Elkins, W. VA — Bluegrass Week, billed as “The Original Pickin’ Camp,” runs from July 27 to Aug. 2 at the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, W. Va.

Guest artists this year are Tim O’Brien and Stuart Duncan, who complement a lengthy list of faculty members teaching instrumentation and vocal instruction.

Fiddle instructors are Bobby Hicks, Buddy Spicher and Andrew Van Norstrand. Teaching mandolin will be Herschel Sizemore, Sharon Gilchrist and John Rossbach.

Russ Barenberg, David McLaughlin and Leigh Gibson will offer guitar instruction, while Terry Baucom, Eric Bigson and Ira Gitlin will hold court in the banjo corner of the camp.

Dobro and resophonic guitar teachers are Mike Witcher and Jimmy Heffernan. Missy Raines and Mike Bubb will teach bass.

Aspiring bluegrass vocalists will get training from Chris Stuart and Janet Beazley, while Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum teach bluegrass harmony techniques.

Information, including an Augusta Catalog, is available at www.augustaheritage.com/bluegrass.html.

The Augusta Heritage Center hosts several instructional weeks throughout the year, including Old Time Week, Blues/Swing Week, Cajun Week, Guitar Week, Dance Week and several others.

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Drew Emmitt released “Long Road” on Compass Records July 15.

Nashville, Tenn. — Drew Emmitt, vocalist and mandolin player for Leftover Salmon, is revered as one of the most energetic and innovative mandolin players on the jamband/newgrass scene today. On his new album, Long Road, Emmitt’s “inestimable talents” (An Honest Tune) don’t end with just the instruments that can be picked. Holding the wheel steady on acoustic and electric slide mandolin, acoustic and electric guitar and mandola, Long Road also showcases Emmitt’s superlative storytelling and versatile vocal abilities.

With seven originals, including co-writes with John Cowan (”Long Road”) and Jim Lauderdale (”I’m Alive”), Emmitt saavily chose a few best-of-life-on-the-road songs, such as Supertramps’ “Take the Long Way Home”, Marshall-Tucker Band’s “Take the Highway”, and Van Morrison’s “Gypsy in my Soul”.

Co-produced by Emmitt and Compass Records co-founder Garry West, “my heaven band”, is how Emmitt describes the special guest musicians on Long Road: Billy Nershi of The String Cheese Incident (dobro), Chris Pandolfi of The Infamous Stringdusters (banjo), Andy Hall of The Infamous Stringdusters (dobro), Stuart Duncan (fiddle), Tim O’Brien (harmony vocals), Alison Brown (banjo), Darrell Scott (vocals), Eric Thorin (bass), Jeff Sipe of Leftover Salmon and The Aquarium Rescue Unit (drums), John Cowan (vocals), Reese Wynans (Hammond B3), Steven Sandifer (percussion) and Tyler Grant (guitar). Hallelujah.

In addition to appearances with Leftover Salmon and the Emmitt-Nershi Band, the Drew Emmitt Band will tour the US with The Waybacks fall 2008.

You can also visit Drew Emmitt on MySpace.

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Nashville, Tenn. — Randy Kohrs, Jesse McReynolds, Charlie Louvin and Riders in the sky will all be appearing on the Grand Ole Opry this weekend. Randy Kohrs will make appearances on all three shows this weekend and Jesse McReynolds will be appearing on two shows.

Friday, July 18

Jesse McReynolds & The Virginia Boys — 8:00 - 8:30
Randy Kohrs — 8:30 - 9:00
Riders In The Sky — 9:30 - 10:00

Saturday, July 19

Randy Kohrs — 8:30 - 9:00 & 11:00 - 11:30
Charlie Louvin — 10:00 - 10:30
Jesse McReynolds & The Virginia Boys — 10:00 - 10:30

The Grand Ole Opry is broadcast live on WSM 650 AM radio, online at www.WSMonline.com and on XM Satellite Radio (XM 11). All listed times are central time.

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