Tag: Lonesome River Band

IBMA Reveals Festival Performers, Extended Stay in Raleigh

Posted on by Editor

Ricky Skaggs, Patty Loveless, and the Earls of Leicester are among the confirmed performers for Wide Open Bluegrass, the two-day music festival that follows the annual IBMA Awards in Raleigh, North Carolina. This year’s festival will be held Sept. 28-29 at the Red Hat Amphitheater as well as seven additional downtown stages.

The organization also announced that its annual World of Bluegrass gathering, which incorporates a trade show, awards show, and multiple showcases, will stay in Raleigh through 2021. The IBMA Awards will be held on Sept. 27 at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts. The nominees, Hall of Fame inductees, and Distinguished Achievement recipients will be announced live on Sirius XM’s Bluegrass Junction on July 25. Hosting duties for the IBMA Awards have not yet been announced.

Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder’s performance at Wide Open Bluegrass will feature a special appearance from Loveless. The Earls of Leicester have received the IBMA’s top award, Entertainer of the Year, for the past three years. Additionally, the festival will present a special collaboration featuring Alison Brown, Becky Buller, Sierra Hull, Missy Raines, and Molly Tuttle, who are the first women to earn IBMA awards on their instruments. Brown became the first female instrumentalist to receive an IBMA Player of the Year Award, earning a 1991 win in the banjo category. Raines has taken home seven IBMA instrumentalist awards on bass, while Buller, Hull, and Tuttle all earned their honors on fiddle, mandolin, and guitar (respectively) in Raleigh in the last two years.

Wide Open Bluegrass is the principal fundraiser for the Bluegrass Trust Fund, which provides direct financial assistance to bluegrass artists and other industry professionals in times of emergency need. To date, the Trust Fund has given more than $800,000 in direct aid. To benefit this cause, the Main Stage lineup will also include “The TRUST set,” featuring Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Balsam Range, Lonesome River Band, Donna Ulisse, Chris Jones & The Night Drivers, Sideline, and Love Canon. These artists will highlight their benefit album, The TRUST, with proceeds benefiting the Trust Fund. Set for release on Mountain Home Music Company, The TRUST features all new, original music written by the bands involved in the project. The songs are about themes of hope, courage, and perseverance and reflect the artists’ commitment to the bluegrass community.

The Golden Age of Bluegrass… The ’90s?!

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

With the following eleven songs, we will convince you, the bluegrass jury, that neither the ‘40s, the ‘50s, the ‘60s, nor the ‘70s were the golden age of ‘grass. Before the bluegrass gods and all these gathered here today we unabashedly assert: the ‘90s were the absolute best years for bluegrass!! Consider the following evidence:

Lonesome River Band – “Long Gone”

Remember the days when LRB was a quartet and there was a critical mass of mullets among their members? Such a small lineup and still somehow a supergroup: Dan Tyminski and Ronnie Bowman dueting the life out of it, Sammy Shelor pulling for his life, and Tim Austin demolishing the flat-top. Woof.

J.D. Crowe – “Blackjack”

The ‘90s were the golden age of bluegrass and the bluegrass supergroup. The TV show American Music Shop, which ran for three years starting in 1990, often amassed the best star-studded lineups of the time period – like this one: J.D. Crowe, Mark O’Connor, David Grisman, Tony Rice, Jerry Douglas, and Glen Worf.

Laurie Lewis & Friends – “Texas Bluebonnets”

Laurie Lewis won Female Vocalist of the Year from the International Bluegrass Music Association only twice — once in 1992 and again in 1994. We could rest our ‘90s-bluegrass-is-best case on that fact alone, but we’ll let Laurie (and Tom Rozum, Sally Van Meter, Peter Rowan, Alan Munde, et. al.) convince you with this Texas swing-flavored masterpiece.

Alison Krauss & Union Station – “Two Highways”

I mean… do we even need to contextualize this one with a blurb? Alison Krauss — before she became the winningest woman in GRAMMY history — with Adam Steffey, Barry Bales, Tim Stafford, and Alison Brown (no, they aren’t sisters, even if they do have the same name) is exactly why ‘90s bluegrass never fails us. If you happened to forget that AK is a ruthless fiddler, too, just listen to any of her stuff from this decade for a reminder.

Strength in Numbers – “Slopes”

We continue with supergroups, for a moment, this time regaling in the new acoustic, esoteric instrumental, 1990s beauty of “Slopes” played by a group of folks you may know: Béla Fleck, Mark O’Connor, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, and Edgar Meyer. Makes you wanna time travel, doesn’t it?

Dolly Parton – “Train Train”

Everyone’s favorite songwriter, actor, country star, business mogul, theme park owner, and literacy advocate made one of the best bluegrass records in the history of the genre in 1999 — and of course the world went crazy for it. She took bluegrass places it too-rarely appears with a band that could’ve sold out a nationwide tour themselves. Iconic.

Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder with the Del McCoury Band – “Rawhide”

Del and the boys cleaned up on the IBMA Entertainer of the Year awards between 1990 and 2000, winning the organization’s top honor a total of five times during that span. Ricky never truly left, but he visibly returned to dominating bluegrass in the 1990s, touring with Kentucky Thunder. Talk about a golden age!

Emmylou Harris, Ralph Stanley, Dwight Yoakam – “The Darkest Hour”

Once again, we thank American Music Shop for bringing together a seemingly disparate yet totally seamless power collab. One of the best things about bluegrass is the shared vocabulary, the commonality of the songs. Just throw a bunch of folks up on stage and have ‘em sing one together!

Nashville Bluegrass Band – “On Again Off Again”

Best decade for bluegrass = best decade for bluegrass music videos, too. (Sure, all music videos, but especially bluegrass ones!) This one is just deliciously retro and it doesn’t hurt that the Nashville Bluegrass Band is not only freakin’ stacked with talent, but they knock out these mid-tempo, sultry, vocal-centered songs better than anybody else.

Lynn Morris Band – “Love Grown Cold”

Lynn Morris has been unconscionably underrated for her entire career. Just listen to this. She had her heyday as an artist and band leader in the ‘90s, winning multiple Female Vocalist of the Year awards and even a Song of the Year, too. That banjo pickin’ definitely deserved better recognition, though. Hell, the whole kit-and-caboodle deserved more recognition. If you take away anything from our journey back through this bygone era of great hair choices and clothes that go zip-zop it should be a never ending love and appreciation for Lynn Morris.

Vince Gill, Alison Krauss – “High Lonesome Sound”

Two roots music icons of the decade, collaborating on a song that tributes the father of bluegrass himself, it’s just too perfect. We rest our case. May 1990s bluegrass live on forever in our hearts, our ears, and our mullets.

STREAM: Lonesome River Band, ‘Mayhayley’s House’

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Lonesome River Band
Hometown: Floyd, VA
Album: Mayhayley’s House
Release Date: June 23, 2017
Label: Mountain Home Music Co.

In Their Words: “Continuing a series of projects of doing songs that we love, Mayhayley’s House is a set of songs that we collected from our favorite writers. Bordering on acoustic country with an Appalachian feel, we hope everyone will enjoy hearing these as much as we enjoyed doing them.” —  Sammy Shelor

CONVERSATIONS WITH… Sammy Shelor of The Lonesome River Band

Posted on by Editor

Each year, the Bluegrass Association of Southern California presents a world-class bluegrass group at the Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood.  And this year is no exception: on Sunday, August 12, The Lonesome River Band will take the stage.

The band (which is currently celebrating it’s 30th year) is helmed by banjo legend Sammy Shelor, four time IBMA banjo player of the year, and winner of the 2011 Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass.  According to a New York Times interview, Martin claimed that Shelor ‘did not necessarily need further recognition from his musical peers, as ‘he already is somebody” in the bluegrass scene.

Lucky for us, The Sitch got to chat with that very special somebody prior to his arrival in the Golden State…..

What’s your history with The Lonesome River Band?

I started in September 1990 and have been with them for over 22 years.  When I started it was Tim Austin (who left the group in 1995), Dan Tyminski, and Ronnie Bowman.  After Ronnie left the group, I took over.  I never set out to be a bandleader, I just became one by default.  But I love the music and I love the band so it was natural that I take the role.

What are your roots in the bluegrass genre?

I grew up — and still live — in Meadows of Dan, Virginia.  In this part of the country you grow up living around the music.  It’s all around you.  My grandfather was a banjo player, and I started on it when I was 5 years old.  When you grow up in that atmosphere — amongst that wealth of talent — you just learn those songs automatically.

Last year, you were awarded the second Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass.  What did that award encompass and what did it mean to you?

That award is a great sign of generosity by Steve and his wife Anne.  When Steve got back into the scene a few years ago, he realized the musicians in our genre weren’t getting the support and honor they deserved.  To be honored with that — to get to be in New York, spend time with Steve, be on Letterman — it was amazing.  Something I can really cross off my bucket list.  And one of the most amazing spotlights we could have provided for the band .

How has the genre shifted since you’ve been on the scene?

There are a lot of people — and I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say this myself — but a lot of people say our 1991 album Carrying the Tradition changed the track of the bluegrass genre.  It was — and still is — traditional bluegrass with a rock and roll downbeat.  When J.D. Crowe & the New South came out with their [self-titled] 1975 record, that band opened the door to the music I wanted to play.  I feel like I’ve found my own niche — finding exactly what I wanted to do — and that has in turn given me and the band a musical identity.

To me, there are two kinds of music:  good music and bad music.  If it has heart and soul and feeling and it’s played in time, I’m going to listen to it.  No matter the instruments.  No matter the style.

What are your favorite festivals and venues to play?

One of my favorite festivals is Rudy Fest in eastern Kentucky.  We became the host band this year.  And that’s been going on for the past 10-12 years, but it’s just special because of the guys who run it and the charity it’s held for.

Going to California, Grass Valley or Victorville is always great.  West Coast crowds are always appreciative of what we do because we have a very different sound than a lot of bands out there.

Have you played LA before?  What are your impressions of the Southern California music scene?

I believe we did the Jerry Lewis telethon in 2003, and I played the Forum once back in 1992, backing a country band, but that’s about it.  Everyone seems so supportive of what we do, and that’s what we feed off of.  That has always been the case anywhere we play in California, and I’m sure will be no exception in LA.

 

Sammy and the rest of the Lonesome River Band appear at the Ford Amphitheater on Sunday, August 12.  Opening the show is local bluegrass group Lonesome Otis (there’s a whole lotta lonesome in the house that night…).  Tickets are available here.