The Infamous Stringdusters

Make your plans now. The Infamous Stringdusters along with Sugar Hill Records have announced that the ‘Dusters will play an album release party in honor of the band’s self titled, sophomore release at the Station Inn, in Nashville, Tenn. on June 6th. Showtime starts at 9:00 PM and cover charge is $12.00. “The Infamous Stringdusters” will be released on June 10.

When “The Infamous Stringdusters” comes out on Sugar Hill Records, some may assume from the title that it’s a debut recording. Those already aware of the Stringdusters phenomenon will know differently. That 2007’s “Fork in the Road” was the album that boldly introduced this daring, disciplined band to the world of bluegrass and a wider world of music enthusiasts who heard it and decided, “if that’s bluegrass, then I love bluegrass.” “Fork in the Road” was named Album of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA). Its title track was named Song of the Year, and the band itself earned the honor of best emerging artist in a competitive field. It was a stunning cap to an amazing 2007.

Yet “The Infamous Stringdusters” feels like an introduction of a sort. Whereas “Fork in the Road” was made during their first potent months together, the new CD represents all the band has become during two years of intense touring, meticulous woodshedding and brotherly jamming. It’s their first record with accomplished guitarist Andy Falco, whose blues-infused licks and stunning virtuosity has added a new facet to the band’s musical personality. It’s the first with the band’s dream producer Tim O’Brien, a Grammy-winning musician who has pioneered and embodied the progressive school of roots and bluegrass that underlies the Stringdusters sound. And of course it’s the first with these songs - nine band originals supplemented by a few carefully chosen tunes from colleagues in the acoustic music community.

Dobroist Andy Hall’s “Well, Well” captures a character in limbo between desperation and optimism. Bassist Travis Book contributed several songs, including the sentimental “Bound For Tennessee.” Fiddler and singer Jeremy Garrett lends layers of lonesome to his song “When Silence is the Only Sound.” Meanwhile, “Loving You” by Grammy nominated writer Sarah Siskind is a signature example of what sets the Stringdusters apart, with its off-kilter groove and dark-hued melody. The bluesy and slightly demented “Get It While You Can” was composed by Bad Livers mad genius Danny Barnes. And rippling newgrass instrumentals from the hands of mandolinist Jesse Cobb (”Golden Ticket”), banjo master Chris Pandolfi (”Glass Elevator”) and Hall (”Black Rock”) complement the album with flawless examples of the band’s trademark instrumental virtuosity.

In their breakout year of 2007, The Infamous Stringdusters played over 150 dates, including the biggest festivals in acoustic music, jammed on major stages with heroes like David Grisman and Sam Bush, and landed a development deal for motion picture music with Lions Gate Entertainment. With the release of “The Infamous Stringdusters,” 2008 promises more roads and more new fans in bluegrass and beyond.

Share This

Sierra Hull record release showcase at Edgehill Studios Cafe in Nashville, Tenn. March 31, 2008. (L-R) Clay Hess, Sierra Hull and Ron Block. Photo by Travis Tackett.

Next Monday we’ll have an interview online with Sierra Hull. BluegrassJournal.com’s Bob Dieterlen and Myself had the opportunity to attend a showcase for Hull’s upcoming album “Secrets” (Rounder), set for a May 6 release, here in Nashville, Tenn. a couple weeks back.

After the performance Bob sat down and talked with Sierra at length. In the interview, Sierra discusses the hazards of juggling a music career and high school at the same time, her foray into the world of acting, with a part in an upcoming movie about Billy Graham. Sierra also talks about her influences and shared a story about meeting Chris Thile and Alison Krauss for the first time.

Share This

Alan Munde “Old Bones”
Upcoming Workshops:
Midwest Banjo Camp - Olivet, Michigan - June 5 - 8, 2008

Hill Country Music Camp - Kerrville, Texas - June 25 - 29, 2008

Bluegrass banjo man Alan Munde has saved something from his long music career — lots of studio cuts that never made the track lists on albums.

That is, until now.

Munde has released “Old Bones,” which is a collection of those studio-produced songs from years ago that you’ve never heard. Munde said the songs were rejected “never because the recorded efforts were not worthy of release, but because of career timing, personnel change, finances, and such.”

Players on “Old Bones” include David Grier, Gene Wooten, Joe Carr, Roland, White, Mike Compton, Marshall Wilborn and many other talented musicians.

“Old Bones” cuts include:

1. Stompin’ in the Flatlands
2. Darling, Pal of Mine
3. Arriba Francie
4. Blue Days, Black Nights
5. Cindy
6. Angel on the Running Board
7. Little Rabbit
8. Long Distance Romance
9. Hickory Hollow
10. Miles and Miles of Texas
11. Wait Til the Sun Shines, Nellie
12. Old Bones
13. Sweet Dixie

Munde, it seems, has been around longer than dirt. His start with Sam Bush in Poor Richard’s Almanac lead him to a stint with Jimmy Martin and the Sunny Mountain Boys before doing things own way for 21 years with the legendary Country Gazette.

He has supplemented his performing and recording work with several instructional publications for the banjo and teaches bluegrass and country music classes at South Plains College in Levelland, Texas, a program which has produced many professional musicians nationwide. In recent years, Alan has performed and recorded as a duo with his South Plains faculty colleague (and former Gazette-mate) Joe Carr. He also performs with his own bluegrass band, the Alan Munde Gazette.

