Billy Blue Records and Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers announce the release of the band's latest all-gospel album, Somewhere Beyond The Blue, available everywhere today.
With Gospel Song and Song of the Year awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association to their credit, one can expect the 2019 Entertainers of the Year, Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers, to deliver an outstanding sacred recording. Anyone who has listened to a Joe Mullins-produced album knows his penchant for perfect song selection and arrangements. As a life-long musician and radio broadcaster (Front Porch Fellowship, Singing News Network, and Hymns From The Hills, Real Roots Radio), Mullins always has his ear to the ground for "under-covered" music as well as new songs he can bring to the band's audience. Somewhere Beyond the Blue is a flawless example of crafting a playlist of time-honored selections and previously unrecorded music, and without liner notes in hand one would never know the difference.
The first single, "Hear Jerusalem Calling," has been a highly successful chart-topper reaching #1 two consecutive weeks on Bluegrass Today's Top 10 Gospel Songs chart. Written by Marty Stuart and Jerry Sullivan, it's the lead off track of the album. "Clinging To A Saving Hand" penned by Bill Mack and originally recorded in 1970 by Connie Smith, flows like the Jordan River through the Sea of Galilee with Mullins' rich tenor voice. Jeff Parker makes his recording debut with the Radio Ramblers on "You Gotta Get Down," an a capella quartet song that showcases his appeal as a lead vocalist as well as Randy Barnes' on bass vocal, heard throughout the album. Written by Larry Cordle, Galen Griffin, and Larry Shell, it's one of the new songs that transitions seamlessly into a classic written in 1946 by Vep Ellis, "I'm Never Alone."
Since returning to the band in 2019 after a six-year hiatus, Adam McIntoshcontributes solid rhythm and tasteful lead guitar to a Radio Ramblers recording. The country-flavored "Living Left To Do" (Conrad Fisher) is perfectly suited for his smooth vocal style. Jerry Salley, who wrote the band's 2016 Gospel Song of the Year ("All Dressed Up), co-wrote two songs for the album with Bill Anderson ("Go Spread The Gospel") and Jim McBride("There's No New Way Home"). Both songs share the most important message of the Gospel: salvation and telling the good news. The driving "With The Spirit of the Lord Inside" (Mark Bishop) and "A Song The Angels Cannot Sing" (Terry Breedlove) remind listeners the band is grounded in bluegrass with their toe-tapping, hand-clapping, feel-good tempos.
There is no question Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers are masters of their respective instruments as evidenced throughout Somewhere Beyond The Blue. However, gospel recordings often offer musicians an opportunity to show their softer side when the wood and string bodies are laid down, and the only thing between them and their audience is their vocal vulnerability. Written by Chris Rice and once again performed a capella, "Untitled Hymn (Come To Jesus)" unapologetically shows the intimate relationship each singer has with their Savior Jesus Christ, and is a truly tender and moving moment.
The album comes to a close with a Jim Rushing song that will most assuredly touch the heart of anyone who has sat bedside with a loved one in their last hours of life. Again, McIntosh's silky vocal reaches the soul. Wrapped up with Jason Barie's solo of triple fiddles, Somewhere Beyond The Blue is a spirit-stirring masterpiece giving praise, honor, and glory to the One responsible for it all.
Somewhere Beyond The Blue is available to radio via AirPlay Direct on Billy Blue Records. Consumers may purchase the album here. For more information, visit RadioRamblers.com and BillyBlueRecords.com.

