Articles

Lloyd Loar stands, like Mario Maccaferri and Gibson’s Ted McCarty and Leo Fender, as one of the foundational stringed instrument designers in recent history. His acoustic engineering advancements in Gibson’s mandolin family instruments in the 1920s created (inadvertently) the ultimate bluegrass mandolin design—the legendary F-5 played by everyone from Bill Monroe to Wyatt Ellis.   …

This Owensboro, Kentucky-based band’s second album is one of those projects where all the pieces fall almost magically together. This owes to Kentucky Shine’s fine singing, playing and songwriting as well as their sure-handed grasp of the music’s thematic and instrumental traditions. Night Watch features two covers. One is a revival of the Osborne Brothers’…

New Mexico’s Higher Ground Bluegrass is celebrating 25 years of music with this ninth project. The band was established in 1998 by Duke Weddington, banjo player and primary songwriter, and in the past the band has opened for such artists as Frank Solivan and Dirty Kitchen, Tim O’Brien, The Infamous Stringdusters, and Peter Rowan, and…

Maryland’s Roger Cline has put together a nice collection of mostly original material on this new project of stories about bravery, courage, tenacity and about those who have it. He is joined here by a host of musicians including: Scott Freeman (mandolin), Debbie Durant & Tom Hensler (bass), Gary Hultman (resonator guitar), John Scott Walker…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine March 1985, Volume 19, Number 9 If it weren’t for a small road sign announcing the eye-blink of a town named Bean Blossom, we might have driven the length of Indiana’s Route 135 and never noticed Bill Monroe’s place. The memories come from 1978 but Bean Blossom seems timeless to…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine  April 1989, Volume 23, Number 10 Wesley Golding is already well known to most bluegrass fans as a key member of the 1970s supergroup Boone Creek. Highly regarded as a powerful, innovative singer and guitarist in his own right, Golding is also well remembered for his productive stints with the…