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 ...

By Paul Livornese When, at age 50, you finally realize life is too short, what then? I found myself in that moment of epiphany three years ago when my father passed away. There I was, staring the “life is short” mantra square in the face … with more than half of my life in the rear view mirror. Where had ...

By Mark Whetzel The accolades continue for the restored State Theatre in Culpeper, Virginia. “I can’t wait to go back”, “Acoustics and sight lines are superb”, “Comfy and super friendly staff”, and “Love the nostalgic feeling the minute you walk in the door,” are just some of the comments from recent visitors. Patrons unanimously agree that this renovation project successfully ...

By Andrew McKnight “What is the single most important money-making tip you would give a new singer/songwriter?” That question was asked of Featured Artists at *The Standing “O” Project, and answers from 16 of those working musicians are collected in this book; some are single sentences, others are pages long. Killing it In the Streaming Age offers a different take ...

By Tori Gold Back in the winter, we attended the DC Bluegrass Union’s indoor festival. It was a top notch festival held in the ballroom of an up-scale hotel and unique in that we stayed on the same floor on which the ballroom stage was located. This convenience provided plenty of opportunity to mingle with the performers between sets. One ...

By Donna Ulisse As I sit here in the quiet of my home office with the computer screen throwing contrived lighting across my hands, I am reminded of how natural and unchanged the craft of song writing is. We can invent all these wonderful new tools to use for writing songs but it still comes down to the very basics; ...