Josh Shilling begins PreSale of his first solo record "Letting Go" • You can order online via PayPal from the website at www.joshshilling.com. Autographed copies available and free shipping within the continental US on orders placed through February 12th, 2012.

Versatile singer/songwriter Josh Shilling boasts an impressive combination of experience and musicianship, belying his youth. Only 28 years-old, Shilling’s musical forays have been diverse and considerable, ranging from jazz and funk-tinged ensembles to soul and contemporary country, jam-band and folk projects.

A Martinsville, Virginia native, he began playing the piano at a mere 7 years old. As a child, his voracious musical study traversed rock, jazz and classic country. He matured into a skilled pianist whose playing style capably relays honky tonk, rock, funk or soul grooves. Shilling also developed steadily as a guitarist, while honing his natural vocal ability.

As a teenager, Shilling fielded offers to tour nationally with professional bands, and at 17, he graduated high school one year early to begin his musical pursuits. He began traveling with The Kings, a successful regional band from Roanoke, Virginia.

The deceptively junior new member stunned audiences with his soulful vocals and confidence. Subsequent gigs soon followed with nationally touring artists including Cimmaron, country star Billy "Crash" Craddock and Chicago’s Bill Champlin, who proclaimed Shilling "has the potential to be one of the greats."

Esteemed trumpet and trombone player Mic Gillette also enlisted Shilling’s services. Stints with The Funky Loophole that featured members of group Tower of Power, along with Balancing Act and crowd-pleasers The Embers, expanded his musical palate. His collaborations with Gillete prompted the revered musician to dub Shilling the "real deal." Continually perfecting his sound and delivery, he began to perform at least 200 dates a year. His 2005 collaboration with Detroit-based Balancing Act led to resounding affirmation of Shilling’s songwriting skills. In addition to providing lead vocals and keyboard work, he penned several compositions for the group’s album. One of the tunes attracted the attention of MTV, who obtained licenses to incorporate the song into episodes of popular shows "Punk’d" and "Making the Video."

2007 found Shilling joining acclaimed bluegrass ensemble Mountain Heart. His robust vocals, evolving signature piano stylings and nimble guitar work enhance the group’s rich acoustic sound.

Noted music journalist Jon Weisberger praised Shilling’s addition to the band: "He’s going to fit right in with Mountain Heart’s signature sound, while bringing some new dimensions to their music…there’s no apparent limit to the upper end of his range." The same year, Shilling wrote or co-wrote all of the four new songs featured on the group’s live album, The Road that Never Ends, including project’s title track, which reached the forth slot on Billboard’s bluegrass chart.

Mountain Heart’s January 2007 appearance on the Grand Ole Opry introduced Shilling to an eagerly receptive crowd; he earned a standing ovation and encore that evening – a rarity and intoxicating distinction for any artist on that revered stage.

Since that night, Shilling has played on the Opry stage over 50 times, has opened several shows as part of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s 2008 summer tour, and is currently touring and performing with legendary guitarist Tony Rice.

Now based in Nashville, Shilling continues to perform with Mountain Heart while pursuing his solo career. When he’s not recording or writing for new projects, guest appearances with artists who inspire him also line his schedule.

"I always try to be involved with something that’s truly special – something innovative," Shilling explains. "I want to be a part of something that’s real. No matter what style it’s rooted in, I want the music and experience to be heartfelt and authentic." He embraces music in its totality: His fierce immersion in one genre is enhanced by his passion for the others. Young but prodigious, Josh Shilling’s future promises both success and tireless innovation guaranteed to delight music lovers all over the world.

FaceBook • www.facebook.com/joshshillingmusic
Contact • admin@joshshilling.com
WebSite • www.joshshilling.com
Twitter • www.twitter.com/joshshilling
ReverbNation • www.reverbnation.com/joshshilling


• INTRODUCE The AcoustiCana Journal to FaceBook FRIENDS by clicking on the "Share" button at • www.tinyurl.com/acj-like-share • Help them discover this emerging American acoustic musical genre with roots in Old-Time, Bluegrass, Country, Blues, & Americana, and the prodigious group of artists bringing it to the forefront of American Music & Culture today. Thank YOU!

Order the self-titled Americana debut album for singer-songwriters Cia Cherryholmes and Stetson Adkisson. Features all original songs and each will be autographed by the band!

Premiere at the Hard Rock in Nashville! You are cordially invited to the Premiere of Stetson and Cia!
Thursday, January 26, 2012 7:30 p.m. CST, at The Hard Rock Café, in Nashville.

"We are really excited to do this show at the Hard Rock! We’re looking forward to sharing our music with friends and family as well as all of the music industry that Nashville is so famous for. It’s going to be a fun night for everyone." ~ Cia and Stetson

Singer songwriters Stetson Adkisson and Cia Cherryholmes have teamed up to create music in a pure form, uncluttered with electronics or over production. With guitar and banjo as the instrument mainstays, they have created a unique sound that blends raw and soulful with poignant and sincere. As a duo, they have just released their self-titled debut album.

For all their friends who aren’t able to be there in Nashville, they are excited to announce the show will be web streamed LIVE on the The AcoustiCana Journal! Live Webcast on January 26: Click here for the link.

Stetson Adkisson started his musical career in 2003. As a singer, songwriter, and guitarist he has played many venues in the Western United States and released a self-titled album in 2006. The honesty in his voice paired with his real-to-life writing style captivate audiences and have made him a fan favorite. As well as being a touring musician, Stetson is a professional hunting and fly fishing guide.

Cia Cherryholmes began playing music at the age of 15 with the internationally acclaimed band Cherryholmes. As their lead singer, banjoist, and prominent songwriter, she garnered 5 Grammy nominations over the band’s 12 year career and can be heard as a back up artist on many industry projects. Now as a independent artist, she has teamed up with Adkisson, for special events and concerts.

 
LINKS
FaceBook • www.facebook.com/pages/Stetson-Adkisson-and-Cia-Cherryholmes/229413097094586
AirPlay Direct • www.airplaydirect.com/music/bands/41064/index.php
Contact & Booking • www.stetsonandcia.com/fr_contactus.cfm
Store • www.stetsonandcia.com/fr_store.cfm
Tours/Tickets • www.stetsonandcia.com/fr_showdates.cfm
WebSite • www.stetsonandcia.com
YouTube • www.youtube.com/user/stetsonandcia
CDBaby • www.cdbaby.com/cd/stetsonandcia

• INTRODUCE The AcoustiCana Journal to FaceBook FRIENDS by clicking on the "Share" button at • www.tinyurl.com/acj-like-share • Help them discover this emerging American acoustic musical genre with roots in Old-Time, Bluegrass, Country, Blues, & Americana, and the prodigious group of artists bringing it to the forefront of American Music & Culture today. Thank YOU!

