Red Henry

Again this year, for I-don’t-know-how-many-years-in-a-row, we set up a booth for the IBMA Fan Fair. The Nashville Convention Center was a busy place, with plenty of bands, dealers, instrument makers, and fans on hand for the weekend. After Lynn Morris won an IBMA Distinguished Achievement Award (see Casey’s post just below) and her husband Marshall Wilburn was voted Bass Player of the Year, we were especially proud to be offering Lynn’s clawhammer-instruction DVDs and Marshall’s bass-teaching DVDs as well.

Red Henry at the Murphy Method IBMA booth.

Casey and I and our friend, festival promoter Patty Pullen, were our on-site staff for the weekend. Folks were picking up Murphy Method DVDs all across the board– banjo, guitar, mandolin, fiddle, bass, and Dobro too. It was a good weekend for us, and it was great to see so many of our DVDs going home with our Murphy Method students, many of whom we met this weekend for the first time.

A special highlight of the trip for me was watching Casey playing banjo for the Dixie Bee-Liners in their showcase set on Friday. The room was full, the band was “on,” and the music was Mighty Fine. (They’d played some showcases after midnight earlier in the week, but I didn’t manage to stay up that late!)

I ought to send some special thanks to Bob Fehr and the Martin Guitar folks for setting out so many nice new guitars for people to play– there was a particularly-amazing “sunburst” D-28 that showed how Martin is making them as well as ever– and also to Stan Werbin of Elderly Instruments, who invited me to play the A-5 mandolin. (More on that later.)

If you’ve never been to IBMA, you might like to be there sometime. Think about it.

Red

Casey Henry

Last week at the International Bluegrass Music Association conference our favorite clawhammer banjo instructor Lynn Morris received a Distinguished Achievement Award from the organization in recognition for her illustrious career in the bluegrass music business. From her early days in the City Limits Bluegrass Band through Whetstone Run and her own Lynn Morris Band, Lynn has always striven for perfection. That dedication paid off when she was the first woman to win the National Banjo Championship at Winfield, Kansas, and again a few years later when she was the first person ever to take the title twice. She was named IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year three times and her band put out five superlative albums. She was at the height of her career when she suffered a stroke, which robbed her of her ability to speak and play. Since then she has worked tirelessly, with tremendous strength and determination, to recover what she lost. She has regained so much ground; we are so proud of her. Currently Lynn works as the sound engineer on the road with Bill Emerson and Sweet Dixie.

This video is of most of her acceptance speech at the Special Awards Ceremony at IBMA on September 30, 2010. I missed the first bit. (Sorry!)

Casey Henry

Today kicks off the week-long International Bluegrass Music Association Trade Show and Fan Fest in Nashville, Tenn. In conjunction with this WAMU’s Bluegrass Country is broadcasting live from Nashville. The Dixie Bee-Liners (with Casey Henry on banjo) will be playing some tunes from 5:00-5:30 Eastern Time this afternoon. You can listen online at bluegrasscountry.org.

If you’re going to be in town for the convention, the band is also playing some late-night showcases during the week. They schedule can be found here.

Casey Henry

Last year, Murphy listed the women who made it onto the second IBMA awards ballot in the instrumental performers category. There were eighteen, in contrast to a decade ago, when there were only five. Since I just filled out this year’s ballot (and since she’s busy working on her book and probably hasn’t even looked at her ballot yet), let’s take a look at who made the cut this year.

For Banjo Player of the Year

Kristin Scott Benson
Alison Brown
Cia Cherryholmes

For Bass Player of the Year

Missy Raines
Christy Reid

For Fiddle Player of the Year

Becky Buller
Molly Cherryholmes
Shelby Gold
Alison Krauss

(Same four people as last year, interestingly enough)

For Mandolin Player of the Year

Brooke Aldridge
Analise Gold
Sierra Hull

Twelve people, which pretty much splits the difference between last year and a decade ago. You’ll notice that no guitar players or dobro players made it at all. New entries this year are Brooke Aldridge, who plays with her husband Darin, and Christy Reid, who plays with her husband Lou in his band, Lou Reid and Carolina. Congratulation to these gals, who are getting out, playing in front of people, and really making an impression.

