Win an iPod Shuffle pre-loaded with all of Claire Lynch’s Rounder CDs.

Rounder Records recording artist Claire Lynch is posing the ulimate in word economy in a creative writing contest, entitled “Go short, win big with Claire.”

“It’s deceptively simple: Write your life in six words,” she says.

According to Lynch’s Web site, www.clairelynch.com, she “is convinced that we all have stories worth telling.”

Lynch was inspired by Smith magazine’s call for people to write their lives in just six words. The magazine published almost 1,000 of the responses from writers, both famous and obscure.

Claire Lynch will pick the winner, who receives an iPod Shuffle pre-loaded with all six of her Rounder releases. They are: Crowd Favorites (2007); New Day (2006); Lovelight (2000); Friends for a Lifetime (1998); Silver and Gold (1997); and Moonlighter (1995).

The contest kicks off today, April 22.

The rules posted on Lynch’s Web page are:

• No more than two entries per person
• Submit your six-word bio to clairelynchband@gmail.com
• Include your name, email address, city and state
• Deadline for entries is May 31.

Heed the moral of Claire Lynch Band guitarist Jim Hurst’s six-word bio: “Procrastination keeps me from completing my“. Pick up your pen and get creative today!

The winner will be announced in Lynch’s June e-newsletter, which can be obtained by subscribing on her Web site.

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Tim Hensley

Uncasville, CT — When Kenny Chesney wrapped his high impact, higher energy opening show of his much anticipated Poets & Pirates Tour, most of the band wandered off into the night. But not acoustic guitarist/tenor singer Tim Hensley, who was met following the concert by members of the Mohegan Sun’s security team and taken to Spin Street Records to sign copies of his bluegrass/acoustic project “Long Monday“.

“You know, you just get off stage from something that’s as intense as Kenny’s show is – and then you gotta start running in a whole other direction,” laughs the good natured musician whose also done extended stints with multiple Gammy-winner Ricky Skaggs and CMA and ACM Female Vocalist of the Year Patty Loveless. “But you kinda use that to keep going… to get into some fresh clothes and get over to where the people are waiting for you.”

With posters up and plenty of CDs in the rack, Hensley met fans, posed for pictures and signed CDs for well over an hour. In spite of being well after 11:30 when he hit the retail outlet, many fans waited for the Cincinnati bluegrasser. With over 62 copies of “Long Monday” signed - it’s obvious that this merge between noted singer/songwriters, traditional Appalachian music and modern bluegrass is connected with a chunk of Chesney’s fan-base who’re curious about the veins of acoustic music and more classic bluegrass.

“That people would show up is pretty great,” says Hensley, genuinely pleased by the crowd that filled the store. “They told me we sold more CDs than Grand Funk Railroad when they played here… and I don’t even know that these are bluegrass fans! But some people showed up with the record, which was cool… and you know, just to meet folks who like the music, well, there you go.”

Chesney’s tour photographer and video crew were on-hand to capture the event, which ended after midnight. As for Kenny Chesney, who co-produced the record with CMA Song of the Year winner Buddy Cannon, he offers, “I’m tickled for Tim. He has been a big part of my sound and my music – and we have had so much fun singing and picking with him after shows! Although these in-stores really could cut into our bus lot-jamming after we get done every night.”

With Rodney Crowell’s “Ridin’ Out The Storm” moving up 6 places on the bluegrass charts, the album that features guest appearances by Loveless, Vince Gill, Sonya Isaacs and Melonie Cannon is continuing to find it audience. As the Poets & Pirates Tour continues its trek across country, the man who just made his Grand Ole Opry debut will no doubt be popping up here and there in support of his solo record… something he’d dreamed of back when he was playing in bars along the Ohio/Kentucky border.

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Back Eddy Bluegrass

The Boston Bluegrass Union is inviting bluegrass fans and pickers out to celebrate Bluegrass Music Month with the Boston Bluegrass Union on Saturday, May 3rd for the Springfest Regional Band Showcase with performances by Back Eddy Bluegrass, Pine Hill Ramblers and Kids Academy Band.

The Boston Bluegrass Union will wrap up their 32nd concert season (and celebrate Bluegrass Music Month) with a family friendly event at the Second Church in Newton. A Picking Party starts at 5 PM, Potluck Dinner at 6:15 PM (for those that bring, of course!) and Performances at 6:30 PM until 10 PM. Featured bands include Back Eddy Bluegrass and Pine Hill Ramblers, plus a short performance from the BBU’s Kids Academy.

Tickets are only $6 ($5 for BBU Members) and will be available at the door. The Second Church is located at 60 Highland Street, W. Newton, MA. Visit www.bbu.org for further details. Note that there will be a Kids Academy Jam beginning at 5 PM.

