Redline Fiddler Patrick McAvinue Gets Creative with Record Promotion

"I'm Going Back To Old Kentucky", Audie Blaylock and Redline's new tribute to Bill Monroe CD recently enjoyed some creative marketing at the hands of fiddler Patrick McAvinue and Rural Rhythm Records while touring in Silver Dollar City, MO.

Donna Ulisse to Tour Russia!

We heard from Donna Ulisse that her band has been invited to go to Russia.

Donna Says:

The tour season for us is fast approaching and we've been adding some really interesting and exciting shows to my schedule. One that I can hardly wait to tell you about is...banjo roll please...we are going to RUSSIA! That's right, the country! We have been invited by the U.S-Russia Bi-Lateral Presidential Commission to perform at the second bluegrass festival in Russia. We will do two days of shows in Vologda and two days in Yekaterinburg as "bluegrass ambassadors" from the United States along with some of the fine Russian bluegrass bands. Here is a copy of the Bluegrass Bugle from the Bi-Lateral Commission that gives you an idea of what our trip will be like. We'll take lots of pictures and try to post on Facebook while we are there. 

Last year Pete and Joan Wernick were the headlining act at the first bluegrass festival in Russia.  Click here to read about their visit last year. 

SEE OTHER VIDEOS FROM THIS FESTIVAL
Pete & Joan Wernick (Dr. & Nurse Banjo) - Spring Break
Pete & Joan Wernick (Dr. & Nurse Banjo) - Leaving Town
Pete Wernick (Dr. Banjo) & Justin Hoffenberg - Fire on the Mountain

Read The Bluegrass Bugle! (PDF - 3.81 MB)

Foundation for Bluegrass Music Awards $20,000 in Grants

Foundation for Bluegrass Music Awards $20,000 in Grants

 

The Foundation for Bluegrass Music is pleased to announce a distribution of $20,000 in funds to charitable public programs for 2011.  The programs include youth focused educational efforts, a film project and celebrations of the 100^th anniversary of birth of the “father of bluegrass music.”  The funds have been made available to recipients from diverse areas of the country, including Washington, Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Kentucky and California.

 

The International Bluegrass Music Museum in Owensboro, Kentucky and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee received funds to support programs celebrating the 100^th birthday of Bill Monroe in 2011.  Grants were also awarded to Acoustic Sound’s Wintergrass Youth Academy, the Bluegrass Heritage Foundation, The Gaston School of Arts and Young Audiences of San Diego.

 

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Goose Creek Symphony To Be Inducted Into Hall Of Fame!

The Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame celebrates the induction of Arizona's own Goose Creek Symphony this Sunday!

Formed in 1968 in Phoenix, Arizona as an outlet for the songs of Charlie Gearheart, aka Ritchie Hart, Goose Creek Symphony was best known for their 1972 cover of Janis Joplin's song, Mercedes Benz. The band recorded their first album at (Phoenix, AZ) Audio Recorders in 1968-69 and were subsequently signed to Capitol Records in 1970. 

Goose Creek Symphony is considered by many to be one of the most original bands of their time. Major record labels (Capitol & Columbia) of the 60s/early 70s didn’t know what to do with a band that played a mixture of rock and roll, folk, jazz and country with an undeniable hillbilly influence, a hippie attitude and a reckless sense of instrumental daring. They used horns and fiddles as well as effects and blended it with psychedelic rock and roll. The true definition of "Cosmic American Music".

In the 70s they fit into a country rock mode, but they were more esoteric and versatile than many of their contemporaries and had more grit and a rugged, less commercial sound. They were/are a good time band that love to jam and stretch out regardless of the genre. They recorded three eclectic albums for Capitol, Est 1970, (1970) Welcome to Goose Creek (1971) and Words of Earnest (1972).   All were moderately successful with the last boasting a hit single cover of Janis Joplin’s “Mercedes Benz”. In 1974 the band moved over to Columbia and recorded Do Your Thing But Don’t Touch Mine, which was their weakest to date thanks to an outside, unwanted producer. Shortly thereafter the band took a hiatus…. a really long one which lasted almost 17 years. Then out of nowhere they came back (and musically it sounds like they never went away), and lo and behold they sound almost contemporary.

The Goose Creek story brings new meaning to “you were ahead of your time.” Unlike many of the other bands from the 70s Goose Creek hasn’t mellowed or gotten more commercial. They aren’t resting on old laurels, if anything they’ve gotten looser and more varied. They found most of their old audience as well as many new fans.

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Other 2011inductees into the Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame include: actors and musicians Dick Van Dyke, , Sam Moore, Tanya Tucker, Chico Chism, Al McCoy, Lee Hazlewood, Billy Williams, Dolan Ellis, Marshall Trimble and the Reed Family. The evening includes performances by the Goose Creek Symphony, Margo and Michael Reed, Marshall Trimble, Dolan Ellis, Bob Corritore, Hans Olson, Billy Cioffi and Alice Tatum.


Induction Ceremonies will be Sunday Feb. 13th at the Phoenix Convention Center.