Nashville Tenn., — Due to the chart success and fan response from the band’s single, “Seven Miles From Wichita” it seems only fitting that Carrie Hassler and Hard Rain will kick off their 2008 tour Friday, February 15th on Wichita’s CBS KWCH TV morning show. Hassler and Hard Rain will also play that evening at the Wichita Winter Bluegrass Festival now in it’s 19th year. On the 16th the group will perform at the annual Mid-Winter Bluegrass Festival held at the Northglenn Ramada Plaza, Denver, Colorado.

The Group will also be back in the studio this month putting the finishing touches on their, as of yet, untitled 2nd release for Rural Rhythm Records with Producer Jim VanCleve. An exact release date isn’t available at this time but expect to see it later this year.

Hassler and Company hit the road again in March and April with shows booked in Canada, Washington, Georgia, Minnesota, South Carolina, Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee before heading overseas in May to perform at the European World of Bluegrass in The Netherlands followed by a U.K. tour.

Currently in the works is a mini-tour with Mountain Heart and the legendary Tony Rice.

“Powerful performances” and “incredible vocals” have become common phrases to describe the band comprised of Carrie Hassler, Keith McKinnon, Kevin McKinnon, Travis Anderson, Josh Miller and Jamie Harper. Dates are continually being added to this year’s tour.

For more information, please visit the band’s site at: www.carriehasslerandhardrain.com

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Sierra Hull

Burlington, MA - Rounder Records is proud to announce the release of “Secrets,” the national debut album by 16-year old mandolin prodigy Sierra Hull. Due May 6, “Secrets” is a remarkably mature album that balances hard-driving bluegrass with thoughtful, moving ballads.

At the age of eight, Hull became an adored and respected young picker in bluegrass circles. At the tender age of 11, Hull made her Grand Ole Opry debut, when she was invited to play with her heroine, Alison Krauss. Since then, Hull has competed in and won numerous mandolin and guitar championships, showcased at The International Bluegrass Music Association’s World of Bluegrass, and was a featured performer on the Great High Mountain Tour, which included an all-star bluegrass lineup (with Krauss, Ralph Stanley, and others), that performed songs from the soundtracks of O Brother Where Art Thou and Cold Mountain. Hull also hosts her own bluegrass festival (The Sierra Hull Bluegrass Festival) in her hometown of Byrdsville, Tennessee.

Recorded in Nashville, Tenn. in 2007, “Secrets” was co-produced by Hull and Ron Block (Union Station) and features Block, Dan Tyminski, Barry Bales, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Tony Rice, Jim VanCleve, Rob Ickes, Chris Jones, Jason Moore, and 17-year-old banjo whiz Cory Walker (who is in Sierra’s band, Highway 111). The album includes 13 tracks, three of which were written or co-written by Hull. “It’s amazing to listen to her precision and agility at the young age of 16. If that isn’t enough, check out her guitar playing on ‘Hullarious’ and the excellence of the self-written composition,” says fellow mandolinist Sam Bush. “Sierra’s vocals are effortless and straight to the point, while keeping the focus on melody. Her mandolin playing is smooth, in time, and downright slippery. This CD is HULLACIOUS!”

Track Listing:

1. Secrets
2. From Now On
3. Two Winding Rails
4. Smashville
5. Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool
6. Pretend
7. If You Can Tame My Heart
8. That’s All I Can Say
9. The Hard Way
10. Hullarious
11. Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
12. Only My Heart
13. Trust and Obey

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Friday February 8th

Marty Stuart - 8:00-8:30

The Whites - 8:00-8:30

Tennessee Mafia Jug Band - 8:00-8:30

Bobby Osborne & Rocky Top X-Press - 8:30-9:00

Saturday February 9th

Bobby Osborne & Rocky Top X-Press - 6:30-7:00

Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver - 7:30-8:00 & 11:00-11:30

The Grascals - 8:00-8:30 & 10:00-10:30

Jesse McReynolds & The Virginia Boys - 8:30-9:00 & 9:30-10:00

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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Alison Krauss and Robert Plant photo by Pamela Springsteen

CMT.com has a preview of the highly anticipated Robert Plant and Alison Krauss episode of Crossroads available online. The show is set to air Feb. 11th on CMT at 7 P.M. CST.

The video clip is of “Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)” from the unlikely duo’s “Raising Sand” album. The CD was released to critical acclaim in Oct of 2007 and can be viewed here. The backing band on the Crossroads show includes T. Bone Burnett on guitar who also produced the project, Dennis Crouch on Bass and Buddy Miller on Guitar.

