Many people think of bluegrass music and hillbilly music in the same breath. Old-time, a description often applied to string band music as it developed in the first third of the 20th century in the mountains, hills, and hollers of […]
0
In a couple of weeks, we’ll travel north and west across Vermont and up the Hero Islands in Lake Champlain, crossing the lake inlet north of Plattsburgh. Looking to our right, we’ll be able to see the small border crossing […]
I remember the first time I heard Bill Haley’s “Rock around the Clock.” I was visiting old friends on the beach in Westport, Connecticut, which I had moved away from a year or two before to live and go to […]
With last week’s incredible achievement by Chris Stapleton, who won three major Country Music Association awards, issues of genre definition have been turned on their head as melody, authenticity, and story-telling re-emerged in country music. For years, many have characterized what’s called […]
A friend of ours likes to say, “Nobody likes them but the fans.” Who listens to bluegrass music and why do they come out to festivals and concerts, continuing to purchase records and listen to the music that in many […]
One of the locations where bluegrass music originated can be found in the area just west of Charlotte, North Carolina, in Gaston and Cleveland counties. Earl Scruggs was born there, near Shelby, the county seat of Cleveland County, which I’m […]
The International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) is having its annual World of Bluegrass gathering in Raleigh, North Carolina this week. As I write this, we’ve had two days of business meetings. The TV tells me we may see as much […]
As I write this, my wife and I are attending a wonderful bluegrass event in the hills of east Tennessee, called the Dumplin Valley Bluegrass Festival. When I walked up the hill above Dumplin Valley Farm, I could see the […]
This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of the first multi-day bluegrass festival, held at Cantrell’s horse farm in Fincastle, Virginia, on Labor Day weekend of 1965. For three days, bluegrass fans traipsed down from New York City, Washington, D.C., Buffalo, […]
In recent months, I’ve heard from a number of folks who want to tell me how they think contemporary bluegrass music lacks the soul that was present in the work of the early bluegrass pioneers. I find myself baffled by […]
SPOTIFY PLAYLIST
AVAILABLE NOW
AVAILABLE NOW
