Tips from Phil Leadbetter
MP3
Podcast
About Phil Leadbetter
Phil Leadbetter was a member of JD Crowe & the New South for 10 years, and also a founding member of the bluegrass band Wildfire where he recorded 3 highly acclaimed CD’s and remained for 6 years. He has received many SPBGMA and IBMA Dobro Player Of The Year nominations in various categories. In 2005 he was awarded “Dobro Player of the Year” at IBMA. Currently he is playing with the bluegrass super-group Grasstowne.
Tips on singing from Doyle Lawson
MP3 Podcast
About Doyle Lawson
Doyle Lawson began his career as a musician by playing alongside some of the most influential figures in bluegrass including the Country Gentlemen, J.D. Crowe and the Kentucky Mountain Boys, and Jimmy Martin and the Sunny Mountain Boys. In 1979 Doyle put together Quicksilver out of a desire to form a group that would have “his sound”. Doyle has won the IBMA award for Gospel Recorded Performance of the year five times, Vocal Group of the year seven consecutive times, and in 1998 his group was the first bluegrass band invited to perform at the National Gospel Quartet Convention in Loiusville, Kentucky. He has received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as numerous other honors.
Tips on repertoire from Bruce Molsky
MP3 PodcastPodcast
About Bruce Molsky
Alone or with fellow musicians; guitar, fiddle, or banjo in hand, Bruce Molsky has been exploring traditional music from an astonishingly broad range of cultures over the past two decades. While most identified with traditional American old-time music, Molsky’s influences range from the Appalachian soul of Tommy Jarrell to Delta blues; from the haunting modal strains of Irish music to the rhythmically nimble music of Eastern Europe. Bruce is currently touring with Martin Hayes and Alasdair Fraser as part of Highland, Heath & Holler.
Tips on shipping instruments from Paul Beard
MP3 Podcast
About Paul Beard
Paul first became fascinated with resonator guitars when he was 18 years old, about the same time he started repairing stringed instruments. The job market dried up just about the time he was fresh out of school with degrees in Aviation Mechanics and Mechanical Engineering. Supported by family and friends, his musical career was launched as a teacher, stringed instrument technician and performer. As a road musician he became dissatisfied with the quality of available resonator guitars and focused his skills on design and construction of a next generation instrument, a guitar that would take advantage of new technologies and techniques while honoring the tradition of the Dopyera family. The first Beard resonator guitar was delivered to a customer in 1985. Today Beard Guitars hand crafts fourteen square neck and round neck models. Paul is honored that players like Mike Auldridge, LeRoy Mack, and Tim Graves choose Beard guitars to play.
A tip for Banjo players from Alan Munde
MP3 Podcast
About Alan Munde
Alan Munde started his bluegrass banjo career while attending the University of Oklahoma, where he and fellow student Byron Berline traveled to various fiddle contests. His first record was the legendary “Poor Richard’s Almanac,” with Sam Bush and Wayne Stewart. In 1969 Alan went to work as a Sunny Mountain Boy with Jimmy Martin. In early 1972 he joined the Country Gazette. Over the next 35 years the Gazette recorded over 30 albums and CDs and now tours as The Alan Munde Gazette. Alan has also released many highly-acclaimed solo projects including “Banjo Sandwich,” “Festival Favorites,” and his latest release, “Old Bones.”
It’s really no surprise that when asked Alan Munde to give us a Musician’s Tip that he gave us banjo lesson! Alan recently retired after teaching 20 years in the Commercial Music Program at South Plains College in Levelland, Texas — but he’s busier than ever. He continues to be in demand as a teacher at banjo camps and workshops all over the U.S. Alan’s instructional material is available online at Al Munde’s Banjo College.
