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

Guest article by Sherry Nelson The moment he walks out on stage in his black leather vest, black cowboy hat, and signature Jennings swagger, a palpable energy builds in the air. It is that iconic sound of plangent tones that for generations has cut deep into the soul and hearts of music fans all across the world. He is Whey ...

Winter solstice is the shortest day and the longest night of the year. It’s on December 21st, and celebrated all around the world by many different people in many different ways. One of the celebrations is called Make Music Winter, spearheaded by Make Music Alliance and presented by the NAMM Foundation. In nearly 35 cities across the nation, communities will ...

Despite growing up about an hour away from New York, Pete Miller has been drawn away from the bright lights and big city toward a rural existence and an authentic way of being a “blue collar” singer-songwriter. Bob Dylan was a big influence in high school and set him on the songwriter road early on, although he kept his creativity ...

Starting as a casual jam band back in 2008, Volume Five is a Mississippi-based group that has grown into one of bluegrass music’s most distinctive and popular acts. Soulful lead vocals by fiddler Glen Harrell along with the band’s tight instrumentals and vocal harmonies have earned the group two IBMA Awards, numerous other nominations, and many accolades. Joining Glen to ...

Around the age of 12 or 13, Vince Vangard got his first guitar, an acoustic. “I wasn’t allowed to start with electric, so I got an acoustic,” he remembers with a chuckle. “I had to learn a few songs, my dad’s particular requests, in order to earn the electric guitar…” His father was a blues fanatic, (who named his son ...

Growing up in Mountain View, Arkansas (home of the Ozark Music Center), for singer-songwriter Pam Setser, it all began with her family. “I started singing when I was 5 years old,” she recalls. “My dad was already playing some guitar; mom played some autoharp…so we started playing as a family band, The Simmons Family.” She feels blessed to have been ...

With her husband and co-writer Tommy Parham, Tia McGraff is a skilled songstress who has been making impactful and thought-provoking art for well over a decade. With nine international CD releases and multiple film and TV placements over the years, her recorded catalog is certainly a proud accomplishment, but where Tia truly shines is in her live performances. Her love ...

Lynn Crossett started playing music while he was also beginning his professional journey as a college student in Austin, Texas. The highway that he hopped on leading him to success in the legal profession always had a parallel service road toward singer-songwriterdom. He now lives in San Marcos, Texas and teaches there full time as a law professor at Texas ...

North Carolinian Teddy Barneycastle was surrounded by music his entire life. At the age of five he was part of The Barneycastle Trio, a gospel group composed of his mother, aunt, and oldest sister. “More than one time,” Teddy remembers, “as the five-year-old with the old tape recorder with the red button…I fell asleep on the front pew of a ...

Though she’s just in her early 20s, and still attending college, Music City native Jaelee Roberts is already familiar with—and to—the music industry. Born to veteran music professionals, she grew up backstage at the Grand Ole Opry amid rehearsals, business meetings, recording sessions, as well as countless festivals, concerts and church services. These experiences, along with her love of the ...