Articles

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine August 1994, Volume 29, Number 2 Ralph Rinzler—one of the most influential figures in bluegrass, folk and old-time country music history—died on July 2,1994, at his home in Washington, D.C., after a lengthy illness. He was 59 years old. During an active life as a folklorist, promoter and musician, Rinzler…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine December 2008, Volume 43, Number 6 “It’s time for the uneasy listening portion of the evening, when bad things happen to good people.” Mike Henderson grins under the brim of his black cowboy hat and hits a bluesy lick on his Gibson mandolin, surveying the packed-to-the-walls Station Inn. Nashville’s bluegrass…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine August 1995, Volume 30, Number 2 There were a couple of directions we could have gone with this album,” says singer/songwriter Kathy Kallick of her current release, “Matters Of The Heart,” on Sugar Hill Records. “We could have done cover tunes, or we could have done a mixture [of covers…

The Widow of Earl’s Brother Horace, she was a Family Member for Many Decades Photos by Thomas Goldsmith Born April 15, 1925, Maida Greene arrived on this earth one year, three months, and nine days after her future brother-in-law Earl Eugene Scruggs, a notable champion of American music.  Maida knew the Scruggs family from elementary school…

A Look Back at Early Urban Bluegrass (Or, The Short But Lively Career of the Lonesome River Boys)  The Lonesome River Boys (not to be confused with the more modern Lonesome River Band) was a bluegrass group from the Northern Virginia/Washington DC area that was popular in the early and middle 1960s. Although largely unknown…

The story of the rise of The SteelDrivers is an impressive one. What famously started as a one-off bluegrass jam in a living room in Nashville turned into 20 years of great music and accolades at the highest levels of the music world. I distinctly remember the first time I heard about The SteelDrivers 18…