Audie Blaylock currently resides in Auburn, Indiana but was born in Texas, and spent part of his childhood in the Cumberland Gap area of Virginia; an area rich in Appalachian traditions. In the mid-60s his family moved to Michigan for work, but they would visit family in Virginia often. So Audie grew up with a musical family exposed to the ...

Anya Hinkle’s (2019 Merlefest’s Chris Austin Song Contest winner) distinctive vocals set the tone for Asheville-based Appalachian roots-music band, Tellico. A native of Southwest Virginia, Anya’s native influences coupled with her worldly travels makes for a seasoned musical flavor full of honesty and heart. Both of Anya’s parents were musicians, and she grew up playing violin, singing in the church ...

Singer/songwriter Artie Tobia makes his home in New York, and comes from a deep pedigree of music. “My great, great grandfather played with John Philip Sousa. I had grandfathers and uncles and cousins who all had careers in music. So I got the gene and/or that bug,” he told us. Artie said he remembers writing his first song at around ...

Boston, MA is home base for the Americana band, Los Goutos. Five multi-instrumentalists made up the original core of the band, three of them being singer-songwriters. Over the years the group has morphed and expanded to now include a fourth singer-songwriter (Emily Grogan), a two-piece horn section, and sometimes a fiddle. They’ve described themselves as an off-kilter and infectious concoction ...

Mark Wayne Glasmire was just 10 years old when his parents gave him a guitar as a Christmas present. Although now residing in Arlington, TX, Mark was born and raised in Bethlehem, PA. “I always wanted to be a rock star,” he told me. A child of the 60’s, Mark grew up listening to the singer-songwriters of the day like ...

Super groups are inevitable in every genre’ I suppose, but it seems most exciting when a group of bluegrass guys and/gals, who all have regular gigs in some other fashion, find themselves together forming a new band. Sometimes it is on the side, and sometimes it becomes the main thing. When Jerry Salley began putting together a new bluegrass/Americana label, ...

Alan Bibey has been entertaining audiences professionally with his mandolin chops since the early 1980’s. He picked up the instrument at the of age of five, and since then, has become one of the most creative and technically gifted mandolinists in bluegrass and acoustic music today. Alan was an original member of three of bluegrass music’s more contemporary pioneering acts; ...

An impromptu performance about six years ago at the Station Inn in Nashville, TN, led to another of bluegrass music’s exciting mash-up of musicians. The part-time super group consists of five-time IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year and Grammy Nominated, Dale Ann Bradley, along with veteran Nashville powerhouse singer, Tina Adair, fiddle player; Deanie Richardson ((who’s worked with all kinds ...

Billy Droze was born in Lafayette, Louisiana, the 10th of 12 children, in 1986, but he grew up in Alabama, knowing the whole time that music was going to be his life, “as far back as I can remember,” he said. Billy said he got his start in gospel music before finding his way into a traveling bluegrass band with ...

It’s always good to get the chance to revisit with artists that we’ve featured here in previous issues. Rob and Kristen Smith are excellent examples of an act that just stays with it, stays at it, and keeps the musical fires burning as they pursue their passion for sharing their gift with whomever will listen. Rob is a graduate from Virginia ...