The Archives
The Jackson Five—Bluegrass Style
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited MagazineJuly 1972, Volume 7, Number 1 Imagine, if you can, a big-name bluegrass band—one which usually has a superior banjo player—stepping out onto the stage to greet their cheering, enthusiastic fans. With them is a new banjo player—very new—like, 14 years old, and a complete unknown. The fans are more than…
Hylo Brown: The Bluegrass Balladeer
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited MagazineAugust 1974, Volume 9, Number 2 Some two decades ago, a young Kentucky-born factory worker from Springfield, Ohio, went to Nashville, in hopes of getting an established country singer to record a song he had written. Although he had made something of a reputation as a part-time performer around local radio…
Lester Flatt & The Nashville Grass
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited MagazineJanuary 1971, Volume 5, Number 7 “I’ve always wanted to do what we are doing now,” says Lester Flatt about his new approach to his music. The band currently features Buck “Uncle Josh” Graves, Jack Tullock and Paul Warren, plus two former Blue Grass Boys in the person of Roland White…
Larry Sparks
Reprinted From Bluegrass Unlimited MagazineApril 1983—Volume 17, Number 10 The Larry Sparks story begins September 25, 1947, in Lebanon, Ohio, just across the Kentucky line. Larry is the youngest of nine children of Eva and Charlie Sparks; all the children played guitar at least a little, and his grandfather Lewison Dose Russell was an old-time…
The Boys From Indiana with Paul Mullins and Noah Crase
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited MagazineNovember 1976, Volume 11, Number 5 Not since the introduction “Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, and All The Foggy Mountain Boys” last rolled off the tongue of announcer T. Tommy Cutrer has the name of a bluegrass band been longer or more talked about than “The Boys From Indiana with Paul Mullins…
From Sound to Style: The Emergence of Bluegrass
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited MagazineJanuary 1969, Volume 3, Number 7 This article came about largely as a result of my efforts to clarify some points raised by L. Mayne Smith in his article “An Introduction to Bluegrass” (reprinted in BU Volume 1, Numbers 3-6; JEMF Reprint Series number 6). BU readers will find many of…