Bluegrass Jam Along

In early April I got the chance to go and hang out at SoreFingers, the UK bluegrass and old time camp, for a night. I'd recently interviewed John Wirtz about Sore Fingers' 30 year history for the podcast (link below) and he invited me along to meet the staff and tutors, hang out and watch some music.
While I was there I got to interview Michael Daves and Tony Trischka (links to their episodes also below), but I also took the opportunity to wander round, mic in hand like a roving reporter, and just chat to people.
In this episode you'll hear from John Wirtz about Sore Fingers' recent venue move and how they're settling into their new home, as well as from other members of the team, including some of the people who facilitate the camp's wonderful scratch band programme.
I also talked to some of the tutors, including Tony Trischka, who's taught at Sore Fingers a couple of times before, and Michael Daves and Stephen Mougin, who were both first timers.
I couldn't miss the opportunity to chat to some students too, including Sore Fingers veterans and first timers.
For more info on Sore Fingers, check out www.sorefingers.co.uk
Here's my earlier interview with John Wirtz
Here are the interviews I did at Sore Fingers with Michael Daves and Tony Trischka
This is the Stephen Mougin episode on band coaching
You can find out more about Paul Armer via his Instagram
Support the show
===

Thanks to Bryan Sutton for his wonderful theme tune to Bluegrass Jam Along (and to Justin Moses for playing the fiddle!)

Bluegrass Jam Along is proud to be sponsored by Collings Guitars and Mandolins and Token premium guitar picks

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- Free fiddle tune chord sheets

- Here's a list of all the Bluegrass Jam Along interviews

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Tony Trischka returns to Bluegrass Jam Along to talk about his new record Earl Jam 2, the follow up to the first volume of a fascinating project that began when Tony was sent a thumb drive of recordings of Earl Scruggs and John Hartford jamming together at home.
Volume 2 also has a great line up of special guests, including Billy Strings, Bruce Molsky, Molly Tuttle, Del McCoury, Sierra Ferrell and Sister Sadie.
Tony tells the fascinating story of how Farayi Malek ended up adding vocals to one tune, after Alison Krauss had done the scratch vocal but wasn't well and couldn't record the final vocal.
As with volume 1 it's a great record, full of variety and superb performances.
You can hear more in my conversation with Tony about Earl Jam Volume 1 
For more info on Tony and to buy both records, visit www.tonytrischka.com
Thanks to Sore Fingers bluegrass and old time camp for inviting me down to record this interview while Tony was there teaching banjo!

Support the show
===

Thanks to Bryan Sutton for his wonderful theme tune to Bluegrass Jam Along (and to Justin Moses for playing the fiddle!)

Bluegrass Jam Along is proud to be sponsored by Collings Guitars and Mandolins and Token premium guitar picks

- Sign up to get updates on new episodes

- Free fiddle tune chord sheets

- Here's a list of all the Bluegrass Jam Along interviews

- Follow Bluegrass Jam Along for regular updates:
Instagram
Facebook
- Review us on Apple Podcasts

My guest this week is Michael Daves and we're chatting about the superb new record he has out with Jacob Jolliff, We Like Jim & Jesse!
The record, released on Michael's own label Wild Geranium Records, celebrates the music of first generation bluegrass legends, brothers Jim and Jesse McReynolds.
Michael talks about meeting Jesse in 2019 - he was 90 or 91 at the time and still writing new tunes every day - and how that sparked the idea for the record. We also chat about Jesse's unique contribution to the history of bluegrass mandolin, how one of their biggest hits was written on the spot in response to an argument and why Jim and Jesse's vocal blend is every bit as important to their sound as Jesse's mandolin playing.
We also talk about Fables, Michael's recent release that pays tribute to a very different act...R.E.M.
This interview was recorded at Sore Fingers, the wonderful UK bluegrass camp that runs every Easter (and has for the past 30 years). Later this week I'll be bringing you an interview with Tony Trischka, also recorded at the camp, plus a special episode celebrating Sore Fingers.
You'll find Michael and Jacob's record on Bandcamp, where you'll also find Michael's R.E.M. tribute Fables
Support the show
===

Thanks to Bryan Sutton for his wonderful theme tune to Bluegrass Jam Along (and to Justin Moses for playing the fiddle!)

Bluegrass Jam Along is proud to be sponsored by Collings Guitars and Mandolins and Token premium guitar picks

- Sign up to get updates on new episodes

- Free fiddle tune chord sheets

- Here's a list of all the Bluegrass Jam Along interviews

- Follow Bluegrass Jam Along for regular updates:
Instagram
Facebook
- Review us on Apple Podcasts

My guest on this episode is Bryan Sutton.
We're talking about Bryan's new project From Roots to Branches, the follow up to his 2006 album Not Too Far From the Tree, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.
The new album features a series of duets with musicians from the wold of bluegrass and beyond, plus a couple of unreleased tunes he recorded with Doc Watson and Tony Rice.
We chat about the original idea behind Not Too Far.... and how the new project differs; who Bryan chose to record with this time (including Billy Strings, Chris Eldridge, Sierra Hull, Trey Hensley, Joe Bonamassa and more); why he's choosing to release it as a series of tracks over several months, before putting the full album out, and how it feels to have gone from recording with his heroes to taking on the mentor role for the next generation of flatpickers.
You'll find all the tracks released so far on Spotify, Tidal and all other streaming platforms. 
There's a great video for The Devil Went Down to Deep Gap  on YouTube.
You can get bluegrass guitar lessons from Bryan Sutton on ArtistWorks (I can highly recommend them).
Oh, and Bryan wrote and recorded the cool theme tune you'll hear on this episode too!
Support the show
===

Thanks to Bryan Sutton for his wonderful theme tune to Bluegrass Jam Along (and to Justin Moses for playing the fiddle!)

Bluegrass Jam Along is proud to be sponsored by Collings Guitars and Mandolins and Token premium guitar picks

- Sign up to get updates on new episodes

- Free fiddle tune chord sheets

- Here's a list of all the Bluegrass Jam Along interviews

- Follow Bluegrass Jam Along for regular updates:
Instagram
Facebook
- Review us on Apple Podcasts

In this bonus episode we're celebrating Tony Rice's best loved albums....as voted for by you!
I put out a poll over my social channels as well as some popular Facebook groups and subreddits and collated all the responses.
The rules were simple - just pick one album each for these 3 categories:
1. Tony Rice/Tony Rice Unit album
2. Album where Tony’s named as one of the artists (e.g. Blake & Rice/ Skaggs & Rice/Tone Poems)
3. Any album Tony plays on but isn’t named as an artist (e.g. DGQ, Bluegrass Album Band, JD’s 0044….or anything else)
I had over 400 votes in total. In this short episode I reveal what won in each category, what the most popular album was overall and also what pickers like Chris Thile and Trey Hensley chose as their favourites!
Check out the full list 
You'll find links to previous podcast episodes celebrating Tony Rice on bluegrassjamalong.com

Support the show
===

Thanks to Bryan Sutton for his wonderful theme tune to Bluegrass Jam Along (and to Justin Moses for playing the fiddle!)

Bluegrass Jam Along is proud to be sponsored by Collings Guitars and Mandolins and Token premium guitar picks

- Sign up to get updates on new episodes

- Free fiddle tune chord sheets

- Here's a list of all the Bluegrass Jam Along interviews

- Follow Bluegrass Jam Along for regular updates:
Instagram
Facebook
- Review us on Apple Podcasts