Congratulations to Sparetime Bluegrass Band for winning best Country/Bluegrass Artist in 2007 Madison Area Music Awards. They released “Stop Me If You’ve Heard This” in June 2007, which consists of live covers of country and rock tunes in the SpareTime bluegrass style. They also won best Country/Bluegrass Album of the Year in 2006 for their album “Bluegrass Matinee.” Nice work folks!

Congrats also to Round the Bend for the nomination for Best Album of the Year.

That’s right folks. The leaves are budding, birds are chirping, and festival season is approaching! The 4th Annual Brooklyn Bluegrass Festival has announced its lineup for this year. There are several SWBMAI member bands playing, including Jefferson County, Squirrel Hunters (this is their debut festival performance), Liberty Bluegrass Band, the High 48’s (traveling all the way from Minnesota), and Tangled Roots. There will also be several other great bands performing Friday and Saturday. It is a great festival, and we strongly recommend checking it out! It is great to have bluegrass right in our backyard.

This year’s lineup features:
Friday:
7pm - Jefferson County
8pm - The Henhouse Prowlers

Saturday:
10am - Instrument Workshops
11am - Open Mic
1pm - Pick’n Up Speed
2pm - John Fabke and the Lonesome Aces
3pm - (This is the) Squirrel Hunters
4pm - Llama Mamas
5pm - Liberty Bluegrass Band
6pm - The High 48s
7pm - The Kraus Family
8pm - Tangled Roots

Tickets are: $10 Friday eve; $20 all Saturday; $25 both days; 12 yrs and under, no charge; and $7/night camping

Brooklyn Bluegrass Festival is an outdoor, old fashioned bluegrass festival, sponsored by the Village of Brooklyn, with rough camping in a beautiful 15 acre Legion Park. The Festival is located in Brooklyn, Wisconsin, a short 20 minute drive south of Madison’s beltline on Hwy 14 and 2 miles west on Hwy 92. Google Map

Two fabulous folks are featured at a barn dance this Saturday, May 3, 2008 at Folklore Village. Chirps Smith is one of the best old time fiddlers around and Dot Kent is a terrific dance caller. (Not to mention a fabulous Appalachian clogger).

The night begins with a potluck supper at 6:30 pm followed by music and moves that will get your feet moving and hearts groovin’. Chirps will be bringing some of his musical buddies for the band so get ready for a night filled with fantastic tunes and smiles!

Folklore Village (608-924-4000) is about 40 miles west of Madison and a few miles east of Dodgeville, 1/2 mile south of Hwy 18/151 on County Hwy BB. Google Map

Madison’s Bill Malone has received The Society for American Music’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Doug Moe has a nice piece in the Wisconsin Journal about the event…

Congratulations Bill!

Hot of the presses (or the computer equivalent) comes the May-June issue of the SWBMAI Fireball Mail Newsletter. Those of you who chose to save a tree and get the FBM via email, you’re already reading your… in full color I might add! For our members who prefer the snail-mail variety, be eyeballing your mailbox the next couple of days (I’m told this, like watching a pot boil, speeds up the process).

The Fireball Mail will be going through some format changes in the next few issues. We are trying to balance costs, quality and time consumption… not an easy task. Please let us know what you think!

In this issue…

• SWBMAI celebrates our 25th Anniversary with a Bluegrass Boys Reunion
• Win a Sharon Manion Quilt or German Fiddle
• 2008 SWBMAI Jamboree
• Brooklyn Bluegrass Festival
• New Member Bands: New Bad Habits and (This is the) Squirrel Hunters
• Bluegrass Recipe – Don’t Pick on an Empty Belly
• And much, much more…

Among the nominees at this year’s WAMI awards for Bluegrass Band of the Year are two SWBMAI member bands. The Liberty Bluegrass Band and Above The Town, join fellow nominees Salt Creek, .357 String Band, and Nob Hill Boys. The award ceremony is being held tonight at the Historic Turner Hall in Milwaukee, WI. The WAMIs, which stands for Wisconsin Area Music Industry, represents WI promoters, bands, venues and other music related professionals. This Grammy-style award show will feature live performances by 9 Wisconsin bands and is followed by a post-show party for all in attendance.

Tickets for the show are available at the Turner Hall box office or on-line.

