News/Thoughts

Monthly Archives: October 2018

Songs From The Road

The bluegrass/roots/folk scene has expanded exponentially in recent years, and the talent level has progressed right along with it. Artists are doing things today with traditional string instruments that Jimmy Martin and Bill Monroe probably never imagined wereto be you could probably count the number of top acts with 10 fingers, to a time when there are better than 10 ...

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50 Artists, 30 Studios, Biggest Ever

Gregg Welty’s initial exposure to bluegrass music is like so many other musicians growing up in musical families. “I remember listening to my dad (the 1993 Winfield national bluegrass banjo champion) play music throughout childhood,” Gregg told me recently. “I really hated the Banjo for the majority of my childhood. When I was in middle school/early high school, I decided ...

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New Band Dripping With Talent

Super groups are inevitable in every genre’ I suppose, but it seems most exciting when a group of bluegrass guys and/gals, who all have regular gigs in some other fashion, find themselves together forming a new band. Sometimes it is on the side, and sometimes it becomes the main thing. When Jerry Salley began putting together a new bluegrass/Americana label, ...

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New Music From Alan Bibey & Grasstowne

Alan Bibey has been entertaining audiences professionally with his mandolin chops since the early 1980’s. He picked up the instrument at the of age of five, and since then, has become one of the most creative and technically gifted mandolinists in bluegrass and acoustic music today. Alan was an original member of three of bluegrass music’s more contemporary pioneering acts; ...

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Sister Sadie

An impromptu performance about six years ago at the Station Inn in Nashville, TN, led to another of bluegrass music’s exciting mash-up of musicians. The part-time super group consists of five-time IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year and Grammy Nominated, Dale Ann Bradley, along with veteran Nashville powerhouse singer, Tina Adair, fiddle player; Deanie Richardson ((who’s worked with all kinds ...

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Billy Droze Back To His Roots

Billy Droze was born in Lafayette, Louisiana, the 10th of 12 children, in 1986, but he grew up in Alabama, knowing the whole time that music was going to be his life, “as far back as I can remember,” he said. Billy said he got his start in gospel music before finding his way into a traveling bluegrass band with ...

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It’s Never Too Late

Beaver Creek, CO resident Jim Stanard grew up listening to, loving, and absorbing the music of all the greats. He grew up in an era when he could watch first hand entertainers like Tom Rush, Doc Watson, Bruce Springsteen, hanging out at the legendary Main Point Coffeehouse in Bryn Mawr, PA. He even attended Woodstock in 1969 although his perspective is less than ...

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Carrington Kay’s Folky Grass

It’s always good to get the chance to revisit with artists that we’ve featured here in previous issues. Rob and Kristen Smith are excellent examples of an act that just stays with it, stays at it, and keeps the musical fires burning as they pursue their passion for sharing their gift with whomever will listen. Rob is a graduate from Virginia ...

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Smoke Out The Window

Musician/songwriter Rick Monroe is no stranger to moving around, but he feels like it’s part of what makes his musical style unique. “I definitely come by a gypsy soul legitimately,” he told me recently. He was born in Clearwater, FL, moved to England, moved back to Kansas, then Connecticut, North Carolina, and back to Florida, then L.A., and now he ...

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