News/Thoughts

Monthly Archives: June 2020

Flatpicking Champ Rebecca Frazier

Virginia native Rebecca Frazier is perhaps best known for her work with her bluegrass band, Hit & Run, which made history as the only band to win competitions at Rockygrass (2002), Telluride Bluegrass Festival (2003), and the SPBGMA Band Championship in Nashville (2005). Yet her story is not your typical mountain or mountain valley upbringing with late night jams and weekend music parties that are common stories ...

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Addison Johnson

“Country music is not just about pickup trucks,” says Addison Johnson. The lyrical depth of a song matters to Addison, and to that end, his approach is to take every listener of his music on a journey reliving personal life experiences he’s written about along the way. This Nashville Singer Songwriter has his roots not only in country, but also ...

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To The Same Island

In the time of Covid-cancelled tours and shows, I am on our floating home, Ocean Girl,  considering what to write for an ‘on the road’ article. Time to tap the well of past experiences. Some years back Amy and I were in the Canary Islands, off Spain. We were waiting for a storm to blow itself out to start sailing across the ...

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Searching For Heros

We are always on the hunt for stories about that genre of roots Americana music known as the blues. On that note, a press release from Gary Atkinson of Document Records Ltd. recently landed on the publisher’s desk telling about a project that his company is releasing. This project is titled, Searching for Secret Heroes and its focal point is ...

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Husband and Wife Song Writing Team

Timothy Williams grew up in North Carolina, his wife Sarah on the North Shore of Chicago. Her music exposure was the Great American Songbook as her dad sang and played the piano when she was a young girl. Tim grew up listening to classic country while his uncles worked on cars. “My parents said I was drawn to music from ...

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Lauren Calve Releases Wildfire

Lauren Calve started singing and playing guitar when she was 15 years old. Her love and fondness of Americana grew out of family gatherings around the dinner table where they’d tell and repeat old stories while drinking scotch. “It’s because of this family tradition that I’m innately drawn to stories,” she exclaimed.  “My uncle calls me the archivist of the ...

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On The Pickin Porch with Tyler Grant

California native Tyler Grant is widely known in the jam band world for his work with multiple outfits including Grant Farm and Emmitt-Nershi Band, fronted by members of Leftover Salmon and String Cheese Incident. While his electric guitar work compellingly reflects classic influences such as Jerry Garcia, his award winning flatpicking guitar styling has placed him in a class of ...

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The Good Ones Can Sing ‘Em Too

Daryl Mosley may be from a small town in Tennessee, but this Waverly native is no small time artist. Throughout the 90s, he toured as the lead vocalist for the bluegrass group, New Tradition before joining the Osborne Brothers in 2001. In 2010 he helped form the quickly celebrated grass act, The Farm Hands. Now, in 2020 Daryl takes the ...

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Australian Andy Penkow

Sydney Australia singer/songwriter Andy Penkow has received quite a bit of acclaim in his professional musical career. A student at the JMC Academy in Sydney, he received and advance diploma in popular music and performance. He was a member of the SBS Choir and a regular member of the southern school’s regional performing ensemble. “I’ve been surround by music my whole ...

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The New Gypsybilly Sound

Fabrice Vignati grew up in France listening to and playing the rich French cultural music, growing to love Gypsy Jazz, and even the revival of the Rockabilly sounds in the 1980s. Tracy grew up in Georgia exposed to country and rural cultural music as well as developing a love for Jazz. “When I was 13 or 14, I got a ...

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