The bluegrass/roots/folk scene has expanded exponentially in recent years, and the talent level has progressed right along with it. Artists are doing things today with traditional string instruments that Jimmy Martin and Bill Monroe probably never imagined wereto be you could probably count the number of top acts with 10 fingers, to a time when there are better than 10 ...

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 ...

Beaver Creek, CO resident Jim Stanard grew up listening to, loving, and absorbing the music of all the greats. He grew up in an era when he could watch first hand entertainers like Tom Rush, Doc Watson, Bruce Springsteen, hanging out at the legendary Main Point Coffeehouse in Bryn Mawr, PA. He even attended Woodstock in 1969 although his perspective is less than ...

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 ...

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 ...

Adam Steffey started playing bluegrass music in the early eighties, as a freshman in high school, on a mandolin his grandfather got him at a flea market. “I was actually a late starter,” he commented. “So many kids these days, they are eight years old and just blastin’ already. But I took an interest in it right away. I took ...

Editor’s note: Every year we like to take the opportunity to fly the House Concert flag. If you’ve never experienced one, you should. It’s the only music genre’ of which I know that affords musicians the opportunity to sustain a musician’s lifestyle simply by performing a few times a week, in someone’s living room. Gather two dozen friends all pitching ...

One of the things I love about this genre’ we call Americana, is that there is so much darn good music that just doesn’t fit anywhere else. And while our little corner of the music universe is ever expanding, it’s still at its core, roots music. Whether an Americana artist is 20 or 50, nearly all will relate their path ...

Jalan Crossland makes his home in Wyoming. Michael Segell of the New York Times once commented that Jalan’s song, “Big Horn Mountain Blues” was so popular that it was practically the official state song. That’s a pretty juicy compliment for any artist. We caught up with Jalan as he was spending a few months off the touring trail by camping ...

When I was a young kid in the late 1940s, a local radio station, WSVA-AM, aired live country music daily from their Harrisonburg, VA studio. My mother kept that string-music (her words) playing in our home every day. Mac Wiseman was a musical renaissance man at WSVA. He read the news, weather and commercials; was the MC for the live ...