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

For several years now, dissatisfaction has been growing over the musical direction the genre’ called country music has been taking. To many of us baby boomers, what is now called country music sounds quite similar to the 70s AM rock music we grew up with. It’s certainly traveled far from George Jones, Johnny Cash, and Merle Haggard. While the younger ...

Americana Music Profile – Husband and wife, Michael and Jennifer McLain, have performed in 27 states from New York to California. They’ve appeared on the Grand Ole Opry, Kentucky Educational Television, Iowa Public Television, The Nashville Network, Country Music Television, RFD Television, National Public Radio, and the PBS show, Song of the Mountains. Michael and Jennifer both grew up in ...

Americana Music Profile – After relocating to West Virginia in 2006, Robert Mabe (Banjo) joined the bluegrass band, Drymill Road, in 2010. There, along with band members Sean Loomis (Guitar), Doug Ross (Mandolin), and David Hurt (Bass), they became an international touring band, mixing old and new sounds with surprising twists and turns of musicality and phrasing. They’ve performed at ...

By Greg Tutwiler – There’s nothing more intriguing to me than to watch musicians investing themselves into their craft. It’s one of my fondest memories, as a young kid, to have been able to play music in a high school and college rock band. We were never that great or terribly successful, but we were living the dream just the ...

ReverbNation Feature – The Eddy Mann today wasn’t always so secure in who he was. “I was brought up in a faithful home,” he recalls, “but I wandered as young people tend to do, just trying to find my way. It was during that time of searching that I looked in the wrong places for direction, for purpose and for ...

By Edward Tutwiler – All God’s creations have voice. The mountain speaks in silent grander, the flower in radiant beauty, and folks sing and shout. Stringed musical instruments have voice as well. The fiddle cries, the mandolin rings, and the guitar hums with soul. But the banjo, oh the banjo—he is so filled with joy he can’t help but laugh. ...

Bridgewater, VA – For the forth year in a row, Raleigh, NC played host to 2016 installment of the International Bluegrass Music Association’s business conference and Wide Open Bluegrass festival. After a move from Nashville, TN in 2013, musicians and fans alike seem to feel quite at home in the host city. Each year the association takes the opportunity to ...

Jason Isbell and Chris Stapleton lead the list of honorees at the 15th Annual Americana Music Association Honors & Awards show September 21st at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium. Stapleton was awarded Artist of the Year honors for his 2015 solo debut Traveller CD, while Isbell was awarded two trophies, one for Album of the Year for his 2015 release, Something More ...

When Peter Allen released “Everything Old is New Again” in 1974, he had no idea that the title would offer a prescient view of the vinyl on which his song was originally released. Vinyl has long competed with other formats such as cassettes and even the relatively short lived 8-track tape. However, it wasn’t until the 80’s that LP’s nearly ...

Did you ever play a house concert that was so well received, that folks wanted to take some of your music home? Who you gonna call? Did your band kill it on stage last night, and the sound man handed you a board-recorded CD with the comment that you should copy this? Who you gonna call? Do you have a ...