Artists

Galyean & Cullen’s Bridge – Songs From The Blue Ridge

18 Nov, 18 by Greg McGrath Leave a Comment

Rebel Records has announced the release of Mickey Galyean & Cullen’s Bridge’s second Rebel recording, Songs From The Blue Ridge. Hot on the heels of their Rebel debut My Daddy’s Grass – which topped Bluegrass Unlimited’s National Survey Chart. Songs From The Blue Ridge gives every indication of being a radio/fan favourite.

The album has received high-praise from a number of publications including music blog Fervor Coulee, which calls Songs From The Blue Ridge “an intriguing, lasting bluegrass recording.”

Unapologetic bluegrass is what Mickey Galyean & Cullen’s Bridge deliver. Pounding rhythms, searing vocals, strong melodies and just the right mix of deft originals and ripened treasures; that’s the formula that works for this group. Emanating from the bluegrass heartland between Galax, Virginia, and Mt. Airy, North Carolina – Round Peak to “those in the know” – they are bearers of a tradition that has thrived there for generations.

Band leader Mickey Galyean grew up in bluegrass. His late father Cullen (hence the name, Cullen’s Bridge) was a lifelong picker. The band’s name is a perpetual tribute to him as well as a statement on its musical philosophy. Mickey is a strong singer who sports a driving rhythm guitar; he sets the tone for the band. Holding forth on banjo is Rick Pardue, a North Carolinian with a penchant for songwriting; he had the 2012 IBMA Song of the Year and is a past winner of the MerleFest/Chris Austin Songwriting Contest. Bass player Brad Hiatt sets the tempo the band’s performances; his instrument of choice once belonged to famed Flatt & Scruggs picker Cousin Jake Tullock. Billy Hawks adds soulful melodies with his flowing fiddle; he’s logged time with Doyle Lawson and Rebel artists Big Country Bluegrass and Junior Sisk & Ramblers Choice.

The disc is evenly divided between band originals and bluegrass fare. Dixieland For Me first saw the light of day in the middle 1960s on a bluegrass album by George Jones and Melba Montgomery. The Country Gentlemen had recordings of The Convict and the Rose and Wear a Red Rose. Larry Sparks made popular Harold Russell’s These Old Prison Bars nearly 50 years ago. Of more recent vintage is Dudley Connell’s (Seldom Scene/ex-Johnson Mountain Boy) Too Late to Say Goodbye.

The pleading Now I’m Losing You was penned by Mickey, who also offers a thoughtful reworking to a song recorded in the 1960s by the Stanley Brothers, Drunkard’s Dream. Cullen Galyean’s The Blue Ridge Mountains is an autobiographical account of his life in the hills. Pardue takes a strong stand about the purity of his music with No Candy in My Bluegrass. Hawks’ Outback is an original fiddle tune that sounds like one you’ve heard all your life – it’s that good. Despite the pensive sound of its title, Hiatt’s She’s Gone is barn-burning up-tempo bluegrass. As with all good bluegrass albums, you need a gospel song; Pardue’s You Can Go to Heaven, complete with the assurance that “You don’t have to have a PhD… heaven is waiting for the ones who believe,” fills the bill.

Mickey Galyean & Cullen’s Bridge have produced an outstanding album that will delight young and old fans of mountain music alike.

Click here to stream, download or buy Songs From The Blue Ridge.

Track List:

1. Dixieland For Me
2. The Convict and the Rose
3. No Candy in My Bluegrass
4. Now I’m Losing You
5. Outback
6. Too Late to Say Goodbye

7. These Old Prison Bars
8. Wear a Red Rose
9. The Drunkard’s Dream
10. The Blue Ridge Mountains
11. She’s Gone
12. You Can Go to Heaven

For more information visit:

Tim Raybon and Daniel Grindstaff – Oh The Joy Of Christmas

17 Nov, 18 by Greg McGrath Leave a Comment

Combining the musical styles of the Father of Bluegrass with the Okie from Muskogee is an exciting proposition. Feeling that “Bluegrass and Traditional Country music is America’s music, the stories of the common man and the sounds of the mountains,” Tim Raybon and Daniel Grindstaff have formed the new band MerleMonroe. A new album is in the works for release in the spring of 2019. A preview of the group’s sound can be heard on the new Christmas release A Very Acoustic Christmas. Raybon penned the nostalgic Oh The Joy Of Christmas for the album.