The CD can be purchased through Munde’s Web site, http://www.almundesbanjocollege.com.

Share This

Nashville, Tenn. — The Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum’s successful quarterly program series Nashville Cats: A Celebration of Music City Session Players returns on Saturday, May 3, with a salute to legendary guitarist Reggie Young. The 2:00 p.m. program, which will be held in the Museum’s Ford Theater, is included with Museum admission and is free to Museum members.

The interactive program, hosted by Stringed Instrument Curator Bill Lloyd, includes a public performance and an in-depth, one-on-one interview highlighted by vintage recordings, photos and film clips from the Museum’s Frist Library and Archive. Immediately following the program, Young will sign autographs in the Museum Store.

Acknowledged as one of the great guitarists in popular music history, Reggie Young lent his guitar to the rockabilly explosion in the mid-1950s; Memphis’ hit-producing American Studio in the 1960s; and the expansion of Nashville’s recording scene in the 1970s. His guitar work can be heard on Dobie Gray’s “Drift Away,” Waylon Jennings’ “Luckenbach, Texas,” Willie Nelson’s “Always on My Mind” and Reba McEntire’s “Little Rock,” among hundreds of others.

Raised just fifty miles north of Memphis in Osceola, Arkansas, Reggie Grimes Young Jr. was first influenced by the sounds of his father’s Hawaiian guitar. Radio impacted Young’s life immensely. His father met his mother while performing in the 1930s on KLCN in Blytheville, Arkansas. In 1950, Young’s family relocated to Memphis, where he began playing guitar and listening to WHBQ disc jockey Dewey Phillips, who spun rhythm and blues on the radio show Red Hot & Blue. He soaked in the sounds of Muddy Waters, Ruth Brown and Howlin’ Wolf, and was later influenced by WSM’s live broadcast Two Guitars, with guitarists Chet Atkins, Jerry Byrd and Ray Edenton.

In 1955, Young joined his first band, Eddie Bond and the Stompers, scoring a hit the next year with the song “Rockin’ Daddy.” The band eventually signed with Mercury Records and Young found himself touring with Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. After the tour, he moved to Shreveport, Louisiana, where he found work as Johnny Horton’s touring guitarist and befriended fellow musicians Jerry Kennedy, D.J. Fontana and Billy Sanford.

Young returned to Memphis in 1959 to help form the Bill Black Combo, who went on to open for the Beatles on their historic 1964 U.S. tour. By 1965, Young was almost exclusively a session musician and becoming a key member in American Studio’s house band, which compiled a seven-year run totaling some 400 chart-making discs. During those years, he contributed to sessions by recording artists the Box Tops, Neil Diamond, Wilson Pickett, John Prine, Dusty Springfield, Joe Tex and Bobby Womack, among many others. Young also played on the memorable Elvis Presley sessions that delivered “In the Ghetto” and “Suspicious Minds.”

Young relocated to Nashville in 1972 where he became a first call session guitarist, backing artists as diverse as Jimmy Buffett, Joe Cocker and Herbie Mann, to country staples Merle Haggard, George Strait, Conway Twitty and Hank Williams Jr.

In 1992, Young took a much-needed break from session work and joined the Highwaymen (Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson) on a European tour. Today, the 71-year-old remains active recording and producing sessions, while touring worldwide with original members of the Memphis Boys. In 2005 he married fellow musician Jenny Hollowell. The two are currently writing and recording music together.

Share This

The Watkins Family to perform in LaFayette, GA April 27.

The instrumental sounds of banjo, dobro, mandolin, guitar and fiddle coupled with the sweet gospel harmonies of the Watkins Family of Eastanollee, Ga. will ring out at First Baptist Church of LaFayette, 201 North Main Street in LaFayette, Ga., April 27 at 6:15 p.m. in a special concert. For more information call (706) 638-3727.

For 25 years the Watkins Family, Judy, Todd, Lorie and Shanon have carved out a special place for themselves in the fields of bluegrass and Southern gospel music beside Don, the late husband and father who passed away in January.

“We are excited for the opportunity to share our music with our friends in Northwest Georgia,” Lorie said. “It is an honor for us to carry on the musical tradition Mom and Dad started so many years ago.”

The Watkins Family formerly received nominations as the best Contemporary and Traditional Bluegrass Gospel group by the Society for the Preservation of BlueGrass Music in America which hosts its annual awards this week in Nashville and were also nominated as Best Bluegrass Act at the Coca-Cola Music Awards previously hosted in Atlanta, Ga. Lorie Watkins was nominated in 2007 as Favorite Female Vocalist of the Year in the Front Porch Fellowship Bluegrass Gospel Awards.

The group broke new ground in 1988 becoming the first bluegrass gospel act to perform on Capitol Hill in the Capitol Complex in Washington D.C. attended by dignitaries from around the world.

The group’s latest single “Darkness Wept,” from the CD of the same title, debuted in March at #71 on the Gospel Music News chart. “Darkness Wept” was produced by Grammy nominee Karen Peck Gooch, Mark Fain and engineered by Grammy winner Bil Vorndick. To learn more about the group, visit watkinsfamilymusic.com.

Share This