3/24/2004

Hi Folks,

I received this request from Mary Ann Garrison. If you have a chance, please drop Jimmy an email at jimmymartin@earthlink.net or send him a card at PO Box 646, Hermitage, TN 37076.

Hi Nancy,

Thanks so much for your nice email. Jimmy is getting them by the dozens
every minute. He has bladder cancer and it was confirmed this past Tuesday.

He will begin radiation treatments next week and on Monday, he will have a
consultation with his doctors to go over the plan. He has a great attitude
and I told him that is half the battle to win.

Please have your friends send him get well wishes. It will help him in his
encouragement. I will do my best to keep you informed.
Your friend always,

MARY ANN


Fri 1/9/2004

I know I told the folks on this list that the notice about the dobro workshop that I sent out yesterday would be my last "bluegrass addendum" before I give up the reins as editor of the Sacramento-area CBA Newsletter. But Erik Thomas asked me to help spread the word about several northern California appearances in January by the band Due West, and how could I say "no"? This band is too good to miss!...
And now, unless it's an absolute emergency, I promise that this WILL be the last you'll hear from me in the way of these emails. I've got a lot of packing to do!!! Bye!

Nancy Z.
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Due West with special guest Darol Anger heats up northern California with Winters and Chico concerts

Combine four of the hottest instrumentalists in northern California with a West Coast new acoustic fiddle legend and the result is going to be exciting bluegrass for audiences in Winters and Chico to kick off the New Year.
San Francisco Bay Area-based band DUE WEST makes its debut this month at the PALMS PLAYHOUSE in WINTERS on THURSDAY, JANUARY 15 and at the SIERRA NEVADA BREWERY in CHICO on SUNDAY, JANUARY 18 on a double bill with the LAURIE LEWIS TRIO. Special guest DAROL ANGER will be performing on fiddle with Due West at both performances.

Due West is guitarist Jim Nunally, mandolin player Erik Thomas, banjo player Bill Evans and bass player Cindy Browne. Along with fiddler Chad Manning, who frequently performs with the band, this is the group that electrified audiences at the 2001 and 2003 Woodland Bluegrass Festivals and at the 2003 CBA Music Camp and Father's Day Bluegrass Festival in Grass Valley. The current line-up of the band released a new CD last year, titled These Boots on Native and Fine Records, featuring everything from their popular(and
controversial) cover of Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Were Made For Walking" to the Stanley Brothers' "Are You Alone" to Fernando Ortega's beautiful tune "Virginia Rose."

Performing a mix of traditional, contemporary and original bluegrass, David Grisman has written this about the band, "Due West is a contemporary bluegrass band of the highest caliber. They combine all the essential ingredients - smooth vocal harmonies, instrumental virtuosity and great tunes, old and new - in refreshingly different ways."

In the Internet All Music Guide, Nevada-based writer Rick Anderson wrote:
"To say that this is old-fashioned progressive bluegrass is not as contradictory as it may sound at first blush. Bear in mind that progressive bluegrass has been an established subgenre for a good forty years or so, and that it includes under its umbrella such relatively straight-ahead groups as the Country Gentlemen (who were covering calypso and pop tunes as early as the 1960s) and the Seldom Scene as well as more eclectic and boundary-transgressing artists like David Grisman and New Grass Revival. Due West falls more towards the old-fashioned-progressive end of the spectrum: its instrumentation could hardly be more traditional, and while banjoist Bill Evans is no slouch at intricate chromatic playing, he sticks for the most part with solid, meat-and-potatoes bluegrass-style picking, as do guitarist Jim Nunally and mandolinist Erik Thomas. It's the song choices and originals that mark them as a progressive outfit.
Alongside hard-edged bluegrass classics like 'Traveling the Highway Home' and 'Are You Alone (as well as a great version of the Weavers' hit song 'Gotta Travel On') are a Mexican-flavored instrumental by Thomas entitled "Mexicali Moonshine"
and a slow but intricate original tune by fiddler Chad Manning called 'Sandy Marsh.' This is a very promising debut from some of the finest living exponents of traditional progressive bluegrass."

Fiddle legend Darol Anger came to prominence as a member of the original David Grisman Quintet in the 1970's and has since made a lasting mark in progressive acoustic music through appearances with Mike Marshall, Fiddlers 4, Psychograss and, currently, the American Fiddle Ensemble, featuring teenage fiddler Brittany Haas.

In addition to the Winters and Chico performances, Due West will also be performing at the Sweetwater in Mill Valley on Tuesday, January 13 with the David Thom Band. You can learn more about Due West by visiting http://duewest.info.

DUE WEST JANUARY 2004 CALIFORNIA APPEARANCES:

JANUARY 13: MILL VALLEY, CA: Due West with the David Thom Band, Sweetwater, Bluegrass Gold concert series,
8 p.m., 153 Throckmorton Ave.,
info 415-388-2820, www.sweetwatersaloon.com.

JANUARY 15: WINTERS, CA: Due West with special guest Darol Anger, The Palms Playhouse,
13 Main St.,
7:30 p.m. showtime, doors open at 7 p.m.
Tickets $15.
Info: 530-795-1825, www.palmsplayhouse.com.

JANUARY 18: CHICO, CA: Due West with special guest Darol Anger, Sierra Nevada Brewery with Laurie Lewis & Tom Rozum, 1075 East 20th St. Phone
530-345-2739 for tickets or purchase at Brewery, www.sierra-nevada.com/bigroom/calendar.asp.


Thu 1/8/2004

This was passed along by Larry Frakes. It will probably be my last "bluegrass addendum" as Sacramento-area CBA Newsletter editor....

JIMMY HEFFERNAN DOBRO WORKSHOP SATURDAY & SUNDAY, JANUARY 24-25

There are 8 slots left, at $150 per the two day affair, with a jam session perhaps on Saturday night.

Location to be determined, Sacramento area.

For further info, go to this link:
http://www.resonatorguitarist.com/cgi-bin/mods/apage/apage.cgi?f=workshop.html


Mon 1/5/2004

This just in from Laurie Lewis, too late for publication in the January Sacramento-area CBA Newsletter, but not too late for you to catch these great shows in Davis and Chico:
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Laurie Lewis, Tom Rozum and legendary bassist Bill Bryson SAT, JAN 17 Special house concert:
Davis, CA , 8:00 PM
$15.00/ticket
Reservations and info, call Bill Wagman: (530)
753-3472 or email wjwagman@ucdavis.edu

Here's a rare chance to hear us as Nature intended, with no sound system to color the tones between your ears and our lips.

It's also a treat to get a chance to play with Bill again. We've played with him in the LA area, but never in Northern California. You may know his work with the Laurel Canyon Ramblers, the Desert Rose Band, or the original Bluegrass Cardinals, to name a few. Bill also wrote the now-classic cautionary song, "Girl at the Crossroads Bar."

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Laurie Lewis, Tom Rozum and hopefully still legendary bassist Bill Bryson SUN, JAN 18
Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, 8:00 PM
1075 East 20th St.
Chico, CA

http://www.sierranevada.com (530) 345-2739

This is a double bill with Due West: Jim Nunally
(guitar) Bill Evans (banjo), Eric Thomas (mandolin), Cindy Brown (string bass), and featuring special guest Darol Anger on fiddle

So near and yet so far from home. We rarely get a chance to play in Chico! We shared the bill with Due West last summer at the Oak Songs Society concert in Oak Run, CA, and had such a good time together. This gives us a chance to relive it all again, only differently.


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