Americana Rhythm Magazine Issue #72

January 2018

Rather than ramble on in my words, I thought I’d let a few wiser music souls than I speak their truth ...Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! editor

“If you pour some music on whatever’s wrong, It’ll sure help out.”

Levon Helm

“Good music comes out of people playing together, knowing what they want to do and going for it. You have to sweat over it and bug it to death.” Kieth Richards “One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.”

Bob Marley

“Lately I’ve been believing that music predates speach.” Debbie Harry “This is what I want in Heaven ... for words to become notes and conversations to be symphonies.” Tina Turner Music makes us want to live ... that’s the power music has.” Mary J. Blige

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Americana Rhythm is published six times a year. All corresponCONTRIBUTORS dence should be sent to PO Box 45, Bridgewater VA, 22812 or Ed Tutwiler email to greg@americanarhythm.com. Copies of Americana Wayne Erbsen Rhythm are made available free at various pick up locations within Donna Ulisse the publication’s region. Subscriptions are available inside the United Shelby Gold States (only) for $18 US currency made payable by check or money Andrew McKnight order sent to, Subscriptions at PO Box 45, Bridgewater, VA, 22812.

Mark Whetzel Foreign subscription requests should be sent to Scott Perry greg@americanarhythm.com. Copyright 2017. All rights reserved.

DISTRIBUTION Reproduction of any content, artwork or photographs is strictly Ed Tutwiler prohibited without permission of the publisher or original owner. All Zebra Media advertising material subject to approval.

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PUBLISHER/EDITOR IN CHIEF Greg E. Tutwiler Associate Editor Ed Tutwiler MARKETING & PROMOTION Mark Barreres (GrassRootsNetworking.com) ADVERTISING Letters, Comments, Suggestions Business office 540-433-0360 greg@americanarhythm.com advertising@americanarhythm.com www.americanarhythm.com

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January 2018

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January 2018

Pioneering Women In Bluegrass Recently, at the International Bluegrass Music Association gathering in Raleigh, NC, the AR folks staffed a booth in the exhibit hall. Across from the AR booth was an exhibit promoting a filmmaker’s effort to honor music pioneer, Alice Gerrard. Should you not know, Alice Gerrard along with Hazel Dickens, her friend and fellow pioneering woman in bluegrass music, were among the 2017 Inductees into the International Bluegrass Hall of Fame. These ladies were being honored by the IBMA / for their outstanding contributions to bluegrass music. This is a very special award as it is peer–driven and thus shows the respect and recognition that their fellow professionals have for these ladies’ accomplishments in one or more aspects of the field.

After all this excitement, I sensed that I needed to know a bit more about these ladies and share what I learned with you.

The IBMA web site, ibma.org/awards/hall-offame, provides us with this description of these two pioneering women in bluegrass music. “Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard first appeared together at the Galax Fiddler’s Convention in 1962 and remained a powerful music duo through 1976. They are considered pioneers because Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard successfully put women front and center in bluegrass music at a time when bluegrass music was widely perceived as a genre only men could perform. Dickens was from rural West Virginia while Gerrard was a west coast native yet their mutual love for the

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emerging musical genre drew them both to the lively BaltimoreWashington area folk and bluegrass music scene, where they met.”

(µІªØ¨ І! ¨ Æ∞µµ∞µÆ Beginning in 1965, Dickens and Gerrard created four albums of music together. The first album featured a band that included respected musicians—bluegrass legends Lamar Grier, Chubby Wise, David Grisman, and Billy

During their long musical careers, Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard garnered numerous awards and honors. Fans best remember Dickens for her songwriting skills while Gerrard’s fame came about because of her many journalistic accomplishments at ! ≥º ¨ Æ ®∫ ∫ 4 µ≥∞¥ ∞ª ¨ ´ but is better remembered as the founding editor of 3 بІ. ≥´ І3∞¥ ¨І' ¨ ®≥´ .

Many current leading women singers as well as socially conscious musicians in general consider Hazel and Alice as important inspirations to them.

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Alice Gerrard was born in Seattle, WA on July 8, 1934 and grew up in California where she attended Antioch College in the late 1950s. During her collage years, Gerrard became exposed to old-time music and the new sound called ≥∞™ ¨ І&¨ ® ´ bluegrass and embraced it wholeheartedly learning to play both guitar and banjo and later old-time fiddle.

This musical attraction led Alice to relocate to the Washington, D.C. area where there was a thriving bluegrass scene. While at collage, Alice met and married Jeremy Foster (a friend and former classmate of Mike Seeger).

Baker. Backed by this lineup of Foster lost his life in a car accident talented players, Dickens and and Gerrard later married Mike Gerrard were able to Seeger. During the 60s and 70s, demonstrate to listeners that Gerrard wrote and recorded with hard-driving bluegrass could be Seegar, Dickens and many others. created by women as well as men. Contained within two of In 1987 Alice founded 3 بІ. ≥´ Ё their later albums is material that 3 ∞¥ ¨ І' ¨ ®≥´ and the . ≥´ Ё3 ∞¥ ¨ ranges beyond bluegrass style and , º ∫ ∞™ І & ∂º ∑, a non-profit features original compositions organization that oversees that addressed political issues, publication of the magazine. Alice including social justice.

