If you met Allen Shadd at a bluegrass jam or backstage at a festival, you might never guess that he’s breathing rarified air in an elite club of only four people in the world—he has won, three times, the National Flatpicking Guitar Championship in Winfield, Kansas. Shadd carries himself in a casual manner, often pointing out his own perceived weaknesses. ...

Southern Maine brothers, David and Paul Sprague (founding members) make up the folky, funky, rock blend duo known as Psychopath Etiquette. They literally are “a band of brothers.” The brothers have been playing music together professionally for more than a decade.  In the summer of 2019, they formed this band, “as a culmination of everything they had been working on ...

Philadelphia, PA singer songwriter Kenny Curcio’s life changed forever when his dad gave him a guitar for a Christmas present. “When I was 12 years old my father bought me a guitar,” Kenny said. “He was sick at the time, and a few months after that Christmas he unfortunately passed away. The guitar was the last gift I received from ...

Banjo Bones is a native of Puerto Rico, but has spent nearly half of his life in the US; with the last 10 years or so in Sacramento, CA where he now calls home. His career in music spans nearly 40 years with five albums to his credit, and a sixth one just released on October 31st called, Lucifer’s Hand. ...

Columbus, Ohio musician, Ryan Warner, taught himself how to play guitar in 1996 as a freshman in college. “It took me a while to get through college though,” Ryan recalled. “Every time I started making headway in school it seemed like my music took off. I would be playing music three or four nights a week, and then not go ...

California’s Bobbo Byrnes is a storytelling singer/songwriter – his music is bountiful with hints and flavors of the beloved 70s AM Gold. His latest release, Sea Green Number 5, is a more intimate approach; a mostly acoustic project, compared to his previous albums. Bobbo is also a painter, and the tracks for this album were recorded in his living room ...

Virginia native Rebecca Frazier is perhaps best known for her work with her bluegrass band, Hit & Run, which made history as the only band to win competitions at Rockygrass (2002), Telluride Bluegrass Festival (2003), and the SPBGMA Band Championship in Nashville (2005). Yet her story is not your typical mountain or mountain valley upbringing with late night jams and weekend music parties that are common stories ...

“Country music is not just about pickup trucks,” says Addison Johnson. The lyrical depth of a song matters to Addison, and to that end, his approach is to take every listener of his music on a journey reliving personal life experiences he’s written about along the way. This Nashville Singer Songwriter has his roots not only in country, but also ...

Fabrice Vignati grew up in France listening to and playing the rich French cultural music, growing to love Gypsy Jazz, and even the revival of the Rockabilly sounds in the 1980s. Tracy grew up in Georgia exposed to country and rural cultural music as well as developing a love for Jazz. “When I was 13 or 14, I got a ...

This post is shared with permission from Chris Sexton. Chris plays fiddle for the VA based Bluegrass band, Nothin’ Fancy. He is a music teacher, and adjunct professor, but most importantly, a long time friend of renowned fiddle maker, Arthur Conner. Sadly, Arthur passed away recently.   I shared this picture about a year ago. The fiddles in my arms ...