Carolyn Herring | Elusive Real Thing
August 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Caroline Herring digs deep—deep into the rich soil of American roots music for her sound, and deep into the recesses of her own consciousness for her themes. The musically understated, psychologically intense songs of this Atlanta-based Mississippi native ponder the eternal verities while probing the complex nature of contemporary existence; she delivers them in a fine-grained alto replete with the residue of hard-earned insight. On Lantana, her beautiful and eloquent third album (Signature Sounds), Herring fills the listener’s heart with hope one moment and sends a chill down the spine the next. This pivotal album, which documents a personal and artistic crossroads for its author, cements her status as a truth teller, and no matter how bitter or disturbing the story leading to the truth may be, she approaches it clear-eyed and straight-on, getting down to the nub of it with quiet tenacity. No wonder fellow artist Dar Williams, who co-headlined a European tour with Herring in 2006, described her as “the elusive ‘real thing.’”
Dale Ann Bradley | Saturday & Sunday
June 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Bluegrass/Ameri
Mac Morin | Piano Genius
June 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Mac Morin, dancer, piano & keyboard player, is a talented Troy, Cape Breton native whose ancestors were noted Cape Breton step dancers for several generations (including Mary C. MacDonald Morin - Mother - and John R.’Roddie Eddie’ MacDonald - Grandfather). Mac has been dancing for over 10 years, first being taught by his mother and then the talented Warner sisters of Mabou, Cape Breton. Since then he has taken on the role as teacher in various private and workshop venues across North America and in Europe. Mac has been playing with Natalie MacMaster again since the summer of 2006 and within that time, has recorded and toured with The Rankin Family, Howie MacDonald, Mary Jane Lamond, Bela Fleck, Ian MacDougall, and members of Beolach. He continues to travel to teach Cape Breton step dancing http://www.macm
Molly Mason | Ashokan Music
June 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Husband and wife duo Jay Ungar and Molly Mason perform some of the greatest songs of ’60s… 1860s that is. They share a mission of unearthing traditional American fiddle and dance gems from Civil war songs to New England contra songs to country swing tunes and bringing them to a new generation of listeners in search of a simpler time. http://www.jaya
Matt MacIsaac | Irish Piper
May 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment
After years competing solo and with pipe bands Matt now enjoys the best of both piping worlds as a professional touring musician In December 2004, Matt released his debut solo recording “Matt MacIsaac - The Piping Album”, and is currently working on his second album which will feature several different instruments, including the Irish high and low whistle, the guitar and banjo. http://nataliem
Don Rigsby | High Lonesome
May 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment
From remote Isonville, Ky., to an international following in Bluegrass music, Don Rigsby has remained true to his mountain roots and made his own marks as a powerful tenor and distinctive mandolin player. Rigsby has released three solo albums. His first, “A Vision,” won the Association of Independent Music’s “gospel album of the year” award and was nominated for an IBMA award. He received the 1999 Bluegrass Now Magazine Fan’s Choice Award for vocal tenor of the year and the 2001 Governor’s Kentucky Star Award. “Empty Old Mailbox,” the title track from his third album, won the 2001 Song of the Year award from SPGBMA. In 2005, Rigsby was awarded two IBMA awards for his role as producer of the Larry Sparks project “40” for Recorded Event of the Year and Album of the Year. He has recorded two albums with Dudley Connell, with plans for a third, and continues to perform and record with Midnight Call and Longview. http://www.donr
Paddy Moloney | Chieftans Legend
May 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment
What an honor to speak to Paddy Moloney of the Chieftans on the show today! Six time Grammy winners, The Chieftains, are now recognised for bringing traditional Irish music to the world’s attention. They have uncovered the wealth of traditional Irish music that has accumulated over the centuries, making the music their own with a style that is as exhilarating as it is definitive. http://www.thec
Kathryn Leigh Kirt Transcript
April 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dr. Kent: Welcome back to “Sound Authors”. On the fourth part of each show we feature authors of sound. My guest is Kathryn Kirt from Tulsa, Oklahoma. She’s done a CD for children and a CD for adults with her group, “The Good Intentions.”Welcome to the show.
Kathryn Kirt: Thank you so much.
Dr. Kent: How’s the weather down there in Tulsa today?
Kathryn: Well, I’m looking out the window right now and it’s pretty windy, but it’s very pretty. All the flowers are in bloom.
