The Sound

A Half Century of Great Music For fifty iterations since 1972, the legendary Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas, has crowned national and international champions in instruments as diverse as hammered dulcimer and fingerstyle guitar, banjo and autoharp, and of course the event’s crown jewel, the National Flatpicking Guitar Championships. But the real champion is…

The ProPik brand of finger and thumb picks that are used by banjo, Dobro, fingerstyle guitar, and autoharp players have been available for forty years.  The story of how the company got their start is an interesting one.  It begins in 1982 when a guitar-playing design engineer named Jim Mapson, who lived in Orange County,…

Jeff Black credits a small-but-mighty banjo with providing inspiration for his song, “Gold Heart Locket,” recorded by Black (B-Sides and Confessions/2003) and later by Sam Bush (Circles Around Me/2009). “I’ll always think that song was in that little banjo,” said Black, during a songwriter’s round at The Bluebird Cafe, Nashville. In an exclusive interview for…

Carrying On The Jazz Grass Tradition Some readers are going to look at the title to this article and take exception to the words “Jazz Grass” and “tradition” being used in the same sentence.  However, if you think about it, the melding of jazz and bluegrass started early in the history of bluegrass music with…

The Bluegrass Unlimited Annual Talent Directory lists all artists and bands that requested inclusion in this directory. If you are a performing artist or are in a band and would like to be listed in the future, please email [email protected] with “Talent Directory” as the subject.   This directory will also appear on our website and will…

Photos By Erin Nutini Katie Glassman’s Fiddle School (fiddleschool.com) has everything that you’d want in an online music teaching platform.   The site offers instruction from two world-class fiddler players who thoroughly know their subject and expertly present their lessons in a well-designed, step-by-step teaching method that has something to offer fiddle players of all…