Kenny and Amanda Smith kick off Collings Guitar Tour April 20th - May 1st

Award winning Kenny and Amanda Smith will be doing their second Collings Guitar tour from April 20th-May 1st. Each stop on the tour is a product information and performance clinic featuring Collings guitars. Participating dealers are Fretted Instruments, Olde Town Pickin’ Parlor, Telluride Music, Lidgett Music, and Morgan Music.

• Apr 20 — Birmingham, AL - Fretted Instruments 2906 Linden Avenue Homewood, Alabama 35209 - Phone (205) 879-6489
• Apr 24 — Arvada, CO - Olde Town Pickin Parlor 7515 Grandview Ave. Arvada, CO 80002 - Phone (303) 421-2304
• Apr 28 — Teluride, CO Telluride Music Company 201 East Colorado Avenue Telluride, CO 81435 - Phone (970) 728-9592
• May 1 — Lebanon, MO - Morgan Music 689 N. Washington Ave. Lebanon, MO - Phone (800) 869-5559

Bluegrass on the Blueplate

Thurs, April 17, The Carolina Chocolate Drops will be playing their brand of fiddle and banjo music on the blueplate.

“The nuances of piedmont stringband music stem from the demographics of the piedmont and thereby its focus on the banjo as the lead instrument. Among black ensembles, the banjo often set the pace and if a fiddle was present and it often was not, it served as accompaniment and not as the lead instrument as is more common in the Appalachian tradition. A guitar or mandolin would have been rare, but not unheard of, in these bands but the foundation of this tradition lies rooted in the antebellum combination of fiddle and banjo.” The Carolina Chocolate Drops Website

Tuesday, April 22, Bill Mize, a former winner in the National Finger style guitar Competition in Winfield, Kansas, splits the bill withBoogertown Gap, a husband and wife team, will bring to you some Old-Time Appalachian music.

Dale Ann Bradley and Charlie Sizemore drop in on Friday, April 25th for performances on WDVX’s popular “Live in the Studio” lunch hour.

East Tennessee’s Own® WDVX will host several great Bluegrass bands on the Blue Plate Special, an hour long program featuring bands playing live on air, during the month of Arpil. Locals are encouraged to be part of the WDVX studio audience weekdays at noon (Eastern Time) for free performances in downtown Knoxville, Tenn. at the WDVX studios and for those who can’t make it down for a show, listen live on-line.

The WDVX studios are located in the Knoxville Visitor’s Center at the corner of Gay Street and Summit Hill Avenue in downtown Knoxville, Tenn.

Dale Ann Bradley playing Station Inn

Dale Ann Bradley, the reigning 2007 IBMA’s Female Vocalist of the Year will bring her brand of bluegrass to the Station Inn in Nashville, Tenn. on Saturday, April 19. Bradley and company will kick off the show around 9:00pm and cover at the door will run $10 a head. To sample audio clips of Bradley’s latest release, “Catch Tomorrow” visit Compass Records online.

Upcoming Bluegrass Shows at the Station Inn

• Fri. May 2 — Chris Hillman and Herb Pederson - $20
• Sat. May 3 — The Steeldrivers - $12
• Wed. May 14 — Sierra Hull CD Release Party for “Secrets” - $10
• Fri. May 16 — Bradley Walker - $10
• Thu. May 22 — Billy Smith CD Release Show w/Shad Cobb, Dave Talbot, Jon Weisberger, Chris Henry - $10
• Frid. May 23 — 3 Fox Drive - $10
• Sat. May 23 — Jeff White Band - $10
• Wed. May 28 — The Biscuit Burners CD Release Party - $10
• Fri. May 30 — Larry Cordle & Lonesome Standard Time - $10

The Station Inn, located in downtown Nashville, Tenn., is the premier Bluegrass and Acoustic music venue in Music City. Their address is 402 12th Avenue S. Nashville, TN 37203.

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1929 Martin 0-18 guitar in for restoration work.

Coming this Monday on BluegrassJournal.com

On Monday, April 7, Rickey Lamb brings us Part 1 of a multi-part feature story on the restoration of a 1929 Martin 0-18 guitar that belongs to his family. The history of the guitar crosses the path of Bill Monroe who once borrowed the guitar from Rickey’s Uncle Pete Hatton.

Marty Lanham of the Nashville Guitar Company is doing the restoration on the guitar and has been kind enough to help us document the restoration of this treasured instrument over the course of the next 2 to 3 months.

