The Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America (SPBGMA) has announced the nominees for it’s annual Bluegrass Music Awards Show which happends during the annual SPBGMA convention and festival held Jan. 31 - Feb. 3 at the Sheraton Music City Hotel in Nashville Tenn.

Below is a partial listing of this years nominees. For a complete list of all the 2008 SPBGMA Awards Show Nominee’s please visit the SPBGMA website. More details on the convention can be found here.

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Mike Hartgrove photo by Steve Shaffer/KET

The Lonesome River Band has musicians coming and going as 2007 rolls into 2008.According to a message from Sammy Shelor on the band’s Web site, LRB’s former fiddle player Mike Hartgrove will rejoin the group in January.

“After a stint with Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver and teaching fiddle, Mike will be back on stage with us soon. He is one of the true pros of this business and we are going to enjoy having his great fiddle work back in the band.”Sammy Shelor

Shelor also notes that Matt Leadbetter, the only full time Dobro player LRB has ever had, has left the band “to be with his new son Houston and to work closer to home.”

“Matt did a great job with the band and we wish him well,” Shelor said.

Fans will also be happy to hear that the band will release a new CD “sometime in the spring of 2008,” Shelor said.

The newest CD from LRB on retailers’ shelves came out this summer on the Sugar Hill label. Entitled “Lonesome River Band — Best of The Sugar Hill Years,” it features four songs taken from each of the CDs the band recorded for the label. Those CDs are “Old Country Town,” “One Step Forward,” “Finding the Way” and “Talkin’ to Myself.”

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I’ll Take The Blame - The Adrians

Yes, Virginia, in this day of newgrass, contemporary grass, nuke-powered pickers and the like, bluegrass that your grandpa loved remains alive and fresh.

Yes, Virginia, I said fresh.

It can be found on a CD entitled “I’ll Take the Blame” by The Adrians, a band headquartered not in the Appalachians, but in Maine. Much of the lead and prominent harmony vocals are carried by the father-son team of Adrian Drost Sr. and Adrian Drost Jr., who both play guitar. Adrian and Adrian, The Adrians. Get it?

Other musicians on the CD are Nancy Merrill on bass, fiddler Ed Howe, Bill Smith on banjo and mandolinist Bill Thibodeau.

The CD is on Virginia-based MasterShields Records, the same label that has introduced American bluegrass fans to the very youthful and capable Abrams Brothers from Canada, and, on the other end of the age spectrum, a collection of Country Gentlemen songs with former Gentleman bass player Bill Yates at the forefront of that project.

But back to the subject at hand, The Adrians. The Drosts very evidentally have an affinity for traditional bluegrass and classic country music. Their CD includes two Hank Williams songs, one by Jimmy Skinner, two Carter Stanley-penned numbers and “Bluegrass Stomp,” the familiar Bill Monroe instrumental that had more than a pinch of early rock ‘n’ roll in its blood.

Adrian Sr. and Adrian Jr. obviously never wasted their money on a vocal coach to gussy up their singing. This is raw-edged bluegrass, a bit of a rarity in today’s market that seems to be getting slicker and slicker with the rising popularity of the genre through satellite radio outlets and bigger labels that employ savvy marketing and promotion folks.

The Adrians
Listen to audio samples on MySpace.

The CD opens with Hank Williams’ “Blue and Lonesome,” which gives a good indication of the flavors to come. It’s just straight-up bluegrass with few fireworks. I particularly enjoyed their cover of the classic, “Shenandoah Waltz” and the old Freddy Fender mega country hit, “Before the Next Teardrop Falls.”

According to the band’s Web site and promotional material on the CD, The Adrians came into being at an automotive repair shop where they both earned their living. At day’s end, it became common practice for the father-son team to wash up and grab their guitars and pick and sing their favorite songs in the garage. The many folks who stopped by encouraged them to move their stage beyond the repair shop, and that’s how the band originated.

Don’t buy this CD if you’re looking for the next banjo or fiddle whiz kid. You won’t find it here. But if you’re looking for a last-minute Christmas gift for your bluegrass-loving grandpa, this just might be the one. While you’re at it, sit down with gramps and give “The Adrians” a listen or two. It might grow on you.

-Dan Tackett

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