Quickies

First off, and on a serious note, singer/songwriter/fiddle player Amy Farris was found dead in L.A. last week. Farris had recently been touring with Dave Alvin as part of his all woman band, The Guilty Women. An obituary from The L.A.Times can be found here.

Second, yesterday (Oct. 4) marked the 42nd anniversary of the debut of Leave it to Beaver on CBS. Have you ever wondered how in the hell in little Theodore Cleaver got the nickname "Beaver"? Me too. And, now since I mentioned the Beaver, I'm going to have the Kinky Friedman song "There's Something Wrong With the Beaver" stuck in my head all day.

Finally, the International Bluegrass Music Association Awards were given out last week. Although Dailey & Vincent won the big awards of Entertainer of the Year andVocal Group of the Year, the big winners were Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper. Cleveland won Fiddle Player of the Year, while bandmembers Marshall Wilborn and Jesse Brock won the awards for Bass Player of the Year and Mandolin Player of the Year, respectively. The group also won Instrumental Group of the Year and Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year for their recording of Bill Monroe's "Jerusalem Ridge". A full list of winners can be found here and a video clip of the band's recent appearance on the Katey Daly show follows.