The theme of this year’s International Bluegrass Music Association’s World of Bluegrass conference and festival in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, was “Connect, Discover, and Grow.” The variation in this year’s IBMA award winners — such as legend Del McCoury and […]
As a kid, I was never a fan of country music. It was what my mom listened to, which made it automatically not cool to a rebellious teenage metalhead. There were a few artist I made an exception for, though — […]
“A big family, that’s what this is,” The Grascals’ Kristin Scott Benson said last night in Raleigh, North Carolina, while accepting her award for Banjo Player of the Year from the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA). She was referencing the […]
Every week when I go to my local Trader Joe’s market, I pick up a pack or two of small grape tomatoes, which some clever employee has chosen to brand as Mini Pearls. It never fails to amuse me, and […]
Last week, I provided a short list of books that offered readers a little guidance in digging deeper into the topics covered in Ken Burns’ PBS series, Country Music. As with all series like this, Burns can hit the high […]
There are a lot of beautiful moments, both sonically and lyrically, on Amy Speace’s new album, Me and the Ghost of Charlemagne. But the song “Both Feet on the Ground,” about Speace’s young son, Huck, is a real standout. “Every […]
If you asked any Russian where the heart of their country was, they would most likely tell you it was the region they were from, just as I would say that Ohio is the heartland of the US. But from […]
The FreshGrass Festival in North Adams, Massachusetts is special in its own right – always a killer lineup, a gorgeous setting in the Berkshire Mountains just as fall is starting to set in, and friendly people who keep things running […]
Unless you live here, and honestly even if you do, California probably isn’t the first place that comes to mind when you think about bluegrass. Kentucky would be a more likely candidate; they’re so confident in their claim to the […]
I was somewhere around 12 or 13 when my parents decided I needed to put braces on my teeth. While I can recall that there was indeed an overbite and a bit of crooked imperfection, it seemed that nearly every […]
