Wow! This is Americana Rhythm’s 100th issue. It is going on 13+ years we’ve been writing essays about our favorite genre of music—the music that Virginian Ralph Stanley once described as, “That music they call bluegrass”. Of course, in a different setting it is that music my mother called “string-music” when she and I, as a child, listened to the ...

Although he only picked up the guitar during college, Eric Hagen has had music pulsing through his veins since earliest childhood: “I like to say my first words were ‘ma,’ ‘ba,’ and ‘Hey Jude,’ says the artist, citing the influence of his father’s record collection. It took a bad case of covid to propel Eric into full-on songwriting. “I got ...

There is a pastry shop in the next town over from where I live. Whenever they pull a fresh tray of donuts from their oven, they light a little sign in their window that reads, “Hot and Ready”. That sign came to my mind recently when I visited the dance tent at Merlefest in Wilksboro, NC. At that tent, I ...

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 ...

Scotland’s Malcolm MacWatt got his first guitar at age 12. When his dad bought him the Johnny Cash at San Quentin album, he was hooked. “It was all about roots music from there on,” he said. He was especially into the more traditional, folk elements of it, with its roots going all the all the way back to Britain and ...

Jim Stephen’s Yellow River album release is his 4th in 36 months on Ropeadope Records. It’s a 10 song “tour-de-force” featuring music rooted deep in Jazz, Soul, Blues, and Funk. It was recorded mostly in two days at the legendary Esplanade Studios in New Orleans where Jim calls home. Jim got a late start in music, not really playing or ...

Sam Karr, founder of Sam Jam, says he’s been a fan of Bluegrass music and festivals nearly all his life. “I grew up with my father and his friends all going to Bluegrass festivals, and them taking all their kids along with them,” he recalled recently. “The bands we listened to became some of my favorite groups, and I grew ...

I first heard The Wooks one afternoon coming out of my in dash XM Radio. Bluegrass Junction was spinning up something new, and I knew right then that I needed to find out more about this band. Turns out, these five guys from Eastern Kentucky haven’t been together that long, but they’re already making an impact on the bluegrass/Americana music ...

Album of the Year American Band Drive-By Truckers, Produced by David Barbe Close Ties Rodney Crowell, Produced by Kim Buie and Jordan Lehning Freedom Highway Rhiannon Giddens, Produced David Bither, Rhiannon Giddens and Dirk Powell The Navigator Hurray for the Riff Raff, Produced by Paul Butler A Sailor’s Guide to Earth Sturgill Simpson, Produced by Sturgill Simpson Artist of the ...

For several years now, dissatisfaction has been growing over the musical direction the genre’ called country music has been taking. To many of us baby boomers, what is now called country music sounds quite similar to the 70s AM rock music we grew up with. It’s certainly traveled far from George Jones, Johnny Cash, and Merle Haggard. While the younger ...