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The Strzelecki Stringbusters launch new website.

The Strzelecki Stringbusters (the stringbusters) is a 14 piece string band  featuring guitar, mandolin, banjo, ukulele, fiddle, double bass and harmonica. This group plays many styles of music from bluegrass and western swing to country and the blues.

The band members live, work and play in the hills around the Strzelecki Ranges in Victoria’s West Gippsland. The group spend a great deal of their time playing to raise funds to assist in local community events which support the wider Gippsland community.

They have three CD under their belt, all of which are now available from their new website, thanks to the services of Comstar Internet Services one of our own sponsors who have assisted with the e-commerce side of the web-development.

Take a look at the new Strzelecki Stringbusters site, they are now receiving visitors.

Here’s news of a new website dedicated to the late  Mike Seeger, whose life was devoted to the documentation, teaching and sustaining the sounds of traditional music of the American South. He died from cancer on 7th August 2009 at the age of 75.

This new website offers some in depth history on Mike Seeger’s life. It also has reproduced an article on What is Old-Time Music? By Mike Seeger which was originally printed in Bluegrass Unlimited magazine in 1997.

The website also contains a list of recordings, books, and videos that Mike produced, played on, or contributed to. Many of them are still available.

The website can be found at Mike Seeger.com.

The International Fan Club Associationn For Bluegrass and Classic Country Music (IFCA) has its own website.  Since 1999, the fan club has maintained a booth at the Country Music Association’s annual Fan Fair where fans can visit to meet artists and get autographs.

The site is still under construction, with the hope of many things to come, including pictures of most artists that have signed in the booth.  The  booth has included  Don Clark’s 1955 Flex Martha White-Grand Ole Opry-Flatt and Scruggs bus that is now a museum.  The both with the  bus is one of the most popular areas of the Convention Center during Fan Fair.

Thanks for all the support from so many throughout those 10 years.  I hate to start naming names because I would forget someone.  I do have to mention Jerald Daley, David and Virginia Blood and Richard White – Dave A. Burley, IFCA

The website address is   www.ifca-bluegrass-country.com.

Deering Banjos has announced the launch of their new Deering website with features that make it easier to find out about your favorite banjo, order unique and useful accessories like books, CDs, parts, tools, or find our online manual, FAQs, and other pointed information to make your banjo playing more fun.

Deering intends to update the site often so we have bookmarked it and will keep checking back to see what is new.

Check out the new DeeringBanjos.com

Thanks to Paul Castle who has led us to this wonderful site on the history of American folk music.

This three-part documentary series looks at American folk music, tracing its history from the recording boom of the 1920s to the folk revival of the 1960s.

Part 1 opens in the 1920′s where record companies scoured the American south for talent to sell. This was a golden age of American music, with the likes of the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charlie Poole, Dock Boggs and Mississippi John Hurt all of whom burst onto records, eager to have a share in the new industry and the money it made, only to lapse into obscurity when the depression hit at the start of the 30s.

Part two traces the history from the recording boom of the 1920s through the depression of the 1930s and on to the folk revival of the 1960s. Contributors include Pete Seeger, Rambling Jack Elliot, Anna Lomax, Tom Paxton, Roger McGuinn, Woody Guthrie’s sister and daughter and Josh White’s son.

Part three brings the 1960s and a new generation of stars, spearheaded by Joan Baez and Bob Dylan who turned up at Newport FOlk Festival in 1965 with an electric guitar. Things would never be the same again. With Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Judy Collins, Robbie Robertson, Stephen Stills, Country Joe McDonald, Roger McGuinn, Odetta and Tom Paxton.

You can see all three parts to this series at paulcastle.posterous.com/folk-america.

James King and his band have announced a new website featuring band bios and merchandise pages.

James King was born Sept. 9, 1958, in Martinsville, Virginia, and grew up in Carroll County, one of thof the most fertile breeding grounds for bluegrass and old-time musicians. James is known as The Bluegrass Storyteller. His most moving recordings being songs such as Echo Mountain, and Bed by the Window.

The James King Band features a different lineup to those who visited Australia a few years ago. They are apart form James himself, Ron Spears on  mandolin and tenor vocals, Greg Moore on  fiddle and vocals and Tony Mabe on banjo and vocals.

Visit James King Website

The official Randy Kohrs website, www.randykohrs.com, has received a virtual makeover to reflect a much more contemporary image in keeping with today’s ever-evolving online capabilities and stylistic standards.

Randy is confident the final results accurately represent the innovatively progressive sound of his unique musical style.  Notably, anxious fans will be able to ensure they receive a first copy of the highly-anticipated Quicksand with the convenient pre-order form on the Store page of the website.

Harrietville Bluegrass and Traditional Country Music Convention 19th – 22nd November

The folks from the Harrietville Bluegrass and Old Time Music Convention have launched a new website delivering all of the details of this year’s convention.

The site includes news and information of the festival including details of the overseas acts secured for the 2010 convention.

Renowned bluegrass banjo master Ross Nickerson (banjoTeacher.com) returns to Harrietville with his bluegrass band Hungry Hill– featuring Jenny Lester on Fiddle, Bob Hamilton on Mandolin, Mark Thibeault on Resophonic guitar, Nadine Landry on Double Bass.

Making another welcome return to Harrietville is Joe Dobbs who was born in Mississippi, where his grandfather also was a fiddler. After moving to Louisiana, Joe started playing the instrument when he was 10 years old. Joe lived in many locations throughout the South and Southwest over the years, finally moving to West Virginia in 1967 and staying there ever since. He has been active in the Mountain State’s folk music scene for 30 years as a fiddler, recording artist, instructor and lecturer.

Kim Johnson is from Kanawha County, WV, and has played banjo for more than 25 years. She performed and recorded with Wilson Douglas, one of West Virginia‘s foremost old-time fiddlers. Joined by Rob McNurlin who was raised in Eastern Kentucky, the hymns in church, his parents records and a guitar on his ninth Christmas set him on a very musical path. You can hear them both on Kim’s latest CD Keepers.

Pigeonwing Strings – Multi instrumentalists Pria Schwall-Kearney (voice, fiddle, banjo, feet) and Greg Fair (voice, mandolin, guitar, banjo, percussion) play the music of the Appalachian Mountains not according to a formula but with passion and energy. They incorporate styles as diverse as American old-time music from the 1920-30s, Québécois fiddle, close (brother-style) vocal harmonies & early bluegrass instrumentals.

The new site also features a program of events across the weekend and convention booking form and a page on Bluegrass Parkway who will be presenting their Radio Show program on the Thursday night of the festival.

Visit the Harrietville website