One of the criteria for excellence in bluegrass music is maintaining tradition while expressing it in new ways. Are these changes merely the changes of fashion, putting new covers on the same unchanging framework? Or are they organic, coming from […]
This week we’re excited to put our ears on new music from Punch Brothers, Lori McKenna, and Hot Buttered Rum — all bands that have steered us to new ground with their music. We love being along for that ride. […]
Punch Brothers’ 2008 debut, Punch, is one of popular music’s stellar debuts, a seamless mix of classical, jazz, and bluegrass elements. Songwriting took a relative backseat to virtuosic instrumentation; however, the band followed Punch with 2010’s Antifogmatic and 2012’s Who’s […]
When the evening of Tuesday, June 19th rolled around, I was resigned. It was the eve of my annual Summer Solstice vacation—a migratory pattern I’ve maintained as a measure of self-care. I needed it as much as ever this time […]
Summer solstice means it’s Telluride Bluegrass Festival time. This coming Thursday (June 21) at 4:07 a.m. MDT, the sun will have moved as far north as it is going to move, and the longest day of the year will be […]
In a lot of ways, live reviews are meant to serve as a hybrid, first hand recollection and motivator for generating interest in the next performance and overall tour of whomever the focus is currently on. This is no different, […]
As modern folk supergroups go, it doesn’t get much more super than Punch Brothers and I’m With Her. Each group in its own right is pretty super: Punch Brothers’ Chris Thile, Paul Kowert, Gabe Witcher, Chris Eldridge, and Noam Pikelny are […]
Outside the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in Asheville, North Carolina, there’s a sculpture of a guy with a fiddle, a guy with a banjo, and a couple of people dancing. It’s cast in hard, cold metal, but the fixed figures appear […]
After describing RockyGrass as the perfect festival last year, I actually need to amend that sentiment. There is no such thing as perfection, yet many of us constantly strive for it. I would say it is more like a Three Michelin […]
It’s a whirlwind year for Parsonsfield. The five members of the rowdy indie-folk band are on a lengthy tour through early August that will take them to 14 states and the prestigious Winnipeg Folk Festival before they release a second […]