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By Edward Tutwiler served as editor-in-chief of 3 ب . ≥´ Ё3 ∞¥ ¨І' ¨ ®≥´ from 1987 till 2003.

During her 40 plus year career, Gerrard has written and recorded with many different musicians and has become an authority on old-time music. She has appeared on more than 20 recordings, including projects with many traditional musicians. As an expert with in-depth knowledge of mountain music, she has produced or written liner notes for many more. She has also coproduced and appeared in two documentary films. She is a tireless advocate of traditional music.

Alice Gerrard at age 83 remains an active performer and resides in Durham, NC.

' ®¡ ¨ ≥І# ∞™ ≤¨ µ∫ The more opaque member of this women bluegrass pioneers duo known as ' ®¡¨≥І®µ´ І ≥∞™ ¨, is Hazel Jane Dickens. Hazel was born June 1, 1935, in Mercer County, WVA. She was one of 11 children in a family whose survival depended on the coal industry. Dickens’ father was a primitive Baptist preacher and a forceful singer. He hauled timber to feed the household. Hazel’s brothers were miners and one of her sisters cleaned houses for a living. In keeping with the familiar story of so many early string music pioneers, Hazel and her family sang in church and listened to music they heard on the radio especially that music broadcast from the stage of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. Music offered one of Hazel’s few diversions.

Hazel moved to Baltimore in the early 1950s and sought employment in factories there.

The life she found in the city was not much better than the life she’d known in the coal fields of Mercer County, but it did exposure her to the larger social and political world. It was in this

January 2018

' ®¡ ¨ ≥І# ∞™ ≤¨ µ∫ style, but also by her

provocative pro-union, and feminist songs.” Many sources report incidents of Hazel Dickens walking picket lines beside striking workers. She became a vocal supporter and advocate for the nation’s un-unionized coal miners.

environment Hazel met and started playing music with the singer and folk historian Mike Seeger. Seegar eventually introduced Hazel Dickens to Alice Gerrard. This 1960’s partnership with Gerrard was one of the first women duos to record a bluegrass album using the same tenor and lead-vocal arrangements as many of the performing male groups of the era.

Dickens and Gerrard wrote songs about various aspects of life, as well as performing together at numerous folk festivals all over the south. Their work influenced countless traditional music fans as well as pioneering the role of women in bluegrass.

Videos of Dickens’ and Gerrard’s work are available on the YouTube.com website; and I recommend a musical field trip there to take a look and listen.

This pair ’s four classic, groundbreaking albums that influenced scores of young women singers have been re-

mastered and re-sequenced by Rounder Records and released on compact disc. This example merits a listen as well. Further, if you have any interest in old-time music, you should give a look at Alice Gerrard’s creation 3 بІ. ≥´ Ё 3∞¥ ¨І' ¨ ®≥´ . It is still in print and going strong

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In 1994, Dickens became the first woman to receive the IBMA Merit Award for her contributions to that genre of music. She was later inducted into the IBMA Hall of Honor. Hazel Dickens received many other awards, including a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2001. She also collaborated with Bill Malone on a book about her life and music.

Titled 6 ∂ ≤∞µÆІ &∞≥І! ≥º ¨∫ , this book was published by the University of Illinois Press in 2001.

Hazel Dickens died April 22, 2011 from complications of pneumonia. No immediate family members survive.

$∑∞≥∂Æ Every so often there occurs a time when paradigms shift, and thereafter things are never quite the same. This meeting and paring of Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard was such a time.

Over the following decades, Dickens performed and recorded with Gerrard, others, and as a solo artist as well as penning many songs that addressed social injustices. Over the course of her career, Hazel became a reluctant feminist role model. Stories tell that Dickens was originally scared to write about issues like sexism and the oppression of women.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, “Her (Dicken’s) music was characterized not only by her high, lonesome singing

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January 2018

Lovin’ The Local Jam While the masses of music lovers gather at music festivals all summer long, and congregate in renovated theaters, coffee houses, and such; the backbone, if you will, of bluegrass music, exists all over rural America in small towns and communities on any given night of the week at something called Jams.

They’re often free, usually involve dinner and/or desert, lots of home spun pickin’, and tons of friendly fellowship. Some might call it amature night for the bluegrassers, but it’s hard to know how many of today’s (and yesteryear’s) favorite bluegrass bands started at local bluegrass jam gatherings.

Just in the general area from where AR Magazine is published I could attend a different one almost every night of the week. Kaye D. Hill has been a regular contributor to this magazine almost from the beginning. She’s a big fan of one such local gathering called the Spike Jam Session. Follows is her account of this teriffic community event.

