With a couple of decades performing and 14 albums under their belt, as well as back-to-back International Bluegrass Music Association awards for Entertainer of the Year in 2012 and 2013, The Gibson Brothers have proven they have what it takes […]
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 […]
It takes guts to be a musician, and often that courage shines through in a project that marks a departure – or at least a side trip — from what an artist’s fans have come to expect. The Gibson Brothers’ […]
Musical cross-pollination among bluegrass players, country singers, and rock and rollers dates back to at least the 1960s folk revival, with the chasms between each genre narrowed ever since by genre-defiant acts ranging from The Byrds and the Grateful Dead […]
One valuable source for my columns is the comments and discussions people write on the various hangouts and forums devoted to bluegrass and acoustic music that I subscribe to, including The Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum and the Mandolin Café. Those […]
One valuable source for my columns is the comments and discussions people write on the various hangouts and forums devoted to bluegrass and acoustic music that I subscribe to, including The Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum and the Mandolin Café. Those […]
The vast majority of bluegrass bands are local ones. Most of the national bands with shiny big buses wrapped in graphics displaying the band’s name have sprung from the primordial soup of local and regional bands that are found, to […]
It’s January third and many bluegrass musicians have been, more or less, on hiatus. Some notable festivals occur during the cold months, but, in a genre whose most popular manifestation has, historically at least, been outdoors at festivals and pickins, […]
This week’s column continues my thoughts from last week about how I got to bluegrass (and other music throughout my life). … And then life happened. We (that’s Irene, who’s always the “we” in my blogs and columns … has […]
Believe it or not, Christmas, for many people in America, stands as one of the most problematic seasons of the year. While for some, it ranks second only to Easter as one of the prime affirmations in their belief in […]
