Road Trip Music pick up for bluegrass awards

As A Traveler’s Library and Music Road have been exploring book, film, and music ideas which inspire journeys through the regions of the United States through the Great American Road Trip, you’ve often heard about books, films, music, authors, and artists with award nominations to their credit. Word comes that it’s time to add another to the list.

The International Bluegrass Music Association Awards are the Grammys of the bluegrass field, top professional recognition of the highest sort. Our good wishes go out to Claire Lynch, whose album Whatcha Gonna Do was our soundtrack for Alabama. She has been nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year. Two songs from that album are up for awards as well. My Florida Sunshine, a lesser known song by bluegrass giant Bill Monroe that Lynch chose for the album, is up for song of the year, and That’s What Makes You Strong, a collaboration Between Ms. Lynch and songwriter Jesse Winchester, is up for recorded event of the year. You’ve met Mr. Winchester along the Great American Road Trip too: he participated in the Kid Pan Alley project called I Used to Know the Names of All the Stars, which was our soundtrack for travels through Virginia.



A full list of IBMA award nominees is here.
The awards will be given out in Nashville on 30 September.

Check out these stops on the road trip to find out more about this music, and join us on Wednesdays as the journey goes on.

Music Road: Road Trip Music in Alabama: bluegrass, faith, & architecture

Music Road: Road Trip Music in Virginia

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Russ Barenberg: When At Last

Russ Barenberg

When At Last


Melody is the main thing here: guitarist Russ Barenberg leads listeners on a dance through tunes which draw on old time, Celtic, country and bluegrass ideas, and which are wholly original. It’s a lovely dance, too, by turns funny and reflective, fast paced and slow. Barenberg doesn’t speak or sing a word, but he sings through his hands, and surely it’s no accident that his publishing company is called Laughing Hands. Barenberg’s musical experiences stretch back to the 1970s bluegrass band Country Cookin’ and to Fiddle Fever and Ken Burns’ soundtracks, and forward to the most recent Transatlantic Sessions taped in Scotland. Also forward to this year's Grammy and International Bluegrass Music Association Awards. A track from When At Last called Little Monk has been nominated for best country instrumental by the Grammy selection committee, and the album itself is an interesting and adventurous choice in the running for best instrumental album of the year at the IBMAs. Barenberg is supported by and Nashville to New England group of musical friends including Jerry Douglas on dobro and Ruthie Dornfeld on fiddle.

Speaking of Transatlantic Sessions, here is a video of Barenberg with singer Julie Fowlis, fiddlers Jenna Reid and Aly Bain, and others, from the 2007 series of programs.






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