The Archives
Confessions of a Bluegrass Musician from New York
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine May 1977, Volume 11, Number 11 Northern Bluegrass — A Tangle of Roots and Contradictions The whole idea of Northern bluegrass sounds like a contradiction in terms. Bluegrass is the essence of the rural music of the traditional South. It seems impossible that Northerners, especially those from city and college…
Pete Wernick — “Dr. Banjo”
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine April 1987, Volume 21, Number 10 It’s 1963 in Washington Square Park, downtown Manhattan, on a Sunday afternoon. A young man of seventeen carrying a banjo case is inching his way forward through a crowded circle of bystanders toward its center where several bluegrass musicians are jamming near a fountain….
Bill Monroe in the Studio—Recording the Grammy Winner
Photos by Raymond Huffmaster Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine April 1989, Volume 23, Number 10 Bluegrass music as played by Bill Monroe is like no other sound on earth—and setting it on tape is like no other recording session. The sounds of bagpipes, blues, mountain churches and running brooks are echoed in Monroe’s tunes—it’s not…
Joe Val and the New England Bluegrass Boys — One of the Best Kept Secrets in Bluegrass
By Nancy and Dick Kimmel Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine May 1983, Volume 17, Number 11 1982 was a pivotal year for Joe Val and the New England Bluegrass Boys. It was the first year this band was able to do extensive touring outside of their immediate home area. Personal contact through touring has always…
Vern Williams—“You’ve Got To Let It All Pour Out”
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine June 1986, Volume 20, Number 12 When you’re talking about traditional bluegrass music on the West Coast these days, chances are that you’re talking about the Vern Williams Band. Although there are other, solid, bluegrass bands to be found throughout the western states, it is Vern Williams that has managed…
Red Rector: Mandolin Virtuoso
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine September 1975, Volume 10, Number 3 The mandolin became a part of bluegrass at basically the same moment as Bill Monroe which is to say, in the beginning. Other bands which took on elements of bluegrass also began to include innovative mandolin pickers. Among them was a young North Carolinian…