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Sibling Harmony

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 ...

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Before The Words

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; ...

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Build It, They Will Play

By Edward Tutwiler During this magical, mystical, Americana string-music tour that I’ve been so blessed to take, I have had the privilege to document the stories of many fine instrument makers. Some have been renowned musicians who also construct a special instrument that delivers the perfect sound to their ears and then build a copy of that instrument one at ...

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Puttin’ The Beat In It

By Edward Tutwiler – About two years ago, in (Issue 44) Americana Rhythm, we delved into the use or absence thereof of drum sets in the old-time and traditional bluegrass genres of Americana string music; and for that matter at that time, also in progressive and new-grass iterations as well. I even went so far as to observe that I ...

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House Concerts

Every so often, we here at Americana Rhythm like to break out the topic of House Concerts. It appears to me to be one of the most underused options available for listeners to experience live entertainment. Artists are eager to play music—it’s what they do. And when it’s cold outside, the outdoor opportunities are greatly limited. You might be surprised ...

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The Return Of The Record

At the 2015 Grammy awards, Prince paid homage to the  pioneering musical format with this comment; “Albums … remember those? Albums still matter.” And with that, I invite you to read on. – editor Climb into Mr. Peabody’s way-back machine with me, and travel back to the mid 1960s to downtown Lynchburg VA. There, one chilly, misty Saturday morning, I ...

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