Even without the historical significance behind its creation, the release of Earl Jam: A Tribute to Earl Scruggs is cause for celebration. Tony Trischka, the driving force behind the project, is an award-winning banjo master himself who has always acknowledged […]
At the dawn of 2021, the timing could not have been more apropos for Shall We Hope, the ambitious new album from banjo virtuoso Tony Trischka. Not even a week into the new year, the US Capitol saw rioters forcefully […]
Owensboro sits, cradle-like, along a crook in the Ohio River in Western Kentucky. Indiana is across the river to the north, Nashville two hours south, and Bill Monroe’s homeplace just 30 miles southeast. It’s also home to the Bluegrass Hall […]
A friend of mine has been in bluegrass for 40 years. He’s a protector of bluegrass tradition and a road warrior who’s still standing, singing, touring with his band after all these years. When we see each other at festivals, we […]
One early Sunday afternoon a couple of weeks ago, Irene and I found ourselves driving north through Florida’s midlands, heading from a bluegrass festival to a state park near Orlando where we enjoy the quiet, the terrain, and the change […]
Earl Scruggs has long been lauded for the tone, taste, and timing of his banjo playing, and those same measures have been applied to bluegrass music as a whole. When bands exhibit strengths in developing and maintaining a tone, playing […]
LES CLAYPOOL’S DUO DE TWANG Four Foot Shack (ATO) How “deconstructed” can a group get? How about just one vocal, one bass, one guitar, and a basic beat supplied by stomping on a mini-tambourine-doohickey? That’s exactly what everyone’s favorite storyteller/narrator, […]