 
Photo Credit • Winni Wintermeyer • The Wall Street Journal

The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park is one of the greatest events I’ve ever experienced. It’s remarkable for so many reasons, chiefly in that it was and remains free to the public, a gift to the city of San Francisco and the nation by financier and philanthropist Warren Hellman, who died Sunday at age 77.

All I ever heard about Hellman was that he was an unusual guy and a mensch to folk and bluegrass musicians. The artists and sidemen I know who’ve played HSB often say it’s their favorite festival of the year, because of the lineup, the setting and the respect Hellman paid the musicians at all levels.

"There was just something about Warren Hellman, beyond his being staggeringly rich, but I didn’t know what that was until I read this marvelous obituary and appreciation in The Bay Citizen.

The takeaway: "A rugged iconoclast whose views on life rarely failed to surprise, Hellman was a lifelong Republican who supported labor unions, an investment banker whose greatest joy was playing songs of the working class in a bluegrass band, and a billionaire who wanted to pay more taxes and preferred the company of crooners and horsemen who shared his love of music and cross-country ‘ride and tie’ racing." 

Hellman’s life was just amazing. You should read the details. But what blows my mind, is that in these times of 1%ism and cultural strife, it takes an “eccentric” billionaire from San Francisco to highlight a puzzling and unfortunate thing: American wealth (about which I’m basically ambivalent) isn’t trickling down to American roots music and the whole Americana scene. This estrangement doesn’t speak well of Hellman’s class, because I think there’s a case to be made that whither goeth a nation’s music, there goeth the nation. And while some view Americana as just another musical format/genre/category, the more appropriate way to see it is good cells in our cultural bloodstream. Bluegrass and folk music was a great 20th century profusion of humanity and freedom that could keep us sane and connected in the chaotic 21st, if we can stay connected with it. American roots music’s fine art pinnacle is jazz, which has issues and struggles of its own, and American roots music has many branches. But let’s call what Hellman cherished and supported bluegrass, hardly strictly speaking, and let’s agree that bluegrass is NOT flush with resources from our country’s patrons of arts and culture.

Because modern America has insisted that bluegrass compete in the free market pretty much like hamburgers or cat food, our music is experiencing all the strains of the rest of the record business, which has been smashed to pieces by technology and widespread ignorance and heedlessness about intellectual property.

"Several thousand extremely dedicated and talented artists who play and write bluegrass would like to make a living at it, infusing their communities and the American community with its layers of joy, work ethic, beauty and truth."

And in a country of 300 million there should be room for that. But only a small handful actually achieve full independent professional status and longevity. I know these people and it’s one thing to scrape by as a kid sleeping five to a hotel room as you pay your dues, but it gets pretty hairy for those over 35, even for many "legends" in the current marketplace.

From a patronage point of view, there are a few companies around the country that back roots music through festival sponsorships. But there’s nothing else out there like what Hellman built – a giant stage for American music to be shared with Americans.

"It was heroic and historic. And yes, he’s earning widespread applause for his abundant philanthropy in general and his focus on bluegrass in particular, but it’s a man bites dog story. His gifts would have been largely unremarkable if they’d gone to classical music, opera, ballet or academic jazz."

"If you Google “bluegrass” and “philanthropy,” only two stories pop up: Warren Hellman’s Hardly Strictly festival and Steve Martin’s awesome, annual $50,000 bluegrass grants, which so far have gone to banjo players Noam Pikelny and Sammy Shelor. The music is not entirely without benefactors at the regional level either, and a singular gentleman, my friend Henri Deschamps from Western North Carolina has of late been very generous to the bluegrass community with his wealth, but really, why not more?"

This vital part of American culture has proven its worth as an art form and an ennobling fountain of social cohesion and learning. Folk music, broadly defined, has surged and ebbed in popularity for decades, and it’s surging these days, even as its hampered by the puny revenue streams that flow to all but the top few artists. This is a moment that could be seized on by the most fortunate to truly help their country’s mental and spiritual health. I suppose it’s a victory that one hears fewer people patronize bluegrass than years ago, but where’s the patronage?

Even in Nashville, where you’d think key king-pin songwriters or producers of yesteryear with massive mansions would periodically drop gifts and grants on bluegrass events, institutions, it just doesn’t happen. Some like Mike Curb and Vince Gill have been hugely generous to music education and traditional civic institutions. And this is great for the legacy of Music Row. "But bluegrass is Nashville’s greatest cultural achievement – its jazz if you will – and yet unless I’m missing something, bluegrass in Nashville has never seen a check from any philanthropist of remotely the size of those built the Schermerhorn Symphony Center or the Nashville Opera’s new home. "

I work with the key business associations trying to help the free enterprise side of bluegrass/roots, so I’ve had my ear to the ground about this stuff, and mostly what I see are good organizations constantly struggling to keep the books balanced. The guy who claimed to have acquired Bill Monroe’s mandolin for the Country Music Hall of Fame for a million bucks turned out to be a fraud. And that was never going to help families see, hear and experience Americana music anyway.

"Those kinds of gifts are not without value, but Hellman lived the ethic of the music itself – he played and presented it. He embraced the music’s spirit, which is a kind of polar opposite to the unmitigated competitiveness and unquenchable desire for more money, market share and access to power that largely define the universe once ruled by Lehman Brothers, the firm he ran and left."

I love an iconoclast and different thinkers, and it’s clear that Hellman was such a figure in the financial sector, where more of his ilk are needed. He was a great man who is now being remembered for great things, but he’s also a symbol of a sad schism. The reason people are in the streets as 99 Percenters is not, as some would tell you, a movement to smash capitalism and foment a Marxist revolution. I literally know zero liberals who think like that. It’s a protest against the furious heedlessness to our cultural togetherness that the banking, financial and corporate class have demonstrated during the past two or three decades. We can debate marginal tax rates elsewhere. I’m talking about large-scale philanthropy and its blindness to an art form developed by the American middle and working class. Hellman GOT it, as we say. But he was an exception to prove a rule. He – and Steve Martin – ought to inspire some of the others sitting on 40 to 50 percent of the nation’s wealth to think about the bluegrass culture – its festivals and presenters and musicians and institutions – as part and parcel of our American life and a worthy place for giving.

