<p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black"><st1:place w:st="on"><strong><st1:city w:st="on">Nashville</st1:city>, </strong><st1:state w:st="on"><strong>TN</strong>.</st1:state></st1:place>..<strong>McCoury Music</strong>, the artist-owned and operated label that released legendary singer/songwriter <strong><a href="http://www.merlehaggard.com/" title="Merle Haggard">Merle Haggard</a></strong>&#8216;s <strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FBluegrass-Sessions-Merle-Haggard%2Fdp%2FB000UNXH0W%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dmusic%26qid%3D1200597664%26sr%3D1-1&;tag=drunkenhill05-20&;linkCode=ur2&;camp=1789&;creative=9325">The Bluegrass Sessions</a></strong><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=drunkenhill05-20&;l=ur2&;o=1" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important" border="0" height="1" width="1" /> on October 2nd, expressed its shock today at a <strong><a href="http://www.naras.org/" title="NARAS">National Academy Of Recording Arts &; Sciences</a></strong> committee&#8217;s decision to exclude the acclaimed album from consideration for nomination in its &#8220;<strong>Best Bluegrass Album</strong>&#8221; <strong>Grammy </strong>category. The label, created by legendary bluegrass artist <strong><a href="http://www.delmccouryband.com/" title="Del McCoury">Del McCoury</a></strong> in 2004, earned its first <strong>bluegrass Grammy</strong> in 2005 with the </span><strong><a href="http://www.delmccouryband.com/" title="Del McCoury Band"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black">Del McCoury Band</span></a></strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black">&#8216;s <strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FCompany-Keep-Del-McCoury-Band%2Fdp%2FB0009S2TC0%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dmusic%26qid%3D1200602014%26sr%3D1-1&;tag=drunkenhill05-20&;linkCode=ur2&;camp=1789&;creative=9325">The Company We Keep</a></strong><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=drunkenhill05-20&;l=ur2&;o=1" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important" border="0" height="1" width="1" />.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black">&#8220;Anyone who knows the <strong>bluegrass </strong>community knows that its members like to debate definitions,&#8221; McCoury Music&#8217;s General Manager <strong>Chris Harris</strong> said. &#8220;But this is an album that <strong>Merle </strong>and Del decided to call </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black"><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FBluegrass-Sessions-Merle-Haggard%2Fdp%2FB000UNXH0W%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dmusic%26qid%3D1200597664%26sr%3D1-1&;tag=drunkenhill05-20&;linkCode=ur2&;camp=1789&;creative=9325">The Bluegrass Sessions</a></strong><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=drunkenhill05-20&;l=ur2&;o=1" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important" border="0" height="1" width="1" /></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black">, produced by a <strong>bluegrass musician</strong> with bluegrass musicians, recorded at a <strong>bluegrass studio</strong>, released on a <strong>bluegrass label</strong>, racked under bluegrass in <strong>record stores</strong>, aired on <strong>bluegrass radio</strong>, covered by the <strong>bluegrass press</strong>, and it&#8217;s currently in it&#8217;s fourth consecutive week at # 1 on <strong>Billboard&#8217;s Bluegrass chart</strong>. If that&#8217;s not enough, even <strong><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/" title="The Washington Post">The Washington Post</a></strong> wondered why &#8216;no one had thought to pair <strong>Merle </strong>and <strong><st1:place w:st="on">Bluegrass</st1:place> </strong>together before.&#8217; &#8220;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black"><strong>McCoury</strong>, who holds nine <strong>International </strong><a href="http://www.ibma.org/" title="International Bluegrass Music Association"><strong>Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA</strong>)</a> <strong>Entertainer of the Year awards</strong>, expressed his disappointment personally. &#8220;<strong>Merle </strong>did everything in his power to make this record authentic except remove that unique <strong>Haggard </strong>sound&#8211;and that&#8217;s something he&#8217;s brought to every genre of music he&#8217;s ever visited,&#8221; <strong>McCoury </strong>said. &#8220;</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black"> <strong><a href="http://www.merlehaggard.com/" title="Merle Haggard">Merle Haggard</a></strong></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black"> could make a polka record, and there&#8217;d be no mistaking it&#8217;s </span><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black"> <a href="http://www.merlehaggard.com/" title="Merle Haggard">Merle Haggard</a></span></strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black">.&#8221;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black">Album producer <strong><a href="http://www.renobrothers.com/" title="Ronnie Reno">Ronnie Reno</a></strong>, a <strong>bluegrass </strong>veteran who earned his spurs performing with two <strong>Bluegrass Hall of Fame</strong> artists&#8211;father <strong>Don Reno&#8217;s</strong> <strong>Reno &; Smiley</strong> and the legendary <strong><a href="http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/osborne_brothers_the/artist.jhtml" title="Osborne Brothers">Osborne Brothers</a></strong>&#8211;before spending some eight years in <strong>Haggard&#8217;s</strong> band, reacted in a more down to earth fashion: &#8220;that&#8217;s pure b******t.&#8221;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black">Recorded at <strong><a href="http://skaggs.musiccitynetworks.com/index.htm?CFID=5154560&;CFTOKEN=76651121" title="Ricky Skaggs">Ricky Skaggs</a></strong>&#8216; <strong><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Hendersonville</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">TN</st1:state></st1:place></strong> studio, <strong>The Bluegrass Sessions</strong> features <strong>Haggard </strong>backed by an all-star&#8211;and all-bluegrass&#8211;cast of musicians that includes such <strong>IBMA </strong>award winners as fiddler <strong><a href="http://www.aubreyhaynie.com/" title="Aubrey Haynie">Aubrey Haynie</a></strong>, dobro player <strong><a href="http://www.robickes.com/" title="Rob Ickes">Rob Ickes</a></strong>, guitarist and harmony singer <strong><a href="http://www.carljackson.net/" title="Carl Jackson">Carl Jackson</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://www.alisonkrauss.com/site.php" title="Alison Krauss">Alison Krauss</a></strong>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black">As veteran mandolin player <strong><a href="http://www.martystuart.net/" title="Marty Stuart">Marty Stuart</a></strong>, who got his own youthful career start with Hall of Famer <strong><a href="http://www.flatt-and-scruggs.com/lesterbio.html" title="Lester Flatt">Lester Flatt (Flatt &; Scruggs)</a></strong> in the 1970s, wrote following the recording sessions, &#8220;<strong>Merle Haggard</strong> has put the blues back into <strong>bluegrass</strong>. I was honored to be there alongside of him when he did it.&#8221;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black">On its release, </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black"></span><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FBluegrass-Sessions-Merle-Haggard%2Fdp%2FB000UNXH0W%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dmusic%26qid%3D1200597664%26sr%3D1-1&;tag=drunkenhill05-20&;linkCode=ur2&;camp=1789&;creative=9325">The Bluegrass Sessions</a></strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black"><strong> </strong>rocketed to the top of <strong>Billboard&#8217;s bluegrass album chart</strong>, racking up the legend&#8217;s highest first-week sales for a new release since 2000, and <strong>Merle</strong>&#8216;s first #1 on any of Billboard&#8217;s charts since 1984. </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black"></span><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FBluegrass-Sessions-Merle-Haggard%2Fdp%2FB000UNXH0W%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dmusic%26qid%3D1200597664%26sr%3D1-1&;tag=drunkenhill05-20&;linkCode=ur2&;camp=1789&;creative=9325">The Bluegrass Sessions</a></strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black"> is currently enjoying it&#8217;s 4th consecutive week at the top of the chart. There has been solid support from the <st1:place w:st="on">Bluegrass</st1:place> media, from the monthly magazines to the increasingly popular Bluegrass Blog, the winner of this year&#8217;s IBMA Media Award, in addition to features in mainstream media such as <strong>TIME Magazine</strong> and major newspapers across the country,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black">&#8220;When I contacted <strong>NARAS</strong>, they would not identify the committee, their qualifications, or why they don&#8217;t classify this album as bluegrass. Their stance just doesn&#8217;t make sense. With that said, of course, we&#8217;re grateful that members can at least vote for </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black"></span><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FBluegrass-Sessions-Merle-Haggard%2Fdp%2FB000UNXH0W%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dmusic%26qid%3D1200597664%26sr%3D1-1&;tag=drunkenhill05-20&;linkCode=ur2&;camp=1789&;creative=9325">The Bluegrass Sessions</a></strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black"> in other country categories, including <strong>Country Album of the Year</strong>,&#8221; Harris said. &#8220;But by every reasonable definition, this is a bluegrass album, and we&#8211;<strong>Merle</strong>, <st1:place w:st="on"><strong><st1:city w:st="on">Ronnie</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Del</st1:state></strong></st1:place><strong> </strong>and everyone involved in the project&#8211;think that <strong>Academy </strong>voters ought to be able to consider it for <strong>Best Bluegrass Album</strong>.&#8221;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'">FOR MORE INFORMATION:</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p></o:p><br />
Emily Long &#8211; McCoury Music<br />
<st1:address w:st="on"><st1:street w:st="on">1018 17th Ave South #12</st1:street> &#8211; <st1:city w:st="on">Nashville</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">TN</st1:state> <st1:postalcode w:st="on">37212</st1:postalcode></st1:address><br />
<a href="mailto:Mccourymusic1@aol.com" title="blocked::mailto:Mccourymusic1@aol.com"><span style="color: windowtext">Mccourymusic1@aol.com</span></a> &#8211; 615/340-9919<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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