A special highlight for Bill was his first look at the artwork for Ben Green’s new album. He was excited to see a few of his photos included. Among them, this one of Russell Moore.

Our friend, Ted Lehman also contributed photographs to the project, so looking at the CD was almost like old home week!

Lorraine Jordan will bring her Carolina Road band to the Glass City Opry on Friday, June 4, 2010. Lorraine has a new line-up for this season, and a new CD from Rural Rhythm Records. New band members Dustin Benson (guitar) and Brad Hudson (Bass) join Lorraine, Josh Goforth (fiddle) and Ben Greene (banjo) in the band.

The Glass City Opry presents bluegrass music in a beautiful old theater in Maumee, Ohio. We travel there as often as we can to enjoy the good music and the great old theater.

Here is a little sample of Carolina Road’s new sound to hold you over till Friday!

Tom and Barb Laing have consistently cooperated with the college in bringing a high level of bluegrass talent to the area, and we are very appreciative of that hard work. Tom is collecting statements on behalf of the bluegrass series to present to the College board, if you have not already signed one, please contact us from the link at the bottom of the page and we will put you in touch with Tom. Tom is also working hard to find a venue to continue the series in some way. If you wish to be on a mailing list and receive information about events next year, you may also use the link below. Send your name and complete mailing address. We will forward it to Tom, and otherwise keep it confidential.

The last bluegrass concert of the year was Friday, May 14.. Ms. Velma Jones of the College presented Tom with a momento for his hard work on behalf of performing arts in the area.

I believe that Tom was surprised, and the attendees gave him a standing ovation.

The main event of the evening was J.D. Crow & the New South. It was a strong show,this season’s line-up in the New South is: J.D. on banjo, Ricky Wasson, guitar; Dwight McCall, mandolin, Kyle Perkins, bass; and Matt DeSpain, resonator guitar. The rest of our photos are posted in the gallery.

Bean Blossom has two new web addresses. They hope you can visit them at one of their new addresses and get more information our upcoming festivals including the Bill Monroe Memorial Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival June 12-19, 2010 www.billmonroemusicpark.com and www.billmonroesbeanblossom.com.

Thanks to Cybergrass for this heads up.

Last year, just as Doyle Lawson took the stage on Saturday afternoon, Bill took a group of photos from the roof of the stage. No one picture could how the entire crowd, but here are a couple that give a little idea. You can see the white tent that covered the sound equipment, there isn’t any overlap in the photos. There was actually more crowd on both sides of these.

As he was taking that photo, Maggie took one of him, which we have been using on Facebook.

This festival is a great reunion of Michigan pickers and fans. I am expecting a great show, and lots of jamming.

Thanks to Maggie, and see you there!