UPDATE 6:05 - The following statement came from Lorraina Aldridge, Associate Executive Director of the Greater Louisville Kentucky Area for the American Cancer Society.
"The American Cancer Society agreed to be the beneficiary of the proceeds from ticket sales from the Bluegrass Hotel benefit concert. The Bluegrass Hotel LLC agreed that the American Cancer Society name could only be used in relation to being the beneficiary of the event, and that all usage of the organization’s name needed to be approved by the American Cancer Society.
We have asked that the incorrect information posted on the Bluegrass Hotel website and on the MySpace page indicating that the American Cancer Society participated in a consultation with Bluegrass Hotel concerning the payment of artists be removed. The American Cancer Society was not involved in the logistics or planning of the event, including artist agreements, or conversations with artists."
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | Louisville, KY, March 17, 2009 - The Bluegrass Hotel is a Film and DVD project about the Newgrass music era of the 1970s in Kentucky, featuring original members of The Bluegrass Alliance and other bands from Louisville. A segment of the Project involved a March 20 benefit concert for the American Cancer Society at the Galt House Hotel & Suites.
The Producers and the participating Newgrass era artists have been working on this Project since 2008, starting with a launch announcement event at the IBMA Convention in Nashville, and a major segment of filming and production with all of the artists in Kentucky last December.
Due to recent issues involving filming schedules, and a high risk assessment of civil disorder at the venue caused by some fans upset with the artists who removed themselves from the line-up, The Bluegrass Hotel concert & festival is being re-scheduled for a fall 2009 concert to coincide with the broadcast of the film on PBS Television and the release of a DVD and Coffee Table Book at retail locations.
The Bluegrass Hotel project will be making an announcement soon regarding the re-scheduled date, which will feature a talent line-up of Newgrass era stars and artists. This concert will be free of charge for all the fans, and promises to be a once in a lifetime event, with special incentives.
Fans who purchased general admission tickets for the March 20 concert should contact www.ticketweb. com for refunds. Guests of the Galt House Hotel & Suites who reserved rooms for the March 20 concert & festival should contact www.galthouse. com for refunds.
This notification has no affiliation with the Itchin’ To Pick event being held at the Galt House on March 21, 2009.
For more info contact:
The Bluegrass Hotel LLC
www.thebluegrasshot el.com
thebluegrasshotel@ yahoo.com
Is Bill Millet a cyber-stalker? Right now, 17 March 2009, 11:15 p.m. MDT, The Bluegrass Hotel web site home page states:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | Louisville, KY, March 12, 2009 - The Bluegrass Hotel is a film project about the Newgrass era in Kentucky of the 1970s, featuring the original members of The Bluegrass Alliance, New Grass Revival and J.D. Crowe & the New South bands. Part of the film involved a March 20 benefit concert for the American Cancer Society in Louisville, Kentucky. All of the participating artists in the film agreed to donate their performances for the benefit concert and to give all proceeds from ticket sales to the charitable organization, stating so at two Press Conferences on Dec. 13, 2008 and Feb. 13, 2009 at the Galt House Hotel in Louisville, KY. Sam Bush appeared at the Dec. 13 Press Conference with the Executive Director of the charity organization.
The Bluegrass Hotel Project has been attempting to negotiate agreements with Sam Bush and Tony Rice since Jan. 2008 to appear in the film, but paying those artists a fee to perform at a benefit event for the American Cancer Society was not included in the terms. Part of the process was negotiating a broadcast of the film on PBS Television, which was recently completed. Therefore it came as a surprise to receive notification from Bush and Rice informing the benefit event that unless they were paid fees of $10,000 and $3000 respectively, they would not perform on March 20 at the Galt House Hotel.
After consultation with our charitable partner, it was agreed that paying these artists fees would take money the organization expected to make from the event. Paying Mr. Bush and Rice, but not the other artists would also create an inequitable situation for all the other performers. Based on that directive, we have declined to pay Bush and Rice fees to perform at The Bluegrass Hotel benefit concert on March 20 in Louisville, KY.