Tips about life on the road from Missy Raines
MP3 Podcast
About Missy Raines
Born in Cumberland, MD in 1962 and raised in Short Gap, WV, Missy Raines has been blazing trails and making award-winning music on the upright bass since she was in her teens. She began her career with Cloud Valley, spent eight years with bluegrass pioneer Eddie Adcock, and appeared on Mac Wiseman’s Grammy-nominated “Grassroots to Bluegrass,” and then a year-long tour of duty with Americana favorites The Brother Boys took Raines into the mid-90s. In 1995, she joined the band of Claire Lynch. Missy formed a groundbreaking duo with her colleague in the band, guitarist Jim Hurst. 2007 also brings the first touring appearances of Missy Raines & the New Hip, an exciting new ensemble that promises to find a welcome reception among adventurous music fans of every stripe.
Tips about syncopation from Chris Eldridge
MP3 Podcast
About Chris Eldridge
Guitar player, Chris Eldridge grew up in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Chris’ mother and father (Ben Eldridge from the Seldom Scene) are both banjo players and he attended Oberlin College. Up until September 2007, Chris played guitar with the Infamous Stringdusters. Currently he is a member of a new group, the Punch Brothers, featuring Chris Thile on mandolin, Gabe Witcher on violin, Greg Garrison on bass, and Noam Pikelny on banjo. Chris says,
“My favorite color is (usually) yellow, although I tend not to like my yellows to be too bold. But cornmeal yellow is a little too bland . . . .Under careful tutelage, I’ve been slowly, but surely, learning to dance. I still love getting dressed up for Halloween. I drive a Dodge Stratus. My guitar’s name is “Uncle Johnny.” I’m lucky to get to play music with absurdly good musicians. ”
Tips about musicality from Stephen Wade
MP3 Podcast
About Stephen Wade
Musician and researcher Stephen Wade is best known for his long-running, one-man stage performances in “Banjo Dancing” and “On the Way Home.” For the past eleven years his commentaries on folksongs have appeared on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.” In 1997 he edited and annotated “A Treasury of Library of Congress Field Recordings” (Rounder CD 1500), for which he is now completing a book for the Music in American Life series, University of Illinois Press. For more on Stephen Wade’s background, writings, and recordings go to Folkstreams.net for “Catching the Music,” Stephen’s Emmy-nominated film.
Tips about technique from Steve Gulley
MP3 Podcast
About Steve Gulley
Guitarist Steve Gulley had already won esteem for his lofty tenor voice and emotional delivery as an entertainer at Kentucky’s historic Renfro Valley before he joined Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, bringing him before a wider but no less appreciative audience. Steve was also a founding member of the bluegrass group Mountain Heart where he recorded five highly acclaimed CDs as the lead singer for that band. He has been tapped as a harmony and featured singer on projects like the widely-praised Keith Whitley album, “Sad Songs and Waltzes,” and many others including projects by Ronnie Bowman, Dan Tyminski, Tim Stafford, David Parmley, Dale Ann Bradley, Jeff Parker and Grasstowne’s own Phil Leadbetter just to name a few. He has also earned multiple Male Vocalist of the Year nominations from the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America. Steve currently is a member of the group Grasstowne.
Tips about hearing on stage from Randy Kohrs
MP3 Podcast
About Randy Kohrs
A virtuoso on the resophonic guitar, Randy Kohrs paid his dues working with Hank Williams III, Tom T. Hall, Continental Divide, John Cowan and Dolly Parton. In 2004, Dolly recorded a duet with Randy, entitled “It Looked Good On Paper,” from his latest release, “I’m Torn,” on Lonesome Day Records. It spent eight months on the bluegrass charts, climbing to the top five, and three of the singles have charted for months at a time, additionally, on various bluegrass and Americana charts.
Today, Randy has a successful solo career, heading up Randy Kohrs and the Lites. He’s in constant demand as a session player, producer and engineer.