Hellman’s independent spirit and big-hearted love of bluegrass has searing political overtones as well (the note about Hellman leaving the Republican party in 2008 should not be overlooked). I’m trying to get something on that together for the next day or two. In the meantime, who am I missing in the Bluegrass Philanthropy Hall of Fame? Who should get credit? Please share what you know.

"Warren Hellmann, Bluegrass & Philanthropy"
Craig Havinghurst, String Theory Media
December 21, 2011

 
For More Information
Source • www.stringtheorymedia.com
FaceBook • www.facebook.com/string.theory.media
Photo Credits • Winni Wintermeyer, The Wall Street Journal
Twitter • www.twitter.com/chavighurst

Franklin Theatre Announces New Director • Music Industry Executive to take office at Historic Franklin Theatre • The Board of Directors of the Heritage Foundation of Franklin and Williamson County today announced that Dan Hays will become the new Director for the Franklin Theatre. Hays’ acceptance of the post culminates a rigorous leadership search for the historic Main Street institution which recently underwent an $8 million renovation with a commitment to be the best 300 seat music venue in the world. Since its re-opening, The Franklin Theatre has hosted a diverse, world-class musical lineup including Sheryl Crow, Michael McDonald, The Judds, Keb’ Mo’, Sam Bush–with much more on the horizon–and has sold out every show in its concert series, Franklin Theatre Live.

“IBMA will sorely miss Dan’s presence. In his 21 years, IBMA has grown into a multifaceted resource for the bluegrass community. He approached the work of the organization with vigor and integrity and we were all the better for it. Speaking for the IBMA Board, we wish Dan all the best in his new position.” ~ Stan Zdonik

Heritage Foundation President Cyril Stewart said the four-month executive search process was purposely intensive. “We owed it to our community to be very deliberate about finding the right person to lead the Franklin Theatre,”

“We feel strongly that Dan Hays is the ideal choice and the theatre will build on its already phenomenal trajectory under his leadership.” ~ Cyril Stewart

Executive Director of the Heritage Foundation Mary Pearce said she believes in Hays’ leadership. “Dan has tremendous nonprofit management experience and a wealth of contacts in the music industry," Pearce said. "He has proven his dedication to music and truly understands and appreciates the fabric of this community and all the Franklin Theatre is and can be."

Since 1990 Hays has headed the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA), a music industry trade organization headquartered in Nashville. During his tenure, IBMA developed from an association in its infancy to an influential music industry player. IBMA Board Chair Stan Zdonik said, “IBMA will sorely miss Dan’s presence. In his 21 years, IBMA has grown into a multifaceted resource for the bluegrass community. He approached the work of the organization with vigor and integrity and we were all the better for it. Speaking for the IBMA Board, we wish Dan all the best in his new position.”

“Dan has tremendous nonprofit management experience and a wealth of contacts in the music industry. He has proven his dedication to music and truly understands and appreciates the fabric of this community and all the Franklin Theatre is and can be.” ~ Mary Pearce

“I am honored and look forward to joining the extraordinary staff at the Franklin Theatre,” Hays said. “This intimate historic Theatre is bursting with promise and is a vibrant cultural asset for our community and the talents we present.” ~ Dan Hays

Hays will initially split time between IBMA and the Franklin Theatre until a new director is hired for the IBMA, the search for whom is already underway. He expects to take office full time at the Franklin Theatre in early 2012.
Originally built in 1937, the Franklin Theatre re-opened to the public on June 3, 2011 following a multi-year, multi-million-dollar restoration. The Main Street landmark is owned and operated by the nonprofit Heritage Foundation of Franklin and Williamson County. More information is available online at www.franklintheatre.com.

For further information or to arrange an interview, contact Leah Dennison, Public Relations and Marketing, leah@franklintheatre.com, 615-538-2075, Ext 2 in the Staff Directory

"Since 1937, the legendary Franklin Theatre has been the heart of Main Street in historic Franklin, Tennessee."

Our enduring romance with the Franklin Theatre began in the summer of 1937 when the marquee first illuminated Main Street, invited Middle Tennesseans to buy a ticket – and laugh, cry and dream. Inside the theater walls, moviegoers enjoyed fresh popcorn, afternoon matinees and first kisses. They walked away with a lifetime of memories.

"Over the next 70 years, the world changed a lot – but the Franklin Theatre stood as a testament to a simpler way of life."

But time eventually took its toll on the venerable movie house, and the doors closed in 2007 under the pressing of rising rents and the trend toward mega-theaters. Enter the Heritage Foundation of Franklin and Williamson County. Rather than lose the heart of Main Street, the nonprofit preservation group stepped in to buy and rehabilitate the historic landmark. After three years of work – and an investment of more than $8 million – the historic Franklin Theatre re-emerged better than ever.

"The new Franklin Theatre continues the cherished tradition of showing movies, but also adds a new dimension to Main Street – live music. With a state-of-the-art sound and lighting system, and undeniable charm, the Franklin Theatre is destined to be an entertainment and cultural icon for years to come."

The Heritage Foundation of Franklin and Williamson County is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization dedicated to protecting and preserving historic resources in Franklin and Williamson County, Tennessee. 

"Among their programs are the award-winning Main Street Program, and the Downtown Franklin Association which promotes and revitalizes the 150 unique places to explore in the 15-block downtown National Register District."

The Heritage Foundation of Franklin and Williamson County was founded in 1967 and has a long history of preserving historic resources. The Foundation started with a group of citizens with vision who wanted to protect the historic resources that make Franklin and Williamson County a special place. The efforts of the Foundation have played a major role in keeping Franklin and Williamson County from becoming “Anywhere USA.”

Among their many preservation projects is the revitalization of Franklin Theatre, which opened June 3, 2011 with movies, music and special events.

THE FRANKLIN THEATRE
WebSite • www.franklintheatre.com
FaceBook • www.facebook.com/franklintheatre
THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION
WebSite • www.historicfranklin.com
FaceBook • www.facebook.com/pages/Heritage-Foundation-of-Franklin-Williamson-County/124551984232041
THE WILLIAMSON COUNTY CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU
WebSite • www.visitwilliamson.com
FaceBook • www.facebook.com/pages/Visit-Franklin-TN/139119074491
DOWNTOWN FRANKLIN
WebSite • www.downtownfranklintn.com
FaceBook • www.facebook.com/downtown.franklin

• INTRODUCE The AcoustiCana Journal to FaceBook FRIENDS by clicking on the "SHARE" button at • www.tinyurl.com/acj-like-share • and help them discover this emerging American acoustic musical genre with roots in Old-Time, Bluegrass, Country, Blues, & Americana, and the prodigious group of artists bringing it to the forefront of American Music & Culture today. Thank YOU!
 