Sam Bush is a cancer survivor and his father recently passed away from the diseases. New Grass Revival founder Courtney Johnson also died from cancer. And Tony Rice is ill and presently not in good health.
The Bluegrass Hotel concert on March 20 at the Galt House in Louisville, KY features the original members of Kentucky’s greatest Newgrass era bands, The Bluegrass Alliance, New Grass Revival and J.D. Crowe & the New South. All proceeds benefit the American Cancer Society.
And also at this time, “The News and Gossip” link on The Bluegrass Hotel web site states:
Special hotel room / concert ticket package just announced.
Details:
2 premium reserved concert tickets - FREE - with 1 room night (March 20, 2009) purchased from the Galt House Hotel @ special rate of $145. Available on a first come, first served basis.
Call the Galt House Hotel reservations @ (502) 589-5200 and give the reservation agent “The Bluegrass Hotel” group name. Your room confirmation number will be good for 2 premium reserved concert tickets, sent to your home address via Ticketmaster, or will be available at the Will Call desk outside the Galt House Grand Ballroom prior to the concert March 20, 2009. You will receive email or phone call confirmation of your free tickets.
For more info email: thebluegrasshotel@yahoo.com
Is Bill Millet a cyber-stalker? Right now, 17 March 2009, 11:15 p.m. MDT, The Bluegrass Hotel web site home page states:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | Louisville, KY, March 12, 2009 - The Bluegrass Hotel is a film project about the Newgrass era in Kentucky…
Monte,
I picked up on this a while ago. Each of these "Press Releases" have been tagged with a date. The one you posted above is from last week. Everyone needs to take a breather. Let's ride this one out for now and see what happens on the re-schedule for the benefit concert.
We love ya man. Thanks for the heads-up every step of the way. :thumbsup
Auntie Hope :festivarian2 :green
Is this guy delusional? Seriously I don’t know him from Adam and he scares me.
high risk of civil disorder??? What does he think a bunch of middle aged die hard bluegrass fans are gonna do exactly? Can you picture Hope tossing chairs across the lobby? Tom standing on the concierge desk screaming “This aggression will not stand man!”, just before he torches the place?
Puh-leeze. DVD? Coffee table book? Who does he think he is going to have in it? Um…NO BODY is willing to play with him…
a high risk assessment of civil disorder at the venue caused by some fans of Sam Bush who are upset that he removed himself from the line-up,
Bill Millet is a despicable scam artist and cyber thug/cyber stalker. From Tony Rice’s wife, “He send Tony a fowarded text message that said YOU CHOSE WRONG…lat night just before midnight.”.
Is Bill Millet saying this whole friggin’ thing is just a PR Stunt? — “with the added benefit of providing additional media exposure and fan interest for The Bluegrass Hotel brand and product.”
To all concerned:
The March 20 concert was only a segment of the final edit of The Bluegrass Hotel film. We have produced 140 hours of film footage and audio recordings, including 3 days of filming in Louisville, KY with all of the major artists and alumni of The Bluegrass Alliance last Dec. The Bluegrass Hotel LLC is the producer of the Film that will be licensed to PBS for broadcast and to a distributor to release the DVD at retail Nov. 2009. We own all of the content and copyright, and to date have invested $47,000 of our own funds in the project.
Our staff has been receiving numerous threatening and abusive calls and emails from Sam Bush fans, since he decided drop out of the concert. We’ve taken several of the calls seriously enough to report them to the authorities. Our attorney and insurance provider advised us to let things cool down, as there could be a high risk of civil disorder at the concert at the Galt House Hotel & Suite in Louisville by some irate Bush fans, as the venue planned to serve alcohol all night. This is a volatile mixture, and if someone was hurt, this act would garner news coverage far more significant than the current hubbub over this project in our small Bluegrass world. We could not risk the safety of ticket holders, guests of the hotel, the other artists and our staff under these circumstances. Of course, the Galt House does not see it that way, as they had pre-sold $40,000 of room reservations. But safety issues always override profit concerns or a corporation at a concert event.
