The Artists
Sav Sankaran
Photo by Sandlin Gaither A resident of Asheville, North Carolina, Sav Sankaran is an upright bass player and vocalist with the bluegrass band Unspoken Tradition. Previously, he toured with the Dixie Bee-Liners, Kristy Cox and other North Carolina bands. He is a first-generation American of Indian descent who points to Bob Paisley & Southern Grass…
Mackenzie Bell
Photo by Arnold Flenor Mackenzie Bell is a 15-year-old fiddle player who was born in Guatemala, adopted at the age of seven months, and has grown up just 10 miles from Bill Monroe’s hometown of Rosine, Kentucky. When she was 7-years-old she heard a friend play the fiddle and thought that this was something that…
The Ultimate Road Dog
Photo by Daniel Coston For nearly half a century, fiddling ace Mike Hartgrove of the Lonesome River Band has been traveling highways across America playing bluegrass and country music. “Mike is a road pro,” says Lonesome River Band leader Sammy Shelor. “The guy has been on the road since he was 17 years old, about…
A Marriage Made in Music
Justin and Sierra aren’t quite sure when their first meeting was. She had seen him play at local festivals with Kentucky Wind. He remembers meeting her at an IBMA convention one year. After years of friendship and Justin filling in with Sierra’s band on various instruments, somewhere along the way their friendship began to blossom…
Jack Tuttle
Influencing Generations of Bluegrass Pickers Jack Tuttle is a multi-instrumentalist, author, and teacher based in the San Francisco Bay Area who has the distinction of being one of, if not the first to ever teach a bluegrass jam class. For more than four decades, Jack has taught bluegrass mandolin, guitar, banjo, fiddle, vocal, and jam…
Passages of Time with Sierra Hull
Photo by Shelly Swanger “There’s something intimate about knowing people in the audience and nerve wracking a little bit,” instrumentalist/singer/songwriter Sierra Hull said, chuckling. The night before her interview with Bluegrass Unlimited, she had performed in front of musician friends and industry professionals at the Nashville, TN venue 3rd and Lindsley. The three-time IBMA Mandolin Player of…