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Ida 2
Ida Clare offers a new project of original material that blends their mix of bluegrass styles. The band is based in Louisville, Kentucky and includes Lea Cockrell (vocals, guitar), Jim Wheatley (vocals, mandolin, harmonica, guitar), Robin Thixton (vocals, banjo), and Nick Stevens (bass, piano). Others include Rob Edwards (percussion), Jeff Guernsey (fiddle, resonator guitar), Todd…
Notes & Queries – October 2023
Queries Q: I was reading John Hartley Fox’s article ‘Muleskinner & Clarence White’ in the June 2023 Bluegrass Unlimited and noticed what I think are (slight) errors. I grew up in LA and had been to the Ash Grove many times to see the likes of The Kentucky Colonels and Bill Monroe with Billy Keith…
The Reno Family
40 Years Late…and Right On Time This is a noteworthy year in the history of bluegrass music because it is the year that we lost the last of our first-generation heroes. While a few of those bluegrass trailblazers, like the most recent to leave us—Bobby Osborne and Jesse McReynolds—lived past their 90th birthday, there were…
“Bluegrass Spectaculars” at the Ice House
Bluegrass Hall of Fame member Carlton Haney has received (and deserved) much acclaim for his production of a bluegrass festival in 1965 at Cantrell’s Horse Farm in Fincastle, Virginia, universally hailed as the first multi-day bluegrass festival and the model for all that followed. The only problem with this much-repeated narrative is that “Bluegrass Spectaculars,”…
Missy Raies
Long Journey Home Missy Raines has always been one to straddle the lines between bluegrass music’s insular tradition and its cutting edge. For years, she leaned more towards its contemporary evolution, embracing elements of jazz and Americana in her compositions. But now, as she enters the fifth decade of her illustrious career, she is seeking…
The Johnson Mountain Boys
All who love to explore bluegrass music’s history in depth are aware (or arguably should be!) of the longstanding and ever-growing series of books devoted to “Music in American Life,” published by the University of Illinois Press since 1972. As a whole, the catalog of books explores all forms of American vernacular music, documenting not…