Dr. Kent: Your two CD’s are based on life experiences. You have a baby yourself. I guess that’s the inspiration for “Itty Bitty Ditties For The New Baby?”
Kathryn: That’s right, I wrote all of the songs in her first year of life.
Dr. Kent: And all of these songs are very short so people can learn them and sing them themselves, is that right?
Kathryn: Right, that’s exactly right. I was hoping that parents, grandparents and children would sing those songs to their own babies and I thought that short would help people learn them, no matter what their age.
Dr. Kent: Let’s listen to a little bit of “I Love Milk, Yes I Do.”
Song: I love milk, yes I do, I love milk, yes I do.It’s so sweet and good, and good for you!I love milk, yes I do, I love milk, yes I do.I’d have it all day if I could, and I do!It’s got vitamins and antibodies, its got everything I need.It’s a perfect five star feast for babies.I love milk, yes I do, I love milk, yes I do,It’s so sweet and good, and good for you!I love milk, yes I do, I love milk, yes I do.I’d have it all day if I could, and I do!
Dr. Kent: [laughs] That’s an awesome song. Who’s the little fellow, or lady, doing the interludes?
Kathryn: That is Faith Hart and she, at the time of the recording was six years old, and she is the daughter of my singing partner, Elizabeth Thompson.
Dr. Kent: What a beautiful voice in there. I love the little ditty aspect of this. I don’t think there are many albums out there. There’re all looking at the pop music link of two to three minutes. I love this, its something that…these little tidbits.Tell me a little bit about why you put this into a CD.
Kathryn: Well, my daughter was breast fed, of course, for the first eight months of her life. Most babies only have milk for the first six months and it was such a part of our bonding experience together, as mother and child. Also, I was just amazed; I could both nurture her emotionally and physically by doing this. And that’s all she needed for the first six months. We’re so used to eating all types of food as adults, but I just thought it was amazing that she literally got everything she needed from just milk.
Dr. Kent: And the songs are called things like, “Wake Up, Shake It Up”, “No Cry, No Cry”, “The Rubber Duckie”, “Please, Please, Pretty Please”. Did you find yourself, in this period, walking around and thinking like a little kid?
Kathryn: Well, I did actually, and at the time… let’s see, most of the songs were actually written when I went back to school. I’m a teacher, and though I’m taking a break right now, I was, at the time, teaching English at a high school about 20 minutes away.So that was a perfect length of time after I dropped off my daughter, to work on both the melodies and the lyrics, on the way to work and the way back from work, knowing that I’d see her right away again. So I’d get a little bit in my mind and just keep working on it. I’d also work on them as I walked the dog and my daughter around the neighborhood.
Dr. Kent: What did the neighbors think?
Kathryn: Oh they probably think I’m the crazy lady. [laughter] I’m working on songs all the time.
Dr. Kent: I know you call your group, “The Good Intentions”. Talk about your singing partner.
Kathryn: Well, Elizabeth and I have been singing together now for four years and just this summer we added two new members to our band, Jim Tilley plays mostly the mandolin and Jayula Kirt [sp] plays the keyboard.
Dr. Kent: And you play around Tulsa and the area?
Kathryn: We do! We play as often as we can, we’re all busy professionals in one way or another, or I should say, the three of them are. I’m now a stay at home mom and I have a part time job as the music director at a church. But we try to work around our schedules and play as much as we can. We’ve done the Farmers Market and Cinder One Market more recently and played at The River’s Edge and several other venues in town.
Dr. Kent: Let’s play a song from your album, “Join Hands”, by “The Good Intentions.” This is called “Pools of Sky”Pools of sky line my brick road,And gold leaved trees hang all above me.Faraway moon shines icy cold.I think its time to run away to the sea, to the sea.To a place where light shines unearthly.To a place were sea sand can…
Dr. Kent: Well, it’s been a real pleasure speaking with Kathryn Kirt. You can find her music on cdbaby.com. Look for “The Good Intentions”, her group, and “Itty Bitty Ditties for the New Baby”, by Kathryn Leigh Kurt.Thanks so much for being on the show.
Kathryn: Thank you very much; it was great to be here.
