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

Sierra Hull Showcase

Nashville, Tenn. — Bob Dieterlen and I attended a showcase with Sierra Hull in honor of her new record “Secrets” that is set for a May 6th release date. Ron Block who co-produced the project with Sierra contributed guitar, banjo and vocals along with Clay Hess on guitar and vocals and Aaron Ramsey on bass.

The new material we heard last night sounded fantastic. From last nights preview, Hull and Block have put together an album of some really strong songs. Running over the songs we got to listen to last night the title cut “Secrets” stood out as did “Smashville,” a Jim VanCleve penned instrumental, that puts Hull’s mandolin playing in overdrive.

Sierra Hull and Ron Block were both gracious enough to sit down and talk with us and we’ll have those interviews coming soon.

Clay Hess and Aaron Ramsey also play full time with Mountain Heart on guitar and mandolin respectively.

Craig Havighurst of String Theory Media shot video of the event last night so I expect that will be available online somewhere in the next month or so as well.

Donna Hughes in Georgia this weekend

Donna Hughes will be playing a pair of shows this coming weekend at “Swallow at the Hollow” in Roswell, GA. on April 4 & 5. Shows start at 10:00 PM both nights and tickets are $17.50. Donna will be performing along with Cory Batten and Mason Douglas. For more information visit www.theswallowatthehollow.com.

The Isaacs in Wilmington, OH this weekend

Classic Country Radio is proud to present an evening with world acclaimed gospel group, The Isaacs, this Saturday, April 5, at The Murphy Theatre in Wilmington. The concert begins at 7 p.m. All seats are reserved. For tickets and information, call The Murphy Theatre Box Office toll free at 1-877-274-3848.

The Isaacs have a unique style that fuses bluegrass harmonies and instrumentation with modern southern gospel lyrics. Current group members are Lily Isaacs - vocals, Ben Isaacs - vocals & upright Bass, Sonya Isaacs - vocals & mandolin, Rebecca Isaacs Bowman- vocals & guitar, Jesse Stockman - fiddle, Nathan Fauscett - drums, cajon, Troy Engle - banjo, guitar & fiddle.

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Donna Hughes photo by David McClister

Still riding a wave of critical acclaim from “Gaining Wisdom,” her debut CD for the Rounder label, Donna Hughes will be playing a handful of select dates throughout April and May.

April 4 and 5, Hughes will be playing 2 shows at The Swallow in the Hollow, a popular barbeque restaurant and live music venue in Roswell, Ga. just north of Atlanta. The show starts at 10:00 pm both nights and will also feature the music of Cory Batten and Mason Douglas. Cover Charge for the shows are $17.50 and reservations can be made by calling 678-352-1975.

May 10, Donna will be playing 2 sets at the Smokey Mountain Bluegrass Festival at the Fontana Village Resort in Fontana Dam, NC. Her sets are currently scheduled for 1:00 and 5:00 pm. Blue Moon Rising, Balsam Range, Pine Mountain Railroad and Cumberland Gap Connection are on the lineup for the one day festival. Tickets are $25.00 for adults (13 and over) and $12.50 for Children 13 and under and 6 and under are admitted free with a paying adult.

“Hughes writes and sings moving and sensitive personal songs with a relaxed, refreshing, contemporary flair.” –Bluegrass Music Profiles Magazine

May 16,Hughes will head north to the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival in Gettysburg, PA with performance times slotted at 3:40 pm and 10:20 pm. Other artist scheduled to play on Friday include Nothin’ Fancy, Blue Highway, The Grascals, Dan Tyminski Band and Pete and Joan Wernick.

May 31, Donna will play at the Festival in the Grove, a one day event with all proceeds going to the Victory Junction Gang Camp. Kickin’ Grass, Steel Magnolia and the Quicksilver Cloggers are currently scheduled to perform. Tickets are $10.00 in advance and $15 at the gate.

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2007 has been a great year for bluegrass music and a bunch of great discs were released. I’ve consumed more music since we launched BluegrassJournal.com six months ago than I have in the last 2 years. Of all the CDs I’ve listened to this year, there’s a handful that continually find there way back to the CD player.

For my number one pick, I’ve got to go with “Gaining Wisdom” from Donna Hughes, released on Rounder Records.

I can’t seem to get enough of this disc. Hughes is one of the truly gifted talents in the business. “Gaining Wisdom” showcases Hughes’ considerable songwriting abilities that relate everyday observations of life’s trials and tribulations from a unique viewpoint that most anyone can relate to their own life in one way or another.

Hughes’ song-writing skills have a unique and endearing quality about them. On the surface, they can seem deceptively simple and down to earth with a casual listen, yet upon closer inspection they reveal a highly sophisticated and thought provoking commentary on life itself, with an inate ability to command the listener’s undivided attention, drawing one to reflect on the many different joys, sorrows and challenges faced in life.

An album like “Gaining Wisdom,” I suspect, would come to be considered a “landmark” album for many artists in the midst of a long and successful careers. For Hughes, a relatively unknown, to debut with a collection of songs and performances this impressive… it leaves me highly anticipating her next release.

In the number two spot “Lovin’ Pretty Women” from The Steep Canyon Rangers on Rebel Records is just a great album. From the songwriting to performances, “Lovin’ Pretty Women” hits all the bases. The Rangers’ music is firmly planted on the traditional side of the genre but the band brings an energy and vibe to their traditional sound that borrows from the “Newgrass” fork of the musical tree.

Having seen these guys back in September at the Franklin, Ky., Festival, The Steep Canyon Rangers can blow the doors off the barn and leave crowds beggin’ for more. I suspect a ton of great things to come from The Steep Canyon Rangers in the years to come.

