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Spicks and Specks on ABC TV – 1st Sep 2010.

The Davidson Brothers will be the feature act on Spicks and Specks in September.

What is Spicks and Specks? It’s a TV quiz show which features two of three people as they sing, shout and delve deep into the recesses of their collective memories to help earn their teams an extremely inglorious victory.

Whether discussing the lyrical genius of Gilbert and Sullivan, The Beatles or just how a musician can choke on a harmonica, no musical genre is overlooked. Featuring video clips, album covers, and information you never thought anyone could know the answer to, Spicks and Specks enlightens and entertains – and exposes the world of music like never before. It often features a live band or musical ensemble playing versions of tunes which the teams also need to guess or deduce the names of.

Adam Hills, one of Australia’s favourite comedians and winner of Edinburgh’s Best of the Fest award, is joined by two team captains, comedian and actor Alan Brough and radio breakfast announcer Myf Warhurst, as well as brave personalities who enjoy having long forgotten embarrassing stories laughed about on national television.

This was an experience. It humbles you when you realise that for the 7 people you see on telly, there’s a heap of people running around behind the scenes making sure everthing runs smoothly. They really looked after us. It was a fun, and exciting place to take bluegrass - Hamish Davidson.

Submitted by Neil and Cilla Wills – Qld.

The weather was kind for July in Queensland, clear sunny days and cold nights.

Friday night started with a concert after dinner, featuring The Wayward Sisters, The O’Donnell Family, Redland Bluegrass Boys , Pirate Brides, Innes Campbell & Present Company, Groundspeed and closed with Brendan Radford’s Glasshouse Mountain Boys.

The well attended workshops ran through Saturday and many of the artists contributed their time to pass on techniques and other wisdoms to the eager audiences. The workshops form an integral part of the festival, giving many of the attendees lots of inspiration to keep on learning and practicing every day.

The walk-up concert early in the afternoon gave many of the performers the opportunity to perform on the main stage and they showed that there is plenty of Bluegrass happening locally in the Brisbane area.

Mid-Saturday afternoon, George Jackson had organised a Tony Rice Tribute and ten different artists / groups presented wide selection of Tony’s well known tunes. The audience was enthralled and it was just great to see the young hot shots like George, Daniel Watkins, Inness, BB Brownes and Lachie Davidson show the more established artists that they better keep looking over their shoulders because these young guys are coming up fast.

Saturday night kicked off with Bluegrass Parkway. The power cut out for a couple of minutes during the set however BGP did not notice and just played on!. The audience loved it and there was a great roar when the lights came on again.

George Jackson & Twisted Oak, Karen Lynne, then Kristy Cox finished off the first half. Interval and the now famous ‘mulled wine’ warmed the crowd before the boys from Nashville hit the stage.

Midnight from Memphis consisted of David Long on mandolin, Scott Simotacchi on guitar, Preston Schmitt on fiddle and Eric Thorin on upright bass. It was such a pleasure to see these four guys in action, often doing some of their own compositions.

As has been the case for the past seven years, the Davidson Brothers closed the concert with fast and furious Bluegrass. These guys just keep getting better and better.

A great weekend was had by all, many of our guests kicked on Sunday night with the traditional jam / party. Monday was R&R on Stradbroke Island whale watching and sight-seeing for the day.

It was an honour to see Midnight From Memphis in action. Their unique style, great own compositions, harmonies, musicianship and single mike theatrics left the audience demanding more.

That was 2010 and now it’s back to the planning for 2011 - Neil & Cilla Wills.

I caught up with Hamish Davidson at Redlands Festival this year and he talked a little about the Davidson Brothers’ plans to produce a new CD later in 2010 which they hope to release in early in 2011.

In September this year, the boys plan to head to Nashville once again, to meet up with producer Mark Thornton, who has produced the last three of their four albums.

Born To Play, their last CD with a somewhat country music feel, featured several guest musicians such as Bryan Sutton, Randy Kohrs, Kevin Grant, Jef Taylor and Pat Bergeson. As successful as this album has been, it was a very time consuming project for the group having so many artists involved. The brothers aim to keep the next venture simple, utilising at least one guest musician with whom they have not worked with before.

The album will be similar to their third album Raised on the Road, with a mostly bluegrass content and the feel and sound of a live concert.

We are writing at the moment, and the repertoire is going to be mostly bluegrass. We will be releasing the album at the Tamworth Country Music Festival in January 2011 – Hamish Davidson.