Of course, there is no such thing as bad pr, unless there were people hurt at a concert. This recent distraction for the film will blow over, with the added benefit of providing additional media exposure and fan interest for The Bluegrass Hotel brand and product.
This concert was perfectly positioned to be one of the event’s of the year, but at this stage, the fans are upset with Sam, Lynn, Tony and the Project. There has been no negative feedback re; John Cowan, Dan Crary, J.D. Crowe, Curtis Burch, Bickel or the rest of the guys.
We do regret that the American Cancer Society will not be receiving the $14,000 in revenue generated from the 571 ticket sales via TicketWeb.
See attached Press Release below.
Kindest regards,
Bill Millet
1st resident of The Bluegrass Hotel 1975
Banjo player with The Bluegrass Alliance 1974-1976
The Bluegrass Hotel LLC www.thebluegrasshotel.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | Louisville, KY, March 17, 2009 - The Bluegrass Hotel is a Film and DVD project about the Newgrass music era of the 1970s in Kentucky, featuring original members of The Bluegrass Alliance and other bands from Louisville. A segment of the Project involved a March 20 benefit concert for the American Cancer Society at the Galt House Hotel & Suites.
The Producers and the participating Newgrass era artists have been working on this Project since 2008, starting with a launch announcement event at the IBMA Convention in Nashville, and a major segment of filming and production with all of the artists in Kentucky last December.
Due to recent issues involving filming schedules, and a high risk assessment of civil disorder at the venue caused by some fans upset that one of the artists removed himself from the line-up, The Bluegrass Hotel concert & festival is being re-scheduled for a fall 2009 concert to coincide with the broadcast of the film on PBS Television and the release of a DVD and Coffee Table Book at retail locations.
The Bluegrass Hotel project will be making an announcement soon regarding the re-scheduled date, which will feature a talent line-up of Newgrass era stars and artists. This concert will be free of charge for all the fans, and promises to be a once in a lifetime event, with special incentives.
Fans who purchased general admission tickets for the March 20 concert should contact www.ticketweb.com for refunds. Guests of the Galt House Hotel & Suites who reserved rooms for the March 20 concert & festival should contact www.galthouse.com for refunds.
This notification has no affiliation with the Itchin’ To Pick event being held at the Galt House on March 21, 2009.
More lies, likely. Did you see the statement from the American Cancer Society yesterday? Talk about backtracking on their involvement in the project.
UPDATE 6:05 - The following statement came from Lorraina Aldridge, Associate Executive Director of the Greater Louisville Kentucky Area for the American Cancer Society.
The American Cancer Society agreed to be the beneficiary of the proceeds from ticket sales from the Bluegrass Hotel benefit concert. The Bluegrass Hotel LLC agreed that the American Cancer Society name could only be used in relation to being the beneficiary of the event, and that all usage of the organization’s name needed to be approved by the American Cancer Society.
We have asked that the incorrect information posted on the Bluegrass Hotel website and on the MySpace page indicating that the American Cancer Society participated in a consultation with Bluegrass Hotel concerning the payment of artists be removed. The American Cancer Society was not involved in the logistics or planning of the event, including artist agreements, or conversations with artists.</blockquote>
Uh… yeah, Jess… probably a bad example, but in reality I’ve found in my life that one need not retaliate, just wait and watch the fall out when others screw you over. Karma is a wonderful thing.
So now what. Unless we want to eat our flights to Louisville? Anyone know of anything else going on in town worth checking out?
Any chance John Cowan might still do a show. Or heck, anyone else?
Still time to cancel, but there must be a lot of people coming in other than the itch to pick?
Thursday: Camp, Haynie, Bub and Cushman
Friday: Josh Williams Band
Saturday: Bobby Osborne and Rocky Top Express
Sunday: 7 pm ~ Mike Farris / 9 pm Open Bluegrass Jam FREE
The John Cowan Band will be performing a special free concert at Rudyard Kipling’s in Louisville, KY this Friday, March 20 at 10:00pm. This concert is open to all but preference will be given to those people who were originally planning to attend the Bluegrass Hotel Concert at the Galt House that has since been cancelled. The John Cowan Band is delighted to be able to announce that Mr. Curtis Burch will be joining them on stage and the band has extended an invitation to a number of fellow musicians, asking them to join the band and jam. The John Cowan Band wants to extend their gratitude to the fans who made a financial sacrifice and traveled a great distance to participate in what was to have been an historic musical event and to repay that dedication and support in the only manner they can…with great music. Seating is limited so please plan accordingly!