Guy Clark • His craggy, wistful story-songs, and plain-spoken delivery are also indicative of his persona. Inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Foundation’s Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004, Clark was honored with the Americana Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting in 2005. The following year, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum named Guy Clark as its prestigious 2006 Artist-In-Residence. His CD Workbench Songs (2006), released to universal critical acclaim and the delight of his worshipful fans, was nominated for the 2007 Grammy award as Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album.

"He remains a national treasure and folk icon, crafting masterful, poignant melodies and insightful lyrics. Tough, bare-boned and dryly sentimental, his beautiful songs reflect… an old-fashioned masculinity that emphasize honesty… and integrity."

In a recent interview with the Huffington Post, Bob Dylan mentions Guy Clark as one of his favorite songwriters.  That is no surprise to anyone familiar with the master songwriter and legendary artist. Songwriting legend Guy Clark doesn’t merely compose songs; he projects images and characters with the kind of hands-on care and respect of a literary master. Clark works slowly and with strict attention to detail, and has produced an impressive collection of timeless gems, leaving very little waste behind. The emotional level of his work, as well as the admiration and esteem of his peers, consistently transcends sales figures and musical genres. Using everyday language to construct extraordinary songs for more than 35 years, Clark continues to be the type of songwriter whom young artists study and seasoned writers, as well discriminating listeners, revere.

"In his career, he has released more than twenty albums, primarily on major labels. He has also written singles for other artists, including Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner and Rodney Crowell."

When Guy Clark discusses the art and craft of songwriting, people listen. He has, after all, been writing songs of uncommon quality for nearly four decades, songs like “L.A. Freeway,” “Desperados Waiting For A Train,” “The Randall Knife,” and “Texas, 1947. Clark was born in the West Texas town of Monahans, where he was raised mostly by his grandmother (his mother worked and his father was in the Army), who ran the town hotel. One of her residents was an oil well driller who would later end up the subject of one of Clark’s most moving and stunningly beautiful songs, "Desperados Waiting for a Train." Many of Clark’s songs, in fact, have centered around his days growing up in West Texas, including "Texas 1947" (from his debut album) and the 1992 song "Boats to Build," which hearkened back to a summer job he once had as a teenager on the Gulf Coast.

"The first songs Clark learned were mostly in Spanish. Later, when he moved to Houston and began working the folk music circuit, he met fellow songwriter Townes Van Zandt (the two often toured together until Van Zandt’s death in 1997) and blues singers Lightnin’ Hopkins and Mance Lipscomb. It was here that Clark began playing and writing his sturdy brand of folk- and blues-influenced country music."

In the late ’60s, Clark moved to California, living first in San Francisco (where he met and married his wife Susanna, a painter and songwriter) and then in Los Angeles, where he worked in the Dopyera brothers’ Dobro factory. Tiring quickly of Southern California (sentiments he expressed in another of his classics, "L.A. Freeway"), he and Susanna packed up and headed for Nashville in 1971, where he picked up work as a writer with publishing companies and, eventually, a recording contract with RCA. Clark’s first album, Old No. 1, came out in 1975, a few years after Jerry Jeff Walker had turned "L.A. Freeway" into a minor hit. By this time Clark was considered one of the most promising young writers in country music, and while he didn’t live in Texas anymore, the state’s influence still ran thick in his blood.

He is an accomplished luthier and often plays his own guitars. He achieved success as a songwriter with Jerry Jeff Walker’s recordings of "L.A. Freeway" and "Desperados Waiting For A Train". Artists such as Johnny Cash, David Allan Coe, Vince Gill, Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner, Brad Paisley, Alan Jackson, Rodney Crowell and The Highwaymen have recorded Clark’s songs.

Clark recorded one more album for RCA, Texas Cookin’, in 1976 before switching to Warner Bros. for his next three albums, released between 1978 and 1983. Three of his songs from these albums cracked the Top 100. By the mid-’80s, however, a number of his songs had been made into hits by country stars such as Johnny Cash, David Allan Coe, Ricky Skaggs (who took "Heartbroke" to number one), George Strait, Vince Gill, and the Highwaymen. Clark continued to work as a writer but didn’t record again until 1988′s Old Friends, released by Sugar Hill. He then switched labels once more, this time to Asylum, which released his 1992 album Boats to Build as part of their acclaimed American Explorer series.

"Clark has been a mentor to such other singers as Steve Earle and Rodney Crowell. He organized Earle’s first job as a writer in Nashville. In the 1970s, the Clarks’ home in Nashville was an open house for songwriters and musicians and it features in the video Heartworn Highways, an evocation of the songwriter scene in Nashville at that time."

His eighth album, Dublin Blues, came out in 1995, and among its finely crafted moments is a re-reading of one of his most enduring songs, "Randall Knife," about the death of his father. Cold Dog Soup followed in 1999. Clark released Dark in 2002, followed by Workbench Songs in 2006. The DVD Live from Austin, TX arrived the following year. A much needed survey of Clark’s key songs covering the years 1975 to 1995 called Hindsight 21-20 appeared from Raven Records late in 2007. His 11th studio album, Somedays the Song Writes You, arrived in 2009.

"On Somedays The Song Writes You, The only song on the album that Clark didn’t write is one by his late best friend, Townes Van Zandt. It’s become tradition for Clark to include a Van Zandt composition on each album he records. Interpreting “If I Needed You” is especially meaningful, since he and his wife Susanna were almost certainly the first to hear it, in their own home. “That particular song, Townes was living with Susanna and I. He woke up one morning and played this song and he said he had dreamed it."

