Change is good.  We will be in transition REAL soon

Sam gives his two-cents on some new Bluegrass bands to watch out for ...

Sam will appear as a special guest with the Yonder Mountain String Band for 3 shows. April 16, 17, 18.

We have a new addition to the Sam Band Family!

Sam will perform with Bill Evans in NYC for 4 nights, 4/2 through 4/5.

more info on the flip side ...

I apologize to all you.  I cannot perform in Louisville on March 20.  I promise you I will work fervently to restore my reputation and earn your trust that Bill Millet has stolen from me.

To say this situation is out of control is a major understatement.  The duplicity with which self-titled executive producer Bill Millet has and continues to conduct himself towards you the fans, the performers, vendors and participants of the Bluegrass Hotel Project has undermined the foundation, principal and loyalty of those involved.

For those that ask how this could happen......   so do I.  I couldn't stop him from using my name before and I can't stop him now.  What he continues to do to me and others through the anonymity of the internet makes him, among many nasty things, a cyber stalker.  He has hurled so many lies at all of us.  Only some have been addressed in the Cease and Desist letter to Bill Millet from my attorney; that you can read on this site.

What Bill Millet continues to do to you, me, my friends and my family is ethically immoral and morally reprehensible.  Not to mention expensive.  In my 40 years in the music business, I have never been placed in a more despicable situation than this.

I apologize to all of you,

Sam

Sam plays the Opry at the Ryman with Charlie Haden Family & Friends with special guest Jack Black.

NASHVILLE, TN — MPI, the Music Producers Institute of Nashville welcomes Sam Bush as their guest artist for a unique, new three-day studio clinic designed to teach musicians and sound engineers how recordings are produced, from start to finish.

Participants will experience a live tracking, vocal, overdub and mixing session.

The workshop will be held February 28 - March 2, 2009 with Sam joining the MPI class on days two and three to record and mix new songs.

For those interested in record production, the MPI clinic is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to observe Sam and his band record at Ocean Way Nashville in one of his favorite tracking rooms. You'll see the entire record-making process, from pre-production and tracking, to overdubbing, mixing and mastering.

Class size is limited to just ten students. For more information about tuition and registration, please go to MPI's website or call MPI at (615) 337-0092.

Thanks to all who came out in Virginia for the dates Sam and the band co-headlined with the Original Wailers. As you can see from the message board... a GREAT time was had by all. I can't tell you how many e mails we have received asking us about more shows in the future.

I can say for sure that there will be more. a LOT more dates next year. Shows are being booked right now.

So.. keep an eye on this page and also the On The Road page for updates on next years schedule.

Hope to see you...

On The Road!

For Immediate Release, March 18th, 2008 ~ Sam Bush was honored yesterday with a resolution from the Commonwealth of Kentucky for his contributions to New Grass music. Sam performed two songs on the senate floor in Frankfort and was recognized for his contributions as an in-demand studio musician, and for being an integral member of the influential bands Bluegrass Alliance and New Grass Revival.

Charleston City Paper by Stratton Lawrence   Photo by Joshua Curry

Man on Fire
This Bush's approval rating is high

"You never get over the stage fright jitters," said Sam Bush (pictured right) to a packed house at the Music Hall last Thursday, a place he told City Paper he'd wanted to play since hearing Ricky Skaggs' live album recorded there. If he was nervous about kicking off his spring tour in Charleston, it didn't show in his performance. Backed by an incredibly tight band that included bass, guitar, banjo, and drums, Bush rolled through a long set that featured plenty of tracks off his new release, Laps in Seven, and many old favorites. Mark Bryan of Hootie and the Blowfish joined the band for an encore that included "Uncle Pen" and The Band's "Up On Cripple Creek," taking front and center for a melt-your-face-off electric guitar solo while the crowd sang along in unison. —Stratton Lawrence

A Fusion of Diverse Sounds and Styles, With Jokes

Anyone expecting straightforward bluegrass from Jerry Douglas on dobro, Edgar Meyer on bass and Sam Bush on mandolin or fiddle got just a little bit of it on Wednesday night. At the end of the trio’s concert at Zankel Hall, the musicians breezed through a banjo tune. Before then, nearly all the music they played was poised comfortably between genres: deeply rooted in bluegrass technique but toying with the parameters and options of string-band music.

The trio’s members were as attentive to structure and sonic detail as any chamber-music ensemble, while their tunes conjured mountain music’s Celtic roots along with blues, reggae, jazz and the modes of Eastern European or Middle Eastern music. Between the exquisite compositions, they cracked jokes.

They have been making musical hybrids for a long time. Mr. Bush started his untraditional New Grass Revival in 1971, and newgrass is as good a term as any for what these musicians do in their many bands. (Among other projects, Mr. Douglas is in Union Station with Alison Krauss, and Mr. Bush tours with Lyle Lovett when not leading his own band.) Their fusions now sound cozy and natural, without flaunting their tricky structures or technical feats. On Wednesday night the melodies sang, through pensive waltzes and unhurried reels and jaunty tunes like the Irish-reggae hybrid “The Lochs of Dread.”

The technical feats are there. Where most bluegrass bassists spend their lives playing oompahs, Mr. Meyer writes himself into the counterpoint, and he often conceives his bass fiddle as a fiddle, doing everything but putting it under his chin; he maintains a light touch and nimbly bows what could be fiddle tunes, only pitched lower. In a solo piece, Mr. Douglas used the richness of his dobro so that each gleaming melody note seemed to be just peeking above a pool of chords.

The three musicians have calibrated the ways they share textures; in one piece, mandolin and dobro pinged 16th notes back and forth, perfectly staggered at top speed, and in another, a bowed drone on Mr. Meyer’s bass brought out somber resonances.

The trio played pastorales and cheerful toe-tappers, though the toe-tappers were likely to move in odd meters or keep unfurling new material. When they wanted to, the musicians could pour on the razzle-dazzle, with Mr. Bush zooming around the mandolin fretboard and Mr. Douglas playing solos that twanged and skidded and chicken-plucked. Even with its musicianly flourishes and structural embellishments, the music was down-home.

But the trio was after more than good-timey grins and thrills. Their music was thinking all the time, just not getting pretentious about it.

A great night at the Grand Old Opry. Sam did an incredible job hosting the award show and walked away with an award himself for Mandolin Player of the Year.  If you missed it live on XM... stay tuned because the show was recorded and will be re-broadcast on over 200 stations in the upoming weeks.

Check out this video clip of Ringo Starr talking about Jim McGuires new book (which of course, has some great Sam pics) and he mentions Sam.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=wPOpkwqcS3o

Also.. we have created a YouTube page for Sam Bush videos. You can go there by going to www.YouTube.com/sambushmusic

Check it out!