With the goal of choosing songs that relate to everyday life and go “back to the country,” they, along with bandmates Jayd Raines and Josh Doss, hope to take your mind away from today’s current distractions on their new self-titled project for Pinecastle Records. They have worked extremely hard looking for and writing songs they feel will be different, yet still reflect their heroes’ music from years past.

Tim and Daniel first met in the mid 2000’s when Daniel was performing with Marty Raybon at IBMA Fan Fest. They had only a short time to rehearse before they performed their set, but Tim will always remember his first impression of Daniel: ”He was the best banjo player I had ever heard and an adamant professional.” Daniel recalls that since first hearing Tim Raybon, “I have held his vocal abilities as being one of the best-kept secrets in the music business.” From the beginning they held a common bond in their love of the Osborne Brothers, Jim and Jesse, and Bill Monroe; they hit it off and have remained friends ever since.

Tim Raybon has a natural vocal ability that has been described as “real” – so real that it needs no electronic masking of any sort. His musical trek began with his dad and brothers in the family band The American Bluegrass Express when Tim was only eleven. Based in Florida, the band met with great success throughout the South and afforded Tim the opportunity to sharpen his skills by playing festivals and concerts that were shared by some of the greatest legends in Bluegrass music. Tim will forever be grateful for the opportunity to have played with the likes of Bill Monroe, the McReynolds, and the Osbornes.

Tim’s talent would soon be recognized far beyond his Florida home as the lead singer for one of the hottest nightclubs in the country, The Barn. Tim fronted many shows that featured the premier acts in Country music. From there he moved on to Nashville and began a career as a demo singer singing newly written songs many of which would eventually become the latest hit for the biggest stars in Nashville. 1997 brought a musical reunion to Tim and his brother Marty that produced the certified gold hit “Butterfly Kisses.” That same year the Raybon Brothers were nominated for the CMA Duo of the Year.

Daniel Grindstaff, born and raised in Elizabethton, Tennessee, is considered to be among the elite of banjo players. Beginning his musical career at the age of 18, he played the Grand Ole Opry with Jim and Jesse McReynolds; by the time he was 21, he was also joining the Osborne brothers on stage. In the fall of 2006, Daniel was touring with Marty Raybon and remained a significant contributor to Raybon’s studio recordings and concerts for the next five years. “April’s Fool,” released in 2007, was a well-received studio album from Grindstaff that included a plethora of well-respected contributing musicians.

Supported by career experiences that range from various TV and festival appearances to studio recordings to the stage of the Opry, Daniel Grindstaff and Tim Raybon have teamed up to create one of the best sounds to emerge on the bluegrass and country scene in years as the band MerleMonroe. Watch for their self-titled recording, “Merle Monroe,” on Pinecastle Records.

Balsam Range – Aeonic

16 Nov, 18 by Greg McGrath Leave a Comment

In just over a decade, Balsam Range has collected armfuls of industry awards, held multiple months at the top of radio charts, recorded and performed with the Atlanta Pops Orchestra, and headlined an array of eclectic music festivals, all the while maintaining their identity and refining their craft to become one of the most vital artists in the roots genre.

On the heels of their second International Bluegrass Music Association Entertainer of the Year award, this eminent band continues to be a tour de force in Bluegrass with their album, Aeonic, to be released January 4, 2019 from Mountain Home Music Company. The album is now available for pre-order here and available for radio play through AirPlay Direct here.

With this music, Balsam Range continues to grow the magic that has mesmerized audiences and expanded their fandom — arresting songs full of humanity, dynamic performances graced with subtleties, and material that is both personal and profound. Music that would be powerful in any genre but is made all the more compelling through this Western North Carolina band’s acoustic music mastery.