Charlie Sizemore Band coming to the Station Inn

Charlie Sizemore and company is scheduled to perform at the Station Inn in Nashville, Tenn. on Saturday April 12. The show will start at 9:00 PM and admission is $10.00.

A native of eastern Kentucky, Sizemore was hired at age 17 to take over for the departing Keith Whitley in Ralph Stanley’s Clinch Mountain Boys, with whom he stayed for nine years before leaving to start his own band and attend college. He graduated with honors from the University of Kentucky, and now maintains a successful law practice in addition to his musical endeavors. Over the past 20 years since leaving the employment of Ralph Stanley, Sizemore has garnered a devoted following among fans and performers alike. He’s appeared on two Grammy® nominated albums (Ralph Stanley’s Saturday Night & Sunday Morning and The Stanley Tradition: Tribute to a Bluegrass Legacy) and received a Dove award nomination (for a track from 2002’s The Story Is…The Songs of Tom T. Hall).

The Charlie Sizemore Band is Charlie Sizemore (lead vocals, guitar), Danny Barnes (mandolin, vocals), Matt DeSpain (Dobro), and John Pennell (bass).

Hot off the menu: This month on the WDVX Blue Plate Special

East Tennessee’s Own WDVX will host several great Bluegrass bands on the Blue Plate Special, an hour long program featuring bands playing live on air, during the month of Arpil. Locals are encouraged to be part of the WDVX studio audience weekdays at noon (Eastern Time) for free performances in downtown Knoxville, Tenn. at the WDVX studios and for those who can’t make it down for a show, listen live on-line.

The WDVX studios are located in the Knoxville Visitor’s Center at the corner of Gay Street and Summit Hill Avenue in downtown Knoxville, Tenn.

• Wed., April 9: Todd Steed and the Suns of Phere / The Gibson Brothers / Ben Soll
• Sat., April 12: at 3PM The Punch Brothers featuring Chris Thile
• Thu., April 17: Yu’uns / Carolina Chocolate Drop
• Fri., April 18: Biscuit Burners / Howling Brothers / Jason Rigenberg
• Fri., April 25: Dale Ann Bradley / Charlie Sizemore / Jennings and Keller/ Early Grace Band

Mountain Heart video available on YallWire.com

Yallwire.com has recently added the video for Mountain Hearts’ “Road That Never Ends” to it’s library of music video’s online. You’ll have to watch a short advertisement before the video starts but it gets to the good stuff pretty quick. “The Road That Never Ends” is the title cut from Mountain Heart’s latest release on Rural Rhythm Records.

Mountain Hearts current lineup features Josh Shilling, Jim Van Cleve, Clay Hess, Barry Abernathy, Aaron Ramsey and Jason Moore.

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The Two-Man Gentlemen Band will be dishing out a heaping helping of original music from their latest release Heavy Petting (Serious Business Records) on WDVX’s “Blue Plate Special.”

The group will perform on the Wednesday, March 12 edition of the Blue Plate Special. The Blue Plate begins at Noon, Eastern Time, broadcasting live from the Knoxville Visitors Center, home of WDVX studios, located at the corner of gay and Summit, in downtown Knoxville, Tenn. If you’re in the area stop by and be a part of the studio audience.

The Two-Man Gentlemen Band, comprised of Andy Bean ( Plectrum Banjo, Vocals, Lead Kazoo and Piano) and Fuller Condon, better known as The Councilman (Double Bass, Vocals, Tenor Kazoo and Guitar), serve up their own brand of acoustic music featuring witty, intelligent, lyrics packed with innuendo. According to the band’s latest press release, “each is a master kazooist and badminton enthusiast, and together they combine hot jazz, old-time country, Tin Pan Alley and vaudevillian swing to create an old-fashioned, down-home hootenanny.”

The Blue Plate special is featured daily showcasing a mix of Bluegrass, Americana and Roots music.

East Tenneessee’s Own™ WDVX is broadcast on 89.9FM Clinton, Tenn., 92.7FM Sevierville-Pigeon Forge, Tenn., & 102.9FM or 105.9FM in Knoxville, Tenn. For those out of earshot WDVX also broadcasts online with 3 different audio streams available.

Bluegrass artists scheduled for March appearances on WDVX’s Blue Plate Special:

• Thurs. March 6 - John Cowan Band
• Sat. March 8 - The Greencards ( at 2pm eastern)
• Wed. March 12 - The Two-Man Gentlemen Band
• Wed. March 26 - Red Stick Ramblers
• Sat. March 29 - Tim O’Brien

Visit WDVX’s web site for a complete schedule of all artists scheduled to appear on the Blue Plate Special.

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