Dr. Kent: And we’ll listen to a little bit more from “The Good Intentions” on the way out here. Thank you so much to my guests, Suzanne Lieurance, Daniel Lee Stone and Tim Keller.We’ll see you next week, but think about Ella Fitzgerald today, that smooth silky voice, and we’ll listen to Kathryn Kirt on the way out.Pools of sky line my brick road, and gold leaved trees hang above me.Faraway moon shines icy cold.
Kathryn Leigh Kirt | Ditties & Tunes
April 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Today on the show, we spoke with musician and mother Kathryn Leigh Kirt, telling us about her CD filled with “ditties,” short enough for any parent to learn to sing, and for any child to learn! She also shared her “adult” music with us… More information about Kathryn Leigh Kirt and her music from her CDBaby site:
Itty Bitty Ditties for the New Baby includes 13 original songs written by Kathryn Leigh Kirt, a singer/songwriter who lives and sings in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The songs are performed by Kathryn with a lot of help from friends and family members. The guitar player is her brother-in-law Nathan Guilford from Oklahoma City. The singers include Kathryn’s father-in-law Bill Morris of Houston, Texas, her neice Siri Peterson from St. Paul, Minnesota, and her singing partner Elizabeth Thompson from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Last but definitely not least is Faith Hart, Elizabeth’s daughter who was six years old at the time of the recording. She masterfully handles all of the speaking parts. The songs were inspired by the experience of being a new mom, and they focus on things that a baby does everyday. New parents will have no problem relating to songs such as “I Love Milk, Yes I Do!” and “Three Wet Wipe Mess.” Some of these songs are easy enough for a toddler to sing, and Kathryn hopes that the whole family will join in and sing to the new baby! Singing can help parents, siblings, and babies feel calm and happy. Now that is a dream come true.
Butch Thompson | After the Monologue
April 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment
It was my pleasure to speak with Butch Thompson on the show today — about playing after Garrison Keillor’s monologue in the early days of Prairie Home Companion, and about his long career in the music industry!More about Butch Thompson from his website:
In a career spanning 40 years, pianist Butch Th ompson has earned a world-wide reputation as a master of ragtime, stride, and classic jazz piano. He spends much of his time on tour in the U.S. and internationally. Although he often travels as a soloist, he also appears with his well-known trio or his eight-piece New Orleans Jazz Originals band. He performs with symphony orchestras, among them recently the Hartford Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Cairo (Egypt) Symphony. Widely known for his 12-year stint (1974-1986) as house pianist and bandleader on public radio’s A Prairie Home Companion, he continues as a frequent guest on that show. Th ompson was born and raised in Marine on St. Croix, a small river town in Minnesota, where he was playing Christmas carols on his mother’s upright piano by age three, and began formal lessons at six. He studied clarinet in high school, and led his fi rst professional jazz group as a senior. At 18, he made his pilgrimage to New Orleans, where he befriended and studied with the late clarinetist George Lewis, and was one of the few non-New Orleanians to appear at Preservation Hall during the 1960s and ‘70s. After two years in an Army band during the ‘60s, Th ompson returned to Minnesota. While studying Latin American music at the University of Minnesota, he spent some time in Ecuador, and wrote music based on that country’s folk tunes. Th e Minnesota Orchestra with Th ompson at the piano, premiered his Ecuadorean Suite, based on those early pieces in June 1998. In 1974, Th ompson began his well-remembered 12-year run as the house pianist on A Prairie Home Companion, beginning with the show’s fi rst broadcasts in July of that year. Th e Butch Th ompson Trio, formed as the show went into national distribution in 1978, remained the offi cial house band until 1986. During the 70s and 80s, he toured widely in Europe. In 1985, to commemorate the 100th birthday of jazz cornetist Joe “King” Oliver, he formed his eight-piece King Oliver Centennial Band for tours in Switzerland, Germany, and England. In 1987, Th ompson commissioned composer Gordon Wright to orchestrate the fi ve-part Gordon Wright to orchestrate the fi ve-part Gordon Wright Scott Joplin Suite for Piano and Orchestra. Since then, he has toured widely as a pops concert soloist, specializing in such American composers as Joplin, Fats Waller, Eubie Blake and James P. Johnson. During the early 90s, Thompson began an association with the off -Broadway show Jelly Roll! Th e Music and the Man, Th e Music and the Man, Th e Music and the Man which won Obie, Lucille Lortell and Outer Critics Circle awards as best off -Broadway musical of 1995. Th ompson worked onstage with the show in New York and on several national tours through 1997. In addition to his career as a performer, Th ompson writes articles and reviews on jazz and produces his own weekly radio show, Jazz Originals, on KBEM radio in Minneapolis. His writing has appeared in Th e Mississippi Rag, Keyboard Classics, New Orleans Music and other Th e Mississippi Rag, Keyboard Classics, New Orleans Music and other Th e Mississippi Rag, Keyboard Classics, New Orleans Music magazines, as well as in various CD booklets. One of Th ompson’s latest CDs, an album of holiday duets with cellist Laura Sewell, is titled Bethlehem After Dark. Th is release is the 10th in Th ompson’s acclaimed series for the Daring/ Rounder label of Boston. He also played on the Grammy-winning 1997 Verve release Doc Cheatham and Nicholas Payton. His 1968 solo recording debut, Butch Th ompson Plays Jelly Roll Morton, is currently available as a Biograph CD.