The album kicks off with a song that has already spent weeks at the #1 spot in Bluegrass Radio, The Girl Who Invented the Wheel. With the lead vocal by Buddy Melton, 2-time IBMA Male Vocalist of the Year, it’s an out-of-the-box anecdote about a man left impressed albeit rejected by an independent woman: “I’ve been left before, this was a different deal / I think I just met the girl who invented the wheel.”

Several of the songs share a prevailing theme of searching for meaning. They may reveal where Balsam Range finds itself as an artist, evaluating the past, looking toward what’s next. Tumbleweed Town with lead vocal delivered by guitarist Caleb Smith, is a mid-tempo stroll through a town that lives inside a mind tortured with regret. The Rambler, with vocal rendered by mandolin player Darren Nicholson, is a dirge into the dark night of the soul, a story about life on the road and the road of life.

Get Me Gone, the most recent single from Aeonic, continues this theme of looking back, moving forward. It’s a catchy version of an otherwise sad story of love lost and soon to be forgotten. “Gone like whiskey gone like broke / Straight outta here like wind-blown smoke / Won’t you give me some light good Lord, and get me gone.”

Hobo Blues showcases instrumental minimalism in order to pull you into the sadness of the character. A Ray LaMontagne cover with lead vocal by Smith, it creates a quiet interval on the album that adds to its thoughtful effect.

Help Me To Hold On is a song about desperation, and it’s performed that way, with an arrangement that portrays a profound sincerity. Melton’s vocal range and controlled power result in a performance that highlights a singer at the top of his game and illustrates why he has been awarded as such.

Let My Life Be a Light harkens back to the foundation of this band. Driving traditional Bluegrass Gospel powered by the band’s most seasoned and awarded performer, Grammy-winning banjoist, Dr. Marc Pruett. Pruett’s perfect timing and syncopation here showcase why he has been so celebrated, performing with greats like Ricky Skaggs before bringing his prowess to Balsam Range. With lead singing from Smith, the chorus sounds off the rich 3-part harmonies of him, Melton, and Tim Surrett.

My Cross to Bear is a murder ballad, purposefully written from an ambiguous first-person perspective who is constantly tortured with the guilt of their crime.

Graveyard Blues continues on dark themes common to Bluegrass storytelling, illustrating the harshness of life in another era where hard labor, tragedy and death were commonplace.

Angel Too Soon challenges listeners’ hearts. A hauntingly beautiful performance matched with an equally haunting lyric about the death of a child, it is the hardest of subjects and surely meant to be cathartic.

Bookending the collection of songs on this album with uniqueness, Balsam Range shows yet another dimension of their talent with a cover of The Beatles’ If I Needed Someone. With lead vocal by IBMA Bass Player of the Year Tim Surrett, the song features Beatles-styled stacked harmonies, along with impeccable timing and instrumental wizardry, that are unlike any arrangement the band — or arguably anyone in Bluegrass — has attempted. The result is a look at how adept Balsam Range is at merging genres. Both styles become enriched by the influence of the other.

It has been said that great songs are timeless. But they also organise time into attractive human pieces while their lyrics manage their way into our hearts and minds with lasting meaning. Great music has no expiration date, it is Aeonic.

About Balsam Range:

The 2018 International Bluegrass Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year, Balsam Range, has become one of the genre’s most award-winning acts. Since forming in 2007, the group has garnered 13 IBMA awards on the heels of 8 critically acclaimed albums. Balsam Range has left audiences spellbound while headlining major festivals from coast-to-coast, selling out venues across the nation and in multiple appearances at the Grand Ole Opry. The band collaborated with the Atlanta Pops Orchestra Ensemble to record 2 albums, the second of which, Mountain Overture, debuted on the Billboard Bluegrass Chart at #5 and the Classical Crossover Chart at #6. Their previous outing, Mountain Voodoo, debuted at #4 on the Billboard Bluegrass Albums Chart and remained on that chart for 45 weeks. Three singles from that album reached #1 on the Bluegrass Today Chart, including Blue Collar Dreams, which spent three consecutive months at the top. The band most recently claimed the #1 radio chart spot with their single The Girl Who Invented The Wheel. In addition to winning Entertainer of the Year, Balsam Range vocalist Buddy Melton won IBMA’s Male Vocalist of the Year and bass player Tim Surrett won IBMA’s Bass Player of the Year in 2018.

Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen – If You Can’t Stand The Heat

16 Nov, 18 by Greg McGrath Leave a Comment

Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen are at the forefront of the current wave of artists defining what bluegrass means in the 21st century. Their new album If You Can’t Stand The Heat is set to release January 25th, 2019 on Compass Records.

Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen are true innovators with some of the best chops in the business and a band sound that is finely honed from years of touring. Lead vocalist and mandolinist Frank Solivan has a talent for finding songs that expand the parameters of the genre and, together with his band mates, brings the technical dexterity that makes their forays beyond traditional bluegrass so successful.

The band delivers its third and most impressive releaseIf You Can’t Stand The Heat on the heels of a Grammy nomination and multiple IBMA awards including 2016’s Instrumental Group of the Year.

The new 10-song collection, co-produced by Grammy-winning banjoist and Compass co-founder Alison Brown offers a vibrant mix of songs, from the traditional Lena featuring the mid-Atlantic bluegrass vocals of Danny Paisley and Dudley Connell to the neo-old-time Crooked Eye John, written by Cris Jacobs and featuring the inimitable fiddling of label mate Michael Cleveland to the compelling lead-off track Crave co-written by Frank and Becky Buller and showcasing the guitar prowess of Chris Luquette. Crave will have an exclusive radio premiere this Friday, November 16th at 11am EST on SiriusXM’s Bluegrass Junction. The band also delivers a compelling rendition of Steely Dan’s Rikki featuring the lead vocals of Jeremy Middleton, the catchy Be Sure written by Frank Solivan and the red-hot instrumental Crack of Noon penned by banjoist Mike Munford.

Taken as a whole, If You Can’t Stand The Heat is an album with legs and one that is bound to influence the future evolution of bluegrass music.

Track Listing:

1. Crave
2. Crooked Eyed John
3. My Own Way
4. Crack of Noon
5. Set in Stone

6. Lena
7. Wild Mustang
8. Rikki Don’t Lose That Number
9. Shiver
10. Be Sure

You can pre-order the new CD here.

Tour Dates 2018:

Nov 16 | Asheville, NC | Isis Music Hall w/ Lovers Leap
Nov 17 | Charlottesville, VA | The Prism Coffeehouse

Tour Dates 2019:

The Grascals – Heartbreak Hall of Fame

12 Nov, 18 by Greg McGrath Leave a Comment

Smooth but driving with a classic sound, Heartbreak Hall of Fame merges vintage Country with modern Bluegrass in just the right way, a combination the Grascals do so well. Written by Larry Joe Cox, Ray Edwards and Dicky Minor, it tells the story of unrequited love and a man whose suffering is endured through this bitter lament.

Lead vocals are performed by the band’s young, talked-about singer John Bryan with sterling Grascals harmonies by the recognised voice of Terry Eldredge and the resonant baritone of Terry Smith. Heartbreak Hall of Fame is the most recent single from this band’s upcoming release that follows the success of their 2017 release, Before Breakfast.

“Somewhere in the record books, There will be your name, and a list of all the hearts you broke while you played your cheatin’ game”

Take a listen to Heartbreak Hall of Fame.

About The Grascals:

Great musicians will always find a way to make good music, but for great musicians to make great music, they must form a bond – one that, more often than not, goes beyond the purely musical to the personal. For The Grascals, that bond has been forged at the intersection of personal friendships, shared professional resumes and an appreciation for the innovative mingling of bluegrass and country music that has been a hallmark of the Nashville scene for more than forty years.

Their cutting-edge modern bluegrass is delivered with a deep knowledge of, and admiration for, the work of the music’s founding fathers. Timely yet timeless, The Grascals make music that is entirely relevant to the here and now, yet immersed in traditional values of soul and musicianship. It’s a unique sound that has earned three Grammy® nominations and two Entertainer of the Year awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association, as well as national media attention that seems to perpetually elude acts entrenched in niche genres. Such appearances include The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Fox & Friends, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, and CBS’ The Talk. All the while, stages that represent the strongest bastions of tradition continually welcome them, as evidenced by the over 150 performances on the Grand Ole Opry. Honours also include performing twice for President George W. Bush and at President Barack Obama’s inaugural ball at the Smithsonian.

