The Tradition

Bluegrass is a genre of music that’s been evolving since it first came out of the oven.  The original recipe created by master chef Bill Monroe had five cornerstone ingredients:  mandolin, guitar, fiddle, banjo, and bass.  When Josh Graves joined Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs in the Foggy Mountain Boys in 1955, he introduced a…

Baseball, as America’s national pastime, has endured through many of the country’s toughest, most trying epochs. Civil war soldiers played the game, and prisoners of war during that time played every chance they got. Major League Baseball became a focal point for civil rights when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in the mid-1940’s, and…

Queries I have a 45 by the Page Valley Boys on Franc Records from Arlington, Virginia. The record is “Reubens Train” and “Old Blue.” Were they from Page County, Virginia, and who played in the group? I know Franc records was a folk label. Robert Embrey, via email. A: The Page Valley Boys came together…

John William Hall was born on November 29, 1933 near Front Royal, Virginia and grew up on a small family farm. He went to the Washington, D.C. area in 1951 and soon became an important part of the area bluegrass scene. In 2005, Tom Mindte spoke with John in connection with a book he and…

Photo Courtesy of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine Yet what made Dudley unique is that, for as great of a picker as he was, he chose to take a life path away from music full time, which he certainly could have accomplished, and instead settled in Springfield, Missouri to raise a family and teach as an associate…

Queries Q: The title track to the Gillis Brothers and their Hard-Driving Bluegrass Band’s second CD, “Ice Cold Stone” (Hay Holler HHH-CD-302, 1992), is somewhat of a mystery. Larry and John Gillis learned the song at a jam session and label owner Kerry Hay, who helped arrange it for the album, was unable to trace…