Doyle Lawson Transcript
March 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dr. Kent: Welcome back to Sound Authors. On the fourth part of each show we feature authors of sound. One of my favorite authors of sound is a man named Doyle Lawson. He has played with just about anybody you can think of in the field of bluegrass. His band is always the best in the business. Welcome to the show.
Doyle: Thank you very much. It’s good to talk to you.
Dr. Kent: Now, tell me a little bit, where are you right now?
Doyle: Well, I am actually in Fredrick, Maryland, on my way down to Bethesda for a concert tonight at the Strathmore Theatre. And then we come back to Fredrick to the Weinberg Theatre tomorrow night.
Dr. Kent: How is the life on the road? How does it treat you?
Doyle: Well, I’ve been doing it for 45 years, and it’s treated me pretty good. [laughs] It all depends on how you take it and how you look at it. If you love to travel, as I do, it doesn’t bother you. If you’re not one that enjoys to travel and being on the road a good deal of the time, then I would suggest that you maybe take up bookkeeping or something like that. [laughs]
Dr. Kent: Your bands are always so incredible. How do you go about choosing the members of your bands?
Doyle: Well, I look for people that will fit the moods of the style of music I play, that can blend in with us and join in their efforts and keep the transition between one musician and another as seamless as possible, and still keep that sound that’s identified as Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver.
Dr. Kent: And they can all sing, that’s for sure.
Doyle: Primarily, the first thing I look for is the vocals, their vocal prowess and how they’ll blend with my voice and the other guys in the group at the time. But vocals are the primary thing I look for at first, and then I look at their skills as far as playing whichever instrument that I need to be played.
Dr. Kent: Let’s talk a little bit about your gospel music. I think you do gospel music the best of anybody in the business. Why is it that you have that soul in all of this music? Where does it come from?
Doyle: Well, I grew up in east Tennessee and my father was involved in quartet music. They sang all a cappella. During those days, when I was a child, most churches in and around the east Tennessee, southwestern Virginia area would have a quartet within the church, or a trio of some sort, but a lot of a cappella music.I learned to love gospel music being brought up in church and hearing my father in the quartet he’d sing with. It just left a lasting impact on my life. And I’m quick to tell people that as far as gospel music is concerned, he was my first and biggest influence.
Dr. Kent: Your newest album is called “Help Is On the Way.” There’s a whole bunch of albums that you all have put out. I love that every album is full of gospel music, full of vocal music, full of soul. This newest album, Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver “Help Is On the Way,” let’s listen to the title track, “Help Is On the Way.”[music]
Dr. Kent: That song is the title track from “Help Is On the Way,” released in 2008 by Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver. And that mandolin solo was yours, am I right?
Doyle: Yes, sir, that was me.
Dr. Kent: When did you start playing the mandolin?
Doyle: I started trying to learn to play mandolin when I was about 11 years old. One of the fellows that sang with my dad in the quartet, I discovered he had a little mandolin and asked my dad to see if I could borrow it. He did and I did, and I began to teach myself to play the mandolin.I’m self-taught pretty much, but along the way I had some help from the legendary Jimmy Martin of bluegrass fame, which was actually who I wound up going to work for my first professional job. In February of 1963, I took a job with Jimmy. But I started liking the mandolin when I was about four or five years old.I’ve played a lot of different instruments. The fact is, my first professional job I was a banjo player, but mandolin has always been my first love. And still, above all the things that I play, that’s my favorite and primarily that’s what I play most of the time.