AUDIO & VIDEO
• Somedays The Song Writes You
• Guy Clark & Karen Matheson • "Dublin Blues"
• Songs & Stories
• GUY CLARK • The Randall Knife
• Old Friends

LINKS
WebSite • www.guyclark.com
FaceBook • www.facebook.com/GuyClarkMusic
Twitter • www.twitter.com/GuyClarkKCA
Mailing List • www.guyclark.com/mailinglist.php
Booking • www.facebook.com/KeithCaseAndAssociates, (615) 327-4646
Press • Tamera Saviano, tsaviano61@mac.com
SonicBids • www.artistdata.sonicbids.com/guy-clark
Contact • www.guyclark.com/contact.php
Performances/Tickets • www.guyclark.com/tour.php
Store • www.theconnextion.com/guyclark/guyclark_index.cfm
iTunes • www.itunes.apple.com/us/artist/guy-clark/id193674
Amazon • www.amazon.com/Guy-Clark/e/B000APWAQ2
News/Blog • www.guyclark.com/news.php
WikiPedia • www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Clark

ARTICLES, SOURCES & RELATED LINKS
• This One’s For Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark
• Guy Clark News
• Guy Clark’s recent 70th birthday
• Kenny Chesney’s ‘Whiskey’ Goes Platinum

• INTRODUCE The AcoustiCana Journal to FaceBook FRIENDS by clicking on the "SHARE" button at • www.tinyurl.com/acj-like-share • and help them discover this emerging American acoustic musical genre with roots in Old-Time, Bluegrass, Country, Blues, & Americana, and the prodigious group of artists bringing it to the forefront of American Music & Culture today. Thank YOU! 

Pert Near Sandstone • Nate Sipe on Mandolin, Fiddle, Kevin Kniebel on Banjo, J Lenz on Acoustic Guitar, Adam Kiesling on Upright Bass, Andy Lambert on Clogs & Washboard. Take old time music off the back porch, throw out the hillbilly reputation, and put it in the hands of a group of guys that like to work hard and play even harder. Pert Near Sandstone rejuvenates American stringband music with raw energy; they play tightly-crafted original material that lends itself to the modern audience, as well as being stewards of the old-time and bluegrass traditions.

"They are just as at home playing fully acoustic in the traditional style as they are plugged in at an indie rock venue. From saloons to theaters, hollering into a single microphone and laying thick rhythm on driving fiddle melodies, their sweat-inducing, foot-stomping live performances keep crowds begging for more all night long."

Pert Near Sandstone emerged from the same roots-based musical hotbed in Minneapolis that gave birth to Bob Dylan, The Jayhawks and Spider John Koerner. Originally formed by four friends from the same hometown, Pert Near Sandstone formed unintentionally over weekly, whiskey-fueled picking sessions in an old house in St. Paul, MN. They decided without any real intentions to start playing shows and the chemistry of their music and friendships, even early on, left people feeling like the party followed them everywhere they went. Word of the bands’ uncanny ability to whip audiences into frenzies spread and they were invited to play some of Minnesota’s most legendary venues including First Avenue, the Cedar Cultural Center and the Historic Orpheum Theater.

"The band has been taking their show across the country, paying their dues in smoke filled taverns and roadside juke joints while organically building a dedicated following from coast-to-coast. "

Their formative years on the road painstakingly paved the Pert Near path as the band traversed from city-to-city winning over audiences “the old fashioned way”; face-to-face. Over the course of the next five years, the band maintained a full touring schedule appearing at many national festivals and sharing the stage with many legendary musical talents; the likes of Del McCoury, WILCO and Yonder Mountain Stringband.

"In 2008, Pert Near Sandstone was hand-picked by Garrison Keillor to appear as the featured musical guest on A Prairie Home Companion where Garrison proclaimed that, The group has become a force on the Minnesota roots music scene and beyond."

 
Fellow Minnesota speed-grass band Trampled by Turtles is proud to wave the Pert Near flag high and wide with band leader Dave Simonett calling Pert Near Sandstone one of his “favorite contemporary bluegrass acts in the United States.”

"The band’s stock is sharply on the rise with their recent victory at the prestigious Northwest String Summit Band Competition."

With the release of their fourth album, Paradise Hop, Pert Near Sandstone has managed to harness the raw energy of their famed live shows and inject it into 12 tracks of original material and a couple of originally arranged traditional songs sprinkled on top. The band’s trials and tribulations, encountered during life on the road as a Modern American Stringband, spill out in vivid detail on tracks like “Long Decline”, “Appalachian Girl” and “Solid Gone”. Wild-eyed, lightning fast tracks like “Reuben’s Train”, “Crossroads” and “Paradise Hop” place the band’s commanding technical prowess front-and-center, while a much more cerebral and introspective facet of the band’s songwriting shines through on tracks like “Save Me” and “Parse”.

"Paradise Hop is a celebration of life in all of its glorious peaks and torturously painful valleys that leaves listeners with an acute sense of what it’s like to step into the beautifully twisted world of Pert Near Sandstone."

"With the release of their fourth album, Paradise Hop, Pert Near Sandstone has managed to harness the raw energy of their famed live shows and inject it into 12 tracks of original material and a couple of originally arranged traditional songs sprinkled on top."

LINKS
WebSite • www.pertnearsandstone.com
FaceBook • www.facebook.com/pertnearsandstone
ReverbNation • www.reverbnation.com/pertnearsandstone
Twitter • www.twitter.com/pertnearmusic
Booking • 651.647.4464, michael@hellobooking.com, www.hellobooking.com
Contact • www.pertnearsandstone.com/Contact/Band
Performances/Tickets • www.pertnearsandstone.com/Events/Upcoming
Store • www.pertnearsandstone.com/Albums/ParadiseHop
CDBaby • www.cdbaby.com/Artist/PertNearSandstone
YouTube • www.youtube.com/user/PertNearSandstone
WikiPedia • www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pert_Near_Sandstone
Friends, Supporters & Sponsors • www.pertnearsandstone.com/Links/Favorites

ARTICLES, SOURCES & RELATED LINKS
• Local string band Pert Near Sandstone
• The Boys of Pert Near Sandstone Discuss Their New Album, "Paradise Hop"
• Pert Near Sandstone – Solid Gone

• INTRODUCE The AcoustiCana Journal to FaceBook FRIENDS by clicking on the "SHARE" button at • www.tinyurl.com/acj-like-share • and help them discover this emerging American acoustic musical genre with roots in Old-Time, Bluegrass, Country, Blues, & Americana, and the prodigious group of artists bringing it to the forefront of American Music & Culture today. Thank YOU!

Tara Nevins • American roots traditionalist Tara Nevins releases an exploration of her own heritage, musical and otherwise, in Wood and Stone, her first solo album since Mule to Ride in 1999. Wood and Stone showcases her ever-evolving repertoire as she journeys both back to her own “roots” and head-long into new territory.

“Tara Nevins‘ rare blend of enormous talent coupled with genuine down-home humbleness has won the hearts of fans and colleagues alike. Tara has this worldly awareness combined with a fragile innocence” ~ Larry Campbell

Fans of Nevins from her 21-year tenure with Donna the Buffalo are familiar with her versatile talents; she shares the vocal and songwriting responsibilities for the band and is a stellar musician on fiddle, guitar, and accordion. Prior to DTB, Nevins was a founding member of the all-female, old time Cajun band The Heartbeats. Wood and Stone delivers the musical expertise fans have come to expect and surprises with new perspectives.