As you’re traveling west from Broadway, Virginia, towards the West Virginia line, it’s hard to not be in awe of the simple beauty of the area. About eight miles out of town, it’s hard not to notice the large rock formation on the right, with a simple white block building nearby, and a U.S. flag proudly waving. Although the highway is a busy one, there’s normally not a crowd at the Chimney Rock Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9660 building – unless it’s a Friday night.

Every Friday evening from 7 o’clock until nine, the VFW building is home to the Spike Jam Session; the parking lot is full, and the building is often over flowing. Folks come from miles around to enjoy the free bluegrass music, fellowship with their neighbors and friends, and do their part to honor local veterans.

seat, followed by musicians carrying their instruments on stage, greeting each other with handshakes and laughter. The music begins promptly at seven with every participant being asked to “pick one” or “sing us a tune.”

At nine, when everyone on stage joins in a gospel song, or invites the crowd to help with a sing-along, the crowd filters out, remembering to drop a dollar or two in the box on the table near the door.

It’s a fun time at The Rock on Friday evenings. The music is always good, the laughter is contagious, and it makes one feel especially proud of the local folks who gather there to chat, check on one another, and enjoy time together. You often see older men in bib overalls, many wearing cowboy hats, ladies sitting near the back knitting as they enjoy the music, and children always sit on the front row of chairs so they can see the stage better.

VFW For The Cause

This small chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars has one purpose – to help local veterans in any way possible. Through the sale of barbecued chicken in the summer and the bluegrass events all year, they’ve been able to update the building, provide craft items to veterans in the hospital, and recently made it possible for two busloads of veterans and their friends to attend the Marine museum in Quantico, Virginia, free of charge.

“Tucker” Stedman who was presented a gift and the Achievement Award for his dedicated work in promoting the music.

After the award presentation, it was announced that plans are underway for another project – a music CD will be made of the musicians who normally play for the Friday night jams.

The necessary money for the CD has already been raised, thanks again to the generous donations of many local folks.

On November 17, Vallie May and Dave Kyger, a musician and music instructor who also serves as the emcee for the jam sessions, were on

In Honor Of Spike

The jam sessions were started years ago, by Vallie May Stroop, to honor the memory of her husband Spike Stroop, a bluegrass legend in his time.

Vallie May and her dedicated helpers arrive early to open the building and start setting up the table of free refreshments and snack foods.

There’s no charge for the music or the good food; they only ask for a donation to help the veterans if you can. Soon the crowd files in to take a

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By Kaye D. Hill

hand as Modern Woodmen Insurance Company honored a local citizen with the Hometown Hero award. Mrs. Stroop and Mr. Kyger are past recipients of this award themselves.

Mr. Johnny Conley was surprised and honored to be named the Hometown Hero for 2017. Also recognized by the Spike Jam Session was Mr. Danny

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To me, this is what community is all about. It’s a handful of folks who want to help each other and especially those who served our country. You can’t leave The Rock without having a good feeling about what goes on there each week. Country artist Lee Greenwood wrote, “God Bless the U.S.A.” and we know for sure that includes the good folks at the Spike Jam Session at The Rock. My hat’s off to everyone involved in these projects that do so much good for our community and my thanks for keeping the music alive!

January 2018

Teaching songwriting these days has opened up a whole new world for my personal songwriting. A good writer friend of mine, who travels the country teaching at workshops, told me once that if I taught too much I would stop writing songs for myself, and my catalog would starve to death. I always kept this advice in the back of my mind as the lure to teach became stronger and stronger, leading me to start my own workshops and sharing what I have learned on the writer’s path. So far, knock on wood, I have had the opposite results, writing furiously after each inspiring weekend here at the Lil House Songwriting Workshops.

I had an epiphany one evening, as is my way, and woke up in the wee hours with the idea to have very limited seating (4-6 students only) for

a workshop here on my wee farm and actually co-write with the attendees along with my husband, Rick Stanley and our partner Jerry Salley.. This idea came about because I was discouraged after teaching a large class in Illinois and feeling as though I bombarded the folks that attended with lots of information about the craft of composing but offering no way for them to see how the process is actually applied, how I go about putting all this wonderful advice into two verses and a chorus. It washed all over me that the only way to see what I was saying was to actually write with each and every one of them. Voila, Lil House was born. The idea that teaching might harm what I am as a writer is now a distant worry because I am co-writing as I teach, keeping the wheels of my mind greased up and ready to fill my catalog.

As I have been contributing over the years to this wonderful publication, Americana Rhythm Music Magazine, the subject of inspiration has been popping over and over again. The truth is, inspiration is the most important element in songwriting.

Finding new ways to be moved enough to write a song is always an ongoing process and the reason I wrote about teaching this time. I am inspired to the soles of my feet as I talk shop about songwriting. The fact

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that I learn from the novice writers is a blessing. I am ALWAYS looking for new angles on this craft. Staying in a state of awareness keeps me honed and ready to recognize the genius in other writers.

Your challenge today is to find your own state of awareness and add to your beautiful bag of writer’s tricks.

Attend workshops, and seek the company of fellow writers. Join writer’s rounds around town and share your creations. Feed off of the excitement that happens when creative people share music. Songs are a gift and a joy and a good way to spend some time.

Donna was the 2016 IBMA songwriter of the year, and co-writer of the IBMA Song of the Year for 2017. Reach Donna at www.DonnaUlisse.com.

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Bluegrass Garage Band January 2018

By Greg Tutwiler

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“Brook” McMahan graduates from college in December (2017). Most young folks in that position are ready to head out to look for a job in their chosen field of study – or perhaps aren’t even sure what they will do next. Not Summer. She knew what she wanted to do before she went to college, even though she told me that she changed her major nine times throughout the course of her college journey. “It was music,” she said. “I knew that’s what I wanted to do.” It’s a good thing since she has been steeped in it for over 18 years now.

Summer is the lead singer for one of the newer grass bands emerging on the scene. It’s funny to say that, knowing this has not been an overnight path. But for the musicians, and Summer, who collectively call themselves Mountain Faith, it’s all part of a day’s work – literally.

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Summer ’s dad, Sam McMahan and his brother have owned a tire shop for 27 years – High Country Tire, in Sylva, North Carolina.

Everyone who’s ever played in a band knows that there’s something unique about jamming in a garage. Summer says she and her younger brother Brayden have worked at the tire shop as long as she can remember. “We would go to the shop everyday after school to help dad roll used tires,” she remembered. “Music was just an extension of that; something we did for fun.”

Exposure comes in all kinds of interesting ways though, and as fate would have it, it was a jam session that turned this into something bigger than they could have imagined. “We were in the garage practicing one day – my dad, brother, my cousin, and I – just for the fun of it,” Summer recalled. “And a news reporter was in there getting her tires changed. (Imagine that) She took a few pictures and wrote an article about us.”

That exposure was the spark. The band started getting invitations to

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sing at churches all around town.

“It literally was like a domino effect,” she said. “Itobviously just grew into way much more than we ever planned on it being,” she said. “That’s why we call ourselves the original legitimate garage band – we literally started in the garage of dad’s shop.”

For Summer though, it still wasn’t quite real. “During elementary, middle school, and even early in her high school years, she said all that she really cared about was playing sports and hanging out with her friends. The band was just something else she did on the weekends. “I actually wanted to be a lawyer,” she said. “That was my plan going into high school.

“But by the time I was senior, I couldn’t make up my mind on what I wanted to do in college because I knew what I wanted more than anything was to make music.”

Summer did go on to college, and says she really did change her major nine times because she couldn’t make up her mind. “I kept thinking, there’s nothing I want to do more than to make music. So that’s how I ended up in business because I finally

decided that it was something that could actually help me with, not only music, but anything else I might end up doing with the family business.”

Although there have been other band members along the way that weren’t directly related, they would all end up working for the tire shop too. “We were there everyday and they would come in with us, and end up being legitimate employees. All of us being in the tire shop together allows things to work out really well because it makes things so flexible. We own it, so if something comes up tomorrow and we’ve got to leave, we can just go.”

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A few years ago the band members sat down and talked about possibilities and what would be necessary to make a serious run at being a professional road band. The band started getting serious about writing songs – put out a record – then found a record label (Mountain Fever Records) who took a serious interest in the band.

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“At the beginning of every year we all sit down and have a meeting where everyone talks about the future of the band together and our goals for the year,” Summer told me.

“At our 2015 meeting we were talking about how we could take our music to a younger audience and broaden our audience all together.

We really had no idea how we were going to be able to do that. One of us threw out the idea of auditioning for America’s Got Talent TV show and we all quickly decided that they (the producers) would not want to hear what we were doing. So we shot that idea down. However, my mom overheard our conversation and went right upstairs and submitted a video without us knowing.”

The lesson here is to never say never because you never know what might happen until you try.

“About a week later we were on our way to St. Louis to sing at a bluegrass festival when a weird number shows up on my phone,” Summer said. “I decided to take the call. It was a producer from America’s Got Talent. They said, ‘we got your video – I know it’s a long drive and it’s very short notice, but is there anyway you could make it to St. Louis this coming Monday?’ I said, you’re not going to believe this, but we’re here right now. So we stayed and extra day to make the audition.”

IªІ/ ®¿∫ І. ≠≠ “We weren’t even thinking we’d get to be a part of the show, so we’re very thankful that we got to be on there as long as we did.”

Not only were they a part of it, but the Mountain Faith Band made it continued on page 11

January 2018

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January 2018

Listen to the expanded interviews at www.spreaker.com/show/ americana-music-profiles, or search Americana Music Profiles in iTunes!

- ∂ ¥ І! º µ¨ ª Norm Burnet is no stranger to the music business.

Although It Doesn’t Get Better Than This! is his first studio project in a while, he’s been making prof ession ally since the “pre Garth and Shania heyday.”

