Nashville Scene: Bluegrass Mandolin Experts Come Together For Two-cd Set; Wynette Daughters File...

ON THE RECORD: One of the most remarkable recordings of this or any other year is "Bluegrass Mandolin Extravaganza," coming April 20 from David Grisman's San Rafael, Calif.-based Acoustic Disc label. This two-CD, 34-track package is at once a history and an appreciation of the role of mandolin and its most prominent players in bluegrass music.
The brainchild of mandolin virtuoso Ronnie McCoury, it brought eight leading pickers together in a marathon recording session in Nashville last year: Grisman, McCoury, Sam Bush, Frank Wakefield, Jesse McReynolds, Bobby Osborne, Ricky Skaggs, and Buck White, along with Del McCoury on guitar. They run through landmark bluegrass and old-timey songs in varying combinations: from solos to duets, trios, and octets. The set includes a 44-page booklet with pictures, bios, and extensive liner notes by Tony Williamson and Neil V. Rosenberg, as well as a transcription by John McGann of each player's notes on an eight-player jam of the 1958 Bill Monroe song "Panhandle Country."
"Ronnie called me with this idea to put all the great mandolin players together," says Grisman. "We recorded it in four days and cut a lot more material than one CD could hold. And we left in little interviews with everyone about the songs. This is kind of a once-in-a-lifetime event, so we made it a double CD."
"I thought it would be good to put together a "Bluegrass 101' in mandolin," says McCoury. "I asked everyone to bring along a couple of tunes that would showcase their style. There are some great performances on there, and it covers the whole spectrum of styles of the bluegrass mandolin." Although all bluegrass mandolin stems from bluegrass inventor Monroe, most younger players today‹consciously or not‹are emulating Osborne's style, says McCoury. "Every mandolin player needs to get this package," he adds, "and bluegrass fans as well."
Grisman says the possibility exists that the set may result in a TV special. "I have no idea how this will sell as a record," Grisman says, "but we already have a healthy number of orders."
IN COURT: Three of Tammy Wynette's daughters have filed a $50 million wrongful-death lawsuit against the late singer's husband and doctor. The suit, filed April 5 in Davidson County Circuit Court in Nashville, alleges that husband George Richey and Dr. Wallis Marsh failed to act to prevent her death; also at issue are drugs that were allegedly prescribed for her prior to her death. An attorney for Georgette Smith, Tina Jones, and Jackie Daly says that the daughters seek to have Wynette's body exhumed and have an autopsy performed, which was not done when she died at home on April 6, 1998. At the time, Dr. Marsh listed a blood clot of the lung as cause of Wynette's death.
Meanwhile, Wynette's former husband and singing partner, George Jones, finds himself the target of a grand-jury investigation in Williamson County, Tenn., according to published reports. The inquiry reportedly stems from emergency 911 calls from motorists reporting Jones' erratic driving before his near-fatal car wreck on March 6. A small bottle of vodka, which had been opened and resealed, was allegedly found under the passenger seat of Jones' vehicle.
In a statement to the press, police and doctors initially said that alcohol did not seem to be a factor in the wreck. In his only statement about the incident, Jones said in an interview on WKDF Nashville that he recalls nothing of the wreck, which initially left him in a coma. A spokeswoman for his label, Asylum, says he was talking on a cell phone with his family when he crashed.
PEOPLE: Tracy Byrd, who recently left MCA Nashville, signs with RCA. A fall album is scheduled . . . Richard Carpenter has been added to the lineup of Tin Pan South's Legendary Songwriters Acoustic Concert, presented Tuesday (13) here by the Nashville Songwriters Assn. International . . . Radio producer and syndicator Jim Darby is recovering from two strokes here at Vanderbilt Stallworth Rehabilitation Hospital. Darby, who welcomes visitors, is registered under his legal name, Darby Lawhorn.