“This album is personal and sort of revelatory,” Nevins says. “It’s an expression of recent emotional discovery within relationships lost and found, and how knowing the core of who we are is the real deal.

“There were so many elements I wanted to explore—to combine all the pieces of my personal musical puzzle–and then have it come together in a cohesive whole. “

I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with Larry Campbell. I am honored to have had him both produce and play on my record. He’s an amazingly talented and soulful musician. He has a very natural, down-to-earth approach and an instinctual insightfulness that I really appreciate; he really got what I was after. The whole experience was inspiring and challenging in a very positive way.”

“Campbell is a much-sought-after musician/producer renowned for his work with Bob Dylan and still rolling from the success of Levon Helm’s two Grammy- winners, Dirt Farmer and Electric Dirt, which he produced.”

He found Nevins’s project immediately compelling. “I liked the feel of the project– her combination of old-time mountain music and original songwriting—and I was taken with Tara’s unique talent; she’s got a distinctive voice—there’s a kind of honesty that shines through.”

The record kicks off with the title cut “Wood and Stone,” and that “honest” element is readily apparent in this touching tribute to home and family. Old-timey acoustics are quickly joined by drums and steel guitars as Nevins sings about “the better part of me” regarding her upbringing and early influences. “It’s got that magical blend of music and lyrics,” Campbell says of it, “and it really paints a picture of where she comes from.”

Ten of the thirteen tracks are originals, and Nevins’s complexity gets a broad stage. She dispenses wit and wisdom with an atypical take on love and relationships through gritty songs such as “You’ve Got It All” and “You’re Still Driving That Truck,” then turns to wrenching hearts with songs like “Snowbird” (accompanied by Jim Lauderdale), a beautiful metaphorical ballad about the pain of loving someone unable to truly give back, and “Tennessee River,” a haunting, gripping song about the stranglehold love can have over a person’s whole existence.

“Stars Fell on Alabama” sounds like it fell from her heart and pen too, but Nevins has the capacity to take a well-known standard like this, change the melody, and perform it so ingenuously that it fits in seamlessly to the whole groove of the record.”

• INTRODUCE The AcoustiCana Journal to FaceBook FRIENDS by clicking on the "SHARE" button at • www.tinyurl.com/acj-like-share • and help them discover this emerging American acoustic musical genre with roots in Old-Time, Bluegrass, Country, Blues, & Americana, and the prodigious group of artists bringing it to the forefront of American Music & Culture today. Thank YOU!

 
PRESS RELEASE • Rockin’ Acoustic Circus – New Faces, New Home, Exciting Direction • Nashville, TN, November 29, 2011: Rockin’ Acoustic Circus announces they’re “setting up shop” in Nashville with some new faces and their “doors open for business.”

“With hearts in traditional music and heads in the 21st century, this progressive acoustic group is pointing toward an exciting direction for music. “

Sharing their passion with impressive musical prowess and boundary pushing style, they strongly anticipate the appeal to an even wider audience, presenting a new vibe of original work, and enjoying a rare friendship and musical bond identified in this unique chemistry of individuals.

The band started as a collection of Oklahoma teens, beginning with a childhood connection between two members, Sterling Abernathy and Eric Dysart, who shared the same music teacher. The pairing of mandolin guru, Abernathy with the skills of fiddle champ, Dysart, was the nucleus of the original ensemble. Abernathy, now 18 and youngest in the band, is a superior mandolinist offering eye raising leads, solid rhythm, and some of the most tasteful fills the instrument is capable of producing. Dysart, 19 with vocal capability beyond his years, and equally adept on fiddle – possesses a much envied technical skill, having studied both classical violin and old-time fiddle.

“With a recent move from Oklahoma, Abernathy and Dysart are joining their new family – and calling Nashville home.”

Bringing the low down in the bass department, Adam Chaffins, originally from Louisa, KY – holds a music degree from Morehead State University and is a well respected artist within the Nashville neighborhood. With commanding vocals and credible writing skill, he is a great asset to the RAC style. He’s recorded and played with several well-known artists, including Southern Ground (the Zac Brown owned label) recording artist – Levi Lowrey.

With the retirement of former guitar player, Rick Morton (AKA: old guy, friend, & teacher to Abernathy/Dysart), the multi-talented Dillon Hodges adds to the mix with instantly recognizable vocals and superior songwriting skills – also equally masterful on both guitar and claw hammer banjo. Hodges – 21, has already won three national guitar titles including the National Flat Pick Guitar Championship in Winfield, KS. He’s toured with Missy Raines and written and recorded with Tim May.

Last in this parade of superior musicians, but certainly not least is the charming, five-string fiddler extraordinaire, Rachel Baiman. Baiman, currently a senior at Vanderbilt University, grew up on old-time and bluegrass music. Making a heavy mark on the Midwest contest scene, she won the Illinois State Fiddle Championship at 16 and brings her strong instrumental abilities, along with compelling vocals and sweet harmony to the ‘Circus’ big top.

Fiddle legend Byron Berline maintains the thing that impresses him most about the group is they strive for originality -“they aren’t copycats; they step out and do music their own way.” In 2012, the band anticipates “their own way” will look like the release of a new album complete with an impressive repertoire of compelling originals, dynamic arrangements and a sound all its own. Their music influenced by the likes of old-time, folk, and chamber inspired bluegrass – makes for an incredible listening experience.

“With an upcoming Nashville appearance at Music City Roots, on Dec 7th, the band will present their new look and future sound – live from the Loveless Barn. The performance will also be available for viewing by LiveStream from the MCR website – 7:00 PM/CST. Join them live or by web to check out what the “buzz” is all about.”

For More Information
Website • www.RockinAcousticCircus.com
Facebook • www.Facebook.com/RockinAcousticCircus
Video • www.vimeo.com/32186366
Contact & Booking
Mike Drudge • PO BOX 160236 • Nashville, TN 37216
Class Act Entertainment • Mike@ClassActEntertainment.com

• INTRODUCE The AcoustiCana Journal to FaceBook FRIENDS by clicking on the "Share" button at • www.tinyurl.com/acj-like-share • Help them discover this emerging American acoustic musical genre with roots in Old-Time, Bluegrass, Country, Blues, & Americana, and the prodigious group of artists bringing it to the forefront of American Music & Culture today. Thank YOU!

