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Music To Wolves

Stepping away from music-industry nuts and bolts this time, I plan to share some of the interesting characters we met on my recent tour in Europe. Each gig brought note-worthy characters as well as good connections for future bookings. We began in Nancy, France, near where my cousins live, and about 1.5 hours from where my mother was born and ...

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Seedlings And Soundlings

I’ve grown up around music. It was my second language spoken in my household as a child. And I learned it much as native-born children of immigrant families do – orally and aurally. I heard the sounds and the relationships. Sure, I learned to interpret pictures of chord shapes on the guitar, and scribbled out song lyrics and place the ...

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The Quixote Project

The Quixote Project, while steeped in traditional genres, looks to blur the lines of modern music from a roots music foundation. The New Jersey based collaboration was started by Jeff Selby and fueled by a revolving cast of musicians. “They have distilled multi-genre sounds of a beachfront music festival into a remarkably cohesive live set,” said Dave Fox of Music ...

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A Promoter’s “Jurney” in Berryville

During the summer festival season, we find it difficult to attend more than a few of the fine Americana music performances that the great promoters of this genre of music make available. The solution of course is to locate a source of this music that does not end when the leaves began to change color. One really great fall/winter source ...

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50 Artists, 30 Studios, Biggest Ever

Gregg Welty’s initial exposure to bluegrass music is like so many other musicians growing up in musical families. “I remember listening to my dad (the 1993 Winfield national bluegrass banjo champion) play music throughout childhood,” Gregg told me recently. “I really hated the Banjo for the majority of my childhood. When I was in middle school/early high school, I decided ...

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Attitude Matters On The Road

As musicians, we have all spent time playing with other musicians as a band member or the lead. The adage that wrangling band members is like herding cats can definitely be true. Ultimately it comes down to attitude, and a good attitude always pays off. Following are a few examples of experiences I have had. I am hoping that if ...

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A Fiddlers Dream Holiday

Over the years, I have come in contact with folks who have traveled as tourists to Ireland; and I have known folks who have lived as expatriates or who have done an extended work assignment for several years in that emerald green land. Most folks who have ever trod that special place yearn for a chance to return to the ...

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The Brotherly Approach

As we study the early generation of artists of this music genre we often call Americana string music we are reminded that these folks were talented and produced lasting memories. Today’s artists often point to those early performers as providing models to mold their own performances upon One particular performance style that gets mentioned again and again is the tight ...

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In Pursuit Of The Gig Life

With my band – excited, childlike, half-broke and full of anticipation – I set out on the road to the Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans, with a car stuffed with instruments, clothes and snacks. I had heard tales of New Orleans for years – voodoo, people never sleeping, music that never stops. I had no idea that I ...

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Put Him On A Boat

Mike Aiken and I have known each other for many years. Most recently, Mike has been penning a column for Americana Rhythm called On The Road. What I find fascinating, and what I think many people don’t know about Mike, is that a good percentage of His life is, and has been, spent living on a boat. So we thought ...

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