Also, Candi Sawyer has just published this year’s edition of the Bluegrass Guide, the source book for bluegrass events in the Northeast. Visit http://www.bluegrassguide.com/ to get your copy. Price is $10 plus $5 for shipping and fees.

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Jesse McReynolds is among the performers at Westmoreland’s First Annual Bluegrass Festival May 3. Photo by Travis Tackett

Westmoreland, Tennessee will be hosting it’s First Annual Bluegrass Festival Saturday May 3rd 2008.

The festival starts at 9:00AM and ends when the last picker leaves the parking lot.

The festival will be located at the ball parks on Pleasant Grove Rd in Westmoreland.

Scheduled to perform are:

• Jessie McReynolds & The Virginia Boys
• New Foundation
• Clearview
• Southern Express

Bring your lawn chairs and help make the first annual Bluegrass Festival in Westmoreland a success.

Tickets are available in advance at Cathy’s Corner Cupboard (615) 644-4142. Prices are $10 in advance and $12 at the gate.
In addition to the music, the festival will have concessions available on site and there will be games for the kids.

For more information, call Gary Reese at (615) 633-5488.

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Kitty Wells in a 1943 publicity photo.

Nashville, Tenn. — The Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum will pay tribute to the genre’s first female superstar, Kitty Wells, with the cameo exhibition Kitty Wells: Queen of Country Music. The exhibit will open in the Museum’s East Gallery on August 15, 2008, and will run through June 2009.

“Kitty Wells is, quite simply, a trailblazer,” said Museum Director Kyle Young. “Her many hits were sung from a woman’s point of view, something that was new to country music at that time. She was marketed as a solo performer in an industry where women previously had performed as members of family groups. And her success in selling records and concert tickets led record companies to open their doors to women artists. Many of contemporary country music’s biggest stars are women, but Kitty Wells is the prototype.”

Born Muriel Deason, the Nashville native grew up surrounded by music: Her father and uncle were country musicians, her mother a gospel singer. In 1934, during the height of the Great Depression, 15-year-old Wells dropped out of school to take a job ironing shirts at the Washington Manufacturing Company. She also formed a group – the Deason Sisters – with her cousin Bessie Choate, and they began performing regularly on the radio.

Three years later, Wells married singer Johnnie Wright, and the two of them, along with Wright’s sister Louise, performed as Johnnie Wright and the Harmony Girls. In 1939, Wright and Jack Anglin formed the duo Johnnie & Jack, and Wells performed with them as the “girl singer” on radio shows throughout the South. It was during this time that Wright began to refer to his wife as “Kitty Wells,” a name taken from a popular old-time country song.

Johnnie & Jack took a hiatus during World War II, but reunited postwar and, accompanied by Wells, moved to Shreveport to join influential country radio show the Louisiana Hayride. During this time, RCA Records signed both Johnnie & Jack and Wells to the label, but the eight sides cut by Wells were poorly promoted and distributed, and no hits materialized. Johnnie & Jack, however, scored a breakthrough in 1951 with their Latin-flavored tune “Poison Love,” and the Grand Ole Opry lured them back to Nashville.

By this time, Wells had three children and was ready to halt her career. Instead, a chance meeting between Wright and Decca Records executive Paul Cohen in 1952 jumpstarted it. Wells had previously sent a demo to Cohen, but had not received a reply. When Cohen attended a Johnnie & Jack performance on Ernest Tubb’s Midnite Jamboree, Wright asked Cohen if he would be interested in signing Kitty. Cohen said yes, and mentioned that he had a song in mind for her: “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.”

Wells wasn’t enamored of the tune, an answer song to Hank Thompson’s hit “The Wild Side of Life,” but decided to take a chance on it. The epochal single, with its premise that deceitful men are responsible for fallen women, gave voice to the feelings of countless women in postwar America and soared to the top of the country charts, where it remained for six weeks. The record sold more than 800,000 copies.

The song’s runaway success earned Wells an invitation to join the Grand Ole Opry cast, and during the 1950s she became the Opry’s first female singing star. More importantly, her unbridled success opened the doors of Nashville’s recording studios to dozens of female artists. Wells’ sales triumph decimated the heretofore prevailing notion that women could not sell records, and she paved the way for subsequent superstars such as Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton and many others.

Wells’ follow-up hits, all produced by Owen Bradley and featuring her trademark gospel-touched vocals and tearful restraint, included “Release Me,” “Makin’ Believe,” “A Woman Half My Age” and dozens more. She garnered top female vocalist honors in country trade magazines from 1952-1965, and starred with Wright in their own syndicated television show in 1968. Wells was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1976; in 1991, she was presented with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the first female country artist to be thus honored. Wells and Wright continued to perform throughout the 1990s.

More information about the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum is available at www.countrymusichalloffame.com.

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