The Artists
Annie Staninec
Photo by Amanda Rowan Annie Staninec (featured in Bluegrass Unlimited, May 2017) is a stellar bluegrass fiddle player of Japanese/Czechoslovakian descent who grew up in San Francisco, California and currently lives in Portland, Oregon. She learned to play the fiddle at a young age and became interested in bluegrass because her father played the guitar…
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…
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…