Broken Arrow, OK is home for Mark and Shelly, a.k.a., The Dusty Pearls. Their debut, self titled, full-length album, is out and the critics are pleased. Michael D. Smith of Wordkrapht.com says, “Doubtless they will be compared to The Civil Wars if their following continues to grow but unlike other male-female duos The Dusty Pearls deserve that compliment,” Happenings at ...

For many folks along the East coast, summertime means a trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, commonly referred to as OBX. It’s a strip of land sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean on one side, and the Currituck Sound on the other. The area is historically noted for many things including the Birthplace of Flight (Kitty Hawk), the Lost ...

In the beginning, there was the dream, and in the dream there was a theatre, and that dream was good. Yes, that is my pitiful attempt to set the tone for a story that has a Genesis and a Revelation; however, this is not a story with a beginning and an end but rather a story about an end that ...

Founded in 1988 in memory of Eddy Merle Watson, son of the legendary Doc Watson, MerleFest has been a major fundraiser for Wilkes Community College, and a tremendous celebration of traditional plus music, as Doc always called it. “When Merle and I started out we called our music traditional plus, meaning the traditional music of the Appalachian region plus whatever ...

By Greg Tutwiler With a voice like Dave Adkins, you just can’t stay out of the game for long. In the roots/bluegrass/Americana world, there are some of the most pure vocalists I’ve ever heard, and for me, Dave is in the top of that group. His musical career lead him straight from high school to a two year stint playing ...

By Wayne Erbsen While working on a recent fiddle book, Bluegrass Jamming on Fiddle, I was reminded that “life just ain’t fair.” Not to fiddlers, anyway. Bluegrass guitarists proudly display their “boom-chick.” Banjo players strut their “vamp” or “chunk.” Mandolins show off their “chop.” Basses seem content to stay in the background with their “thump, thump, thump.” But what do ...

By Kaye D. Hill The more things change, the more they stay the same.  I’ve heard this quote since I was knee high to a grasshopper, but never really understood the meaning of those words.  Recently I was asked if I thought bluegrass music was changing, and I began to ponder what bluegrass was years ago, and how it may ...

By Greg Tutwiler Perhaps you’re lucky enough to listen to WAXM FM Bristol TN, “The Bluegrass Show” every weekday from 3:00 to 6:00 PM. Or maybe you’ve tuned into the popular public television broadcast series, Songs Of The Mountains on PBS. Or, perhaps you get your fix by listening to the syndicated radio show, The Tim White Bluegrass Show, on ...

After attending a weekend music festival, we head home remembering our favorite acts and discussing with our fellow travelers every aspect of our enjoyable experience with no thought as to what the members of the bands might be doing next. I can not speak for every string-music band, but I can sure tell you where Lorain Jordan and members of ...

By Greg Tutwiler Cory Hemilright was your typical bluegrass music fan. After college, he moved from Dare Country, North Carolina to Bristol, Tennessee to go to work for a local law firm. “I had a cabin on the river,” he told me recently, “And a lot of my bluegrass buddies would come out and play music. We often joked about ...