The Tradition

The 86-year-old didn’t play music as a child, but picked it up a little later in life. In 1959, after a stint in the Navy, he came to Danville, Virginia, and decided to take up music in his spare time.  “Old friends that I went to school with were plunkers. I wanted to be a…

[Editor’s Note:  In our January, 2024 issue we ran an article about the new Earl Scruggs exhibit at the Earl Scruggs Center in Shelby, North Carolina.  Part of that exhibit includes information from a 17,000 word document that Earl had written about his life.  In our previous article, we included a few excerpts from that…

Q: What ever happened to the person who wrote all of the songs on Reno & Smiley’s Civil War album? – Jerry Steinberg, Salem, Virginia A: The songwriter in question was Dr. Albert J. Russo, a doctor who practiced medicine in the Salem/Roanoke, Virginia, area for 39 years. His proximity to Reno & Smiley’s headquarters…

The Long Strange Trip of Spud, Dawg, Red, Mule and Vassar Jerry Garcia’s burning ambition as a young musician was to play banjo in Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys. He never made it, and had to satisfy himself with being the leader of one of the most successful and beloved bands in rock music, the…

(May 22, 1939 – December 25, 2023) “Dave (Freeman) single-handedly built a company that encompasses record labels, wholesale distribution and mail order to the public. He has made a fair amount of money doing it, but every dollar has been made absolutely fairly and squarely. He brought to this music the thoroughgoing integrity, dedication and love…

On January 6, 2024, Earl Eugene Scruggs, the most influential and imitated banjo picker on the planet, would have turned 100 years old. To celebrate the occasion, Jerry Douglas served as musical director and assembled some of the best and brightest pickers in bluegrass for a magical three-and-a-half hour show in the historic Ryman Auditorium…