The world of bluegrass has a reputation for holding fast to tradition, nodding always to the past. But all things and people came from somewhere, and it’s important to honor the lived experiences of the previous generations. And musicians especially […]
In nearly every imaginable respect, 82-year-old Del McCoury is a living legend who has cultivated the landscape of American music — in bluegrass and beyond. Sixty years into his career, McCoury continues his legacy with Almost Proud, an album that […]
To duet well is to dance, to step in rhythm in such a way that the two become new and unified; two streams merged into a river, if you will. Kieran Kane and Rayna Gellert dance so closely on their […]
The fiddle and the banjo represent the most American of musical pairings, combining to form a uniquely American sound that’s been at the heart of old-time stringband music and, more widely, country music. The fiddle and banjo reflect the cultures […]
At some point in quarantine, the rest of the music world caught up with a truth the bluegrass community already knew: Billy Strings is an unparalleled talent. Following the late-2019 release of the Grammy award-winning Home, with planned spring (and […]
Sitting down to listen to My Bluegrass Heart — Béla Fleck’s first “bluegrass” album in more than 20 years and the third in a trilogy (following Drive in 1988 and The Bluegrass Sessions in 1999) — it’s tempting to get […]
In 2020’s wake, it becomes easy to do less, to settle into the easy activism of occasionally attending protests or shouting on Twitter. To sit back and think, With Trump gone, the work is done. Joe Troop shows a different […]
With navigating the current world becoming more challenging every day, Twisted Pine delivers the kind of album that makes it feel like everything is going to be okay. Instrumental virtuosity — the band’s calling card — abounds on their latest […]
Everyone has an internal clock running in the background of their brains, cycling between tiredness and alertness, sleeping and waking, lightness and darkness. These circadian rhythms govern what it means to be human. With Circadian, Baltimore-based Letitia VanSant finds balance […]
