Mountain Fever Records is proud to announce the release of Down In A Cell, the debut CD from Volume Five.

Volume Five consists of Glen Harrell (fiddle & vocals); Patton Wages (banjo, & vocals); Chris Williamson (bass & vocals); Jesse Daniel (mandolin & vocals); and Adam Duke (guitar & vocals).  Each member of Volume Five has held tenure with national touring bands such as Marty Raybon and Full Circle, The Bradley Walker Band, The Anita Fisher Band, Randy Kohrs and The Lites, The Larry Stephenson Band, and David Davis and The Warrior River Boys, prior to their collective start in early 2008.  Volume Five’s strong vocals, dead-on harmonies, and precision picking make them one of the most exciting new “traditional” bands to hit the bluegrass scene in a long while. 

 Down In A Cell includes 11 tracks with four originals written by members of Volume Five (“Down In A Cell” by Adam Duke, “Busy City”, “These Lies”, and “Ride Ruby Ride” by Jesse Daniel) along with songs penned by popular writers such as Whitey Shafer (“Baptism of Jesse Taylor”) and Dottie Rambo (“Sailing On”).  The CD also features a great bluegrass re-make of “Home”, originally a hit for country music star Joe Diffie.  Possibly the most unique aspect of Down In A Cell is the lead vocals shared between Glen Harrell and Adam Duke, both soulful singers but each with a distinctive style all their own.

 Volume Five will make their IBMA World of Bluegrass debut this year, interviewing with WAMU’s BluegrassCountry on Wednesday, September 30th at 3:30pm CST and performing during the Mountain Fever Records after-hours showcase later that evening. 

 For more information on Volume Five, please visit www.VolumeFiveBG.com or www.MountainFever.com.

AcuTab’s latest DVD project,

But unlike similar titles on the market, this DVD features top touring professionals doing the demonstrations, and providing an all-star rhythm section with whom you can play along.

Learning to play with others can be a fearsome thing for new players, and even intermediate and more skilled players who know their instrument well are unaware of the fine points of playing in a bluegrass band. On Bluegrass Jamming Essentials, Bill Evans and Megan Lynch lead an all-star band through the basics for banjo, fiddle, mandolin, guitar and bass using both bluegrass standards and songs from recent recordings.

Bill is a popular west coast banjo picker, and one of the most sought after banjo teachers in the US. Megan is a six time National Fiddle Champion currently touring with Pam Tillis. Bill and Megan have taught band workshops all over the world both separately and as a team.

Mandolinist Adam Steffey has toured with Alison Krauss, Mountain Heart, Dan Tyminski and The Boxcars. On guitar, Tim Stafford holds down the rhythm in bluegrass supergroup Blue Highway and is also an Alison Krauss alumnus. Bass player David Thomas tours with Special Consensus. Together this top-notch band demonstrates the essential elements of playing in a bluegrass band, plus dozens of tips and tricks that will make you a more effective player at jams.

In this 2 1/2 hour video, the five of them describe the basic roles of the bass, mandolin, guitar, banjo and fiddle in the band setting, and address such crucial topics as tuning, choosing keys and tempos, proper capo use and more. Other concepts covered include backup and fills, soloing, playing with drive, a variety of song formats, and communication within a band while playing.

They demonstrate all this using familiar songs Nine Pound Hammer, Gold Rush, Knoxville Girl, Sitting On Top Of The World and more, each chosen to show these important concepts in a variety of keys, tempos and styles. And for each song, they leave a spot for you to play your own break!

Rounder Records is pleased to announce country music star and Grand Ole Opry member Joe Diffie’s return to bluegrass music with Homecoming: The Bluegrass Album. Due October 26, Homecoming was co-produced by Diffie and Luke Wooten and features a who’s who of bluegrass A-listers including The Grascals, Rhonda Vincent, Bradley Walker, and Alecia Nugent.  He also enlisted a top-notch band that includes Rob Ickes, Aubrey Haynie, Mike Compton, Bryan Sutton, Mark Fain and Charlie Cushman to back his better-than-ever vocals on this set of songs that are sure to appeal to Diffie’s long-time fans and bluegrass traditionalists alike.

While this is Diffie’s first bluegrass release, it’s not the first bluegrass release on which he’s appeared.  Prior to his moving to Nashville and becoming the country star he is today, he spent several years touring and recording with the bluegrass band Special Edition.  Homecoming is an homage to bluegrass, his musical legacy and first love.  Not only does he reach into his own past for songs such as “Tennessee Tea” and into classic catalog tunes like Flatt & Scruggs’ “Somehow Tonight” – he also covers modern repertoire like “Lonesome And Dry As A Bone,” written by long time friend Shawn Camp, and Larry Cordle’s moving “I Know How It Feels.”  Diffie contributed a few originals as well, such as the soon to be bluegrass classic, “It’s Raining On Her Rubber Dolly Now,” co-written with Camp and featuring the remarkable bluegrass group and label mates, The Grascals. 

Since he first topped the charts in 1990 with Home, Diffie has delivered hit after hit totaling twelve #1’s, twenty top 10’s and four gold and platinum albums.  Some of his most popular hits include “Ships That Don’t Come In,” “Pickup Man,” “John Deere Green,” and “If the Devil Danced (In Empty Pockets).”  As a songwriter, Diffie’s success is equally impressive.  In addition to the numerous hits he kept for himself, his songs have been recorded by Holly Dunn, Tim McGraw, Tracy Lawrence, Conway Twitty, Doug Stone, and most recently Jo Dee Messina, whose recording of “My Give a Damn’s Busted” became a #1 hit.  He has won a Grammy®, several CMA Awards, and has been honored as “Humanitarian of the Year” by the Country Music Broadcasters.