Smithsonian Folkways celebrates the release of Industrial Strength Bluegrass, the story of bluegrass’ transformation from a music to a movement, carried north by Appalachians seeking a better life in the booming post-WWII factories of Southwest Ohio. The 16-song collection was produced by IBMA Award-winning musician/bandleader Joe Mullins, whose father – fiddler and radio personality Paul “Moon” Mullins – made that journey and helped found the region’s bluegrass scene. The compilation (companion to the new book of the same title from University of Illinois Press) presents Southwest Ohio bluegrass classics remade by an all-star cast featuring Country Music Hall of Famers the Oak Ridge Boys and Vince Gill, Bluegrass Hall of Famer Bobby Osborne, and many of today’s finest bluegrass and Americana artists including Lee Ann Womack, Dan Tyminski, The Isaacs, Sierra Hull, and more.
Order the album HERE

Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers open the set with Dwight Yoakam’s“Readin’, Rightin’, Route 23.” It’s a highly personal song detailing Yoakam’s family journey from Pikeville, Ky., to Columbus Oh., but it’s also the story of Mullins’ family and countless more. They arrived in Ohio as immigrants in their own country, dismissed as “Briarhoppers” and ridiculed for their clothes, their food, their dialect, and their fiddles and banjos. Instead of abandoning their roots, they wore them as badges of honor, turning poverty into poetry, creating a bluegrass sound heard and loved the world over.
Listen to “Readin’, Rightin’, Route 23”

Every Friday after work, thousands packed their old cars to go “down home” for the weekend. Those who couldn’t headed to the bars and honky tonks of Cincinnati, Hamilton, Middletown, and Dayton, to be sung back home by bluegrass bands performing on makeshift stages through MacGyvered sound systems. Playing five sets a night for drunken, brawling, homesick Kentuckians, the bands and their music became tougher and louder, blazing through the smoke and noise like a fast-moving train. That sound shines on tracks like Dan Tyminski’s “20-20 Vision,” originally recorded by Jimmy Martin and the Osborne Brothers, and Vince Gill’s intense take on Flatt & Scruggs’ “Baby Blue Eyes.”
Bluegrass fans know Flatt & Scruggs and Martin weren’t Briars or Buckeyes, but Southwest Ohio bluegrass was a diversified industry. Cincinnati was a broadcasting center, and along with barn dances like The Midwestern Hayride, enterprising engineers built recording studios. The E.T. Herzog Studio recorded 12 Flatt & Scruggs Mercury classics, including “Baby Blue Eyes” and the original “Foggy Mountain Breakdown.” A couple miles north, King Records was producing bluegrass and country by The Stanley Brothers, Reno & Smiley, and gospel supergroup the Brown’s Ferry Four—the Delmore Brothers, Grandpa Jones, and Merle Travis. That heritage is represented by Ronnie Bowman, Don Rigsby, and Kenny Smith on the Stanleys’ “Stone Walls & Steel Bars”; Bluegrass Hall of Fame member Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver’sBFF tribute “When He Blessed My Soul”; and Jim Lauderdale’s rocking version of Reno & Smiley’s “Barefoot Nellie,” showcasing up-and-coming band High Fidelity.

Recording studios and radio stations offered careers, but the defining sound of Southwest Ohio bluegrass was created in bars. There, musicians and fans formed the first real bluegrass community, and that spirit of adventure in every migrant leaving home for a new life found its way into the music. Southwest Ohio bluegrass was a unique combination of deep tradition and game-changing innovation. You can hear it in “Mountain Strings,” mandolinist Frank Wakefield’s rock-influenced instrumental, performed by an all-star band led by mandolinist Sierra Hull and featuring Kristin Scott Benson on banjo (both are among the first women to win IBMA honors on their instruments; this is their first recording together). This version of the tune and two other tracks on the album feature pioneering African American drummer Phillip Paul, veteran of hundreds of King sessions, from gritty R&B to hard-driving bluegrass. At 95, the unstoppable Mr. Paul is still gigging in Cincinnati with his jazz trio.

Dayton’s Red Allen, Bluegrass Hall of Fame member and one of bluegrass’ all-time great voices, revolutionized bluegrass harmony with Bobby and Sonny Osborne. Driving back to Dayton from WWVA’s Wheeling Jamboree, Bobby was singing “Once More.” Sonny came in on baritone, but as Red told it, he was too tired and tipsy for high tenor, so he sang an octave lower. That new “high-lead” sound powered their 1958 crossover hit and became the Osbornes’ trademark. It’s performed by The Grascals, whose co-founder Terry Smith played with the brothers for 14 years.