Tips about when to start playing from Janet Beazley
MP3 Podcast
About Janet Beazley
Janet Beazley, banjo and lead/harmony singer for Chris Stuart and Backcountry, is a true westerner. She spent her early years in Bakersfield, California, as well as Alaska and New Mexico. She is an accomplished banjo player, teacher, songwriter, and singer, and has taught banjo and music theory classes at the British Columbia Bluegrass Workshop, the American Banjo Camp, and the California Bluegrass Association music camp. She’ll be teaching banjo at the August Heritage camp and at the Sorefingers camp in the UK in 2007. She was recently featured in Banjo Newsletter. Janet holds a doctorate in early music and teaches at the University of Southern California and at the University of California Riverside. She plays flute, recorder, viola da gamba and historical guitars, and her pennywhistle playing can be heard on several Chris Stuart and Backcountry recordings. Janet’s solo album, 5 South appeared on the Bluegrass Unlimited chart for a year with a song by Chris, “Julia Belle.”
Tips about pickin’ from Carl Jackson
MP3 Podcast
About Carl Jackson
Carl Jackson is a grammy award winning musician, singer, songwriter, producer and publisher. At age fourteen he was asked by Jim and Jesse McReynolds to be a Virginia Boy and played banjo for Jim and Jesse for almost 5 years. He’s also played with The Sullivan Family, “The Country Store” with close friends Jimmy Gaudreau, Bill Rawlins, and the late Keith Whitley. Carl also played with Glen Campbell for 12 years and it was during that time he started to concentrate on his vocal and songwriting abilities as well as his musicianship. After his time with Glen Campbell, Carl started an extremely successful solo career.
Carl’s most recent production success is entitled “Livin’, Lovin’™, Losin’ – Songs Of The Louvin Brothers“ and is the 2003 Grammy winner for Country Album of the Year. Carl Jackson has realized many of his dreams. But with each dream that becomes a reality, a new dream lies ahead. Visit his website to learn more.
Tips on photography from Carl Fleischhauer
MP3 Podcast
About Carl Fleischhauer
Carl Fleischhauer holds degrees from Kenyon College and Ohio University. As a student at Ohio University in the 1967, he produced a film about bluegrass banjo player Johnny Hickman, then playing in taverns in Columbus, Ohio. Fleischhauer’s work experience includes film and video production at West Virginia University (1969-1976); folklife field research, publications, and exhibitions at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress (1976-1990); coordination of the Library’s American Memory program for online access to historical collections (1990-1998); and continuing service to collection-digitizing and digital preservation efforts at the Library of Congress in the National Digital Library Program and the Office of Strategic Initiatives (1998-present).
He is the co-author with Neil Rosenberg of Bluegrass Odyssey, 1966-1986 (University of Illinois Press, 2001). This book presents Fleischhauer’s photographs from 1966-86, when he was most active as a bluegrass photographer.
Tips from Chris Pandolfi
MP3 Podcast
About Chris Pandolfi
Chris plays banjo for the Infamous Stringdusters. He has studied with Tony Trischka, earned a Bill Vernon Memorial Scholarship, recorded a solo album (The Handoff), and toured with the New England Bluegrass Band, the Grammy-nominated Russian country-bluegrass group Bering Strait, and former Leftover Salmon mandolinist Drew Emmitt. The Infamous Stringdusters have won 3 IBMA awards this year: Song of the Year, Emerging Artist of the Year, and tied for Album of the Year.
Tips about sound reinforcement from Mike Auldridge
MP3 PodcastPodcast
About Mike Auldridge
Mike Auldridge was a founding member of Washington D.C.’s legendary Seldom Scene. In addition, he has eight solo albums to his credit and over the past 35 years he’s done session work on over 200 recordings in many genres of music.
In October 2007 Mike will receive an IBMA Distinguished Achievement Award, an honor which recognizes individuals in the bluegrass music industry who have fostered the music’s image with developments that will broaden the genre’s recognition and accessibility.
He has a very successful signature resophonic guitar on the market, and a web site where he sells instruction material, as well as his recordings. Mike is currently a member of the band John Starling and Carolina Star and works the touring circuit with Emmylou Harris.
