I spend a lot of time on the road and I thoroughly enjoy SiriusXM. I've been a subscriber for years. I just returned from a trip to Dallas to visit my ailing brother and that's when I discovered Dolly's new channel. In all their promos (on other channels), they mention that it will run through 11/27. While I'm not happy with the temporary bluegrass interruption, I guess I can live with it until Wednesday.
What bugs me more than Dolly is some of the stuff they play and have the gall to call it bluegrass. Just because it's acoustic (with mandolins, banjos, etc) doesn't mean it's bluegrass.
David Hopkins
2001 Gibson F-5L mandolin
Breedlove Legacy FF mandolin; Breedlove Quartz FF mandolin
Gibson F-4 mandolin (1916); Blevins f-style Octave mandolin, 2018
McCormick Oval Sound Hole "Reinhardt" Mandolin
McCormick Solid Body F-Style Electric Mandolin; Slingerland Songster Guitar (c. 1939)
The older I get, the less tolerant I am of political correctness, incompetence and stupidity.
This was a really poor choice by SirrusXM to do this to their only Bluegrass channel. It's been blowing up on Facebook, with many saying they will cancel. Now we all love Dolly. Heck, she even came out with 2 sweet bluegrass "style" albums. Dolly even sung Muleskinner on the Opry with Bill Monroe. She even has a banjo picker an fiddler in her live shows. And she can sing the heck out of Rocky Top with the best of them. But that does not give SirrusXM the gall to do a 24/7 Dolly test on bluegrass fans, when clearly her fans are country music based. I guess I got this off my chest.
Yeah Dolly, we love you. And I explained to the Sirius radio people that my objections to their programming change bear no reflection of my opinion of you or your music. I can only hope that you understand this has nothing to do with my feelings for you.
I'd explain it all to you in person, but the security guy won't let me through the gate.
"I play BG so that's what I can talk intelligently about." A line I loved and pirated from Mandoplumb
Nothing beats a proper wailing and gnashing of the teeth by the Bluegrass crowd. I love Bluegrass myself, and am part of a reasonably straight ahead bluegrass band, although what we play didn't sound like much on Sirius from what I've been told. It's all easily measured, all out a database and sorted, then decided upon by the same team that brings you a station dedicated to '80s Hair Bands, a New Age station entitled "Spa" and "Diplo's Revolution, futuristic Dance/Electronic (diplosrevolutioncafe.com... wow, still available. I'm on it). There's no "test" to see how it'll go. The results are right in front of them before the decision is made. All boils down to one word: money. The number of people that will tune in to Dolly is likely hundreds of times over the bluegrass crowd, though plenty of the bluegrass crowd would tune in to Dolly.
I've always been at peace with the fact most of the music I love will never be mainstream: bluegrass, gypsy jazz, Irish, etc. But the big question remains, is this the end of bands that take photos of their radios when their song is on for posting on social media?
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Wow, I love Dolly she is playing a lot of her hits but also some stuff from her Bluegrass albums. She should have her own channel.
Complaining to Sirius actually might not affect the programming much if it isn't a Channel Sirius controls. I believe many of the channels are actually owned by someone else. Little Steven Van Zandt owns Outlaw Country and Underground Garage. This could also be a test to see how many radios are listening to that channel now as opposed to then it was a bluegrass station. Once they establish her numbers they might find a channel for her or that one might become hers. It's another revenue stream for the artist.
NEW YORK, Nov. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Sirius XM Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) announced today that "Little Steven" Van Zandt's Underground Garage and Outlaw Country channels will feature an extensive interview between two living legends: founding member of The Band, Robbie Robertson, and E Street Band member/garage rock guru "Little Steven" Van Zandt.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
I don't think it's a test. I believe Dolly bought the time to promote her Netflix movie.
David Hopkins
2001 Gibson F-5L mandolin
Breedlove Legacy FF mandolin; Breedlove Quartz FF mandolin
Gibson F-4 mandolin (1916); Blevins f-style Octave mandolin, 2018
McCormick Oval Sound Hole "Reinhardt" Mandolin
McCormick Solid Body F-Style Electric Mandolin; Slingerland Songster Guitar (c. 1939)
The older I get, the less tolerant I am of political correctness, incompetence and stupidity.
I called Sirius. They said Bluegrass Junction will be back on November 29th. You can stream now until then.
Chris from Tucson
2007 Heiden Artist F5 #F102
1919 Gibson A3 #49762 (found on eBay for $15!!)
2022 Austin Clark Octave #159
1922 Gibson H1 Mandola #70063
1972 Martin D-18 (modified by Bryan Kimsey)
2024 Klos Carbon Fiber (on order)
I called them and they said the Bluegrass channel will be back up and running on December 1st of this year. If not, I’m going to cancel my subscription with them.
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Sad times when a producer is applauded for actually providing the service they sold to their customers.
Not all the clams are at the beach
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But most of us knew it was coming back.
David Hopkins
2001 Gibson F-5L mandolin
Breedlove Legacy FF mandolin; Breedlove Quartz FF mandolin
Gibson F-4 mandolin (1916); Blevins f-style Octave mandolin, 2018
McCormick Oval Sound Hole "Reinhardt" Mandolin
McCormick Solid Body F-Style Electric Mandolin; Slingerland Songster Guitar (c. 1939)
The older I get, the less tolerant I am of political correctness, incompetence and stupidity.
Their promos for Dolly that aired on other channels specified that it would only run through the 27th so it wasn't a tough call.
David Hopkins
2001 Gibson F-5L mandolin
Breedlove Legacy FF mandolin; Breedlove Quartz FF mandolin
Gibson F-4 mandolin (1916); Blevins f-style Octave mandolin, 2018
McCormick Oval Sound Hole "Reinhardt" Mandolin
McCormick Solid Body F-Style Electric Mandolin; Slingerland Songster Guitar (c. 1939)
The older I get, the less tolerant I am of political correctness, incompetence and stupidity.
Like the McRib, it's back! Bluegrass fans can now breathe easy again as they listen to their mostly not bluegrass 24/7 again. I listened to some of the Dolly. At least she broke it up and had some of the rare Dolly & Porter duets on their. She could handle her own channel no doubt, but I don't think it would have the fans the bluegrass has. Likely if she had her own it would be more like the Garth channel and she would play other artists that she likes from rock to pop. You can only take so much of Here You Come Again before your life is like a butterfly.
I drove down to my brother's for Thanksgiving, listening to Dolly, and came back listening to Bluegrass.
All in all it was fine. Just fine.
Sirius bought Pandora? That explains why my Pandora is getting dumber and dumber.
Thought I'd get in on some of this action of posting pictures of my stats from various music services on the web, social media, etc. I mean, is it possible to get enough of this? I don't THINK so. Pretty impressed with my activity pretty far. I seem to have followers in a couple of small towns in Sweden and one in Tel Aviv for starters on Spotify. Stay tuned for more!
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