Dr. Kent: The one thing I have heard about Jimmy Martin, who has now left us, but one of the best voices in the history of bluegrass. One thing that I’ve heard about him is that he was a school himself. He taught everybody how to sing, how to play. Didn’t matter if he was better than them at that instrument, but he would tell you if you were doing it right. Is that right?
Doyle: Absolutely, Jimmy was a taskmaster for sure, but he had when it came to his music, he knew exactly what he wanted and settled for nothing less than that. That was, of course, that was my earliest days of professional training.Before that my dad was the same way in the music he sang, even though they didn’t play, they sang; and they were very disciplined with it, as was Jimmy.So, that’s carried with me all these years. I’m much the same way when it comes to my group. When it comes to my music, I have a definite idea about how I want it to be. I tell them; the reason I hire these people is because I know that they can do what it is that I ask.
Dr. Kent: And you have such a different brand of bluegrass, I think. My opinion. One of my favorite albums is called “A School of Bluegrass.” It’s all of your outtakes from over the years.
Doyle: Yeah, that was something that I had. Over the years I would tape rehearsals and sometimes pick up a live show along the way or something like that. I got to looking through all the things that I had stored up. I discovered that pretty much I had rehearsals or some music by just about every formation of the groups down through the years to celebrate my 25 years as a bandleader.So the record company suggested that, since I’ve had so many great musicians come through here and go on and do quite well for themselves, that maybe they would like to call it “A School of Bluegrass,” because I am known as a taskmaster sometimes.But I never asked people to do anything that I wouldn’t do myself.
Dr. Kent: And you put out an album a year, at least. How do you do that?
Doyle: Well, you stay after it. There’s an old saying, out of sight, out of mind, and I’ve always tried to stay productive for the people. It’s good for me as a professional musician. It keeps my chops up. Keeps my interest up.I don’t want to slide into that safety zone where I say, “Well, OK, I’ve done this. I’ve done that. I’ve done this. I want to coast awhile.” I don’t believe in coasting. If you are going to be out here doing it, be productive.For two reasons: one, it keeps your talents up to par; and it gives people something fresh to know that Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver are still out there working hard to make sure that they have music that they can enjoy.
Dr. Kent: Now, my last question for you. How do you balance this: In the bluegrass world today, there is such a different group of folks that love the gospel and love the non-gospel music. How do you keep the gospel music alive?
Doyle: Well, you know, it’s something that for me that is more than just doing the music. It’s something that I believe in. My faith is very real and important to me in my walk of life and I believe myself, and show as an example of the way I think people should behave.I love gospel music, as I stated earlier. So I have found that my audience, whether it be an all-gospel concert or a mixture of both… sometimes I may go out at a concert and I start to trying to get a feel for the audience what they are enjoying the most.Sometimes I may do 60 percent bluegrass and 40 percent gospel. Or I may do 60 percent gospel and 40 percent bluegrass. It all depends on what they are really enjoying. If they are really enjoying the gospel music more, I do that. If they are enjoying the secular, I make sure that I do a good amount of gospel, but I kind of leave that up to each audience where we are going as to how much I’m doing of either one.
Dr. Kent: This has been a real honor speaking with Doyle Lawson of Quicksilver. You are a legend. It’s been great chatting with you and your new album is called “Help Is On the Way” from 2008.We’re going to listen to a track, a secular track called “Sadie’s Got Her New Dress On.” Thank you for being on the show.
Doyle: Been my pleasure. Thank you.[music]
Dr. Kent: Thank you for sitting in to Sound Authors. I’m Dr. Kent. I’ve been speaking with Doyle Lawson of Quicksilver. That’s who we are listening to in the background.And with two novelists: Kate Maloy with “Every Last Cuckoo,” Jim Olson with “The Eagle Unchained,” and then a woman who’s an expert on writing, Carolyn Howard-Johnson. Go visit all them on the web. Visit us atsoundauthors.com and we’ll see you soon.
Doyle Lawson | Bluegrass Gospel Harmony
March 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment
If Bill Monroe is the father of bluegrass, Doyle Lawson is the father of Bluegrass Gospel Harmony. His band has always had the best vocalists, and over decades in the business, each release he puts out is better than the last. We spoke with him about gospel, being on the road, and being in the business for so many years…More about Doyle Lawson from his website www.doylelawson.com:
I was born on April 20, 1944 in Ford Town, a part of Sullivan County, near Kingsport, TN, to Leonard and Minnie Lawson. I have two brothers, James and Les, and one sister, Colleen. As far back as I can remember, I loved the sound of music. Just about everyone listened to The Grand Ole Opry, and our family was no exception. Though I listened to all the stars on the Opry, the group that impressed me most was Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys. His music was different, more intense. High lonesome is the term we used for it. I could hardly wait for Saturday nights to arrive so I could listen. I decided early on that I wanted to play that kind of music. My father, mother, and sister all sang gospel music when I was young. They were members of trios and quartets that sang a cappella music in churches and at revivals, and such. No doubt, that was where I acquired my love of quartet music. When I was 11 or 12 years old I expressed an interest in learning to play the mandolin, so my Father borrowed one from one of the members of their quartet, Willis Byrd so I could try. I mostly taught myself to play by listening to the radio, a few records, and watching the occasional TV show. I eventually returned that mandolin to Mr. Byrd, and years later, he gave it back to me at one of the first concerts Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver played in Sneedville, TN. I still have it. I met Jimmy Martin when I was 14 years old. He is from Sneedville, TN where we had moved to in 1954. Around that time, I made up my mind that I wanted to play music for a living, and realized that only playing one instrument was somewhat limiting, so I made it a point to learn how to play the banjo and guitar, too. Four years later, in February 1963, I went to Nashville and got a job playing banjo with Jimmy Martin. In 1966, I started working with JD Crowe in Lexington, KY. I first played guitar and later switched to mandolin. In 1969, I was back with Jimmy Martin for about six months playing mandolin and singing tenor but then went back with J D Crowe until August of 1971. I started with the Country Gentlemen on September 1, 1971 and stayed with them until March 1979. By this time, I had played in bands for more than 10 years, that had their “sound” before I joined them. I wanted to put together a group that would have “my sound”. To that end, in April 1979, I formed a group that I first named Doyle Lawson & Foxfire but soon changed to Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver. I was looking for “our sound” and that first group tried many different types of songs. I wanted a strong quartet like the ones my dad used to sing with. In the next few months, Terry Baucom, Jimmy Haley, Lou Reid and I laid the foundation for what has become the Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver sound. The makeup of my band has changed many times in the last 27 years. I jokingly tell folks that Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver is the “farm team” for bluegrass. I try to integrate each member’s special talents into my group, while not sacrificing the Quicksilver sound. While the sound changes a bit with the introduction of a new band member, it is important to me that people hear what they expect to hear when we take the stage, no matter who is in the group. My Father passed away in 1994, but my Mother still lives in Kingsport, TN, only thirty minutes from us. Suzanne, my wife, and I were married June 24, 1978. I have one son, Robbie, and we have two girls, Suzi and Kristi. Robbie and his wife, Carla, live in Kentucky. Suzi graduated from King College and works for the Daymon Corp in Meadowview,VA. Kristi attended King College for 2 years and is trying to finish up her education at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. We live close to South Holston Lake and enjoy the solitude of the water and mountains. Suzanne bought a small sailboat last fall and when I’m home and there is a breeze, we sail. I collect western memorabilia of Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, etc. I also enjoy looking at old cars, and I recently bought a 1946 Ford Coupe. It has been restored from the ground up and I’m enjoying riding around town in it.We are all members of Cold Spring Presbyterian Church and while Suzanne and Suzi are there almost every Sunday, I miss a few when I’m out on the road. I love golf, and play every time I have the opportunity. We have a Men’s Bible Study on Tuesday mornings and if I’m home, I try and make Bible Study and then several of us play golf.
I have been hosting the Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver festival in Denton, NC for more than twenty-five years. A few years ago we started a golf tournament on Thursday, the week of the festival. I’d like to be able to say we were defending our title every year, but we aren’t. (Just wishing)The gospel music that we record and perform on stage has always been important to me. Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver have made many more gospel recordings than secular ones. It is apparent to me that the folks who buy our music and come to our concerts feel, as I do, that there is no better message than the message of Jesus Christ. On the first Sunday of May, in 1985, I rededicated my life to our Lord Jesus. It is my fervent hope that my “musical mission” will lead others to Him.
