A new website, www.rabeca.org, highlights the traditional Brazilian fiddle, the rabeca and the Guarani ravé or rawé. It features audio recordings, videos, and photos, and an interactive map. You can also follow the site on Twitter by following @rabequeiro.
Old-Time Herald author Cary Fagan has announced the publication of his children’s book, Banjo of Destiny. It tells the story of a boy growing up in a mansion and attending patrician private schools, whose greatest aspiration is to play clawhammer banjo. The book is available on Amazon.com.
The Mississippi Development Authority is producing a series of historical markers in its Country Music Trail program, and recently unveiled a marker commemorating the Leake County Revelers. The occasion was marked by a festival in Sebastopol, Mississippi (Revelers fiddler Will Gilmer and guitarist Dallas Jones’ hometown), on October 30, and was attended by many descendants of the Revelers. The Mississippi Old-Time Music Society and Alan Sibley and the Magnolia Ramblers performed, and community members mounted an exhibit of Revelers memorabilia. The marker’s permanent home will be in front of the Sebastapol City Hall, which will also be the site of a future exhibit about the Leake County Revelers. The Country Music Trail will in time include 40 sites commemorating Mississippi musicians and songwriters. You can find out more about the Trail at www.visitmississippi.org/music.
Bob Newby has announced the debut of a new web community, LuthierBuilt.net. The site is an all-around resource regarding luthiers and lutherie, including articles, blogs, a luthier directory, and many other features. According to Newby, “It allows players to easily contact and communicate with the luthiers they are interested in working with. Individual luthiers may present their personal backgrounds, audio and video of their instruments being played, embedded viewing and browsing of their own websites, their shop journals, and more.” The site is offering a free enrollment period for the rest of 2010, with discounts for the coming year’s membership.
The website Hillbilly-Music.com will soon be producing a new electronic quarterly magazine, Country Music Chronicles, to be issued in PDF format on www.hillbilly-music.com. The magazine, for a popular audience, will focus on the history of country music through approximately the 1970s.
Alice Gerrard is working toward recording a new CD, which will be her first solo CD since Calling Me Home in 2004. She will be working with Laurie Lewis (www.laurielewis.com) as producer on this project of original material—lots of new songs (“Sweet South Anna River,” “Bittersweet,” “Maybe This Time,” and lots more), and some old ones that are on recordings now out of print or minimally available. As she put it, “I’m joining the growing ranks of folks who are working independently of record labels and raising their own funds.” She invites readers to look through the project website for more information: http://alicegerrardrecordingproject.com.
Fred C. Fussell, author of Blue Ridge Music Trails: Finding a Place in the Circle, is assembling a guidebook to traditional music venues in Alabama. Among the organizations supporting the project are the Alabama Roots Music Documentation Project, Alabama Folklife Association, and Alabama State Council on the Arts. The guidebook’s focus will be public venues and events in Alabama where residents of the state play traditional music. For more information about the book or the Alabama Roots Music Documentation Project, or to recommend a venue or event for inclusion, contact Fred Fussell.
The Country Dance and Song Society, based in Haydenville, Massachusetts, has published a new book of singing and patter squares, On the Beat with Ralph Sweet, edited by Nils Fredland. Ralph Sweet has been calling square and contra dances since 1943. He is the owner of the Sweetheart Flute Company and the Powder Mill Barn in Enfield, Connecticut, and a regular dancer and sometimes caller at the Greenfield, Massachusetts, Guiding Star Grange. The book is available for $30 plus shipping and handling, at www.cdss.org/store.
Banjo on the Mountain: Wade Mainer’s First Hundred Years, Dick Spottswood’s new biography of old-time banjo player Wade Mainer, will be released in early August by the University Press of Mississippi (www.upress.state.ms.us). A book signing and Mainer-themed concert, with performers including David Holt, will be held at the University of North Carolina at a date to be announced. Wade Mainer, who was born in North Carolina, has lived in Flint, Michigan, for many years, and celebrated his 103rd birthday in April.
The University of Missouri Press has issued a new edition of R. P. Christeson’s The Old-Time Fiddlers’ Repertory. The book includes transcriptions of 245 fiddle tunes as collected by Christeson from 33 fiddlers in nine Midwestern and Southwestern states. The book can be ordered by visiting http://press.umsystem.edu, or calling (800) 621-2736.
A new CD anthology from Old Hat Records is scheduled for release in October 2009. Entitled Gastonia Gallop: Cotton Mill Songs and Hillbilly Blues, it documents the recordings of Piedmont textile workers from Gaston County, North Carolina, during the years 1927-1931. Musicians represented include David McCarn, the Carolina Twins, early Tobacco Tags, and Wilmer Watts and the Lonely Eagles. The CD, produced by Marshall Wyatt, has an introduction by Gaston County native Justin Robinson, of Carolina Chocolate Drops fame, and album notes by Patrick Huber, author of the award-winning book Linthead Stomp: The Creation of Country Music in the Piedmont South. For more information, visit the Old Hat website: www.oldhatrecords.com.
Carolina Music Ways has announced the release of a new CD, All Roads Lead Home: A Heritage Sampler from North Carolina’s Yadkin Valley. The compilation features recordings by Piedmont North Carolina old-time, jazz, and bluegrass musicians. Visit the Carolina Music Ways website to find out more.
Voyager has published a revised edition of the 1989 Grammy Finalist book and recording Now That’s a Good Tune: Masters of Traditional Missouri Fiddling. The original double-LP album and book were produced by the Missouri Cultural Heritage Center, a division of the Graduate School and Office of Research at the University of Missouri, under the direction of Dr. Howard Marshall, and in cooperation with the University of Missouri Extension Division. The 2008 edition was produced and edited by Marshall and Vivian and Phil Williams. The 98-page book with accompanying 52-track CD set may be purchased from the Voyager website at www.voyagerrecords.com, or by writing to Phil and Vivian Williams (Voyager, 424 35th Ave., Seattle, WA 98122) or to Howard Marshall (e-mail, 573- 642-6226).
5-String Productions has released a two-disc box set of recordings by Ernest Stoneman, entitled Ernest V. Stoneman: Unsung Father of Country Music, produced by Christopher King and Hank Sapoznik, with designer Susan Archie. Accompanying the set is a 44-page booklet full of rare photographs, with an introduction by Patsy Stoneman Murphy. Visit www.5-string.com for information.
New from Old Hat is In the Pines: Tar Heel Folk Songs and Fiddle Tunes, a collection of two dozen recordings made by North Carolina artists between 1926 and 1936. Among the musicians represented are Charlie Poole, the Dixon Brothers, Mainer’s Mountaineers, Parker and Woolbright, and many more. The disc is accompanied by a 24-page booklet containing vintage photographs of early Tar Heel artists. Visit www.oldhatrecords.com for details.
Ray Alden of the Field Recorders Collective reports that they have a number of great new projects in the works for 2008 and beyond. Among this year’s releases are to be a two-volume set focusing on 1960s-‘70s recordings of the music of the Round Peak area, and a recording of an early 1970s Balfa Brothers and Nathan Abshire concert. Also, watch for several new additions to the “Young Musicians Series,” including recordings of the Indian Creek Delta Boys, Chirps Smith, the Horse Flies, Chicken Chokers, Hurricane Ridgerunners, as well as a few surprises. For updates and more info go to: www.fieldrecorder.com.
Ivy Creek Recordings announces the release of the CD Byard Ray: A Twentieth Century Bard, featuring fiddler and banjo player Byard Ray from Madison County, NC. A portion of the proceeds from sales of the album will go to support the Byard Ray archives of the Renfro Library’s Appalachian Collection at Mars Hill College. Info: 828-294-9966, www.ivycreek.com.
Fiddler A. C. Bushnell announces the release of his new CD/DVD 2-disc set. Called Dancing on the Water, the music is a mix of old-time, newly composed music, Sanscrit chanting, and mystical poetry. Bands include the Stillhouse Bottom Band, the Happyjoy Band, and Cluckin’ A. To order: A. C. Bushnell- 919-932-3037; www.acbushnell.com.
John Hoffmann and Mac Benford have a new recording on the 5-String label called It’s About Time. They are joined by Randi Beckmann, Paula Bradley, and their bands the Haywire Gang and UpSouth. To order: www.macbenford.com.
This summer the Southern Folklife Collection at UNC-Chapel Hill received the archives of the Carter Family Fold, Hiltons, VA. Director Steve Weiss tells us that the newly acquired collection contains recordings of thousands of live performances made at the Fold from the early 1980s to the present, including numerous performances by the extended Carter Family. Southern Folklife Collection www.lib.unc.edu/mss/sfc1/.
Alan Friend’s CD, Had a Dog, features well-known as well as less common old-time songs and tunes. Alan sings, plays banjo and guitar, concertina, and is joined by several members of New York City’s Chelsea String Band. Listen to clips and order at http://cdbaby.com/cd/alanfriend.
There is a new CD, Bubbalon by Bass, put together by friends of bass player Dave Grant, who was killed in a tragic accident in March, 2002, at the age of 46. James Leva, writes in the introduction, “This collection highlights a number of some of the best front and melody guys” in the roots music world. These singers and players loved Dave Grant’s musical vision and delighted in his groove and sophisticated and eclectic rhythmic and harmonic vocabularies. When passing through Charlottesville they would accompany Dave to the studio and have fun….” The sessions have been compiled into a CD, which includes such musicians as Peter Rowan, Dave Matthews, Tim O’Brien, Dirk Powell, and many others. Anyone interested in finding out more about the CD can go to www.bubbalonbybass.com.
The folks at the Adams Avenue Roots Festival in San Diego, CA, are transferring tapes of the festival performances to digital format. Some of the recordings go back to 1962. A forthcoming grant will support a complete set of recordings including: Roscoe Holcomb, Cliff Carlisle, Ray and Ina Patterson, Lily Mae Ledford, Tommy Jarrell, Wade and Julia Mainer, Robert Pete Williams, John Jackson, Kyle Creed, Olabelle Reed, Kenny Hall, and many more. You can hear excerpts of the recordings on Lou Curtiss’ website, www.folkartsrarerecords.com.
Alice Gerrard, Gail Gillespie and Sharon Sandomirsky have a new recording on the 5-String label called The Road to Agate Hill, produced and recorded by Bob Carlin and recorded at 5-String Studio. Info: www.5-string.com or alicegerrard.com.
Fiddlin’ Charlie Bowman An East Tennessee Old-Time Music Pioneer and His Musical Family, by Bob Cox, will be published Mar. 1 by the University of Tennessee Press. Folklorist Archie Green wrote the “Afterword” to the approximately 250-page softback book, which has 40 old photographs, some newly discovered. Advance orders will be taken through the UT Press website: www.utpress.org.
Blind Singer Joe’s Blues is a new novel by old-time fiddler Robert Love Taylor, published by Southern Methodist University Press. Set in the upland South, it is full of old-time music. Info: 1-800-826-8911, www.tamu.edu/upress. |