Submitted by Lachlan Davidson, VIC.

Lachlan Davidson traveled to the USA this year to participate in the 2010 class of Leadership Bluegrass. Now in its eleventh year with more than 250 alumni, Leadership Bluegrass is an intensive three-day program of advanced level, interactive learning experiences that invites participants to examine the challenges and opportunities facing bluegrass music along with related leadership issues. It’s facilitated by Fred Bartenstein, the classes were held at the BMI offices in Nashville Tennessee from 9th to 11th March this year.

I first heard about the short course when I represented Australia at the 2008 IBMA International Bluegrass Summit meetings held during the World of Bluegrass Convention. The class has been running for 11 years now and is a three day course of 25 students selected from applicants world wide.

The concept of the course is to encourage the development of Leaders in various areas of the bluegrass music industry. Held on music row at the BMI offices in Nashville, the course looks at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing our music today.

Throughout the intense 3 days, key speakers from music city lend their time presenting to the class their expertise covering festival production, distribution, royalties, booking agencies, education and longtime bluegrass legends Doyle Lawson, Eddie Adcock and Blue Highways, Rob Ickes presented interactive sessions where they spoke about their careers.

The lifelong connections to come out from the course blew me away, with big time music lawyers, and industries leaders agreeing to answer any questions and help out in the furture through the Leadership Bluegrass Network.

Each day started before 9am until 9pm, which included spending all meals together, late nights at the Station Inn, breakfast at the IBMA office and a pickin party at IBMA director, Dan Hay’s house to allow everyone to play some music during their stay.

Country Music Channel (CMC) has announced that Australian country legend, Lee Kernaghan is joining the channel to present a new series of artist profiles and insights.

In his first role for CMC, Lee presents a series called Lee Kernaghan: The Stories. In the current series, Lee profiles emerging country music artists, handpicked by him. The Davidson Brothers are also the current feature on the CMC website.

The Davidson Brothers will be appearing at the Corner Hotel in Richmond this month with Liam Brew & Brody Young.

You can book tickets now by calling the venue’s box office on 03 9427 9198 or visit www.cornerhotel.com

Date: Friday, April 23, 2010
Time: 8:00pm – 11:00pm
Location: Corner Hotel, 57 Swan Street, Richmond.

More and more music is cropping up with significant acoustic influences of late, especially influences from the traditional American music ranks and their origins are not too distant. The likes of the Coen Brother’s movie Oh Brother where Art Thou? has served the genre well in recent years. One cannot discount the influence of bands like the Dixie Chicks parading around the stage with banjo, fiddle, slide guitar and mandolin, all traditional instrumentation in bluegrass and old time music. In Australia we have the young band, The Davidson Brothers taking their style of bluegrass and country to a wider and wider circle of young people.

Fans of bluegrass music are not surprised by the influence. It does seem that more and more pop bands are turning to these traditional sounds, perhaps in an effort to set themselves apart from the mix of noise and percussion that some choose to label as music these days. Who knows, what drives it, but it is certainly good to know that the circle may yet be unbroken.

Jo Roberts from Sydney Morning Herald offers up some comments of upcoming band Avett Brothers in an article called Is Banjo The New Black?

If Mumford & Sons’ recent Triple J Hottest 100-topping success is anything to go by, then North Carolina’s Avett Brothers have timed their own twangin’ tilt at the top perfectly. Even if it has taken them 10 years to get there.

Named artists to watch in last year’s US Rolling Stone and a 2010 prediction in EG by this writer, the Avett Brothers — led by brothers Scott, 33, and Seth, 29 — have, in more than 10 years of relentless touring, built a broad and dedicated following throughout the US with their infectious amalgam of sibling-harmony-driven pop, bluegrass, country, folk and punk.

…they were drawn to more porch-dwelling sounds and decided to start writing and recording their own acoustic-based material under their own name, with Scott focusing on banjo and Seth on guitar.

Read the full article in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Australia’s Hottest Young Bluegrass Group in Melbourne.

Back from another successful US tour, Australia’s hottest Bluegrass group, the Davidson Brothers return to Melbourne for a rare performance. Originally from Gippsland, these National Bluegrass Champions recently won their 2nd Golden Guitar Award.

Known for converting crowds with their high-energy performances on banjo, fiddle & mandolin; their music has been referred to as the ‘Punk of Country’. The boys will team up with Compass Bros recording artist, Liam Brew from Qld. He’s been attracting fans to his style of contemporary country off the back of his 2009 Starmaker win.