Before Red’s youngest son Harley Allen became a BMI Songwriter of the Year, he was one of bluegrass’ finest lead and tenor singers, performing with Ronnie, Greg, and Neal Allen in the Allen Brothers and with Mike Lilly in the Allen Lilly Band. Both groups recorded Harley’s “Suzanne,” sung here by Mo Pitney and the band Merle Monroe.

Family runs deep in Industrial Strength Bluegrass. Joe Mullins’ son, Daniel Mullins, an award-winning bluegrass journalist, provides a history lesson in detailed liner notes. Gospel group The Isaacsfeatures siblings Sonya, Becky, and Ben with their mother Lily. Their father Joe was a mainstay of Ohio bluegrass in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Joined by the Oak Ridge Boys and reunited with Joe, they sing his “Garden Tomb.”

Another Southwest Ohio bluegrass great deserving more recognition is Dave Evans, a banjo player with a devastating high-lonesome voice. Country artist Lee Ann Womack does a stellar take on Evans’ “From Life’s Other Side.”

Singer-songwriter Larry Cordle revives the most local song here, Tom T. Hall’s industrial murder ballad, “The Rolling Mills of Middletown.” 

The top-tier talent includes singers Rhonda Vincent, Russell Moore, Bradley Walker, Josh Williams and instrumentalists Jerry Douglas, Jason Carter, Mike Bub, Glen Duncan, Kenny Smith, and David Harvey (son of innovative Dayton mandolinist Dorsey Harvey).
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Industrial Strength Bluegrass “takes it home” with “We’ll Head Back to Harlan.” Sung by Bobby Osborne, one of the last of bluegrass’ first generation, it’s a first-person account of those weekly Appalachian homecomings and the dream of moving back for good. Few ever did, but as Industrial Strength Bluegrass shows, their hillbilly odyssey created some of the finest bluegrass ever made.

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Billy Blue Records announces the release of new music from the International Bluegrass Music Association's (IBMA) 2019 Entertainers of the Year, Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers. "Hear Jerusalem Calling"is available to radio today and is the first single from their forthcoming all-gospel album Somewhere Beyond the Blue releasing worldwide on May 7.
Watch the Lyric Video of "Hear Jerusalem Calling" Courtesy of Bluegrass Today

Bluegrass and Gospel music have long been closely connected and Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers have successfully released multiple projects in both genres. Their two previous gospel albums, Hymns From The Hills (2010) and Sacred Memories (2016) were very well received with the latter producing IBMA's Gospel Song of the Year for "All Dressed Up" and Collaborative Recording of the Year for "Sacred Memories," featuring Ricky Skaggs and Sharon White. These albums have left fans longing for more inspirational music from this popular band and the wait is finally over.
Somewhere Beyond The Blue includes 11 tracks of soul-touching music and once again shines a light on the band's quartet singing featuring Mullins, Adam McIntosh and Randy Barnes along with new Radio Rambler Jeff Parker, previously with Dailey & Vincent. Jason Barie rounds out the quintet who bring plenty of bluegrass drive to this poignant collection of songs with a message.

"Hear Jerusalem Calling" is the first single from the album and comes from the legendary gospel group, Jerry & Tammy Sullivan. "I have fond memories of the first time I saw Marty Stuart present the late Jerry and Tammy Sullivan on the old Nashville Network cable television channel," says Mullins. "I was knocked out! Their power and passion shined through every word. I’ve played the music of Jerry and Tammy on radio programs for nearly 30 years and I love their songs, most of which are no longer available since their passing. 'Hear Jerusalem Calling' was written by Jerry and Marty and is the opening track of our new album, Somewhere Beyond The Blue."

