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

Leif Karlstrom and Adam Roszkiewicz, two members of the award-winning progressive roots grass band Front Country, combine to explore a duo side project known as Small Town Therapy. The two friends and musicians have created a “genre-bending music” that blends acoustic jazz and classical-influenced original compositions into a new adventure in string music. Their new 13 track record, Dreams and Circumstances, is ...

Scott Slay grew up in a musical family on the gulf coast of Florida. It was a performance by Sam Bush, then with the New Grass Revival, at a small festival that grabbed six year old Slay’s attention. “My dad said that after the show I looked up at him and said, ‘I want a little guitar’ referencing Sam’s mandolin,” ...

Ashley Beck, a.k.a, Den of Ashes, comes from a deep tradition in music as the grandson of 1930’s to 50’s era Country & Western entertainers, John and “Texas Peggy” Clemens, know as the The Wyoming Ramblers. They toured and shared friendships with The Carter Family, Tex Ritter, Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash. As the musical landscape ever evolves, we see a new emergence of the Western music ...

We are believers in live music and are cheerleaders for the venues in which live music is taught and performed. And we believe that local encouragement of live musical engagement is vitally important. We recently began seeing posts on our social media outlets regarding activities at a music school and performance venue in nearby Charlottesville, VA named The Front Porch. ...

My high school years were in the 70s and 80s. I grew up in a rural, agricultural community and attended school with a bunch of kids that were a product of that setting. It was an exciting era in music, producing what some still call “the best music ever.” Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker, Eagles, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, 38 Special ...

A few years ago my wife and I made our annual trek to MerleFest, where thousands gather every April for this premier music event. As you might imagine, like any outdoor festival, you’re either in a camp chair or spread out on the ground. And as often happens in April, there are rain showers, which leave the ground constantly damp. ...

My road to Collings guitars started about 15 years ago when the then product manager at Takamine guitars (Mike Markure) took me to the Collings booth at winter NAMM and introduced me to Collings’ GM, Steve McCreary. Over the years I would see Steve once a year at NAMM and walk away stunned by his soft-spoken passion for the instruments ...

Sometimes we lovers of Americana string music and its associated entertaining pleasures do not take the listening, watching, feeling, tasting leap very far beyond our Appalachian roots. However, there are some more great Americana experiences waiting for us out there. Information about two such experiences recently found their way to our desk. Let me tell you about them. The Academy ...

A plectrum can be a thin flat piece of slightly flexible material held by or worn on the fingers and used to pluck or strum stringed musical instruments The plectrum is often called a pick or flat pick if used by a player to produce individual notes. Players of string-music know that there are many types of picks that will ...

In 2004, John and Joyce Bowers decided to host a little one day Bluegrass festival on the property of their recently developed campground. Little could they imagine that 13 years later they would win the IBMA award for Best Bluegrass Event of the year in 2017. John and Joyce enjoyed attending the Music in the Mountains festival, and on one ...