The Liberty Bluegrass Band are very grateful just to be nominated in a stellar class of nominees. We work extremely hard (28 shows in 07) and are pleased to be recognized as one of the best Bluegrass bands in Wisconsin!

That’s right, folks, SWBMAI is celebrating 25 years of bringing bluegrass to our community. To celebrate, we are sponsoring a special, one-of-a-kind, Bluegrass Boys Reunion Concert at Madison’s very own Sugar Maple Festival at Lake Farm Park. The Bluegrass Boys Reunion will take place on Saturday night, August 2nd. The musicians will include Mark Hembree on bass (from the Nob Hill Boys), Bob Black on banjo, and Tom Ewing on guitar, with special guest Mike Compton on mandolin. It will absolutely be a show not to be missed, and we are so thrilled it is going to take place in Madison!

The 1940’s lineup of Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys has been termed the “original bluegrass band” with Bill on mandolin, Earl Scruggs on banjo, Lester Flatt on guitar, Chubby Wise on fiddle, and Howard Watts on bass. For more than half a century, several highly accomplished musicians played as Bluegrass Boys, and for many of them it was the highlight of their careers. Make sure to come and check out bluegrass in one of its purest forms around today at Sugar Maple.

‘Twas a mighty fine time at this year’s Jamboree. Even though it was the first beautiful day in what seemed like a century, folks stopped by to enjoy some fine local Bluegrass, pick some tunes (there may have been drinking too, but who’s counting) and chat with their fellow ‘Grassers. Few folks left empty handed as well! There were many fine raffle prizes dished out to the masses. The new format of jaming and four bands was praised by all and will be continued in next year.

Below is some video shot at the Jamboree, as well, there are pictures being posted to the photo section (more arriving soon). And thanks everyone for making this year’s Jamboree a hit. See you next year!

Mental Detox Week - (formerly TV Turnoff (formerly TV-Free America)) serves as a reminder to cleanse the mental palate. For one week, April 21 to April 27, you are invited to celebrate in the analog world. Unplug, turn off the TVs, computers (Ed. - uh, this is blasphemy!), iPods, Blackberries, and cell phones. You don’t have to go cold turkey, just challenge yourself to cut back a little. In the evening, you watch your favorite show if you have to, but then you switch off, relax, read a book, take a walk, or maybe go for a pint with a friend.

It’s all about mental health. Recent studies have revealed a connection between our increasing use of a wide range of digital devices and growing stress levels and incidence of psychological disorders. Two out of three Americans suffer disconnection anxiety if they’re away from their gadgets even for a few minutes, and The American Journal of Psychiatry has classified excessive gaming, porn surfing, emailing, and text messaging as a compulsive impulse disorder. Unplugging for a week is a non-pharmaceutical method of protecting your sanity and well-being.

To Celebrate for mental detox week, John Fabke, host of “Pastures of Plenty” on WORT 89.9fm, will be doing a special all-live show from Mother Fools (1101 Williamson St, Madison) from 9am to noon on this Tuesday, April 22nd. The show will feature three excellent performers. You can join the fun at the coffeehouse or tune in on the radio. The guests will be:

• 9am-Award winning singer/songwriter/instrumentalist Tracy Jane Comer
• 10am-Midwestern fiddle master Chirps Smith
• 11am-Wisconsin treasures Bruce Bollerud and George Gilbertson (of the Goose Island Ramblers)

SWBMAI announces one of the country’s best old time and dance bands as a new member band. New Bad Habits plays traditional tunes from the great string bands of the 1920’s and 1930’s, as well as original music honoring the same tradition. Hailing from the states of Wisconsin and Missouri, the members of New Bad Habits come together in a confluence of musical styles that is pure heartland America.

Members of the New Bad Habits are recent Wisconsin immigrant and fiddle extraordinaire Lynn “Chirps” Smith, Soldier’s Grove tomato-growing and flood surviving resident Tim Foss also on fiddle, art collecting and beret-wearing Dave Landreth playing clawhammer banjo, gourd banjo-building Andy Gribble on the guitar, and always smiling and cute as a pea clogger and caller Dot Kent.

I saw NBH play a concert and a dance at the MBOTMA Winter Weekend and it was great fun. They are both a musician’s and a dancer’s favorite! I look forward to seeing them at Larryfest again this year, and wherever else they show up in the region this summer.