May 15, 2010

Bruce just discovered a video of Ritual Dance, a movement of his ‘Walnut Valley Suite,’ was performed at the 4th International Guitar Seminar (2009) held in Uruguay. See the video on our video page!

April 14, 2010

Sound To Earth Ltd. just posted a series of demonstration videos of Bruce showcasing custom instruments they built for him. Check them out on the video page.

January 24, 2010

Bruce sat in on a set at ‘12 OClock Jump,’ with Rod Fleeman and Marvin Gruenbaum in honor of Django Reinhardt’s 100th birthday. The Jazz Jam is a weekly event at the Mutual Musician’s Foundation, in the Jazz district of downtown Kansas City.

August 16, 2009

                        MARK YOUR CALENDAR for October 18, 2009 3-9PM!

    Graybill, Gruenbaum & McSpadden at 5:00 PM at the Unity Temple on the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, MO. as part of the Mike Roark Benefit Concert and fundraiser. Mike is a Kansas City musician (Rain Dogs) who is in a successful fight with Lymphoma Cancer. There will be a number of bands, silent auction, bake sale, and various activities. More details as they are available. Other bands include Kelley Hunt, Bluegrass Tornados, Retro Rangers and Fabulous Freddy and the Doo Wops.

July 1, 2009

    Bruce just commissioned another custom built instrument, this time a Guitar. Designed and built by Weber (Sound to Earth Inc.), this is the first  one of the new Weber model, The Patriot.

June 28, 2009

    We just posted seven new videos on the Video page. They were filmed by Mark Johnson at a midnight Jam session at the Walnut Valley Festival in 2008. Players include Bruce, with Two time National Flatpick Guitar Champion Gary Cook, National Banjo Champion James McKinney, Fiddler Peter Knupfer and Bassist Marc Bennett.

November 21, 2008

    It is with great sadness that I announce that Ray Bell, extraordinary Guitarist and teacher, and my duo partner of more than 10 years, passed away this morning at 7AM. He had fought a long battle with bone cancer. Ray was a professional Guitarist, and Guitar and Mandolin teacher in Little Rock, Arkansas, for more than 45 years. He played with many famous touring musical acts that passed through Little Rock, and was drafted by the head of the Guitar program at the University of Little Rock to teach Guitar there a few years ago. Ray has had a Mandolin Scales and Studies book out with Mel Bay for many years, and was included in their Mandolin 2000 book. He arranged a lot of music for many different ensembles, and a large amount for Mandolin, both solo and with Guitar. His was the biggest musical mentor of my lifetime, and his life was very well lived. May he rest in peace. Click here to read Ray’s obituary. Also, please share your stories about Ray Bell with all of us on the Ray Bell Memorial Blog.

    Below is an audio excerpt from a live concert by Ray Bell and Bruce Graybill at the 2006 CMSA convention in Louisville, Kentucky.

October 1-5, 2008

    Bruce traveled to Trossingen, Germany to give a presentation on ‘Mandolin Culture in America’ at Internationales Mandolinen-Symposium. The five day symposium was held at Bundesakademie Für Musikalische as a coordinated event by EGMA (European Guitar and Mandolin Association), BDZ (Bund Deutscher Zupfmusiker, German plucked string organization) and the Music Academy in Trossingen.

September 17-21, 2008

    The Walnut Valley Festival campers were flooded out of the campgrounds, but the festival went on as planned. Bruce played in Andy May’s sets this year, and was leader for the ‘on stage’ Mandolin workshop. Joining him in the workshop were Johnny Staats and 2002 Champion Scott Schmidt.

August 2008

    Bruce received the second of the two custom Mandolins he picked woods for last summer. He visited the Sound to Earth Ltd. factory to hand pick 30-50 year old tonewoods for these Mandolins. Look for the secret link to pics of them on the bottom of the Kiss my Axe page!

    At the end of the visit Bruce Weber took him rattlesnake hunting! The video is on YouTube and on our Video page.

August 23, 2008

    Free Mandolin Workshop at the 2nd Annual BBQ and Bluegrass Festival in Richmond, MO.

July 19, 2008

    Mountain Music Shoppe workshops were a great success! This year a Beginner’s Mandolin workshop was presented in the morning, and an Intermediate to Advanced workshop in the afternoon.

January 17-20, 2008

    Bruce performed, demonstrating Weber Mandolins, in the Sound to Earth Ltd. booth at the winter NAMM Show, which is the largest music industry merchandise trade show in the world.

©2008 Mando Kinetics Music BMI