fell in love with it.

It didn’t take long for Randy to earn his reputation as an artist in his own right; he was barely out of his twenties before he became a first-call session player and producer for artists like Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, George Strait and Alison Krauss. He’s since won a Grammy and has thrice been named Musician of the Year at the Country Music Awards, among other honors. But at the end of the day, Randy says he is grounded by the guitar and by the example of his famous father.

Read the whole article at Gibson Guitars

Article, Artists, International News Gibson, Guitar

The Tony Rice Story  Released on 12th April.

The long awaited release of the biography of one of bluegrass’s most revered guitar players, Tony Rice, is almost upon us. Industry news has the release  scheduled to co-inside with Merlfest on 12th April this year.

Tony’s story is told in his own words and features memories and insights from dozens and dozens of his family members, friends, and fans with an inside look at his life on and off the road. This is a bibliography of suggested reading for serious fans. More than 100 never-before published photos. Still Inside: The Tony Rice Story might be the bluegrass literary event of the year.

Woven throughout the anecdotes and memories are excerpts from a journal written by co-author Caroline Wright, who went on the road with Tony for a couple of weeks in the summer of 2003 and again in 2005, interviewing him as he drove to festivals, clubs, and recording studios. Caroline documents his everyday life in detail, and discovers things about Tony that will astonish and intrigue even his most knowledgeable fans.

Thanks to Blue Highway’s Tim Stafford, a highly respected acoustic guitarist in his own right, this book also provides insight into Tony’s matchless guitar playing. Tim explores Tony’s technique, his timing, his right hand, his choice of picks, and much more. Tim also discusses the life and times of Tony’s prize possession, formerly owned by the great Clarence White: the 1935 Martin D-28 Herringbone guitar also known simply as The Bone or The Antique.

You can pre-order your copy of The Tony Rice Story by going to this link and entering your email address -  Still Inside: The Tony Rice Story.

Artists, International News, Product Release Tony Rice

Claire Lynch has announced the newest member of their band, Matt Wingate.

Winning Merlefest’s Doc Watson Guitar Championship in 1997 at the age of 15, at a time when he was performing with his family band, Matt later honed his bluegrass chops performing across the U.S. and in Europe as Valerie Smith’s lead guitar player.

He began performing with the Greencards in 2004, an experience that immersed Matt in a musically broader, more progressive repertoire, deepening his musical vocabulary and his facility with complex arrangements.

From 2006-08, his work as a member with a hot young band, The Lovell Sisters, opened the door for Matt to play a more significant creative role, lending a strong hand to the selection and arrangement of material. It also gave him the opportunity to return to the Merlefest stage in 2008, coming full circle to play the festival that was so key to launching his career at age 15. That year, Matt also released a solo CD, A Good Dream, to excellent reviews.

Matt brings impressive credentials and a mature, improvisational musicality seemingly far beyond his years, making him a natural for The Claire Lynch Band – Claire Lynch.

Flatpicking Guitar Magazine featured Matt on the cover of its March/April 2009 issue, praising not only his flatpicking prowess, but also his level of musicianship and his considerable talents as a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist (including guitar, mandolin, bouzouki, bass, drums and dobro).

…Matt is one of the most exciting young musicians in bluegrass music today. He has great chops, but he’s also got a lot of soul - award winning Dobro player, Rob Ickes.

Find out more about Matt by visiting www.myspace.com/matthewwingate

Artists, Bluegrass News, International News Claire Lynch

The American Made Banjo Company has made us aware of a major new television documentary called The Banjo Project. It details the history of America’s quintessential musical instrument, tracing its 250 year path from its African roots to the present day.

The documentary is written and produced by Marc Fields and narrated by Steve Martin. Tony Trischka is the musical producer. It brings together contemporary players in all styles including Earl Scruggs, Pete Seeger, Bela Fleck, Taj Mahal, Don Vappie, Cynthia Sayer, Steve Martin and others including folklorists, historians, instrument makers and passionate amateurs all of whom tell the story of America’s instrument in all its richness and diversity.

The piano may do for lovesick girls who lace themselves to skeletons, and lunch on chalk, pickles, and slate pencils. But give me the banjo… When you want genuine music—music that will come right home to you like a bad quarter, suffuse your system like strychnine whiskey…ramify your whole constitution like the measles, and break out on your hide like the pin-feather pimples on a picked goose—when you want all this, just smash your piano, and invoke the glory-beaming banjo - Mark Twain, 1865.

The Banjo Project is a cross-media cultural odyssey: a major television documentary, a live stage/multi-media performance, and a website that chronicle the journey of America’s quintessential instrument—the banjo—from its African roots to the 21st century. It’s a collaboration between Emmy-winning writer-producer Marc Fields and banjo virtuoso Tony Trischka one of the most acclaimed acoustic musicians of his generation.