As their records prove, The Grascals’ rare musical empathy gives them an unerring ear for just the right touch to illuminate each offering’s deepest spirit – whether they’re digging into one of their original songs or reworking a bluegrass classic or a pop standard. Take for instance, fan favorite, “Last Train to Clarksville.” Non-bluegrass listeners enjoy a new take on a familiar song, while diehard bluegrass audiences who may have never heard the Monkees classic, respond in-kind, not even realising that the song has been Grascalized.

Appalachian Road Show Barry Abernathy and Darrell Webb

12 Nov, 18 by Greg McGrath Leave a Comment

Barry Abernathy and Darrell Webb have teamed up for a new musical venture, called the Appalachian Road Show. The first album is has been released on Billy Blue Records.

Barry Abernathy was a founding member of the vocal and instrumental powerhouse band, Mountain Heart. The group or its members have won or been nominated for multiple Grammys, ACM, CMA, and IBMA Awards. Abernathy is also known for his contributions to both Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver and IIIrd Tyme Out. The most unlikely thing about Barry’s story is his having been born with just a thumb and part of an index finger on his left hand. Still, in addition to his truly great voice, Abernathy plays a blistering banjo. Because of his hand, he approaches the fingerboard from the top and does the fretting with his thumb and the end of his single-knuckled index finger. The Georgia-born Abernathy was named Banjo Player of the Year in 1997 by the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America (SPBGMA).

Darrell Webb is a Grammy nominated session musician as well as an International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) and SPBGMA award winner. The mandolin master with the soaring tenor previously headed up his own eponymous band and before that, worked with some of the top acts in acoustic music, including Lonesome River Band, J.D. Crowe & The New South, Rhonda Vincent & The Rage, Wildfire, and Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper.

With Appalachian Road Show, Abernathy, Webb and their talented compadres (including fiddle beast, Jim VanCleve, and upright bassist, Todd Phillips) seek to honour the music, traditions and history of the great Appalachian people and region. Additionally, the group takes influences from other sources and applies that Appalachian style, as they’ve done with their first radio single, a grassy version of the Steve Miller Band’s “Dance, Dance, Dance.”

Gibson Brothers Go Country with Mockingbird

10 Nov, 18 by Greg McGrath Leave a Comment

Leigh and Eric Gibson step into what some might at first see as uncharted territory on their country-soul breakout Mockingbird, the new album produced by Grammy Award winners Dan Auerbach and Fergie Ferguson.

The celebrated bluegrass duo, The Gibson Brothers, have been named back-to-back Entertainers of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association in 2012 and 2013. They have played the Nashville game two decades ago, while in their early 20s, and were offered a major label deal, only to be told at the last-minute that they were too “retro” for modern country music. Today, such characterisations, along with their authenticity, set them apart and describes the Mockingbird.

The Gibson Brothers say Mockingbird, their 14th album, and has been some 20 years in the making, though all songs except the R.E.M. tune are new ones.

By ‘20 years in the making,’ we are referring to the fact that we made a country-sounding record nearly 20 years ago, but it never came out. We had a major label deal that fell through at the last minute, and it has always felt like unfinished business – Eric Gibson.

Fans can preview the new album here.

Old Man Luedecke – New Album and Tour Dates

8 Nov, 18 by Greg McGrath Leave a Comment

Old Man Luedecke’s latest release One Night Only! Live at the Chester Playhouse is a recording of one gig played on September 15, 2017, when he appeared solo before his hometown crowd in the seaside village of Chester, Nova Scotia.

The record captures the warmth and intimacy of the show and the transmutation of the ordinary to the magical that Luedecke achieves every night. Through this generous set of songs we get a fantastic view of Luedecke’s storytelling art, his songcraft, and his timing as he engages and thrills an audience with his weirdly wordy ways. It is precisely this combination which makes him such a beloved live performer.

