Central Florida is home to the guys from Spayed Koolie, and Americana/country/southern rock band who borrows its name from famed 1940’s swing fiddler Spade Cooley. Fiddler Neal Phillips spent some time with us recently, talking about the heritage of his hip band who’s opened for Montgomery-Gentry, Kellie Pickler, 38 Special, and Charlie Daniels, just to name a few. “We like ...

Sacramento California is home to singer/songwriter JL “Pepe” Espada, a.k.a. Banjo Bones. With a music career that spans nearly 40 years, including work in Central America, Japan and the Washington DC area, has a new record out, called Ghostly Musings From the Delta. He started playing music when he was 10, and in his first band by the time he ...

If you don’t recognize Becky Buller’s name, you’ve likely heard one of the many song’s she written over the years. Becky has penned songs for such artists as Ricky Scaggs, Rhonda Vincent, The Infamous Stringdusters, Doyle Lawson, and more. Her first CD in four years, has just released, Crepe Paper Heart. “It wasn’t supposed to take this long, but so ...

Folks are inspired into a life of music by many things; often it’s a family history of music or peer exposure in high school or college. For Phillip Pappas, college was about Physics. Although he had started playing guitar when he was 15, life was to be about pursuing a Physics job. But something wasn’t right, and he realized that ...

Award-winning Rick Lang calls New Hampshire home, even though his songs have given him world wide credentials. With over 70 song cuts to his credit, Rick’s songs have been recorded by Bluegrass artists, Southern Gospel artists, and even Jazz singers. Of course, Rick is not just a songwriter, he has also recorded six studio CDs, including his latest released in ...

Gary Antol’s life spent living in mountain towns in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland give him an authentic perspective to draw on as he leads his band, the Jakob’s Ferry Stragglers. Their old-time, bluegrass, jamgrass, rockabilly, and swing music influences lead some to call what they do high energy Appalachian Bluegrass. Gary says it much more simple than that. We’re ...

You might call Johnny Chops, an alter ego of sorts for Austin based singer-songwriter Johnny Richardson. His band, Johnny Chops & The Razors serves as the outlet for everything that he doesn’t get to do when he’s out on the road with his “day job,” playing bass guitar for the Randy Rogers Band. Their latest self titled CD is filled ...

Banjo Nickaru & Western Scooches is led by New York, multi-instrumentalist, Nick Russo. Nick’s band has found a niche with their music, combining elements of country, bluegrass, western swing, rockabilly, blues, Dixieland, jazz, and even traditional folk music. A band who was not long ago noted as having “unfailing high-spirit,” by the London Times, the gang has found a way ...

Americana songwriter/guitarist Aris Paul hails from Pittsburgh, PA. He’s just released his first full length album, Drive All Night. “It’s a road-intensive album,” he told me. “And I think it’s a great offering of solid production, soulful lyrics, and top-notch musicianship. It’s a very solid collection of so many sub-genres from blues and rock to alt. country and folk.” Like ...

In a world where titles and definitions seem to matter, Jed “Tennessee Jed” Fisher has carved another notch in the bluegrass belt with his own contribution – Pimpgrass. It’s “soul and funk rock crossed with bluegrass and country music, aka: Bluegrass with bling.” And it’s catching on. Jed’s been traveling all across the US performing and recording with an A-list ...