The Ted Lehmann Interview • The Bluegrass Legacy talks to Ted Lehmann about the past, the present and the future, including the challenges facing the Bluegrass Community Today

BGL • Ted, you have done nothing short a herculean job of documenting the past and present of bluegrass, and exploring its future, as a journalist and photo-journalist. How in the world did you get yourself into this? Where and how did it start? 
 

TL • I’ve always written and taken photos. Most of my published work was written for professional consumption and went largely un-noticed. I’m really not a scholar. I published a short story in a "small" magazine called Blue Line, dedicated to literature from and about the Adirondack Park, about fifteen or twenty years ago. I also had a conventional web site, but it seems to have disappeared as we no longer use the server which stored it. So I had a couple of skill areas with not much I thought was important enough to share with anyone else.

Then along came blogging. I read bloggers, particularly the political ones at election time and surfed blogs, fascinated by the phenomenon, but uncertain how it was relevant to me. When we became very active in attending bluegrass festivals after our going to some local evening events in Myrtle Beach and our first Merlefest in 2003, it sort of became clear that I had a topic I wanted to write about and an outlet for my efforts. I was reluctant at first, and Irene was even more reluctant to have me do it, but I finally posted my first blog entry on December 22, 2006.

“Since them, I’ve posted an average of about 135 posts a year. Most of them have been related to bluegrass, but I also read a lot, so I started writing book reviews, too. Actually, book reviews dominated my early posts.”

I didn’t actually expect very much to come of my blog, but we were traveling a good deal, and I saw it as a good way to communicate with family and friends. Later, I realized I wanted others who were enthusiastic about bluegrass to read what I was writing, too.

“Meanwhile, I was learning a lot, finding that bluegrass professionals we were beginning to know were receptive to what I was writing about them, and other fans were interested, also. I all just sort of grew from there.”

While I understand at some level that lots of people read what I write and enjoy my pictures, I still get a huge kick out of people coming up to me at festivals or other events, saying "You’re Ted Lehmann, aren’t you? I read your blog regularly. And I am constantly grateful to the musicians and promoters who’ve found what we do, for Irene has become an integral part of my blog and our three Facebook pages, for the increased access we’ve been granted at events.

 
BGL • I do believe your blog has become a fundamental building block of modern bluegrass architecture, because it is uniquely useful, insightful, generous and compassionate, in the sense that it seeks above all to understand and share… the good with grace, and the bad with courage. Always with integrity and honesty. And it’s obvious you care a great deal. What do you love most about Bluegrass? What reassures or worries you about its future? 
 

TL • My background in music didn’t inevitably lead me to bluegrass. I played violin as a kid (hated it so much that when bluegrass came around I stupidly chose the banjo as my preferred instrument) and grew up on Gilbert & Sullivan’s operettas, classical orchestral music, Paul Robeson, and, as my own taste developed during the fifties and sixties, folk music. I played guitar, listened to The Kingston Trio, Chad Mitchell, the Limelighters, and lots of Pete Seeger (esp. his early Sea Shanties album with the Almanac Singers). Josh White was my favorite blues singer and, as I grew still older Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and Broadway show music. Later, as we drew closer to the day bluegrass would enter our lives, I listened to Nashville Country and fell in love with Canadian Stan Rogers wonderful work. Harry Chapin was a big one in our family. So, as you can see, my tastes were very eclectic.

I had heard about Merlefest and found it on the Internet, so we decided to go for the first time in, I think, 2003.

“The world that opened up for us there was rich and broad, but I thought we were at a bluegrass festival, so the musical choices represented by Merlefest became, in my mind, bluegrass.”

Still are, but I’ve learned that it’s a complex, interesting, and wonderful world.

Along the way, we met Jennings Chestnut, who owned a mandolin shoppe in Conway, SC while also making quite fine instruments. We would stop to visit with him and, eventually he gave me a couple of pointers; he never called them lessons. Jennings hosted a small, one day festival called Bluegrass on the Waccamaw. He took me under his wing, educated me in the world of bluegrass, tolerated my ignorance, and, eventually, allowed us to volunteer at his festival.

“We also became friendly with some performers. The music moved and intrigued me, but, perhaps, just as much, I found myself drawn to the people and culture the music, in all its variety, represents. Not a rural person myself, my experiences have taught me to enjoy and respect rural people. So, over the next few years, we reached out to the bluegrass world and found ourselves enfolded in it, and welcomed by it. I also found myself in awe of the marvelous skills of the musicians.”

I’m reassured by the young people I see coming into the music; by their enthusiasm, skill, passion, and innovation. Many of them have taken the music and combined it with the other music in the air around us to begin re-defining the bluegrass sound. Exactly what reassures me also worries me, as I see these efforts being rejected by many. That’s what I’ve been writing a lot about recently; the narrow limits we place upon our music and the insistence on purity. I worry that as the baby boomers and people my age who are committed to traditional bluegrass continue to hold the line, they will chase away the people who could become their musical friends. Only time will tell, though.

 
BGL • You spoke above of your wife Irene who has also become very involved, and while your blog started as Ted Lehmann’s Bluegrass, Books, and Brainstorms, your FaceBook page is titled Ted and Irene’s Most Excellent Bluegrass Adventure. Tell us a little about the Irene in Ted & Irene’s

TL • Irene (nee Mulford) and I met at a football game in the late fall of 1962 at Mansfield State College in northern Pennsylvania.

“She was looking for a ride back to school, having been told that I had brought a few cheerleaders to the game with me. No one had thought to tell her the cheerleaders were all guys.”

"I also managed to embarrass her (for the first time in the next fifty years) on the ride home by sending a cold hot-turkey sandwich back to the kitchen for further heating. We were married in 1964 and have two sons living in New England with their own families. Throughout my professional career she loyally went along with too many moves to mention along with my attending graduate school for what must have seemed like forever. She’s the musician in our family, having played flute and related instruments in school and sung barbershop quartet, too. The ease with which she sings harmony or picks up the key and plays her mandolin along with the CD’s or radio never ceases to amaze me. Her sunny nature and quick insights have made her invaluable to musicians at their merchandise tables, where she often sells during the period bands are on stage.

“She’s a preternatural "Mom" who takes care of people along the road, one of whom is, I’m usually happy to say, me.”

As video has become an increasing component of my blog and our Facebook pages, her involvement in our effort has become increasingly important. She does a good deal of photography, although, being of a more retiring nature she’s reluctant to move around as much as I do. She also plays a major behind the scenes role, keeping my worst angels at bay as she tones down some of my more heated inclinations. Her work as a line editor and research assistant is invaluable.