It’s been a trip meeting lots of you on Festivarian. This has been going on slowly, for a year. TBF is absolutely THE BEST FESTIVAL I have ever attended.
I’ll consider it. Meeting you there would be an honor — just to chill out there. I don’t mind being prodded a little bit, or having my arm twisted a wee-bit. My last TBF was 1986. This was the last time I saw John Hartford.
Ron N Deb, I wanted to thank John real quick.
Thanks for your incredible courage, John. I admire you taking a noble stand in this challenging maelstrom. Putting together a free show for Friday at Rudyard Kipling on a drop-dead notice is an incredible feat. It is the sweetest thing going on in this ugly thread of mine.
Well shake it up now Sugaree,
I’ll meet you at the jubilee
And if that jubilee don’t come,
Maybe I’ll meet you on the run
It was with a very saddened heart that I have read about the recent breakdown of the Bluegrass Hotel Project. It could have been one of the greatest stories ever told about Bluegrass music. I’ve been a die-hard Bluegrass fan for over 40yrs. I have watched the rise of the greats like Sam Bush - Tony Rice - Dan Crary - John Cowan, and others from their humble beginnings to their glorious climb to the top. That said, I confess that I was at the Bluegrass Hotel for part of the filming in December.
I found out after I got there that I wasn’t supposed to be there - only ex-alliance and Newgrass musicians. However, Harry & Ann Bickel didn’t run me off so I stayed. They were wonderful and gracious people. No wonder so many wayward musicians called this place home in Louisville.
I don’t know what the real problem was. Some say money… but with a project of this magnitude, I’m sure agreements could be reached. Some say proper paperwork… then get together and get it done! Some are now saying that the all-stars were upset that the lesser known members were brought into the project. I don’t know about the first two but I was there for the filming in December and I can tell you that there was nothing but love & respect among the musicians. In all honesty, the lesser known musicians were the stars’ biggest ambassadors - the stars were always busy, so I spent most of the night talking to the, please excuse me, “little guys”. It didn’t take me long to realize that these little known musicians were some of the stars’ biggest fans and if I figured that out in one night, then the stars surely already knew it.
I also got a lot of enjoyment from the many stories that were told, so there was no jealousy there. There is one thing for sure… this project has become bigger than the Bluegrass Hotel, bigger than the Newgrass Revival, and bigger than The Bluegrass Alliance… the bluegrass fans want to see it.
For the benefit of Bluegrass music, it must be completed. This has rocketed into something much larger than anyone’s personal feelings. It belongs to the Bluegrass world now, and only good can come from this - for many years to come. So, the parties involved need to swallow a little pride, roll up their sleeves, come to an agreement… and as we say back home… MAN-UP and get it done!
Dan Crary, Sam Bush, John Cowan, J. D. Crowe, Tony Rice
Curtis Burch is off-camera, left of Dan
Bickel and Sparky pulled off a miracle!
thank you
Bill….I’ve refrained from contributing to the escalating dialog over the past few weeks, but I’ve watched the demise of the “Bluegrass Hotel” project closely and have become increasingly troubled by your responses.
I really wanted to believe that you began this project out of a genuine desire to acknowledge the people who contributed to the outstanding bluegrass community we both enjoyed in Louisville in the 1970s. Most importantly, it was a real opportunity to properly acknowledge the generosity that Harry Bickel and Harry Sparks offered all of us at the ‘Bluegrass Hotel’ during that period. The weekend recording and photography session in Louisville on the weekend of December 12-14 reinforced that belief and turned out to be one of the best family reunions I’ve ever attended. Old friendships were renewed, lingering hostilities were suspended (and, in some cases, seemingly mended), and a set of historic recordings were filmed. It all just seemed too good to be true…and we all made plans to regroup on March 20 for another joyous celebration of this wondrous period of our lives.
