Articles

The Past Kim Robins—singer, songwriter, band leader, entrepreneur, nurse, mother, grandmother and all-around busy woman—produced her first recording in 2013. It is still available and titled Forty Years Late. “What’s the fuss” you might wonder? The buzz is that Kim was somewhat “late” in life in getting to the point where that CD was created…

Bands Blurring the Lines of Bluegrass For Pixie & the Partygrass Boys, one of the most important pillars of bluegrass is what drives the band. “Community is everything for us,” says Zach Downes. “It’s the reason we sit in a van for hours each day. To be able to connect with fans and different bands…

The Camp Guy If you have attended any of the popular bluegrass music camps that occur around the country every year, you have probably met Keith Yoder. Keith has been an instructor at Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Camp, Colorado Roots Music Camp, Merlefest Jam Camp, NimbleFingers, Strawberry Jam Camp, Acoustic Music Camp, Acoustic Alaska Guitar Camp,…

with Greg Cahill and Ben Wright To understand how bluegrass in Chicago has changed over the years, I had the pleasure of chatting with two of the best banjo players based in the city. I spoke with Ben Wright of the Henhouse Prowlers, a progressive-leaning bluegrass band with an international and educational focus entering its third…

If you haven’t already heard about the Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band, you soon will!   Based in Northern California, the band consists of four members: Teo Quale on mandolin, Miles Quale on fiddle, Andrew Osborn on bass and Ian Ly on guitar. The band embarked on a ten-day tour of Japan in March/April of 2023,…

Editor’s Note:  This article is a continuation of the excerpt from the Jerry Douglas chapter of Bill Amatneek’s new book Discovering Tony Rice.  The first half ran in the December 2023 issue.  Regarding his interview with Jerry, Bill said, “Jerry Douglas was one of the most insightful people whom I interviewed for Discovering Tony Rice,…