Mike Marshall | Mandolin Melody
March 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment
It was a great pleasure to speak with musician Mike Marshall on the show today, about his newest projects and his upcoming work. His playing is always full of life, rich, touched with the heart of classical, world, jazz, folk and bluegrass music… More information about Mike from his website www.mikemarshall.net:
Mike Marshall is one of the world’s most accomplished and versatile acoustic musicians, a master of mandolin, guitar and violin whose playing is as imaginative and adventurous as it is technically thrilling. Able to swing gracefully from jazz to classical to bluegrass to Latin styles, he puts his stamp on everything he plays with an unusually potent blend intellect and emotion a combination of musical skill and instinct rare in the world of American vernacular instrumentalists.
Now living in Oakland, California, Mike grew up in Central Florida, where throughout his teens he played and taught bluegrass mandolin, fiddle and guitar. In 1979, at the age of 19, he was invited to join the original David Grisman Quintet. Mike has since been at the forefront of the acoustic music scene, playing on hundreds of acoustic-music recordings both as lead artist and ensemble performer. His 1982 Cd, Gator Strut, is a classic example of a new generation of bluegrass virtuoso instrumentalists forging new directions in this vital musical style. Throughout his career, Mike has performed and recorded with some of the top acoustic string instrumentalists in the world, including jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli, fiddle virtuoso Mark O’Connor, five-string banjo phenom Bela Fleck, bassist and MacArthur Fellowship winner Edgar Meyer, and classical violinist Joshua Bell.Mike and violinist Darol Anger formed a partnership in 1983, together they formed the band Montreux with pianist Barbara Higbie, bassist Michael Manring, and steel-drum virtuoso Andy Narell. The group released five recordings on the Windham Hill label and toured extensively throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe and Japan from 1984 to 1990. While continuing to be an active member of Montreux, in 1986 Mike founded a classical string quartet of mandolin family instruments — two mandolins, mandola and mandocello. The Modern Mandolin Quartet released four recordings for Windham Hill Records that redefined the mandolin in a classical-music setting. In 1995, the Quartet made its Carnegie Hall debut and, in 1996, received a “Meet The Composer” grant from the Lila Wallace Foundation.Meanwhile, Mike had traveled to Brazil and begun his love affair with choro, an indigenous music that is to Brazil what bluegrass is to the U.S. He embarked on an in-depth study of the style that resulted in the CD “Brasil (Duets).” This recording showcases Mike at the top of his form as a mandolinist in duet settings, and features top instrumentalists such as Andy Narell, Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, bassist Michael Manring, and keyboardist and flutist Jovino Santos Neto. Mike has continued to push the boundaries of acoustic instrumental music. After tapping Fleck and Meyer for the “Brasil (Duets)” roject, he collaborated with the two masters on a 1997 Sony Classical release titled “Uncommon Ritual.” The album charted on the Billboard Top Ten Classical Chart, where it remained for more than three months. The follwing year, the ensemble opened the Chamber Music Series 1998 season at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. Mike worked with Meyer yet again on the 1999 “Short Trip Home,” another Sony Classical recording with Joshua Bell and fiddle-and-mandolin player Sam Bush.Mike has two holiday recordings to his credit: In 1998, he released “Midnight Clear,” a solo guitar recording, and in 2000 he recorded “A Christmas Heritage” with banjo player Alison Brown, Darol Anger, mandolinist Tim O’Brien, Todd Phillips and pianist-composer Phil Aaberg. That band, called New Grange, also released an eponymous CD on Compass Records.Today Mike can be heard on the Car Talk soundtrack recording every week on NPR along with Earl Scruggs, David Grisman and Tony Rice. In addition Mike composed and recorded the theme music for the San Francisco based radio program Forum heard daily on KQED radio.Darol Anger remains an important collaborator for Mike. To date, they have released 6 albums as a duo on Compass and Windham Hill Records. Together they have also recorded under the moniker Psychograss with guitarist David Grier, banjo player Tony Trischka and bassist Todd Phillips.Over the past several years, Mike has also been collaborating Chris Thile, of Nickel Creek. The two mandolinists began playing together at festivals, and their performing together eventually evolved into a duo, recording their first album in 2003. The cd, entitled Into the Cauldron, is a mandolin duet project performed entirely on mandolin and mandocello. Into the Cauldron was released on Sugar Hill records, and was listed in the top ten of Amazon.com’s favorite recordings for 2003.As he does so engagingly in music, Mike also applies his adventurous aesthetic to his two principal hobbies: wine making and food. Already known as one of the best cooks in the music business, he has been trading guitar lessons for cooking lessons from Michael Peternell a chef at Berkeley’s Chez Panisse. “Cooking is quite a passion for me,” he told Bluegrass Now in a 2003 interview. “When I moved from Florida to join David Grisman’s band here in California, it became very evident that I was too broke to afford the food I’d grown up on! So I’d call Mom: Hey, how do you make those roasted peppers? What’s the deal with the sauce?’ Now I make all my own pastas by hand-ravioli, gnocchi, all that stuff.”Back in the realm of music, Mike is currently working on further collaborations with Darol Anger, performs intermittently with Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile and has just released a CD project with pianist Jovino Santos Neto entitled Serenata featuring the music of Hermeto Pascoal Brazil’s most important musician/composers living today. The Cd has been released on Mike¹s own label called, appropriately, Adventure Music.