The Ottawa, Canada based musician has been playing for over 30 years, notching several regional hit songs along the way. “I got the bug when I was nine, playing around with an old guitar my uncle had,” Norm told us recently. As most kinds do in those situations, Norm and some friends eventually formed a band and started playing house parties and school events.

A kid in the mid 60s and 70s, he emulated the bands of that era as he was beginning to develop his own unique style. “Back in those days the radio stations weren’t formulated in any way, so one song could be a Beatles record, and the next one could be Lawrence Welk, and the next one could be Frank Sinatra. So I got exposed to a wide variety of music and realized that it was something I just really enjoyed. But I never thought about the creative process, it just sort of happened.”

Norm said he worked the bar gigs, just like every other musician that wants to make it as a professional. He would always try to sneak in original songs as often as he could get away with it though. Eventually patrons began to recognize his tunes and even request them. “I’ve always been one to create my own opportunities,” Norm said. He used the money he raised doing the club circuit to record his first record, which garnered some pretty serious airplay in Canada, with one single eventually hitting the top five.

After his second CD, Norm took a break from recording, until recently. “I’ve always felt like if you don’t have anything to say, don’t say anything,” he said. Well, he’s got got something to say now, and says it quite well on this latest project.

To find out more, visit www.normbrunet.com

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Check out

+¨ ∫ І! ∂ب ¥ Les Bohem says he was part of the great Los Angeles music scare of the early 1980s. We asked Les what exactly he meant by that. “Los Angeles always had trouble maintaining a live music scene – my theory is, you couldn’t be drunk and get home easily. In New York you put your hand up in the air,” he said. “So we’ve only had a couple of pockets where live music really meant something here, and the late 70s, early 80s punk/new wave scene was one of them.”

“I grew up in LA and came of age more or less during that period,” he said. Les was a member of the band, Gleaming Spires, which had a cultish hit with their single, “Are You Ready For the Sex Girls‚” (if you ever saw Revenge of the Nerds, you know it). ”At the same time, I was holding down a day job as the bass player with the band Sparks,” he said.

After the career in rock and roll fizzled out, he found a job writing screenplays, “ironically about rock and roll musicians whose careers had fizzled out,” he said. “I fell into screen writing because a friend of mine recommended me for a gig writing about bands, and when that ran out of gas, I just keep bouncing around,” Les said. “I think because I never really had a career goal, I’ve been really lucky that way.”

Les went on to write the screenplay for A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 5, The Horror Show, and bits and pieces of several other memorable epics. He also wrote and produced the mini-series Taken with Steven Spielberg for which he won an Emmy, as well as a Television Critics Award and a Saturn award.

Les has never stopped playing and writing music though. He’s had songs recorded by Emmylou Harris, Randy Travis, and Freddy Fender, just to name a few. But he saved the songs that mattered most, to him at least, for his latest recorded project, a double CD titled, Moved to Duarte.

To find out more, visit www.lesbohemswonderfulworldof lesbohem.com on iTunes

Tell us about it!

Is

there a venue, instrument maker, band, artist, music school, or hot new CD we should know about?

Send your ideas and suggestions to: greg@americanarhythm.com.

January 2018

Mountain Faith Band

Continued from page 9

That’s the neatest thing, because it’s what we really wanted anyway.”

all the way to the semifinals, performing in front of millions of viewers weekly during the show’s run that year.

They’ve since shared the stage with music greats like Willie Nelson, Charlie Daniels, and Loretta Lynn just to name a few.

They’ve also appeared on the Grand Ole Opry, and performed the National Anthem for the Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, Atlanta Braves, SF 49ers, and halftime shows for The Atlanta Falcons and Carolina Panthers.

That experience not only broadened their audience, it also broadened the type of shows the band was getting to take part in.

“Now we’re getting to do a lot other venues like arts festivals and theaters. The neatest thing that came out of it, though, is that schools started asking us to play for the kids. We started working it out that if we were at a theater on a Friday evening somewhere, we would go early and play at a local school.”

“My mom, being a school teacher, said ‘you are not going into schools unless you do something educational,” Summer quipped.

“She started a non-profit foundation called I Write My Story. Now we give every kid a journal, and not only play our songs, but talk about the songs we’ve written and tell the stories

appearance, they see performing for over 3,000 military men and women at Al Udeid AFB, Doha Qatar as one of their 2015 highlights.

They’ve released four albums to date. 3 Ø®ªІ6 Ø∞™ ØІ, ®ªª¨ ∫ debuted #1 on Billboard Americana-Roots Charts. They’ve also celebrated multiple #1 songs. Last year were nominated for the 2016 Emerging Artist Of The Year 2016 by the IBMA, and Summer was the 2015 IBMA Momentum Vocalist Of The Year. behind them and encourage them to start writing. Then we close it out with one of our songs called “Follow Your Dreams.”