​Listen to "Hear Jerusalem Calling"

The International Bluegrass Music Association's (IBMA) 2019 Entertainers of the Year, Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers, announce the departure of founding member Mike Terry. Rounding out the new lineup of JMRR will be Jeff Parker on vocals and mandolin.
Mike Terry came alongside Joe Mullins and Adam McIntosh back in 2006. His mandolin and vocal styles helped define the band's recognizable, award-winning sound and have been heard on all their recordings. Before touring full-time, Terry was a successful HVAC and plumbing contractor. With almost all touring halted for the past seven months due to the pandemic, the construction business is booming again, keeping Terry very busy while the bus has been parked. “It’s a very bittersweet time for our band” said Mullins. “Mike has always been here through everything the band has created and accomplished. His vocal ability was so important in arranging so many of our favorite songs. And, he never forgot about the 'fun factor' when we hit the stage, the studio, or the record table! He is loved by our loyal followers and will be missed.”
​Terry leaves with many fond memories. “It’s been a lot of fun to play good music with good friends traveling many miles together," he says. " Thanks to Joe, Adam, Jason, and Randy for all the good times. I have met so many wonderful people playing music and it felt like a family everywhere we went. That, I will miss! But it’s time for me to stay home and be with my family. My construction business is keeping me plenty busy and I have two beautiful grandchildren now. Lastly, I would like to thank my wife, Theresa, for all the years of supporting our music, holding down the holler while I was gone and being a loving, patient woman. I’m thankful to all our friends and music family.”
But, the show must go on, and Jeff Parker is no stranger to fun, on stage and off. His elite profile as a vocalist, mandolin stylist, and all around entertainer has been one of the brightest for the past 20 years. “I’ve been a Jeff Parker fan for a long time," says Mullins. “His work with the Lonesome River Bandreally captured my attention and then the whole world fell in love with 'Parker' during his 12 years with Dailey & Vincent. In my radio programming, I’ve consistently featured many songs from Jeff’s great solo albums, too.”
“I’m excited to have been asked to join Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers," says Parker. "The offer came at just the right time for me and I'm looking forward to creating music with one of the best bands in the business. The fun has already begun!"
The new band lineup has recently performed a couple shows and have also begun work preparing for a new gospel album to be released in 2021. Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers host the twice annual Southern Ohio Indoor Music Festival. The November 2020 event has been cancelled, but everyone hopes to present the spring festival March 25, 26 and 27, 2021.

We are so happy to announce the return of Adam McIntosh to The Radio Ramblers effective immediately. Longtime followers of JMRR will certainly remember Adam as an original member of the band who traveled with us for over six years. Adam’s sensational guitar work and smooth vocals were a big part of the development of The Radio Ramblers sound. In fact, he’s on half of all of our recordings to date. It’s really a blessing to welcome back one of the nicest guys in the bluegrass community, too. 
I’m grateful for Duane Sparks' friendship and six years of great work. With three beautiful children, he's off the road to enjoy his busy family. ~ Joe Mullins ~
Of his return to the band, Adam says, “I am humbled and honored to get the opportunity to be a Radio Rambler once more. In some ways it feels like a brand new adventure, and in other ways it feels very much like coming home.”

FOR THE RECORD
Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers  
March 29, 2019  
(Billy Blue Records) 



