Banjo, Fiddle, Seven Wonders, Seven Days
ChessBoxer • Founding members of the groundbreaking acoustic band, Cadillac Sky, Matt Menefee and Ross Holmes have been composing and creating since their first brief encounter together years ago. ChessBoxer is the result of a mutual desire to inform the good folks that instrumental music is not a mere sleep aid, but more like an exciting novel, a captivating story that engages all levels of emotion. As a result of that desire, this fiddle and banjo team created their Seven Wonders video and entered it into Dos Equis’ The Most Interesting Academy “Stay Thirsty Grant” competition.
The three finalists in this competition were just announced yesterday, and Matt and Ross are among them! Here at the AcoustiCana Journal, we are especially excited to see these two brilliant young examples of acoustic American music become poised to take the tradition of fiddle and banjo around the world in this sure-to-be record setting adventure! Upon learning that they had placed in the top 3, they put together this video to announce it!
“Never has any duo of fiddle and banjo attempted to circumnavigate the earth in a week. Never has any duo of fiddle and banjo performed 7 original compositions at 7 wonders of the world in a week. Never has any duo of fiddle and banjo recorded those 7 songs at those 7 wonderful sites in one week…”
The AcoustiCana Journal got a chance to catch up with Ross for a few minutes and the main question on our minds was…is going to the 7 Wonders in 7 days to record 7 songs even physically possible?!? Ross’ answer was “Yes, totally possible. You start with Stonehenge and the Coliseum on day one, Pyramids on day two, Taj Mahal on day three, Great Wall on day four, Machu Picchu on day five but it’s actually day four because you cross the date line and get the day back, Easter Island on day 6 and an extra day for travel contingencies. Pow. Boom. Done.” So, as you can see…piece of cake! Is there anyone who wouldn’t want to see this happen?! Surely not…
And thus we would like to encourage our readers to get out the vote and help these two make this into a reality! Voting is open now and by going HERE you can vote for their video by clicking on the “grant worthy!” button under their video. Let’s put a banjo on the Great Wall of China! And as Ross and Matt pointed out to us,
“To help out even more, you can vote every day and (tell) as many of your friends and family as possible. Who wouldn’t want to hear Seven Songs recorded at Seven Wonders of the World in Seven Days on Fiddle and Banjo?!?! Thank you all, stay adventurous!!”
LINKS
Stay Thirsty Grant • www.mostinterestingacademy.com
VOTE • Click “Grant Worthy” for SEVEN WONDERS
ChessBoxer FaceBook • www.facebook.com/ChessBoxerMusic
VOTE • Fiddle & Banjo + all 7 Wonders = awesomeness
ChessBoxer Twitter • www.twitter.com/chessboxermusic
VOTE • “I would love to see a banjo on the Great Pyramids at Giza!”
ChessBoxer ReverbNation • www.reverbnation.com/chessboxer 
• INTRODUCE The AcoustiCana Journal to FaceBook FRIENDS by clicking on the "SHARE" button at • www.tinyurl.com/acj-like-share • and help them discover this emerging American acoustic musical genre with roots in Old-Time, Bluegrass, Country, Blues, & Americana, and the prodigious group of artists bringing it to the forefront of American Music & Culture today. Thank YOU!
I am an independent singer-songwriter who just released an Americana project that pays homage to mountain music and old style country music. One of my songs was just chosen to be part of the Alternate Root Women Only Sampler. I named the project after my grandmother who was a genuine mountain woman. She and her husband were sharecroppers. She never had ‘a say’ about anything. My project is titled “Excuse Me, But I Have Something to Say.” I would like you to review it for The AcoustiCana Journal. You can find it on Spotify under Euferzine. I promise you won’t be disappointed. And thank you for listening.
–Denise