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

With my band – excited, childlike, half-broke and full of anticipation – I set out on the road to the Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans, with a car stuffed with instruments, clothes and snacks. I had heard tales of New Orleans for years – voodoo, people never sleeping, music that never stops. I had no idea that I ...

If you don’t recognize Becky Buller’s name, you’ve likely heard one of the many song’s she written over the years. Becky has penned songs for such artists as Ricky Scaggs, Rhonda Vincent, The Infamous Stringdusters, Doyle Lawson, and more. Her first CD in four years, has just released, Crepe Paper Heart. “It wasn’t supposed to take this long, but so ...

Folks are inspired into a life of music by many things; often it’s a family history of music or peer exposure in high school or college. For Phillip Pappas, college was about Physics. Although he had started playing guitar when he was 15, life was to be about pursuing a Physics job. But something wasn’t right, and he realized that ...

Award-winning Rick Lang calls New Hampshire home, even though his songs have given him world wide credentials. With over 70 song cuts to his credit, Rick’s songs have been recorded by Bluegrass artists, Southern Gospel artists, and even Jazz singers. Of course, Rick is not just a songwriter, he has also recorded six studio CDs, including his latest released in ...

Gary Antol’s life spent living in mountain towns in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland give him an authentic perspective to draw on as he leads his band, the Jakob’s Ferry Stragglers. Their old-time, bluegrass, jamgrass, rockabilly, and swing music influences lead some to call what they do high energy Appalachian Bluegrass. Gary says it much more simple than that. We’re ...

You might call Johnny Chops, an alter ego of sorts for Austin based singer-songwriter Johnny Richardson. His band, Johnny Chops & The Razors serves as the outlet for everything that he doesn’t get to do when he’s out on the road with his “day job,” playing bass guitar for the Randy Rogers Band. Their latest self titled CD is filled ...

Mike Aiken and I have known each other for many years. Most recently, Mike has been penning a column for Americana Rhythm called On The Road. What I find fascinating, and what I think many people don’t know about Mike, is that a good percentage of His life is, and has been, spent living on a boat. So we thought ...

Sam Karr, founder of Sam Jam, says he’s been a fan of Bluegrass music and festivals nearly all his life. “I grew up with my father and his friends all going to Bluegrass festivals, and them taking all their kids along with them,” he recalled recently. “The bands we listened to became some of my favorite groups, and I grew ...

Banjo Nickaru & Western Scooches is led by New York, multi-instrumentalist, Nick Russo. Nick’s band has found a niche with their music, combining elements of country, bluegrass, western swing, rockabilly, blues, Dixieland, jazz, and even traditional folk music. A band who was not long ago noted as having “unfailing high-spirit,” by the London Times, the gang has found a way ...

Adam Steffey started playing bluegrass music in the early eighties, as a freshman in high school, on a mandolin his grandfather got him at a flea market. “I was actually a late starter,” he commented. “So many kids these days, they are eight years old and just blastin’ already. But I took an interest in it right away. I took ...