Australian audiences get their opportunity to reacquaint themselves with Old Man Luedecke when he returns for a run of dates throughout Queensland and down into New South Wales, including performances at Mullum Music Festival and Woodford Folk Festival, as well as a run of even more regional dates with Festival Of Small Halls – which also features Australian artist Lucy Wise. Full dates below.

One Night Only! Live at the Chester Playhouse is out now via MGM.

See the viseo below featuring the song Low on the Hog from the album.

Tour Dates – (* With Lucy Wise)

Nov 16 – 18	Mullum Music Festival	Website
Wed Nov 21	Kerry Memorial Hall, Kerry QLD*	Website
Thu Nov 22	Westbrook Hall, Westbrook QLD*	Website
Fri Nov 23	Texas Memorial Hall, Texas QLD*	Website
Sat Nov 24	Corambra Community Hall NSW*	Website
Sun Nov 25	Valla Public Hall, Valla NSW*	Website
Wed Nov 28	Mt Nimmel Hall, Austinville QLD*	Website
Thu Nov 29	Brookstead Hall, Brookstead QLD*	Website
Fri Nov 30	Maryvale Community Hall, Maryvale QLD*	Website
Sat Dec 1	Cooranga North Memorial Hall, Cooranga Nth QLD*	Website
Sun Dec 2	Mothar Mountain Hall, Mothar Mountain QLD*	Website
Wed Dec 5	Koah Hall, Koah QLD*	Website
Thu Dec 6	Forrest Beach Senior Citizens Centre, Forrest Beach QLD*	Website
Fri Dec 7	Middlemount Community Hall, Middlemount QLD*	Website
Sat Dec 8	Queen Street Hall, Yeppoon QLD*	Website
Sun Dec 9	Bucca Hall, Bucca QLD*	Website
Wed Dec 12	Rainbow Beach Community Hall, Rainbow Beach QLD*	Website
Thu Dec 13	Thornville Hall, Thornville QLD*	Website
Fri Dec 14	Springbrook Community Hall, Springbrook QLD*	Website
Sat Dec 15	Mt Nebo Community Hall, Mt Nebo QLD*	Website
Sun Dec 16	Eudlo Hall, Eudlo QLD*	Website
Dec 18 – Dec 19	Woodford Folk Festival	Website

Revival: The Sam Bush Story

30 Oct, 18 by Greg McGrath Leave a Comment

Revival: The Sam Bush Story is to be made available digitally from 1st Nov. via Amazon.

Revival: The Sam Bush Story is written, produced, and directed by Wayne Franklin & Kris Wheeler with appearances by Emmylou Harris, John Oates, Alison Krauss, Bela Fleck, Chris Thile, David Grisman, Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Douglas, Jeff Hanna, Del McCoury, John Cowan, Jeff Austin, Scott Avett, The Avett Brothers, Woody Platt, Mike Guggino, Steep Canyon Rangers, Paul Hoffman, Greensky Bluegrass, Pat Flynn, and Sierra Hull.

There was only one prize-winning teenager carrying stones big enough to say thanks, but no thanks to Roy Acuff. Only one son of Kentucky finding a light of inspiration from Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys and catching a fire from Bob Marley and The Wailers. Only one progressive hippie allying with like-minded conspirators, rolling out the newgrass revolution, and then leaving the genre’s torch-bearing band behind as it reached its commercial peak. There is only one consensus pick of peers and predecessors, of the traditionalists, the rebels, and the next gen devotees. Music’s ultimate inside outsider. Or is it outside insider? There is only one Sam Bush.

Sam Bush has released seven albums and a live DVD over the past two decades and in 2009, the Americana Music Association awarded Bush the Lifetime Achievement Award for Instrumentalist. Punch Brothers, Steep Canyon Rangers, and Greensky Bluegrass are just a few present-day bluegrass vanguards among so many musicians he has influenced. His performances are annual highlights of the festival circuit, with Bush’s joyous perennial appearances at the town’s famed bluegrass fest earning him the title, “King of Telluride.”

