Americana Music Magazine – Bluegrass, Roots, Folk, Blues, and Old-Time

Country music fans of the 1950s can easily call up a mental picture of their favorite performers and visualize those folks in their glitzy stage garb. You may remember when singer Glen Campbell immortalized those fancy suited folks as Rhinestone Cowboys. During that era, anyone who was anyone that performed on the stage of the Nashville, TN Grand Ole Opry ...

In 2015 Camille Rae released her debut album, I Need Me, with her single, “Shadows Dance Tonight,” charting to No. 55 on Nashville’s Music Row Chart. Her 2017 release, Come Fine Me, landed the single, “I Need Me,” at the number 26 position. This Mount Vernon, Kentucky born singer/songwriter began performing as a young girl in church. By the age ...

Although Brandon Allen, songwriter and lead vocalist for the Boxcar Junkies, hails from Indiana, his nomadic mind set has led him in many directions throughout his career, influencing not just his songwriting, but his view of life as a whole. He had extreme hearing loss as a child – not exactly someone you’d think would end up with a career ...

[The 2020 festival is rescheduled for November 6th – 8th.] For Eli Smith, growing up in downtown Manhattan and Greenwich Village, the allure of Folk Music’s distant past was enough to inspire him to create The Brooklyn Folk Festival 12 years ago. “Of course many know in the 50s and 60s this area was big for folk music, but when ...

As long as there are groups pressing the boundaries of bluegrass music, the genre will continue to evolve. Groups like Fireside Collective bring their own interpretation to the mix with their unique blend, which is part bluegrass, part roots rock, and a good dose of funk-influenced danceable rhythms. This Ashville, North Carolina ensemble doesn’t mind blurring the lines while still ...

Growing up in the mountains of Western North Carolina, Darren Nicholson grew up with music as a staple of life. “They taught music in the schools as a regular part of the curriculum,” he recalled. “Music and dance was just part of the culture here. Just about everybody in my family played bluegrass and country music; and this was long ...

The Lonesome River Band is one of the bluegrass industry’s long standing pillars. Formed in early 1982, and heading into it’s 38th year as a band, it has seen its share of personal changes over the years, but the bands unmistakable, distinctive sound remains true to form. “It’s been through a lot of changes over the years,” said Sammy Shelor, ...

Originally founded in 1988, Merlefest was created to honor the memory of the son of the late Doc Watson. Eddy Merle Watson was a renowned guitarist in his own right, and traveled and performed often with Doc. The festival is traditionally held at the end of April every year on the campus of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, NC. (4/23 ...

Kody Norris grew up during the 90s in the mountains of East Tennessee. And while he did not grow up in a musical family directly, he recalls a couple of great-uncles who owned instruments, including his Uncle Jack, who would let the young Kody drag his banjo around the house and, “make a racket with it,” as Kody recalled. His ...

By blending elements of Americana and Western Swing with the unique and broad flavors of a newer generation of string oriented music, Caleb Warren and his band, The Perfect Gentlemen, have found a way to bridge the gap between the music once found in the old time juke joints and speak-easies, with the newer generation of Americana style music. They ...