Lucy Kaplansky Transcript
March 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dr. Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to “Sound Authors”. On the fourth segment of each show we feature authors of sound and Lucy Kaplansky is certainly a wonderful example. Her voice is warm and soothing. Her arrangements are incredible with the back up of the amazing musician Larry Campbell on all of her releases. Welcome to the show, Lucy Kaplansky.
Lucy Kaplansky: Thank you very much.
Kent: Now, I saw you back in, it must have been nineteen ninety seven or ninety eight, in Middlebury, Vermont.
Lucy: Oh my God! That’s a long time ago!
Kent: Indeed, and I remember that I told you that I was good friends with Neil and Leandra. I grew up listening to them and then you told me about Larry Campbell and that he was the amazing reason that you had so much success with Flesh and Bone. Recently I had Larry play on one of my records, which was a great pleasure.
Lucy: Oh yeah, he’s pretty astonishing, that guy, and he plays about a hundred instruments. I’m very lucky to have gotten to play with him so many times.
Kent: Now, let’s go back to very beginnings. Apparently, you were a kid that went to New York City and tried to make it?
Lucy: Yeah, I left Chicago right after high school to be a singer. There was a big article in the New York Times; this is a long time ago already, thirty years ago. A big article in New York Times about a folk revival in Greenwich Village and I came to New York and it was actually going pretty well.When I was twenty-one I got a pretty great review in the New York Times but I was too neurotic to let myself pursue what I really wanted. So, I quit and I ended up becoming a clinical psychologist and then long story made short, I figured out, with the help of a good therapist that what I really wanted to do all along was sing and I was already thirty-four at the time. So I came back to music and I’ve been playing music full time mostly since then.
Kent: Thank goodness for that. You’ve now done six solo releases and “Cry, Cry, Cry” is an amazing project with Dar Williams and Richard Shindell. How does it feel to keep turning out these releases?
Lucy: Well, I’m lucky to have a record company that wants to keep making records with me and I guess that I like to think that I’m getting better, getting better at writing especially. I’ve learned more and more about making albums so I think I’m very proud of the way my albums sound. I’m proud of the songs. So, I’m happy that I’ve been able to do all these albums that I’m proud of.
Kent: Let’s listen to one song called Manhattan Moon from a new record called “Over the Hills”.[music - Manhattan Moon]
Kent: That’s a beautiful song. Manhattan Moon, from the brand new release, Over the Hills by Lucy Kaplansky.What an amazing sound, you have a beautifully warm voice and then with that soft Pedal Steel by Larry Campbell and that infectious mandolin, it’s wonderful sounding.
Lucy: Thank you so much, I like it too.
Kent: Manhattan Moon, the reason I find that fascinating is that you’re on Red House Record’s label and it’s almost a midwestern folk revival this last ten years and you still live in New York, right?
Lucy: Oh yes, I’ve been living in New York a long time.
Kent: How does that feel?[laughs]
Lucy: Being a New Yorker?
Kent: Being a New Yorker in the middle of a field of, sort of Prairie Home Companion, midwestern folk musicians on Red House Records.
Lucy: Well…[laughs]
Lucy: You know, well I’ve never really thought about it. I mean they’re my label, I deal with them on the phone and email anyway, mostly. I mean, I would probably even if I lived in Minneapolis which is where they’re based. They have artists from all over the country, so it’s not just midwest based label. I think it originally was.