Check out the making of Homecoming: The Bluegrass Album here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjK9s8ODtQA

Homecoming Track Listing:

1.    Somehow Tonight 

2.    Lonesome and Dry as a Bone 

3.    Tall Cornstalk 

4.    Fit For a King 

5.    Route 5 Box 109 

6.    Rainin’ On Her Rubber Dolly – with The Grascals 

7.    I Know How It Feels 

8.    Tennessee Tea 

9.    Free and Easy

10. Stormy Weather Once Again 

11. ’Til Death 

12. Hard To Handle 

Rural Rhythm Records is proud to announce the first radio single release, “Time To Be Movin’ On” from the highly anticipated new album, “STRANGE NEW WORLD” by BLUE MOON RISING.  The single was released to radio via the label’s “Fresh Cuts & Key Tracks, #8″ and is also available now via

Clint Wilson.The songs on “STRANGE NEW WORLD” certainly showcase Blue Moon Rising’s range, versatility and maturity as it continually shifts between hard-core traditional bluegrass, blues, gospel, country and singer-songwriter influenced music.  If one could paint a picture that captures the subjects and themes from songs like the peppy honky-tonk influenced kick-off track, “Time To Be Movin’ On,” the soulful blues influenced, “He’s All Around Us” and the haunting and beautiful Kevin Denney original, “My Sitting Window” the painting would represent a “STRANGE NEW WORLD” indeed! 

“STRANGE NEW WORLD” is Blue Moon Rising’s fifth career album and their first recording on Rural Rhythm Records.  The project combines a very eclectic mix of new original material with West contributing 7 of the 13 tracks.  Other writers include:  Mike Dekle, Kevin Denney, Becky Buller, Jon Weisberger/Jeremy Garrett and

With that imagery in mind, Chris West enlisted the help of his artist friend, Jason Jones, who created the album artwork for the band’s previous album, “ONE LONELY SHADOW.”  Chris explains, “I asked Jason to create a very artsy vision of a strange new world where things aren’t quite right in comparison to the world we live in.  I wanted every single image on the CD to tie in directly with a song in some way.  I wrote a blues song about temptation and the struggle between good and evil on this project called ‘He’s All Around Us’, hence the transparent devil behind the tree on the cover.  There’s a love song on the CD called ‘Stone by Stone’ for a girl named Jenny where the lovelorn singer says ‘My Jenny belongs in an Ivory Tower.’ So Jason made the tower the centerpiece on the cover.  We also married several songs together within the art.  I wrote song on the CD called ‘Hard Luck Joe’ about a homeless man who used to have a much better life.  If you’ll notice the tree on the cover, there’s a heart carved in it that says ‘Joe -n- Jenny’ where we’ve married the songs ‘Hard Luck Joe’ and ‘Stone by Stone.’  When you give the CD a thorough listen, you’ll be able to go back and look at this great piece of art and know what every single image is about.”

BLUE MOON RISING is sponsored by GHS Strings, Blue Chip Picks, and Chota Outfitters.  For information on the new album, tour schedule and more, please visit

Mountain Fever Records is proud to announce they have signed West Virginia-based bluegrass recording artists, No One You Know and will release the band’s CD, Calm Before The Storm on August 31st.    

No One You Know is a talented and fresh bluegrass band comprised of five seasoned musicians – Rachel Burge; mandolin and vocals, Don Anderson; bass and vocals, Ramie Bennett; banjo and vocals, Bruce Jones; dobro, and Lance Gainer; guitar and vocals.  Each member writes all of the band’s original music and collectively wowed audiences at this year’s National SPBGMA (Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America) Convention when they placed second in the International Band Competition.     

Calm Before The Storm offers 13 tracks of some of the best bluegrass available today including 11 brand new songs written by the band and new versions of bluegrass classics such as “Ashes of Love” and the Osborne Brothers’ “One Tear”.   

“Looking for A Sign”, the first single from the new CD, was released Tuesday, July 27th via www.AirplayDirect.com.  Band member Lance Gainer had this to say about the song:     

       “‘Looking For A Sign’ handles the omnipresent topic of relationships but  with a unique twist.  Rachel not only penned this gem, but delivers a  superb vocal performance that only accentuates the conflict experienced by the main character.  I feel the band achieved a higher level of cohesion where we move as one unit versus five individuals.”  

Listen to a clip of “Looking For A Sign”:   

For more information on please visit www.NoOneYouKnowBand.com or www.MountainFever.com.  

Rural Rhythm Records is proud to announce the August 24, 2010 album release, “HIT THE ROAD” by Kentucky bluegrass music veterans, The Bartley Brothers.   The first single is the title track from this exciting new album and is already out to bluegrass radio via the label’s “Fresh Cuts & Key Tracks” radio sampler.  “HIT THE ROAD’ really showcases the bands tight Vocals, Rock Solid Instrumentation and song writing abilities and is sure to propel them to top of the charts,” said Radio Host, Charlie Hall

“The Bartley Brothers are surely no strangers to the bluegrass world. With there joined talents this project is nothing less than I would expect” said fellow label-mate Rickey Wasson.

“HIT THE ROAD” is available on

For more information on The Bartley Brothers, please visit: