The Artists

 “I discovered bluegrass because of the banjo,” says banjo-picker Chris Pandolfi from the Grammy-Award winning Infamous Stringdusters.  “I got into playing the banjo because of Béla Fleck.  I was a Flecktone fan and really inspired by the music.  That is what led me to buy my first banjo and of course everything points back to…

Continuing the Scruggs Style Banjo Tradition Earl Scruggs helped define bluegrass music as we know it today and he originated the style of playing the five-string banjo that formed the foundation for banjo players in bluegrass music.  Many banjo players feel that there has been no one that has matched Earl’s mastery of this style,…

“I had no natural inclination towards music, beyond being drawn to the instrument through this one song that brought me in,”  explains banjo picker Mike Munford, the 2013 IBMA “Banjo Player of the Year,” about his discovery of the instrument that would change his life.  That one song was the Flatt & Scruggs’ classic, “Foggy…

Proud to Continue the Two-Century Tradition of Black Banjo Players When Bill Monroe was a young man, he befriended, played with and even did gigs with the Black guitarist Arnold Shultz. Shultz’s influence on Monroe is clear and obvious, and yet there is sadly no recording of the legendary guitarist. IBMA Hall of Famer Doc…

String Driven Adventures Those well-known words written by poet Robert Frost from “The Road Not Taken” could have been written with the group Hawktail in mind.  Listening to their music you quickly realize without question they chose the road less traveled.  Hawktail is a musical quartet that has been called a supergroup, and after you…

Stillhouse Junkies recently returned from a European tour—just a couple of years later than they had planned. Back in early March of 2020, they played a big release party for Calamity, the album they recorded in Austin in November 2019. They planned to leave for England in March 2020, with tickets bought, shows booked, and…