Finally for fans everywhere, the documentary telling Bush’s full story, Revival: The Sam Bush Story, will be released digitally on Nov. 1 via Amazon to rent or buy.

Revival not only chronicles the life and career of the newgrass creator, but weaves an emotional, inspiring story about the risks and rewards of being a musical iconoclast. Since its debut at the Nashville Film Festival in 2015, winning the audience award for Best Music Documentary, the crowd-pleasing film has played to packed houses and standing ovations at independent film festivals (Sidewalk Film Festival, St. Louis International, Big Sky, Noise Pop, IF Film, Durango, Port Townsend, Woods Hole, and Hurricane) across the country and has screened at IBMA, Telluride, Film Falmouth, and Hear BG, picking up three more best documentary awards along the way.

The film opens with an especially poignant interview with Chris Thile commenting on the pressure placed on Bush by bluegrass traditionalists at the beginning of his career who looked at him to be the next Bill Monroe, to which Thile, speaking freely, says Bush had the courage to say “No, I’m going to be the first Sam Bush.” In the film, noted musicians – from Alison Krauss to John Oates, from the Avett Brothers to Thile – say many of today’s biggest acts in bluegrass, newgrass, Americana and the jam-band scene owe a debt of gratitude to Bush. Performance footage, intimate interviews with the industry greats, and candid conversations from Bush, and his wife/business partner Lynn, make for an enjoyable inside look at one of the nation’s greatest musical treasures, the hurdles he faced, the boundaries he effortlessly broke and his triumphs across genres.

The film remembers Bush on a Bowling Green, Kentucky cattle farm in the post-war 1950’s – an only son, and with four sisters. His love of music came immediately by his father Charlie who envisioned his son someday a staff fiddler at the Grand Ole Opry. The narrative unfolds with teen fiddler Bush, a three-time national champion in the junior division of the National Oldtime Fiddler’s Contest. In the spring of 1970 attended the Fiddlers Convention. There he heard the New Deal String Band, taking notice of their rock-inspired brand of progressive bluegrass. A game changer for Bush.

In the film, Bush recalls when country titan Roy Acuff offered him a spot in his band, which he politely turned down. It was not the music he wanted to play. He had discovered electrified alternatives to tradition in the Osborne Brothers and manifest destiny in The Dillards.

Viewers will see the photo of a fresh-faced Bush in his shiny blue high school graduation gown, circa 1970. The next day he was gone, bound for Los Angeles. He got as far as his nerve would take him – Las Vegas – then doubled back to Bowling Green. “I started working at the Holiday Inn as a busboy,” Bush recalls. “Ebo Walker and Lonnie Peerce came in one night asking if I wanted to come to Louisville and play five nights a week with the Bluegrass Alliance. That was a big, ol’ ‘Hell yes, let’s go.’”

Bush played guitar in the group, then began playing mandolin after recruiting guitarist Tony Rice to the fold. Following a fallout with Lonnie Peerce in 1971, Bush and his Alliance mates, Ebo Walker, Courtney Johnson, and Curtis Burch, formed the New Grass Revival, issuing the band’s debut album New Grass Revival. Walker left soon after, replaced temporarily by Butch Robins, with the quartet solidifying around the arrival of bassist John Cowan.

Shunned by some traditionalists, New Grass Revival played bluegrass fests slotted in late-night sets for the “long-hairs and hippies.” They garnered the attention of Leon Russell, one of the era’s most popular artists, and in 1973 Russell hired New Grass as his supporting act on a massive tour that put the band nightly in front of tens of thousands. The group released five albums in their first seven years, and in 1979 became Russell’s backing band. By 1981, Johnson and Burch left the group, replaced by banjoist Bela Fleck and guitarist Pat Flynn.

A three-record contract with Capitol Records and a conscious turn to the country market took the Revival to new commercial heights. In this period, Bush survived a life-threatening bout with cancer, and celebrated chart-climbing singles, earned Grammy nominations, and, at their zenith, called it quits.