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Summer Brook and Mountain Faith average 148 concerts per year. Aside from their AFB

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Not bad for a bluegrass garage band born at a place called High Country Tire in Sylva, NC

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January 2018

Thanks to our partnership with ReverbNation (www.reverbnation.com) we are honored to give you a peak at a few of the nation’s hardest working indie artists. Each month we select one entry to showcase for you here. Enjoy!

THIS MONTH’S FEATURE:

By Greg Tutwiler

Sweet Sweet

Jeremy said when writing songs for the duo he will typically start the writing process alone and map out the foundation for the song with chord progressions and melody ideas. “I usually have a couple of these that I’m working on at a given time. Some may have the start of lyrics but it’s really not my strong suit and I think they turn out better when we write the lyrics together. So, I’ll play them for Kerrine, and from there we’ll decide which song to develop and write lyrics for. All of our songs vary in lyrical content, but overall we like to tell stories. Some of the stories are autobiographical, some are about our friends, and some are fictional,” Jeremy told me.

FEATURE ARTISTS Jeremy Dunham and Kerrine

Gifford hail from South Carolina.

This musical duo brings a fresh and inviting blend of elegance and mood as they combine Kerrine’s enchanting cello with the rustic roots of Jeremy’s acoustic guitar.

Add some foot driving percussion textures with the simple, yet emotionally hard hitting songs filled with heartfelt tales and whimsical Southern Charm, and you get the indie folk/Americana known as Sweet Sweet.

Jeremy says he started listening to and buying music as young as seven years old. “My dad had a great collection of records,” he recalled. “It was a variety of stuff ranging from The Stones, Zeppelin and Moody Blues to folky songwriters like Dylan, Cat Stevens and Neil Young. He and my brothers all played instruments, as well as a few of my aunts and uncles. So I was raised with a lot of music around me.”

Jeremy picked up the guitar around the age of 12 and taught himself how to play. He said he was immediately attracted to writing songs and trying to invent new chords and progressions. “By the time I was finishing high school, I was pretty obsessed with everything music. I love how it can move you and mess with your emotions. So whether I’m writing, performing, recording or just

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listening, I always hope it invokes those spirits.”

Getting It Together

Over the past two decades, Jeremy has led a handful of musical projects, rocked out in bands, written and recorded solo albums, played a slew of instruments, and recorded/ produced for a variety of projects. “I love where I am now though,” he said. “Sweet Sweet has brought me back full circle, to my roots. I want to make songs that invoke those same spirits in others the way my dad’s old record collection did in me.”

Kerrine started playing cello in middle school and continued through college. As soon as she picked it up she was convinced She’d never put it down. “After many embarrassing years of being an orchestra nerd, I decided to branch out and joined my first band at the age of 18,” she recalled. “I was hooked! I was able to be more expressive and come up with my own style.” She played with a few other projects along the years before joining up with Jeremy and forming Sweet Sweet.

“Around 2010, Jeremy and I started making music together in various other projects,” Kerrine said. “We built a strong connection through those. A good friend of ours asked us to put something together for their wedding. During that time, we realized that we had something special as a duo. So we decided to start a project, and Sweet Sweet was born in 2014. We wrote our first song, “Remind Me”, and it really took off from there.”

No Pumpkins Involved

Contrary to popular belief, their name has no connection to the Smashing Pumpkins song, even though Jeremy says that he loved that song when he was a teenager.

“We wanted the name to reflect the sound of our music as well as emphasize that we are a duo,” Kerrine said. “The word sweet kept coming up when brainstorming names, so we just doubled it up. This has led to people asking, and we enjoy arguing over, who is Sweet #1 and who is Sweet #2? Just to let you know, it’s me, of course.”

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On The Horizon

The pair have been touring on and off over the past year for their first EP release, In Tandem.

“We’re really excited to hit the road next summer (July 2018) for the release of our debut full length,” she said. Jeremy told me that they have a new full length album project in the works as of this interview. “We’ve narrowed down 10 songs that we’ve been writing over the past year and a half or so. Some are finished with demos and some are still somewhere in the writing process.

A couple of the songs are either written or co-written by Michael Hucks, a kind of silent member of Sweet Sweet, who has done everything from video production to occasionally performing with us, to now writing with us. We’re really proud of what we have so far, and ready to finally put it together and show everyone.

Tracking on the record officially starts next month and is set to release in April 2018. We haven’t settled on a title yet, but we’ll have that soon as well.”

www.SweetSweetBand.com

January 2018

By Wayne Erbsen

Sitting On Top Of The World In 1969, while living in California, I was lucky enough to meet and play music with Sam Chatmon, who told me he wrote “Sittin’ on Top of the World.” His claim was more than a mere boast. It is highly likely that either Sam or his brother Bo composed it. After all, the song became a big hit in 1930 for Sam’s family band, The Mississippi Sheiks, who were named after the 1921 Rudolph Valentino movie, “The Sheik.” “Sittin’ on Top of the World” has been recorded in countless styles, but it was Bill Monroe who first recorded a bluegrass version on May 14, 1958.

