The Archives
The Rebirth of a Bluegrass Band: California
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine August 1992, Volume 27, Number 2 California is Byron Berline, champion fiddler; Dan Crary, flatpicking guitar master; John Hickman, banjo legend; Steve Spurgin, hit songwriter, vocalist and bassist and newcomer John Moore adding expert mandolin, guitar and vocals. Individually these artists are masters at their respective instruments, collectively they are…
The Country Gazette
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine November 1972, Volume 7, Number 5 With few established roots in the hierarchy of bluegrass music, The Country Gazette have entered the scene with the commercial clout to make a difference. Byron Berline never had much time to absorb the fiddle styles of any one person whether it be Chubby…
50 Years Ago in Bluegrass Music
Fifty years ago bluegrass music was roughly 25 years old and hitting its full stride. Multi-day bluegrass festivals were gaining in popularity around the country, the first-generation bands were still performing and in their prime, and the second-generation bands were developing strong reputations. During 1971, Tony Rice joined J.D. Crowe, Doyle Lawson joined the Country…
High Country
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine June 1972, Volume 6, Number 12 The place looks like a composite of all those little Nashville recording studios you read about in Look or Newsweek, once a garage or spare bedroom and now a down home hit factory where the new sound of today’s country music is put down….
Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine May 1971, Volume 5, Number 11 Part I: THE CLINCH MOUNTAIN BOYS This is about Curly Ray Cline, Roy Lee Centers, Jack Cooke, and maybe me. Over the last twenty-five years there have been many Clinch Mt. Boys, but this is the present band and thus representative of the Stanley…
Fresh Impressions of Bean Blossom
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine August 1971, Volume 6, Number 2 About the Cover: Bill Monroe and Lester Flatt were reunited on the stage of Bean Blossom, Indiana this year, as a climax to the largest bluegrass festival ever held. It had been twenty-three years since Lester Flatt had left the Blue Grass Boys to…