We are always on the hunt for stories about that genre of roots Americana music known as the blues. On that note, a press release from Gary Atkinson of Document Records Ltd. recently landed on the publisher’s desk telling about a project that his company is releasing. This project is titled, Searching for Secret Heroes and its focal point is ...

Often we here at Americana Rhythm wax poetic about the romantic mystery of the Appalachian Mountain region; the music; and the people who reside there. Nevertheless, just like other places in the world have their sad parts, our beloved mountain region does as well. Anyone who pays attention to the news is aware of the pockets of poverty that exist ...

Country music fans of the 1950s can easily call up a mental picture of their favorite performers and visualize those folks in their glitzy stage garb. You may remember when singer Glen Campbell immortalized those fancy suited folks as Rhinestone Cowboys. During that era, anyone who was anyone that performed on the stage of the Nashville, TN Grand Ole Opry ...

Over the years, we have told you many stories centered around those famous Bristol, TN recording sessions—those sessions held in July and August 1927 now often referred to as the Big Bang of Country Music. I fear that we may have caused some folks to believe that happening was the beginning of commercial recorded sound. This is an incorrect belief. ...

On Labor Day weekend, in 1971, Carlton Haney produced a Bluegrass festival at Camp Springs, NC. This festival featured notable performers such as Earl Scruggs, Ralph Stanley, Chubby Wise, The Osborne Brothers, Jimmy Martin, Mac Wiseman, J.D. Crowe, The Lilly Brothers, Tex Logan, Don Stover, and The Country Gentlemen. Remember that it was the year 1971 so many of the ...

Is your musical bucket list like ours here at the magazine? Our bucket is just too full of wonderful festivals and other musical events and not full enough of time to fit them all in. Such was the case recently when a press release hit our in-box with details about the release of a documentary film about the Galax Old ...

The history of Americana old-time string music and its people only appears in elusive glimpses as it becomes visible to us today—much as when the foggy mists that float in the hollows of the Appalachian Mountains clears in patches to reveal a beautiful view only to quickly hide it once more as it swirls on its way. Such is the ...

If you can compose a written sentence in a grammatically accepted manner that conveys a coherent thought to a reader who finds that thought interesting, you are a writer—NO! To be a writer, one must modify those words with others so that the whole word grouping provokes emotional feelings in the reader’s mind. When done properly, a story emerges. Story ...

If you are a fan of Alice Gerrard who, along with her duet partner the legendary folksinger, Hazel Dickens, pioneered the emergence of women in bluegrass, you might be interested in this bit of information. Several years ago at the IBMA convention in Raleigh, NC, the AR trade booth was located near an exhibit explaining a film producer’s effort to ...

Sometimes we lovers of Americana string music and its associated entertaining pleasures do not take the listening, watching, feeling, tasting leap very far beyond our Appalachian roots. However, there are some more great Americana experiences waiting for us out there. Information about two such experiences recently found their way to our desk. Let me tell you about them. The Academy ...