One of the reasons I like to play “Sittin’ on Top of the World” is because there are lots of gaps in the melody that allows plenty of room to throw in improvised licks. For example, here’s the first verse: Was in the spring.......one sunny day......my good gal left me...... she’s gone away......And now she’s

gone.......and I don’t worry.....because I’m sittin …. on top of...the world. You get the idea.

Below is the tab/music for “Sittin’ on Top of the World” that is purloined from my recent book, Bluegrass Jamming on Mandolin. If you notice that the tab is unusual, you’re right! I more or less invented it and have used it in many of my instruction books. Reading this tab requires you to know the names of the notes on your instrument. While this may seem bothersome to some people, I hope that you’ll soon realize the benefits by knowing the names of the notes on your instrument.

comes in handy when you need to transpose a melody to a different key.

would merely play the echo notes in reverse. D C B G.

Here are three techniques to show you how you can throw in some hot licks to “Sittin’ on Top of the World:”

3) The Overlap: This is a technique that is stolen from vocal harmony.

When another musician sings or plays the melody “was in the spring” you sing or play “in the spring,” at the very same time they’re singing or playing their last note (“spring.”)

The result would sound like this:

1) The Echo. This technique merely

means you borrow a musical phrase from the melody of “Sittin’ on Top of the World” and repeat or echo it back.

Let’s use the first four notes of this song as an example: G B C D. These notes go with the words ‘Was in the spring.” In almost any of the spaces or gaps in the song, play these notes: G B C D. 2) The Reverse Echo: Here you

You’ll also notice the numbers between the tab and the musical notion. The numbers represent that note’s relative place in a scale. A G scale, for example, would be G=1, A=2, B=3, C=4, D=5, E=6, F#=7. In the key of A, A=1, B=2, C#=3, D=4, E=5, F#=6, G#=7. The numbers

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Was in the spring in the spring.

So now you have three ways to insert licks in “Sittin’ on Top of the World” (the echo, the reverse echo and the overlap). If you mix up these three kinds of licks, no one will suspect that you’re merely stealing ideas from the original melody. We’ll let this be our little secret. ********************************** For information about Wayne’s book Bluegrass Jamming on Mandolin or the other books in the series (Bluegrass Jamm ing on Fiddle and Bluegrass Jamming on Banjo) or his other instruction and songbooks for bluegrass and clawhammer banjo, mandolin, fiddle, guitar and ukulele,visit www.nativeground.com.

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January 2018

Music Fr om Th e N a t iona l Sce ne

M usic Fr om Your N e ighbor s

w elcome to the holiday

edition of SPINS! Check out all this wonderful ear candy (in no special order)! This collection will keep you busy for hours.

Grab your iPad or Smart Phone and dial up some of these fine folks. And please let them know we sent you. We’ve got some great stocking stuffers right here!

Got one you want us to listen to? send it to: Uncle Woody, The Spin Doctor PO Box 45 Bridgewater, VA 22812

Danny Barnes Stove Up

Gina Clowes True Colors

Amanda Cook Deep Water

www.balsamrange.com

www.dannybarnes.com

www.facebook.com/gina.clowes.7

www.amandacookbluegrass.com

Coming off their 2017 IBMA Album of the Year Award for Mountain Voodoo, Award winning Balsam Range shares a special EP with their fans for this holiday season. It’s a great edition to your collection from these NC boys

A 2015 Steve Martin Excellence in Banjo winner, Danny Barnes is excited about his latest project, Stove Up. This project was inspired by Don Stover - a unique picker in his own right. If you like banjo focused music, you’ll dig this

Not only is Gina Clowes a fine up and coming banjo picker, she’s also a member of Chris Jones’ band, the Night Drivers. Her debut solo CD out of the gate is turning heads with her almost entirely original set of bluegrass banjo tunes

Female fronted bluegrass groups are beginning to be some of the top charting bands. And it will be no surprise when Amanda Cook races up the charts too. Deep Water is her debut, and it’s top notch indeed

Charlie Markwart No Direction Home

Mile Twelve Onwards

Nothin’ Fancy It’s a Good Feeling

Balsam Range It’s Christmas Time

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Breaking Grass

Blue Plate Special Back By Popular Demand

Warning Signs

www.blueplatespecialmusic.com

Jay Friedman and her bandmates weave together bits of bluegrass, blues, Cajun, and swing on their latest, Back By Popular Demand. It’s the second from Blue Plate Special, and it’s loaded with potential hits

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Feller and Hill Brothers And Heroes

www.breakinggrass.com

www.charliemarkwart.com

www.miletwelvebluegrass.com

www.nothinfancybluegrass.com

Booneville, Mississippi is home for the band Breaking Grass. Their self titled debut in 2011 was a instant hit with many grass fans. Led by vocalist Cody Farrar, this band has become a staple in the bluegrass music world. Their latest is another solid set

This Michigan raised musician spent her college days in rural Virginia learning the mountain song craft. Her debut CD, No Direction Home, is a delightful culmination of her singing and songwriting skills. We dig that mountain flavor coming through on each tune

