The Sound

Photos by Bud Osborne  DSecades ago, someone approached me at Bean Blossom and asked for feedback on a mandolin he’d built. The F-5 style instrument looked like a C- grade junior high school shop project. Not a smooth curve or straight line anywhere, and the finish looked like he’d melted Crayons over it. I played…

On November 14, 1995, a Stelling Sunflower banjo—serial number 4356— began its journey from the Virginia factory to Gruhn Guitars in Nashville. Ten months later it was purchased by a banjo picker in Mill Valley, California who kept it for an indeterminate amount of time. At some point it came into the possession of my…

“When COVID-19 hit, it was obvious things were going to slow down,” recalled Buddy Melton, lead singer and fiddler for repeat IBMA “Entertainer of the Year” Balsam Range. “We wanted to utilize our time and be positive.” Their May 2020 release of “The Richest Man” was one enduring result of their downtime. “Under the circumstances,…

Photos by Cindy Matheson At an age when most people have slowed down, 99-year-old Buckeye luthier and instrument repairman Jeff Littell rises by 7:30 and is at his well-equipped, dimly lit basement workbench after breakfast most days. His days fill with repairing double-basses, fixing all manner of bluegrass instruments, and even building a C.F. Martin…

Bluegrass has always tenbrooks’ed the fast and the powerful. Racehorses, big rigs, steam drills, sleek trains and burly freights cannonball through bluegrass standards. I’m sure there must be bluegrass from the ‘50s and ‘60s that mirrored the California car culture pop of Jan and Dean and the Beach Boys, but I can’t think of any…

 If you are learning to play the Dobro and are having trouble finding quality instruction, you need look no farther than Rob’s Reso Room.  Rob’s Reso Room is an internet-based teaching platform developed by fifteen-time IBMA “Dobro Player of the Year” Rob Ickes and his business partner Craig Spinney.   Launched two years ago, Rob’s…