JOE MULLINS & THE RADIO RAMBLERS, recently signed to Nashville’s Billy Blue Records, announce the release of For The Record, a 12-song debut release on the burgeoning label.
Lead by banjo playing Bluegrass veteran Joe Mullins, the band includes a plethora of instrumental and vocal talent with Jason Barie on fiddle, Mike Terry on mandolin and vocals, Duane Sparks on guitar and vocals, and Randy Barnes on upright bass and vocals. These are true industry and fan favorites, having garnered multiple IBMA (6) and SPBGMA (4) Awards, including the 2018 IBMA Award for Song of the Year (“If I’d Have Wrote That Song”).
From the hard-driving “That Old Wheel” and the fun, upbeat “Bacon In My Beans,” to the emotional “A Folded Flag” and beautifully arranged, soulful vocals of “I Want To Know More About My Lord,” every track on this new project is strong evidence that Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers remain in a class all their own, with a unique and popular brand of the finest Bluegrass music.
The first radio single, “The Guitar Song” is a duet between band leader Joe Mullins and the legendary, Grand Ole Opry member, Del McCoury. Co-written by another legend, Country Music Hall of Fame member, Bill Anderson, with award-winning songwriters, Jamey Johnson and Vicky McGehee, this version of the song, cleverly arranged by Mullins, is a conversation between two pawn shop instruments, a guitar and a banjo, hanging side-by-side on the store wall. The guitar (McCoury) and banjo (Mullins) discuss their respective Bluegrass history in the hands of some of the genre’s greatest pickers and singers. This is a truly historic recording featuring two of the most popular veterans in Bluegrass music in their first-ever collaboration.
Having gained the reputation as a band that always chooses great songs, the recognizable sound of Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers, with their characteristically rich vocals, have exceeded that reputation, delivering another collection of wonderfully well-written songs, arranged and recorded in their inimitable style.
“I am hopeful that everyone can HEAR the fun that went into this new recording. I looked around one day and told the guys, ‘We are blessed with great instruments, playing into the best microphones in Nashville, at the studio of our friend and mentor, Ricky Skaggs. How fortunate we are to have an opportunity to do what we love. Could things be any better?’ And then, Del McCoury walked in to do a song with us — life is good and we are thankful.” – Joe Mullins
FOR THE RECORD
Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers
March 29, 2019
(Billy Blue Records)

​MEDIA CONTACTS 
FOR JOE MULLINS & THE RADIO RAMBLERS
Kimberly Williams
East Public Relations
931.808.8083
info@eastpublicrelations.com
www.eastpublicrelations.com
 
FOR BILLY BLUE RECORDS
Claire Ratliff
Laughing Penguin Publicity
615.476.3200
claire@penguinpublicity.com
www.penguinpublicity.com

Billy Blue Records is pleased to announce the February 1st release of “The Guitar Song,” the first radio single from For The Record, the forthcoming, 12-song album from Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers. 

A duet between band leader Joe Mullins and legendary Grand Ole Opry member, Del McCoury, “The Guitar Song” was co-written by another legend, Country Music Hall of Fame member, Bill Anderson, with award-winning songwriters, Jamey Johnson and Vickie McGehee. Joe Mullins’ cleverly arranged version of the song is a conversation between two pawn shop instruments, a guitar and a banjo, hanging side-by-side on a store wall. The guitar (Del McCoury) and banjo (Joe Mullins) discuss their respective Bluegrass histories in the hands of some of the genre’s greatest pickers and singers.

The single release marks a truly historic recording featuring two of the most popular veterans in Bluegrass music in their first ever collaboration. It also marks a celebration of Del McCoury’s 80th birthday on February 1st.

Having gained the reputation as a band who always chooses great material for their projects, the recognizable sound of Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers, with their rich vocals, have exceeded that reputation delivering another collection of wonderfully well-written songs arranged and recorded in their own inimitable style. “The Guitar Song” is a brilliant glimpse into the quality of the full album to come.

Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers recently signed to Billy Blue Records, bringing the group’s signature brand of Bluegrass to the label which was established in 2018. Lead by banjo playing Joe Mullins, the band includes a cadre of instrumental and vocal talent with Mike Terry on mandolin and vocals; Duane Sparks on guitar and vocals; Randy Barnes on upright bass and vocals; andJason Barie on fiddle. The group has garnered multiple IBMA (6) and SPBGMA (4) Awards, including the 2018 IBMA Award for “Song Of The Year” (“If I’d Have Wrote That Song”).

For The Record is set for release on Friday, March 29, 2019.