Boston Mass., is home base for the grass/roots quintet known as Mile Twelve. Onward is their debut project. It captures wonderfully that seagoing spirit of the upper east mixed with that New England city feel. It’s a different kind of “grass” and we like it a lot

Multi-SPBGMA winners Nothin’ Fancy have been at this bluegrass thing for quite a long time, and have amassed quite a large following along the way. Fans will be happy to have some new music from their favorite five musicians. Oh, it’s good too

Deer Creek Boys

NewTown Harlan Road

Trout Steak Revival Spirit To The Sea

Brad Hudson Next New Heartbreak

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Midnight & Dawn

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www.fellerandhill.com

www.deercreekboys.co

www.thenewtownband.com

www.troutsteak.com

www.bradhudsonmusic.com

Formed in 2010, Brothers And Heroes is the debut release for Feller and Hill on Rural Rhythm records. Their sound is a blend of traditional bluegrass and classic country, and has made them a top act in the grass scene. Fans will dig the latest collection

Although this band has been pickin’ since 1999, Midnight & Dawn is just their 2nd CD. Hailing from Amherst, VA, these fellas could be the poster boys for small town grass breaking onto the big scene. They’re fun, and full of talent. Keep your eye ‘em

I’ve been a fan since their cover of Guy Clark’s “Dublin Blues” a few years ago.

Fronted by well known fiddle player and vocalist Kati Penn Williams, Their latest, Harlan Road, is already a Billboard top 10. Guess you better check it out - it’s that good

2014 Telluride Bluegrass Festival Band Competition winners Trout Steak Revival have emerged as one of roots music’s must watch bands.

Their latest release, Spirit To The Sea, is a wonderful expression of Colorado bluegrass. It’s another must add

Finally fullfilling one of his dreams, Brad Hudson releases his debut CD, and embarks on his solo career at the same time. Recently with the band Sideline, He is poised to hit the road big with this collection of new grass tunes. You got this Brad

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You can send new Americana CD releases for consideration to PO Box 45, Bridgewater, VA, 22812

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January 2018

2017 IBMA Award Winners

2017 AMA Award Winners

International Bluegrass Music Association

Americana Music Association

Entertainer Of The Year

Guitar

The Earls of Leicester

Molly Tuttle

Vocal Group Of The Year

Mandolin

Flatt Lonesome

Sierra Hull

Artist of the Year John Prine

Instrumental Group Of The Year

Broadcaster Of The Year Cindy Baucom

Group/Duo of the Year Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives

Emerging Artist Of The Year

Event Of The year Pickin’ in Parsons, Parsons, West Virginia

Song of the Year "It Ain't Over Yet" Rodney Crowell (feat. Rosanne Cash & John Paul White), Written by Rodney Crowell

Songwriter Of The Year Tim Stafford

Emerging Artist of the Year Amanda Shires John Prine Instrumentalist of the Year Charlie Sexton

Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper

Volume Five

Album of the Year A Sailor's Guide to Earth, Sturgill Simpson, Produced by Sturgill Simpson

Male Vocalist Of The Year Shawn Camp

Female Vocalist Of The Year Brooke Aldridge

Song Of The Year

Instrumental Performers Of The Year:

(artist), Donna Ulisse/Marc Rossi (writers)

Banjo

Album Of The Year

I Am A Drifter – Volume Five

Noam Pikelny Alan Bartram

Mountain Voodoo – Balsam Range (artist), Balsam Range (producer), Mountain Home Records (label)

Fiddle

2017 Hall Of Fame Inductees

Bass

Patrick McAvinue

Spirit of Americana/Free Speech in Music Award co-presented by the Americana Music Association and the First Amendment Center: Graham Nash Lifetime Achievement Award, Trailblazer Iris DeMent Lifetime Achievement Award, Songwriting Van Morrison Lifetime Achievement Award, Performance Robert Cray Lifetime Achievement Award, Instrumentalist Hi Rhythm Section Lifetime Achievement Award, Executive Larry Sloven and Bruce Bromberg

Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard Bobby Hicks Roland White

Dobro

Josh Swift

HOLIDAY SPECIAL Package Deal! Clip and send for the special rate. Expires 12/31/17 S E N D C H E C K F O R $30 F O R CIRCLE ONE

B O T H

It’s Never Too Late!

Makes A Great New Years Gift!

Did you forget someone this year ... Oh no! Well, why not give them a gift that lasts all year - it’s never too late!

Mail with your check or money order for only $16 payable to Americana Rhythm, and send this to PO Box 45, Bridgewater, VA 22812. PLEASE PRINT CLEARLY! We’ll make sure it goes in the mail in time for Christmas. [Must arrive by December 15th]

NAME: (subscriber, and name on the card)

MAILING ADDRESS:

CITY, STATE, ZIP: Your Name: (From:)

www.AmericanaRhythm.com

Happy New Year!

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