Last Fall, some of East Tennessee’s favorite bluegrass musicians came together to form a new band, Brand New Strings. Randall Massengill (guitar and lead & harmony vocals), Tim Tipton (bass), Mike Ramsey (mandolin and lead & harmony vocals), Stuart Wyrick (banjo and harmony vocals) are pleased to announced their newest member, Matt Leadbetter on Resophonic Guitar and harmony vocals, completing this five-piece traditional bluegrass group.

Steve Gulley, one of modern bluegrass’s highly regarded performers, has opened The Curve Studio, a professional recording facility in Cumberland Gap in east Tennessee.

“We are an all-digital hard disk recording studio with the capacity to track a full five-piece band at once or individually track single musicians,” Gulley says on the studio’s Web site.