The Tradition

Notes “In response to Mary Gibson’s question about the Webster Brothers in the May issue of Bluegrass Unlimited, I was just listening to them the other day on an album called Classic Country Duets (Old Timey 126). It’s a nice album with 17 songs that had long been unavailable and includes ‘Road of Broken Hearts’…

All Photos Courtesy of Three On A String Those who are old enough, and lucky enough, to have walked on a weekend night down several deep steps into the Lowenbrau Haus in Birmingham, circa 1972, walked into an enchanted grotto full of music, laughter, thick ropes of smoke and a band called Three on a String….

Queries Q: Terry McManus from Maine asked: “With Tony Rice gone, what will become of #58957? Will it be retired, which would be sad, or will someone else pick it up? My (unasked for) opinion – Wyatt Rice, Josh Williams, or Mark O’Connor.” A: #58957 refers to the serial number of Tony Rice’s 1935 Martin…

NOTES “I was pleasantly surprised to see that you mentioned and pictured Lacey Jenkins Daugherty, writer of ‘Beautiful Lost River Valley’ in the March 2021 issue of Bluegrass Unlimited. Let me add to the story.  I used to own a Christmas tree farm in Hardy County, West Virginia. Friends there knew I was a bluegrass…

For over half a century, old-time/bluegrass music has connected the author with a wide variety of interesting and highly talented people, including autoworkers in Flint, Michigan, musicians in New Zealand, and Virginians transplanted to Detroit. The following is a selective appreciation. On the Fourth of July weekend in 1971, I attended Carlton Haney’s bluegrass festival…

Photo by Jamie Alexander “JT was a big wheel in the business,” said the award-winning songwriter and bluegrass musician Larry Cordle just days after the death of the Station Inn’s JT Gray on March 20th, 2021. “This is what blows my mind about him losing his life. I mean, he just got his due. He…