A big, big show on Sunday afternoon -- 5/5/2013

Hope you can find a few moments to join us for the Bluegrass Cafe on Sunday afternoon -- May 5, 2013.  It's looking like it's going to be a very jam-packed, (hopefully) fairly interesting program with conversations scheduled with not just one, but TWO, IBMA Entertainers of the Year, plus a really great festival ticket giveaway.  

Eric & Leigh Gibson at Infinity Hall - Norfolk, CT  4/28/2013

On the agenda:  we had initially scheduled a conversation with Eric Gibson of the Gibson Brothers on Sunday, April 7th.  However, the phones were not cooperating with us that day, so we rescheduled our conversation for May 5th.  The Gibson Brothers' latest recording from Compass Records, "They Called It Music," was a super-popular premium choice during our recent Radiothon campaign, and the record will be the main topic during Sunday's telephone chat.  We hope to get Eric on the phone sometime around 5:30PM.  

The Gibsons have a really busy festival season ahead, and, as always, they will be playing a few dates all over New England this summer, including stops at Strawberry Park, two festivals in the State of Maine (both Blistered Fingers festivals in June and August AND Thomas Point Beach over Labor Day weekend), and New Hampshire's Pemi Valley Bluegrass Festival in August.  Another Gibson stop will be a two-day stint at the wonderful Jenny Brook Bluegrass Festival in Tunbridge, VT.  The Jenny Brook promoters -- Candi and Seth Sawyer -- have generously offered us one four-day festival pass to give to a lucky WHUS listener.  If you'd like the pass, be sure to listen to the show on Sunday, won't you?

Hot Rize last appeared in New England in November 2010
at this Boston BG Union show.

If talking to one Entertainer of the Year isn't enough, though, there's a pretty excellent chance that we'll also get to have a chat with the multi-talented Tim O'Brien sometime around 4:30PM.  If you're not aware, Tim O'Brien was one of the founding members of the seminal 1980s band, Hot Rize, who were named the 1990 Entertainers of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association.  Hot Rize may have quit working full-time as a band in 1990, but O'Brien, bass player Nick Forster, and "Dr. Banjo" Pete Wernick, along with Bryan Sutton on guitar play a few "reunion" shows every year (founding member and guitar picker Charles Sawtelle died from complications of leukemia in 1999).  On May 19th, Hot Rize will make Hamden, CT a stop on their "reunion" tour for 2013.  For more info on this GuitarTownCT production, click here.  

So, tomorrow's show promises to be a very full one.  Hope you can listen to at least part of it.  Check it out at 91.7 on your FM dial in eastern CT, or www.whus.org from anywhere in the world.  See you then!

Amy