But I must admit that the filming of interviews and recording sessions at the house during that reunion in December troubled me. There appeared to be no organization to the project. Many people traveled to Louisville on their own funds to find that they just sat around all day with no clear indication of what they would be doing, interview and music sessions were haphazard, and the camera crews looked a lot like your family rather than professional videographers. But we all suspended our concerns and did what we could to make those days productive for you in addition to the fun we were having just getting together for the first time in 30 years. Now that’s one thing for those of us who followed career paths outside of music, but professional musicians who attended that event also did so without signed releases and contracts, and it should have been obvious to you that such contracts were a professional necessity to complete this project. And if the initial oversight were not bad enough, you apparently did not respond in a timely way to key individuals when they tried to work with you afterward. This was not only bad business, it is unconscionable for a professional event producer such as yourself to put musicians in this uncomfortable situation.
Now your leadership of this project has devolved to obfuscation of details, unfounded accusations of wrong-doing and last-minute concert cancellations. It’s going to be hard to salvage your reputation or any part of this project. The last threatening email you circulated suggesting that Harry and Ann Bickel are playing some sort of ‘blame game’ with their gracious email message about recent events is really the last straw. Harry Bickel took you in back in 1974 and you owe any success you have had as a musician or music event producer to his unfailing generosity. Even when left with significant unpaid bills when you left Louisville, he has continued to defend you when we all questioned your ability to bring a complex project like “The Bluegrass Hotel” to a successful conclusion. He and Ann responded to the recent escalating collapse of the project by staying above the fray and encouraging all of us to continue to participate despite your increasing hostility to musicians with impeccable reputations for honesty and integrity. And then you repay Harry and Ann’s generosity and support of you and your project by labeling their effort as “ingratitude and small-mindedness”? I’m speechless…
Can we salvage any of this celebration of what we did back in Louisville in the 1970s and honoring of the people who made it possible? I’m not sure, but if your original intent was genuine and you want to regain your reputation and good name, you have some major work to do.
First, you need to publically apologize to everyone you have offended: Sam Bush, Harry Bickel, the staff of the Galt House, other musicians and Bluegrass Hotel alumni who supported this project, the American Cancer Society, and the fans who bought tickets for this event. This will not be easy and some will not find it easy to accept even a sincere apology from you at this point. You have really made a mess of this and some of your rhetoric has been truly damaging. But that’s really your only option and you need to think about this carefully and move rapidly if you want to regain your reputation and any level of support from any of us.
Secondly, you need to settle up financially with everyone who helped you then and now, particularly Harry Sparks, Harry Bickel, and the services you contracted for the weekend in December (caterer, photographer, etc.). Nothing less than full payment to all as promised is acceptable, even if it hurts you financially. In the end, your personal reputation is more important than any transient monetary loss you may experience from this….and I can assure you that your personal and professional reputation is in serious question here.
And finally, if you genuinely intended to celebrate the Bluegrass Hotel and to honor those who made this all possible, you need to turn over leadership of the project to someone who still has the confidence of the musicians involved. My suggestion would be to talk to the folks you were working with at KET in Lexington and offer to work with them to identify a new producer for the project and to use the video and audio recordings made in Nashville and Louisville as a starting point for a proper documentary of the role of the Bluegrass Hotel as the well-spring for musicians who started the ‘newgrass’ genre . I know this will be hard, but this is too important a project to abandon and your credibility as a producer is now lost. I’m sorry, but that is just fact. Someone else needs to be identified to complete this project and you need to receive appropriate credit for your contributions and for initiating this wonderful project.
This is all very sad indeed Bill. You had a wonderful idea and you had all of us ready to give 110% to this project. But you let personal issues cloud your vision. Please now have the good sense to salvage what you can of your own personal reputation and this project and help foster it to fruition by facing up to your mistakes and turning it over to hands that can see it through. You really have no other viable option and doing otherwise will just continue to soil us all, especially you, for years to come. None of us deserve that fate.
