The Sound
Rob’s Reso Room and Reso Summit
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…
Tradition & Innovation
Covering All—Or at Least Some Of—the Basses Once upon a time the A. P. Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers were revolutionaries. A traditionalist scholar once complained that—by introducing guitar into songs that had been previously sung unaccompanied—the Carters just ruined them. Jimmie Rodgers featured jazz players and Hawaiian musicians on some of his recordings, and…
Tell Me You’re Not Leaving
Photo by Joe Worthem It’s been a few years since Volume Five cut the poignant “Tell Me You’re Not Leaving” for Milestones, the band’s seventh record for label Mountain Fever. Far from a traditional bluegrass barn burner—something this band can get around—the slower, reflective song reached #2 on Bluegrass Today charts. Lead singer Glen Harrell…
Bill Evans and the 5-string Banjo
Photo by Snap Jackson Photography One constant in Bill Evans’ 40-plus-year banjo career is helping others learn to play and listen to music. He began teaching in his hometown, Norfolk, VA in the 1970s, while still in high school, not long after he picked up the five string. Evans remembers sitting in the living room…
Perfect Mix For Success
In the world of songwriting, finding the right co-writer can be a difficult task. Finding the right fit and building a relationship with other writers requires patience and is often compared to a marriage. Many songwriters today prefer to spend time together in person creating lyrics to a melody. Publishing companies often unite writers in…
Learning to Play Mandolin Instruction with Tristan Scroggins
Photo By Natia Cinco Tristan Scroggins started playing professionally in a full-time touring bluegrass band when he was only fourteen years old (2009). It was his father’s band—Jeff Scroggins and Colorado—and they loved to be on the road. Tristan said, “I grew up in a strange situation of touring all of the time. We started…