Bush worked the next five years with Emmylou Harris’ Nash Ramblers, then a stint with Lyle Lovett. He took home three-straight IBMA Mandolin Player of the Year awards, 1990-92, (and a fourth in 2007). In 1995 he reunited with Fleck and toured with the Flecktones, reigniting his penchant for improvisation. Then, finally, after a quarter-century of making music with New Grass Revival and collaborating with other bands, Sam Bush went solo. Which brings us to today and the reason for Revival and its digital release.

With this band I have now I am free to try anything. Looking back at the last 50 years of playing newgrass, with the elements of jazz improvisation and rock-&-roll, jamming, playing with New Grass Revival, Leon, and Emmylou; it’s a culmination of all that – Sam Bush.

The film is a culmination of “all of that”. Even though Sam is revered by so many music greats he remains something of an unknown legend for the uninitiated. So, for those who aren’t aware of Sam’s story, this will be a discovery film. And, honestly, that, as much as anything, is what drew me to this project – Co-director Kris Wheeler..

Roland White and Friends: A Tribute to the Kentucky Colonels

27 Oct, 18 by Greg McGrath Leave a Comment

Recently inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, master mandolin player and singer Roland White is celebrating a trailblazing period of his storied career with new recordings of songs he helped make classic.

Roland White and Friends: A Tribute to the Kentucky Colonels is a collection of hand-picked favourites that comprise an ultimate tribute to a groundbreaking era in the genre.

Featuring a broad range of some of today’s most talked-about acoustic musicians and singers, the project offers a new take on the magic of the original music made by the Colonels in key live and studio recordings from the early 1960s. The Kentucky Colonels — with the line-up Roland first formed in 1954 — became one of roots music’s most iconic bands. It is only now, decades later, that we can see the strong threads of musical influences the group has had on bluegrass and the greater acoustic music world.

With artists Brooke and Darin Aldridge, Kristin Scott Benson, Aaron Bibelhauser, Russ Carson, Jeremy Darrow, Nick Dauphinais, Gina Furtado, Jeremy Garrett, David Grier, Brittany Haas, Josh Haddix, Justin Hiltner, Lindsay Lou, Kimber Ludiker, Drew Matulich, Patrick McAvinue, Darren Nicholson, Lyndsay Pruett, Jon Stickley, Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, and Jon Weisberger, Roland White and Friends: A Tribute to the Kentucky Colonels reignites the spirit of the past and brings it to the present, transforming the music into modern-day classics.

The album is available now – download here

About Roland White:

Roland White is a living legend in Bluegrass Music. Inducted into the International Bluegrass Hall of Fame in 2017, his career spans 60 years. From his start as a teenager with his brother Clarence in what would eventually become the Kentucky Colonels, Roland has been a musical influence on more than just one generation of musicians.

His career is pedigreed. From the far-reaching influences of the Kentucky Colonels and the New Kentucky Colonels, to his time as a member of Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys to his innovative musicianship in celebrated bands like Country Gazette and The Nashville Bluegrass Band, to his years of studio and solo work all the way to his current outfit, The Roland White Band, it’s nothing short of consummate.

It is White’s stylistic playing and singing that makes him an icon. It’s the way he seems to “dance” through his instrument with a touch, tone and aliveness that expresses and communicates feeling to all that hear it. In much the same way, White creates mood vocally with rare uniqueness and personality. It’s White’s creative innovation and professionalism that has made his music stand the test of time.

Even today, White is known in Nashville as a person who continues to bind the city’s Bluegrass community together. A mentor to all who have a chance to meet or play with him, he has nurtured numerous performing artists and been an ambassador to the genre.

About Mountain Home Music Company:

Mountain Home Music Company, a division of Crossroads Label Group is a premiere Bluegrass label with global distribution, representing such elite artists as Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Balsam Range, The Grascals, Lonesome River Band, Darin & Brooke Aldridge, Chris Jones & The Night Drivers, NewTown, Donna Ulisse, Gina Clowes, Kristin Scott Benson, The Cleverlys, Danny Roberts, Lawson and Williams, Sideline, The Snyder Family Band, and Unspoken Tradition. Established in 1993, Crossroads is a market leader in the Bluegrass, Americana, and Christian Music fields.