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Appalachian Road Show (left to right) Todd Phillips, Jim VanCleve, Barry Abernathy, Darrell Webb, Zeb Snyder

The Appalachian Road Show

Moving Forward with a Vision to Showcase the Roots of a Truly American Genre of Music Photos by Erick Anderson When I first heard the news of the creation of Appalachian Road Show, the idea of bringing together these five musicians made perfect sense. Yet, there was also a sense of their formation being too…

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2023 Reader’s Poll

In 1967, and again in 1971, Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine presented a Reader’s Poll and we have decided to bring it back in 2023.  There are a lot of categories that we might have selected to include in this poll, however, we decided to stay with tradition and use the same categories that we have used…

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Josh Graves display at the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Owensboro, Kentucky. // Photo by Jamie Alexander

A New Ingredient

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…

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Lost & Alone

Anyone who has followed Junior Sisk’s career knows what a wonderful traditional bluegrass singer he is. From Virginia’s Blue Ridge area, Sisk cites influences like the Stanley Brothers, Larry Sparks, Dave Evans, and The Johnson Mountain Boys. Sisk was the founder of the successful and award-winning Rambler’s Choice, and he was awarded SPBGMA’s 2017 “Male…

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50 Years of Elderly  Instruments

For fifty years Elderly Instruments of Lansing, Michigan has been a central home for the warm sound of vintage instruments and an incredible selection of new instruments by luthiers from the US and abroad. A large brick building in Lansing houses thousands of musical dreams, a knowledgeable and friendly staff, but one more magic quotient….

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Karma

Volume Five is based in Mississippi and since 2008 has become quite a popular band with a unique approach to bluegrass music. The group on this new project consists of Patton Wages (banjo), Aaron Ramsey (mandolin, octave mandolin, bass), Jeff Partin (bass, resonator guitar), Jacob Burleson (guitar), and Glen Harrell (fiddle). Collectively the band has…

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