“So far, we’ve been married for forty-seven years, and it looks good for the future, but we keep working on us.”

 
BGL • With the economic crisis, and it’s impact on everything including the IBMA, as well as IBMA’s own growing pains in these times of transition, what is your impressions of the state of The Bluegrass Nation. What are your hopes and recommendations.

TL • The essays on my blog and the very welcoming front page of the California Bluegrass Association’s web site stand pretty well as my analysis of the state of Bluegrass Nation.

“I’m not the least worried about the full range of what I think of as bluegrass music.”

Too many people too easily dismiss the new and somewhat different as "not bluegrass" without either remembering that Bill Monroe was a musical revolutionary and that much of what was cloned from his format and musical ideas has long since died. We can’t know what music being played today will emerge as standards. That’ll be up to some observer, writing in the cloud or being experienced in three dimensional holographic reality, fifty or a hundred years in the future. I’ve read that the singer/songwriter movement is killing the development of "standards," that is songs that are covered, sung by other bands, or played and sung around the campfire at jams, but we won’t know whether Allison, Rhonda, Louisa, Donna, or Leigh and Eric will be sung a generation or two from now.

“Meanwhile, I see unbelievably talented young pickers out there picking and people like Brandon Rickman, Chris West, and the Gibson Brothers writing tuneful and repeatable music.”

There’s a natural tension existing between the body of bluegrass players and any effort to create a professional, industry-wide organizational structure. It’s why the Professional Golfers Association (a pretty fair analogy) is divided into touring pros, teaching pros, and the USGA, which is a players organization. Even so, only a small percentage of all golfers are members of the USGA, and most of them belong to support the organization, having little real contact with it. The recent tensions within IBMA often end up comparing it with SPBGMA, which isn’t really an organization. As a former teacher, I believe in professionalism. As a social critic, I see the dangers of any organization becoming more concerned with its own organizational welfare than with its goals and objectives. For this reason, I look on some of the recent responses of IBMA to the financial pressures largely generated, I believe, from external economic forces rather than weaknesses in the organization, as largely beneficial, although the issue of the expense of being in Nashville simply doesn’t show cognizance of the realities of doing business in the world today. To make extensive changes in IBMA’s World of Bluegrass simply to make it cheaper and more user friendly for jammers isn’t a good idea.

“To encourage more part-time working professionals to improve their skills and knowledge, making it easier for them to increase their income, on the other hand is essential. If the changes in the organization draw more of this wildly diverse crowd into IBMA, then the changes will have been well worth the effort.”

I’m leery of too tightly organized an institution. I’d hope IBMA can be successful at strengthening local and regional bluegrass organizations, bringing them together under a single umbrella. I’d love to see every bluegrass association proudly displaying the IBMA logo and sending representatives to every annual convention. As a business conference, IBMA’s World of Bluegrass is an exciting and engaging week of music and learning. We’ve enjoyed the four events we’ve attended and would not be able to attend were the three components be split apart. For the health of the organization and of festivals, concerts, and other events around the world, continuing to have the meetings inside during the fall is important. Beyond that, I"m curious about the future and filled with confidence.

“There’s no reason to worry about bluegrass music.”

LINKS
FaceBook • www.facebook.com/lehmanns.bluegrass.adventure
WebSite • www.tedlehmann.blogspot.com/
Twitter • www.twitter.com/bluegrassted
YouTube • www.youtube.com/KeeneValleyGuy
RELATED ARTICLES
• Guest Contributors on Bluegrass Today
• Guest Blogger: Ted Lehmann on Al Hawkes

• INTRODUCE The AcoustiCana Journal to FaceBook FRIENDS by clicking on the "Share" button at • www.tinyurl.com/acj-like-share • Help them discover this emerging American acoustic musical genre with roots in Old-Time, Bluegrass, Country, Blues, & Americana, and the prodigious group of artists bringing it to the forefront of American Music & Culture today. Thank YOU!

Jubal’s Kin • The distinctively spare sound is grounded in a love for what can only be called the pure and real, at once embracing both a strong roots tradition and yet creating a sound all their own – dubbed as "Appalachia-infused Cosmic Americana." At live shows or in the studio, a seemingly new subgenre is created, their songs displaying raw emotion – vulnerable and unassuming – with handcrafted spins that creak and stomp like a wooden dance floor.

“With the chemistry of live shows as a calling card, fans at shows and festivals connect to our real music – to music you can grasp hold of and understand. Music that really thrives in a good high energy context.”

On Jubal’s Kin, the self-titled debut from the Florida based duo, brother and sister, Roger and Gailanne Amundsen establish a new benchmark for the rising generation of roots musicians – Roger a three time Florida Old-Time Music Championship winner, and Gailanne the 2009 Florida & Tennessee Grand Champion Old Time Fiddler. Jubal’s Kin is an eclectic blend of indie folk and old-time charisma – drawing from earthy roots inspirations such as The Avett Brothers, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Bright Eyes , The Decemberists and a wide palette of other genres.

The debut CD was recorded and co-produced by Erick Jaskowiak at Compass Studios in Nashville. Jaskowiak has worked with some of the most talented progressive groups in acoustic music and otherwise, including Crooked Still, Bearfoot, Alison Brown, Bruce Molsky, The Chieftains with Alison Krauss, and with artists on the Cold Mountain soundtrack. Joined by upright bass virtuoso Byron House (Robert Plant, Sam Bush Band, Emmylou Harris) and guest banjoist Luke Richardson, the album was officially released on April 14, 2010. Since then, the band is also glad to have shared stages with groups du jour like Crooked Still, Over the Rhine, Hoots & Hellmouth, and Punch Brothers.

"I love the clarity and honesty of their singing, and their playing is sweet, solid and sounds just great. I’m excited about this CD and so pleased they invited me to participate!" ~ Byron House

"Now here is something unique – traditional music with a new heart and approach. Though their music may be classified as "old time", their spirit is youthful and different. Once you hear Jubal’s Kin, you never forget them." ~ John Carter Cash

LINKS
• FaceBook
• Mailing List
• Booking
• Website
• ReverbNation
• Twitter
• YouTube
• iTunes
• CDBaby
• Amazon

• INTRODUCE The AcoustiCana Journal to FaceBook FRIENDS by clicking on the "Share" button at • www.tinyurl.com/acj-like-share • Help them discover this emerging American acoustic musical genre with roots in Old-Time, Bluegrass, Country, Blues, & Americana, and the prodigious group of artists bringing it to the forefront of American Music & Culture today. Thank YOU!