“When you think of the Blue Ridge Mountains, your first thought is probably not of stringed musical instruments playing authentic and unique American roots music; however, this rural backdrop is the raw source of much of the sounds we hear today and consider our American musical legacy; including rock-and-roll and jazz,” writes Ross Moonie, spokesperson and head of media relations ...

Being part of the writing effort for a magazine that focuses upon Americana music means we are blessed with the chance to attend some exceptional music festivals throughout the year. Even when the official editorial call to attend is not there, my wife and I often find ourselves heading off for a whole weekend here or a single day there ...

Upon realizing that this year marks the 30th anniversary of Merlefest, and knowing that this fest provided significant inspiration for us here at Americana Rhythm, I felt it only fitting to give an extra shout out to this phenomenal music festival. Created as a tribute by Doc Watson and Wilkes Community College to his late son, Merle, Merlefest has become ...

In the May/June 2007 issue of Americana Rhythm, we profiled Mac Wiseman an artist whose musical life transcends time. Born locally in Crimora, VA, but known internationally, Mr. Wiseman, now 91 years old, is still recording and maintains a large following of fans. After our 2007 story, it had been a while since I heard anything new about Mac Wiseman, ...

Some 10 or 12 years ago, I accompanied my son to a music festival in North Carolina to help him staff a trade booth for a magazine for which he worked at the time. We joined 70,000 music fans for four days of string-music greatness of a type that is now known to many as Americana. That experience led to ...

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 ...

As we look back on an amazing year, we thought it would be fun to highlight some of the venues we performed at in 2016 and share a few road stories with you. We performed at festivals and concerts in 16 different States and the Yukon, met many new friends and made a lot of great memories. We want to ...

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 ...

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 ...