The group’s banjo picker, Graham Sharp, had a hand in writing eight of the 12 cuts on the project and may very well be the Steep Canyon Ranger’s ace in the hole.

To the uninitiated, a top to bottom listen will leave the listener wondering if Monroe or some other luminary of the genre originally released these songs years ago. Sharp has a real gift for penning tunes that sound like instant classics.

The instrumental work on the disc showcases a group of musicians who have honed their craft from years of playing together on the road

Much like my Dad, Dan Tackett I couldn’t nail down a single CD for 3rd place so I’m going to have a tie here as well. My picks for third include two artist that hadn’t released albums in several years.

And the tie comes down to Tom T. Hall’s “Tom T Hall Sings Miss Dixie and Tom T.” on Blue Circle Records and Charlie Sizemore’s “Good News” on Rounder Records.

Tom T. Hall is as deserving of the title “National Treasure” as any I’ve heard it bestowed upon. He has a unique perspective on life and can tell stories unlike anyone.

“Tom T. Hal Sings Miss Dixie and Tom T.” was originally intended as a Christmas present for Miss Dixie, Hall’s significant other and songwriting partner. Lucky for all of us, this wonderful album was released on the Hall’s own Blue Circle Records.

Tom T. and Miss Dixie have always written songs centered around observations of the common man’s life, and this batch of tunes deals with many of the same types of examinations that immortalized characters like Clayton Delaney, The Hitchhiker, and Ravishing Ruby.

Compared to the production of the country hits Hall had in the ’70s and ’80s, the laid-back and stripped-down instrumentation provided by an all-acoustic (and all-star) band place Tom T.’s strong suits as a songwriter and storyteller squarely at the forefront. Hall’s vocal delivery on the entire album is right on the money with an honesty you only get from an artist who penned the material.

“Good News” from Charlie Sizemore on Rounder Records showcases Sizemore’s unequaled vocal delivery on a great batch of songs. From the down and out “Blame it on Vern”, the lighthearted “Alison’s Band” and “I’ve Fallen And I Can’t Get Up” to the haunting civil war story “The Silver Bugle”, “Good News” is a great album and a long overdue return of one of Bluegrass’ great vocal stylists.

Back to the current tale, Sizemore himself may deserve the title of The Voice in today’s bluegrass scene. He plays his smooth voice on “Good News” every bit as well as his highly capable pickers do their instruments on this CD. He glides Teflon-like high and then dips low, all with plenty of emotion to fit the tune at hand.

If there’s a lesson to be learned from “Good News,” it’s this: Sizemore, Rounder Records and other powers that be shouldn’t wait another five years before doing this again. Doing so would be bad news.

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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 immensely talented singer/songwriter Donna Hughes whose debut album for Rounder Records, “Gaining Wisdom” was released to critical acclaim.

Donna Hughes photo by David McClister

My Dad was the best Dad in the world. He was always there for me in every way. If it weren’t for my Dad, I could have never gotten this far in music. I lost him to cancer December 11, 2005.

That Christmas Eve, my first ever without my Dad, and the most painful thing ever, I went over to my parents house, and sat in their hammock. My Mom & Dad were almost married 35 years. When my Daddy died, it was 20 days shy of their 35th wedding anniversary. Just two years before, Alison Krauss wished them a Happy Anniversary at a sold out crowd in Greensboro, NC (since she had recorded one of my songs,) and my Daddy was the proudest Dad in the world.

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On that 1st Christmas Eve without my Dad, as I sat in the hammock at their house, a huge red cardinal came and sat on a branch just a few feet away. He was unusually large, and unusually close. I just felt it was my Dad sending that bird to say hello. We always had humor in our lives, and I could just hear him making a joke about that being such a fat bird.

Anyway, I wrote a song about this experience. On the night of December 11, 2006, one year exactly after he passed into Heaven, I saw a shooting star. It was also described in the song.

The song is called “Saying Hello.”

The misty fog stretched across the highway
The gentle breeze circling the leaves
The pretty cloud shaped just like a heart
That’s Daddy saying hello to me

That time I saw, a bright shooting star
The colored butterflies that glide along the road
The nickel on the ground made the year I left for college
Reminding me he’s waiting for me to come home

He’s all around me now
He’s up there smiling down
He isn’t hurting now
I’m gonna make him proud
The flowers in the spring
Red birds on a snowy tree
In my heart I do believe
It’s really Daddy…… saying hello to me

The silver rain that danced across my windshield
That crazy bird singing loudly in the tree
His favorite song playing on the radio
That’s Daddy saying hello to me

The wind is moving my porch swing today
He must be looking at the tears on my face
His favorite team is playing baseball on tv
I miss my Daddy
Saying hello to me

The leaves are dancing on the sidewalk today
He must be telling me it’s gonna be ok
I saw a little boy with blue eyes smiling
Just like Daddy…………….
I miss my Daddy………………..
Saying Hello to me

I just feel that when we lose someone, they always watch over us, and if we look around, they are still really there. So that’s the most valuable memory I have concerning Christmas, is realizing at this time of year that my Dad is still very much with me. My Uncle said something at my Dad’s funeral that stuck with me…..he said “You can sit and cry in the darkness, or you can walk in the light that you have.”

Have a great Christmas!

Donna Hughes
www.DonnaHughes.com

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Donna Hughes - Gaining Wisdom

Rounder has posted another exclusive interview this week.

In it, Donna discusses working with Tony Rice on her critically acclaimed Rounder debut, “Gaining Wisdom.” Hughes also discusses her songwriting, her father and working with the musicians who performed on “Gaining Wisdom”

You can read the Donna Hughes interview on Rounder’s website.

You can also read BluegrassJournal.com’s review of “Gaining Wisdom.”

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