Plant and Krauss will also kick off their North American tour April 19th at the Palace Theatre in Louisville, Ky. with additional shows in Knoxville, Chattanooga, New Orleans and Birmingham before kicking off the European leg of the tour. Additional dates are still in the works. For more information visit the Robert Plant / Alison Krauss “Raising Sand” website.

In Other Plant Krauss News:

Below is a clip from the BBC’s “Breakfast” show featuring Robert Plant and Alison Krauss who were interviewed about the “Raising Sand” CD.

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Tom Rozum and Laurie Lewis photo by Don Prichard

As the year begins Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum are off to Hawaii to perform three duet shows this February then back to a spring and summer of music as Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands, playing Merlefest, Wilkesboro, NC; Strawberry Park, Preston, CT; Bluegrass for the Greenbelt, Oakland, CA; and the High Mountain High Fever Festival, Westcliffe, CO. Visit LaurieLewis.com for additional tour details.

Laurie and Tom will be teaching at Augusta Heritage Bluegrass Week, Elkins, WV and riding on Echo River trips down the Rogue and Tuolumne rivers in Oregon and California.

A new solo album of Laurie’s originals with many friends is planned for release this year. Laurie has been in the studio with others over the winter producing CD projects for Ray Bierl (www.raybierl.com) and Susie Glaze (www.susieglaze.com).

Lewis has also posted more downloads on her website at www.LaurieLewis.com.

“This new section [of the website] allows us to furnish individual song and tune downloads from our self-produced CD’s and our deep catalog, as well as the “best of” from live shows. We are offering only stuff that is not available anywhere else. As we go back through the archives, we will be adding some live cuts from over the years. Please let us know what you think, and what you’d like to have made available this way. We’re listening.”Laurie Lewis

Singles Recently added to the Download section in the online store include:

Ula Ai Hawane
(Laurie Lewis/Spruce and Maple Music, ASCAP)
Laurie Lewis: lead vocal, guitar, Richard Bennett: Hawaiian guitar, Rick Cunha: ukulele, Todd Phillips: string bass, Tom Rozum, Julay Brooks, Rick Cunha: harmony vocals
This song, inspired by the music of Kalama’s Quartet, recites the names of some of Hawaii’s extinct birds: Ula Ai Hawane, Akialoa, Kaka Wahie, Kioea, and O’o.

Love Chooses You (Recorded live at Wintergrass, February 2005, by Fred Forssell)
(Laurie Lewis)
Laurie Lewis and the Right Hand

Laurie Lewis- vocal and guitar, Tom Rozum- mandolin, harmony vocal, Scott Huffman- guitar, Craig Smith- banjo, Todd Phillips- string bass

Geraldine and Ruthie Mae (Recorded live at the Cashmere Coffeehouse, Cashmere, WA, March 2007, by Fred Forssell)
(Sarah Elizabeth Campbell)
Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands
Laurie Lewis- vocal and guitar, Tom Rozum- mandolin, harmony vocal, Scott Huffman- guitar, Craig Smith- banjo, Todd Phillips- string bass

Train of Love
(Johnny Cash)
Laurie Lewis- vocals, guitar, Roy Rogers- slide guitar, Darol Anger- fiddle, Tom Rozum- mandolin, harmony vocal, Todd Phillips- bass, Billy Lee Lewis- drums
Laurie recorded this for a Johnny Cash tribute on CMH Records, called Cash on Delivery. Great slide and fiddle!

Trouble in Mind
Laurie Lewis with Lost Weekend western swing band, recorded at the Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA, March 13, 1992 from their live CD, Swingin’ Out West (www.lostweekend.ws)
Personnel:Bobby Black- steel guitar, Chris Grampp- lead guitar, Don Burnham- rhythm guitar, Kevin Wimmer- fiddle, Doug Harman- piano, Bing Nathan- bass, “Buffalo Bill” Maginnis- drums, Jim Rothermel- reeds, Jack Minger- trumpet, Bob Mielke- trombone

Beaver Creek
(Public Domain)
Laurie Lewis, Fiddle, Craig Smith, Banjo
Craig learned this tune from fiddler Steve Thomas, who says it’s from Pennsylvania. We occasionally play it in concert. We’d play it more often if the guitar player would break more strings.

How Can I Keep from Singing?
(Public Domain)
Laurie Lewis, Kathy Kallick, Tom Rozum: vocals

Lulalulay
(Laurie Lewis/Spruce and Maple Music, ASCAP)
Laurie Lewis: fiddle, guitar, vocal, Tom Rozum: mandola, Kathy Kallick: harmony vocal

Video: Laurie Lewis & Grant Street - Those Texas Bluebonnets

Features Laurie and Tom Rozum on twin fiddles.

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