Reporter Tom Gorman of the Wall Street Journal has put together a fantastic piece about the online learning method at ArtistWorks. Focusing on our mandolin instructor Mike Marshall, the video breaks down how his students are learning mandolin online from his ArtistWorks curriculum. It's a really great synopsis of what it's like to learn an instrument online using the ArtistWorks platform.
"Our approach is very modern, but it's also very ancient. Traditionally and historically, the way people have learned music is they apprentice to a master." - David Butler, ArtistWorks Chairman
Singer/guitarist extraordinaire Michael Daves and I just filmed a video in Brooklyn, New York to help promote the Fresh Grass Festival appearance we'll be doing in Massachusetts on September 19th. I should be able to load it up here soon.
Tony
Hello TTSB!
My fellow ArtistWorks instructor and bassist extraordinaire John Patitucci (he performs with Chick Corea and Wayne Shorter....nuff said) and I shared the bill on this past Sunday at the Take Me To The River Festival in Hastings on Hudson, NY. I performed solo right after John played with his power trio. We're looking to find a situation where we can play together at some point in the future. Till then, here's a squinty photo of us taken in between our two sets.
Tony
Bryan Sutton is in the ArtistWorks studio this week recording new lessons for students of the Online Bluegrass Guitar School. We announced this in the Forum a while back and Bryan's students immediately jumped at the opportunity to suggest topics for the new lessons. Bryan has been taking everything into consideration and had a very productive first day recording on Monday recording many new guitar lessons which all look and sound fantastic. Click here for a little clip of him playing "Whiskey Before Breakfast" in the studio.
There's so much to come, and we are as excited as you are to get it to you. Stay tuned!
Bryan Sutton is in the ArtistWorks studio this week recording new lessons for students of the Online Bluegrass Guitar School. We announced this in the Forum a while back and Bryan's students immediately jumped at the opportunity to suggest topics for the new lessons. Bryan has been taking everything into consideration and had a very productive first day recording on Monday recording many new guitar lessons which all look and sound fantastic. Click here for a little clip of him playing "Whiskey Before Breakfast" in the studio.
There's so much to come, and we are as excited as you are to get it to you. Stay tuned!
Loudon Wainwright's great new album. Haven't Got The Blues (Yet) has just been released and I play on one track, called "God and Nature". Aoife O'Donovan sings harmony with Loudon on the choruses.
Tony
Hey Everybody,
Here I sit in what will be a significant part and representation of my "home" this fall, a hotel room. This is a nice hotel room, though. It's also connected to a fun show. Hot Rize will play A Prairie Home Companion this weekend. This is a live radio show I listened to just about as long as I've listened to the Grand Ole Opry! We're headed to rehearse in abut 45 minutes.
Hot Rize will tour a good bit this fall. I'll do more and more VEs from hotel rooms like the one I'm in as the tour progresses. I'm really glad I can do these with my iPad. I'll try to update everybody from time to time with various blog posts or videos. I hope to see some of you out on the trail as well. We most always make our way out front after shows to meet and greet.
I feel very fortunate to be part of this band so I'm basically looking forward to the tour. I don't tour like this all that often, but it seems like every few years, some neat opportunity comes up and this is one of them. I'm one of the lucky professional musicians who don't have to spend all their time on the road. HINT - It's really not glamorous... it's a lot of 4 am wake up calls after hitting the pillow at 2 am. You can check out our tour dates at hotrize.com or bryansutton.com. A funny thing that really happens is I forget my room number sometimes. After you stay in hotel rooms a certain number of times in a row, they all look the same, and I really can't remember if it's 145, or 311, or maybe 222... wait, that was last night!
My dear friend Shrinivas has died today at the age of 45. He had undergone a liver transplant and complications ocurred.
What a loss to our mandolin community. He was one of the most incredibly talented and yet humble musicians/people I have ever encountered.
Our musical world will not be the same without what he would have continued to give us. He was too young.
Shrinivas and I met first in 1990 at the Rudelstadt World Music Festival in Germany. It was a week putting together a show with 10 mandoinists from all over the world. After that, I would go to see him perform with John McLaughlin's Shakti group whenever we were in the same town and each time we spoke about doing a project together. Sadly that had not happened yet. Rest in Peace our Dear Mandolin Brother
Read more about "Mandolin" U. Shrinivas here: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/mandolin-shrinivas-the-child-prodigy-is-no-more/article6426324.ece
Hot Rize first hit the bluegrass scene in the late 1970s coming out of Boulder, Cororado. "I wasn't part of it then, I was 5 when they made their first record," says Bryan Sutton, who's been playing guitar for the legendary group for over 10 years now.
The original lineup was Tim O'Brien on mandolin, Nick Forster on bass, Pete Wernick on banjo, and guitar player Charles Sawtelle. Throughout the 1980s, Hot Rize became as big as a band could get for bluegrass at that time. Then at the height of their success, they disbanded. They later enlisted Bryan Sutton to play guitar with them after the tragic loss of Charles Sawtelle. We spoke with Bryan when he was in our studio recording new guitar lessons for his students here at ArtistWorks, wanting to get his unique perspective having gone from being a fan to being in the band.
"What they brought was a bit of a return to a tradition. It was the early 80s and you had a lot of very 80s type influence on bluegrass - things were getting a little louder, electric bass was being used. Hot Rize did have electric bass, but they also wore suits every time they did a show, and they sang around one mic which was really cool and retro at the time - nobody was doing that. Being from Colorado they kept poking at the Southeast, that was the big market to break for any bluegrass band, and being from Colorado they were sort of at an uphill battle.
It happens... sometimes it's hard to get anywhere when you're playing. Deering Banjos has published a nice little list of tips to help get the creative juices flowing. ArtistWorks students are at an advantage with access to all these lessons and Video Exchanges®, so use these whenever you need a little extra inspiration. Click here to read
ArtistWorks is proud to be a part of the World of Bluegrass at the annual IBMA Award Show - taking place in Raleigh, North Carolina this week! We had a chance to speak with some of our bluegrass instructors about what the International Bluegrass Music Association means to them.
"I'm proud to be a part of this IBMA community. I'm teaching bluegrass mandolin through the ArtistWorks Academy of Bluegrass. I grew up playing bluegrass, it was my first love and it will always be near and dear to my heart. No matter where I've gone musically, I always reach back for those roots and the things I learned early on in my career." - Mike Marshall
"I love the IBMA, it's where everyone gets together. You see people that you haven't seen for a year, you jam, you hang out, it's just a great experience and it reminds us where we've been as bluegrass musicians and also where we want to go." - Bryan Sutton
"I can't even remember a time when I didn't know what bluegrass was. It feels so great to be part of what's happening today as well, and IBMA is such a great opportunity because I get to see old friends, meet new friends, and just get excited about where the music is going and what's happening next." - Missy Raines