Editor’s note: We’ve met and visited with a lot of wonderful people in the bluegrass world in the past few years, and especially in the last six months that we’ve been involved in our Web site. We asked a handful of some memorable people we’ve visited with over the past year and invited them to share a bluegrass Christmas memory. Today’s memory is from the one of the great voices of bluegrass music, Steve Gulley of Grasstowne.

My father, Don, and I were booked to play a Christmas party along with the rest of the Pinnacle Boys in Knoxville, Tenn., back in the ’80s.That sounds pretty harmless right? Wrong!

When we got there, we found out we would be performing on a hay wagon out in the middle of this guy’s farm in below-freezing weather. Yes - outside! It was freezing cold with a dusting of snow on the ground.

We were provided salamander-type shotgun heaters next to the stage and, after every set, we managed to scorch nearly all the hair off the back of our hands just trying to get some feeling in them again. It was a memorable event to say the least.

I guess the crowd must have liked what they heard pretty well, because after about three sets of music, the fellow who booked us came up to us and offered a big bonus if we’d play another set.

So, being the true professional bluegrassers that we were, we got up on the trailer and gave the people what they wanted. I’ve never been so cold in my life, but I had a wonderful time and it remains one of my best musical Christmas memories.

You just can’t stop a bunch of dedicated bluegrassers!

Steve Gulley

Grasstowne

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Tim Hensley

Nashville, Tenn — When Kenny Chesney decided to make a bluegrass record on his friend and bandmate Tim Hensley, it wasn’t about chart position or units sold. Instead, the Luttrell, Tennessean wanted to capture the magic of the post-show bluegrass jams that fill up the hours following the triple Country Music Association and three consecutive Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year winner’s high energy concerts.

But sometimes even music that’s made for the sake of the song and the sheer joy of playing can find an audience. Certainly it’s the case of Long Monday, due January 29: the Cincinnati-born journeyman tenor/guitar player. In less than a month, Rodney Crowell’s “Ridin’ Out The Storm” has found a home on over 100 bluegrass radio outlets - and another 100 are expected to come on board in the next 3-to-4 weeks.

“We didn’t set out to prove anything with this record beyond how lucky we are to have Tim out there with us, you know. After the show, there’s a whole other show that goes on out by the buses as the crew tears down the stage and the sound and the lights. Anyone who ever gets to hear Tim and the guys playing bluegrass songs is in for a real special time - and making this record was in large part about sharing what we get to hear every night with the fans.”Kenny Chesney

Among the markets playing the lead track from Long Monday are Albany, NY, Tampa, FL, Charlotte, NC, Bristol, VA, Denver, CO, Louisville, KY, St Louis, MO, Detroit, MI, Little Rock, AR, San Diego, CA, College Station, TX and Hensley’s hometown of Cincinnati, Oh. Also added on www.worldwidebluegrass.com, “Ridin’ Out The Storm” is impacting globally with plays in Windsor, Australia, Ontario, Canada, Lincoln and Rotherham, England and a pair of Netherlands’ outlets.

It was a record we made because we wanted to… and the idea that people on the other side of the world are responding to it, well, that just blows us away.

“We went in to try and reflect the diversity of what Tim does,” Chesney says. “It’s about very traditional songs like ‘Working On A Building’ and more modern things like the Rodney song, but also some newer bluegrass songs like ‘Lonesome Dove’ and, well, Tim’s own ‘What A Sight To Behold.’ It was a record we made because we wanted to… and the idea that people on the other side of the world are responding to it, well, that just blows us away.”

Hensley, whose been with the man who’s spent 13 weeks on the top of the country radio charts this year since 2000, is a veteran of myriad Cincinnati bluegrass groups. He’s done extended stints with Ricky Skaggs - where he replaced “Lonesome Dove” writer Carl Jackson, then several years with Patty Loveless. Indeed, Hensley’s high tenor is one of the defining vocal elements on Loveless’ critically acclaimed return to Appalachia Mountain Soul.

“It’s not often you get to move into such a different world,” Chesney admits. “But it’s a place I really love… People look at the energy of our shows, and they think they know everything about me, or the band. Fact is I went to Russia with a bluegrass band when I was in college, and this music is something me and a lot of the guys really enjoy.”

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Dan Tyminski Band

With Alison Kraus’s Union Station on hiatus for most of 2008, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist DanTyminski is stepping back into his own arena.

He’s formed a new incarnation of the Dan Tyminski Band, with whom he is currently recording a new album and preparing a national tour of festivals, arts centers, and listening rooms.

Shades of the old are in with the new group, including Union Station bandmate Barry Bales on bass former Union Station and Mountain Heart member Adam Steffey on mandolin, Ron Stewart on banjo and fiddle and newcomer Justin Moses, doubling on the fiddle and Dobro.Tyminski’s band will crank up the touring bus in the new year with performances on the West Coast on Jan. 4 and 5. The band is playing at The Independent, 628 Divisadero St., in San Francisco at 8 p.m. Jan. 4. Hot Buttered Rum will be the opening act. The Jan. 5 show will be held at 6 p.m. at the River City Bluegrass Festival, which takes place at the Oregon Convention Center, 777 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Portland, Ore.

As a member of Alison Krauss’ band for the past 13 years, Dan Tyminski has participated in a string of critically acclaimed and commercially successful albums. He also appears on Krauss’ solo album Forget About It (1999) and on her multi-platinum 1995 compilation, Now That I’ve Found You: A Collection, as well as 2007’s 100 Miles or More: A Collection.

Tyminski has been named the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Male Vocalist of the Year three times. In 2000, he received a Country Music Association award for Single of the Year and a Grammy award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals for “Man of Constant Sorrow,” from the hit movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” Tyminski was the singing voice of George Clooney.

More information on Dan Tyminski can be found at www.myspace.com/dantyminski

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