Full details on the Banjo Project Website.

Article, International News Steve Martin, Tony Trischka

Blue Ridge Mountain Memories – The Marksmen Quartet

The Marksmen Quartet has also been performing their fine blend of music styles for 40 years occupying a unique and special stylistic niche somewhere between Bluegrass Gospel, Country Gospel and Southern Gospel music.

They now capture the heart and soul of Classic Mountain Gospel Music with their October 2009 release of Blue Ridge Mountain Memories.

The group has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors including: 4-time Country Gospel Quartet of the Year (Country Gospel Music Guild); 4-time winner of the SPGBMA Bluegrass Gospel Group of the Year; several #1 Country Gospel Songs including Love Letters in the Sand; Gospel Hall of Fame (Texas Country Music Association); Mark Wheeler named Top Male Artist by the Gospel Music Awards (Front Porch Fellowship Bluegrass); 2008 Dove Nomination for the album “God’s Masterpiece”; and the 2010 Dove Nomination for “Blue Ridge Mountain Memories”.

Association Events, International News Dove Awards, Marksmen Quartet

I Just Want to Thank You Lord – Larry Sparks

Emerging from the Stanley Brothers’ Clinch Mountain Boys band, Larry Sparks has an impressive 40 year career, performing and recording the sounds created by bluegrass music’s first generation.

Sparks has been honored numerous times during his career including recent wins by the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) for both the 2004 and 2005 Male Vocalist of the Year, and the 2007 Album of the Year and Recorded Event of the Year. He was also the featured performer at the Southern Gospel National Quartet Convention in 2009.

Larry’s recording of, I Just Want to Thank You Lord released last October, has been nominated for a 2010 Dove Award.

The 41st Annual Dove Awards Show, presented by The Gospel Music Association, will be held on 21st April, 2010 at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, TN.

Bluegrass News, International News Dove Awards, Larry Sparks

Southwest Virginia’s “Crooked Road” region has been named one of the 2010 America’s Dozen Distinctive Destinations by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

For ten years the National Trust has used the Dozen Distinctive Destinations program to highlight how historic preservation helps communities create a sustainable future and a strong economy through heritage tourism.

The Crooked Road is a 253-mile route through Virginia’s Appalachian region, winding through 10 counties, three cities, and 19 towns. It offers heritage travelers an opportunity to experience authentic mountain music in the region where it was born.

International News, Promotions General News

Rural Rhythm Records has announced the album, “My Sisters and Me” by the award-winning bluegrass band, Gold Heart, appears on this week’s Billboard Magazine Top 50 Bluegrass Chart.  This project includes the stunning vocal harmony by Gold Heart sisters, Analise, Jocelyn and Shelby along with their Dad, Trent Gold and Russ Carson.

Gold Heart was recently chosen by the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) as an official 2009 IBMA Showcase Artist where they performed during the annual IBMA World of Bluegrass convention in Nashville.

The popular, BlogCritics recently gave the CD an amazing review stating -  Not only do the siblings display excellent musicianship, and warm, heartfelt singing, but Jocelyn Gold is also a talented songwriter. Most of the songs on the disc flow from her pen – three-quarters to be precise. All of her offerings are solid, but some absolutely shine.

Article, International News Gold Heart

Michael Martin Murphey Hits Top 50 Chart with two albums.

Rural Rhythm Records has announced this week that Michael Martin Murphey lands in two spots on Billboard Magazine’s Top 50 Bluegrass Char:t. Buckaroo Blue Grass II – Riding Song released on the 9th February is riding at number 15.  At number 22 on the charts is the Grammy nominated Buckaroo Blue Grass that also appears in the #1 spot on the Roots Music Bluegrass Report.

Both Michael Martin Murphey and his son, Ryan Murphey, certainly set the tone with the original “Buckaroo Blue Grass” with its appeal to a wide range of music fans – blending bluegrass, country, cowboy, roots and Americana music with the drive and energy Murphey has become known for. “Buckaroo Blue Grass II – Riding Song”, continues the journey - Rural Rhythm Records

Read a review at Lonsome Road Review

Bluegrass News, International News Michael Martin Murphy, Rural Rhythm Records

Rounder Records announced Summertown Road’s debut album. Although the band was formed back in 2008, taking their name from  the title of a Marty Raybon song this is their first album release.

The lineup consists of John Hicks on banjo and Dobro, Bo Isaacs on guitar, Jonathan Rigsby on fiddle, mandolin and clawhammer banjo and Randy Thomas on bass.

Individually, the bandmembers have spent time playing in abnds for Bill Monroe, Ralph Stanley, Conway Twitty, The Whites, and Tony Rice,  and awards ranging from a John Rigsby’s Grammy and Bo Isaacs membership in the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame.

CD Release, International News Summertown Road