James Alan Shelton

Hand-Tooled leather straps by James Alan Shelton are now available online. Just look at the top of this page and click on “Shelton Instrument Straps” from the menu. You will find pictures and information on how to order straps for guitar and banjo. Payment can be made through PayPal or you can send a check and place your order by mail. These straps will give you many years of service and you can also have your name embossed at no extra charge. Many of the top bluegrass artists in the business use and endorse Shelton Straps including J. D. Crowe, Larry Sparks, Pete Wernick and Ron Stewart. Order yours today!

California singer-songwriter-guitarist Todd Novak has just released a new CD entitled “Raspberry Moonshine” with instrumental and vocal backing by the Clinch Mountain Boys and a special cameo appearance by Dr. Ralph himself.

“Raspberry Moonshine” is the meeting and mixture of several musical worlds. A bunch of countrified genres being stirred in a pot for years, served up for the music lover and open-minded listener. Todd Novak and the Clinch Mountain Boys have cooked up 12 original songs, including a moonshiner’s up-tempo bluegrass tune, a sci-fi banjo factory disaster tale (Manjo!), a revved-up murder song, a presidential train tune, a square dance number, a waltz, a few love songs, and an Americana soundtrack piece with a poem read by Jimmy Cameron (bassist of the Clinch Mountain Boys) about Rabbit Dogs.

For more info go to http://thecowlicks.com/toddnovakmusic/index.php

James Alan Shelton will be taking part in the 2011 IBMA Awards Show at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee on September 29, 2011. He will be giving the induction speech for his longtime friend and guitar mentor, George Shuffler. This year Shuffler and Del McCoury will become the newest members inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Hall of Fame, which is the bluegrass music industry’s highest honor. The show, which will be hosted by mandolin wizard Sam Bush, will be broadcast live over Sirius XM Satellite Radio and syndicated to over 300 U.S. markets and 14 foreign networks.

Guitarist James Alan Shelton and fiddler Dewey Brown were at Tom T. and Dixie Hall’s studio in Franklin, TN on August 4-5, 2011 to help 13 year old bluegrass singing prodigy Isaac Moore lay down tracks his first CD project. Actually, Isaac is recording two projects at once: a tribute to his heroes, The Stanley Brothers and an all-gospel album. Also helping out on the sessions were Don Rigsby- mandolin, Beth Lawrence-bass and Troy Engle- mandolin. Steve Sparkman is slated to play banjo and a host of guest artists including Rhonda Vincent and Don Rigsby are being lined up to add vocal harmony. Isaac, who loves the old-time sound of the Stanley Brothers, has made several onstage appearances with Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys for the past few years including Ralph’s own festival in Coeburn, Virginia. Recording engineer for the sessions was Miss Rebekah Long, who did an excellent job of getting the sounds down on tape….or hard drive as it is these days of digital recording. All the musicians enjoyed the warm hospitality extended by Tom T. and Miss Dixie during the sessions. Watch for these two new projects by Isaac Moore to be released soon. No word yet as to what label they will be on but please check out Isaac Moore on Facebook and see what the buzz is all about!

Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys will be appearing at the Renaissance Theatre in Mansfield, Ohio on April 1 at 8:00 pm. And then it’s on to Prestonsburg, Kentucky on April 2 for a show at the Mountain Arts Center. Also appearing at the MAC will be Melvin Goins & Windy Mountain. That show starts at 7:30. Be watching for the new Ralph Stanley gospel CD “A Mother’s Prayer”, which will be released on April 19. To view a short video about the album please go to:

 http://www.thebluegrassblog.com/ralph-stanley-a-mothers-prayer/?s=ralph stanley

Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys have cancelled their appearance at the Grand Ole Opry on January 21 & 22 due to the fact that Ralph is still recovering from surgery. Doctor Stanley had a pacemaker installed on January 9 and continues to recouperate at home. The band expects to go back on the road in February.

The Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys show scheduled for January 15 at the Fairview Ruritan in Galax, Virginia has been cancelled. The reason is that Dr. Ralph Stanley underwent surgery on January 9 to have a pacemaker installed. The surgery was a success and he is doing fine and hopes to be up and around in a few days. Efforts were made to reschedule the show but we could not find a date that was available for both the band and the venue.

Mitchell Van Dyke of Grundy, VA is the new banjo player for Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys. He joins the band following the departure of 16 year veteran Steve Sparkman, who left the band in November to pursue a career in law enforcement. Mitchell is well versed in Stanley style of banjo and has performed with a number of  local and regional groups over the past several years. Dr. Stanley and the rest of the CMB’s welcome Mitchell into the band and he will be touring permanently with the group as the Clinch Mountain Boys begin the New Year at the Jekyll Island, GA Convention Center on New Years’s Day January 1, 2011. Then it’s on to Bill’s Music Shop in West Columbia, SC the following day for an afternoon show at 2:30 pm on Sunday January 2nd.

In a recent review of T Bone Burnett’s “Speaking Clock Revue” show at the Beacon Theater in New York City, Wall Street Journal writer Jim Fusilli wrote that “…. perhaps the night’s best performance on guitar was turned in by James Shelton, (Ralph) Stanley’s long-time sideman who, in a quiet, unassuming way, flatpicks so deftly that it seems as if there’s another invisible guitarist nearby.” Click on this link to read the full article:

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/10/21/elton-john-t-bone-burnett-and-elvis-costello-join-forces/

Just days after returning from shows at Berkeley California’s Freight & Salvage and the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco, Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys will once again head to the west coast this week. The band is doing a short tour with The Blind Boys of Alabama with appearances at The Hult Center For Performing Arts in Eugene, Oregon on October 7 and at the Broadway Center For Performing Arts in Tacoma, Washington on October 8. For more information please click on these links:

http://ofam.org/divP/series.aspx?event=1747

http://www.broadwaycenter.org/season/showDetails.asp?key=225