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

Larry Norfleet and his band, Branded Bluegrass, received nine nominations at the SPBGMA awards ceremony this past February in Nashville, TN, making them one of the top nominees. Their brand of traditional bluegrass is turning heads, and gaining fans all across the bluegrass community. The Kokomo, Indiana based band leader tells of his humble beginnings learning on a guitar with ...

At 11 years old, Benson, North Carolina native Rebekah Todd’s father gave her a black acoustic Washburn guitar and taught her to play it. She’s been filling her life with music ever since. Upon graduating from East Carolina University in 2012, Rebekah has been dedicating her time to writing, touring, and performing her style of melodic soul and alternative folk ...

Back in 2004, while attending Merlefest, I had the idea for creating Americana Rhythm Music Magazine. One of the artists performing that weekend was a guy named Jim Lauderdale. He was (and is) an integral part of that fabulous event; and I remember thinking that if there was any one guy that exemplified the definition of an Americana artist, it ...

The longer I cruise the edges of this genre of Americana string music that folks now call bluegrass, the more I hear folks make reference to Jimmy Martin. I freely admit he is a personality of which I know less about than I should. Even though I remember the golden radio days when there was plenty of Appalachian string music ...

Last fall, our publisher spent several days at the Americana Music Association convention in Nashville, TN. While there, he made some great new friends in this growing Americana music business. One of the folks he met was a tour director—yes that’s what we said. Now, I expect that many of us have enjoyed taking bus tours. In fact, just this ...

Although Jason Springs has been performing music for years, he’s excited to be able to release his debut solo project this year titled Blue Collar Bones and Busted Knuckles. It’s a full on band project from this folk/roots, rock artist who hails from Danville, VA. Jason said he grew up in a musical family. “There was always some sort of ...

As a singer/songwriter, Chris Jones has been referred to as, “The wandering musician peddling tunes from town to town, sharing tales old and new.” If you haven’t had the opportunity to hear him live along with his band, The Night Drivers, perhaps you know his as one of the hosts heard on SiriusXM’s Bluegrass Junction. The now Alberta Canada resident ...

NYC based band, Banjo Nickaru & Western Scooches are proud to be touting their new CD, Very Next Thing. Their music is an eclectic assemblage of country, bluegrass, western swing, rockabilly, blues, traditional jazz, dixieland, old-time music, folk, roots music and Americana. The band is led by multi-instrumentalist Nick Russo who comes from a very musical family. His dad, Rich ...

Joseph Henry says his sound sits comfortably between alternative-country and country-western blues. The Americana country/folk singer/songwriter makes his home in New Jersey but at the time we spoke, he was enjoying a stint in Nashville, TN, “taking in the sights and sounds, and playing around as much as I can,” he said. “Its always been a place in the back ...

Former record store owner, Mike Felten, has parlayed the end of 30 plus years of hawking vinyl into a singer/songwriter career full time, and celebrates his most recent CD release, Diamonds and Televisions. Beginning in 1979, Mike began dabbling in selling records. He eventually opened several Record Emporium stores and developed a pretty strong internet sales following. He also worked ...