And since we’re talking about instrumental performers, here are the bands that include women who made it into the Instrumental Group of the Year category: Darin and Brooke Aldridge, Cherryholmes, the Grascals, Lorraine Johnson and Carolina Road, the Claire Lynch Band, and Rhonda Vincent and the Rage. Not a bad turn out!

The group I play with, The Dixie Bee-Liners, actually made it onto the ballot in a couple of categories: Vocal Group of the Year, and Emerging Artist of the Year. Go us!

Red Henry

Folks, Murphy and I have arrived safely back in Winchester after an excellent International Bluegrass convention. A highlight for us was to see Casey’s set with The Dixie Bee-Liners on Saturday, along, of course, with seeing many old friends, some of whom we only run into each year at IBMA.

Since I’m a mandolin player, I’m glad to report that the mandolin-making world is alive and well. There were LOTS of excellent mandolins for sale at the convention booths, a suitable testimony that this really is the golden age of mandolin building.

Not all of the mandolins for sale were new ones. One booth with quite a few older mandolins was Elderly Instruments. Stan and his crew had brought (along with lots of new instruments) several old Gibsons, including an F-2, an F-4, and two F-5s. One of the F-5s was from 1927, and the other one was signed and dated on the label: July 9th, 1923.

In case that date doesn’t ring a bell, it’s the same day that Bill Monroe’s famous old F-5 was signed and dated. However, this instrument of Elderly’s looked about the opposite of Bill Monroe’s. Bill’s mandolin is so beat up that one instrument expert said it looked like it had been “dragged along behind the car on a doggie leash.” This F-5 at Elderly, on the other hand, was really pristine—played very little, and preserved in extremely nice condition for 86 years. (Sounded mighty fine, too.)

I spent a little while visiting with Bob Fehr at the Martin Guitars booth. He had a great many innovative new models on display along with Martin’s traditional line, and I wasn’t disappointed by a single one. The Martin company is doing a fine job these days.

There were also a whole lot of really fine banjos for sale, by a lot of companies. I could spend a while just naming them. There was the First Quality company with their excellent Sullivan banjos. There was Steve Huber with his genuinely prewar-sounding tone rings and banjos. There were Nechville banjos and Recording King banjos and Gold Tone banjos and a great many more. If you ever would like to find yourself a banjo, you might come to the IBMA convention, and just go around and play every banjo there! It won’t take but a day or two to find the one you like best!

The same thing goes for anyone who needs a string bass. There was one company there with thirteen (yes, THIRTEEN) basses on display, and I expect that every one of them was for sale.

I’d brought a couple of mandolins with me (to play, not to sell!) but since I had to watch our own Murphy Method booth a good part of the time, I didn’t do a great deal of picking. But what I did was fun. Thanks to those who participated. We’ll look forward to more next year.

Casey Henry

Being, as I am, now deep in the middle of the International Bluegrass Music Association convention here in Nashville, means I’m too tired to write anything coherent. So, in lieu of words, a picture of The Dixie Bee-Liners playing Monday (28 Sept) live on WAMU’s Bluegrass Country.

Casey Henry, Buddy Woodward, Jeremy Darrow, Brandi Hart, Rachel Johnson and Robin Davis in WAMU's remote studio in the Renaissiance Hotel in Nashville, TN.

I’m also covering the convention for the Bluegrass Blog. So far I’ve written about the Grascals new sponsor, and about Monday’s late-night showcases. Please check them out, if you feel so inclined!

Read it here.

Kristin was modest enough to think that it was a fluke that she was nominated at all, so when she won, she was very surprised. She gave a great speech, giving lots of credit and thanks to her parents, who were in attendance that night because her husband, Wayne Benson, was taking care of their son Hogan.

Dale Ann Bradley took home Female Vocalist of the Year for the second time in a row.

Kristin and Dale Ann were the only women to take home awards this year, although Gillian Welch and David Rawlings’s song “By The Mark” won Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year.

The before and after parties were great fun. This is FiddleStar/Murphy Method Camp co-host Megan Lynch and myself:

And here is Lynn Morris and Bass Player of the Year nominee Marshall Wilborn, who presented the awards for Vocal Group and Album of the Year:

The dress I’m wearing was made by my grandmother for my mom’s Junior-Senior prom. It was a pretty big hit, I have to say. Last but not least, here is me with my brother and fellow TMM instructor Chris Henry: