08.30.05 (AP) ALISON KRAUSS has been nominated along with her band UNION STATION for 14 Bluegrass Music Awards nominations, including entertainer of the year. Meanwhile, Rhonda Vincent and her band THE RAGE garnered eight nominations, while Doyle Lawson and his group QUICKSILVER got seven. "After a long year of touring, it's a really nice reward for all the work we've done. We really appreciate our peers recognizing us," said Vincent, who announced the nominations with Ricky Skaggs at The Country Music Hall Of Fame And Museum. Besides "Entertainer Of The Year," the nominations for ALISON KRAUSS & UNION STATION, individually or collectively, include best album for "Lonely Runs Both Ways," instrumental group, vocal group, song of the year, gospel recorded performance, female vocalist for Krauss, male vocalist for Dan Tyminski and individual instrumental nominations for Jerry Douglas (dobro), Barry Bales (bass) and Ron Block (banjo). Krauss and Tyminski also are featured on the Larry Sparks album "40," which is nominated for album of the year and recorded event of the year. Krauss also received a nomination for being part of the recorded event nominated album, "Moody Bluegrass." Krauss, who was not at Tuesday's announcement, will host the awards show October 27th with Skaggs at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Lawson, who's been playing bluegrass for more than 40 years, said nominations are "a nod of approval, whether you win or not. It makes you feel good and says that people are paying attention to what you're doing." This is the first year the show sponsored by the International Bluegrass Music Association will be in Nashville after several years in Louisville, Kentucky, and before that in Owensboro, Kentucky. David Crow, chairman/president of the IBMA board of directors, said the "World Of Bluegrass Week," which is held October 24-30, had outgrown its digs in Louisville. "We couldn't accommodate any growth," Crow said. "We could have separated the different events. But the board thought there was something magical about keeping them all together." The awards are voted on by the professional membership of the IBMA, the trade association for the Bluegrass music industry. The IBMA also announced Tuesday that fiddle player Benny Martin and singer Red Allen will be inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall Of Honor. Martin, performed with BILL MONROE AND HIS BLUEGRASS BOYS and recorded with Roy Acuff, FLATT & SCRUGGS and Don Reno. He also penned the songs 'Ice Cold Love' and the autobiographical 'Me and My Fiddle.' Allen sang and played guitar with THE OSBORNE BROTHERS, and helped pioneer the "high lead" vocal harmony format in the 1950s.
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08.16.05 (AP) VASSAR CLEMENTS, a fiddle virtuoso and A-list studio musician who played with Paul McCartney and an array of others, died at his home Tuesday in Nashville, Tennessee after a battle with lung cancer. He was 77. Clements was hospitalized for 18 days earlier this year, receiving chemotherapy and other treatment. He had been under hospice care in recent weeks. "He had no quality of life since he'd been diagnosed," said daughter Midge Cranor, who added that the cancer had spread to his liver and brain. Clements - whose wife, Millie, died in 1998 - last performed February 4th in Jamestown, New York, Cranor said. "God blessed me in that I was able to hold his hand when he died," she said. Clements' work bridged various styles, including Country, Jazz, Bluegrass, Rock 'N' Roll and Classical. "When the rhythm is good, I can play it," he told The Associated Press in a 1988 interview. During his career, he recorded on more than 2,000 albums, joining artists as varied as McCartney, Johnny Cash, Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Hornsby, Hank Williams Jr., Woody Herman, THE GRATEFUL DEAD, THE BYRDS and THE NITTY GRITTY DIRT BAND. Clements, a Kinard, Fla., native who grew up in Kissimmee, Fla., also recorded more than two dozen albums of his own. The 2005 Grammy for best Country instrumental performance went to 'Earl's Breakdown' by THE NITTY GRITTY DIRT BAND featuring Clements, Earl Scruggs, Randy Scruggs and Jerry Douglas. "He got his start in bluegrass, but he was equally comfortable playing bebop and jazz and rock 'n' roll, and he loved all those genres," said Jeff Hanna of THE NITTY GRITTY DIRT BAND, which tapped Clements for their landmark "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" Americana albums and also toured Japan with him. "He could sit in with anybody." VASSAR CLEMENTS even recorded with the Monkees once - by happenstance. He was working on a recording session when someone asked him if he wanted to stay and play on another one. "I didn't know until later it was the Monkees," he said. Besides being a gifted musician, Clements was fun to be around, Hanna said. "He was incredibly hip," Hanna said. "He was just one of those guys. He was still the dapper Dan. My wife always said he was such a handsome devil. He always dressed impeccably." Clements, who appeared in Robert Altman's 1975 film "Nashville," taught himself to play at age 7 and had no formal training. "It was God's gift, something born in me," he said about his talent. "I was too dumb to learn it any other way. I listened to the (Grand Ole) Opry some. I'd pick it up one note at a time. I was young, with plenty of time and I didn't give up. You'd come home from school, do your lessons and that's it. No other distractions. "I don't read music. I play what I hear," Clements once said. VASSAR CLEMENTS was employed at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a year in the mid-1960s, working on plumbing. At various times, he also worked in a Georgia paper mill, was a switchman for the Atlantic Coast Railroad, sold insurance, and even had a potato chip franchise.
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[Country News: July 2005]
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