Articles
IssueM Articles
ToneSlabs Changes The Flatpick Game
ToneSlabs is the biggest advance in flatpack technology since the launch of BlueChip picks 14 years ago. That’s a bold statement, to be sure, and we don’t make it lightly. For months, Bluegrass Unlimited has been testing a variety of ToneSlabs picks in various shapes and thicknesses in the field at Winfield and…
Picker’s Paradise Celebrates
A Half Century of Great Music For fifty iterations since 1972, the legendary Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas, has crowned national and international champions in instruments as diverse as hammered dulcimer and fingerstyle guitar, banjo and autoharp, and of course the event’s crown jewel, the National Flatpicking Guitar Championships. But the real champion is…
Edgar Loudermilk
Two Decades of Roads Traveled Edgar Loudermilk…Edgar Loudermilk…you might be thinking to yourself—I know I’ve heard that name but can’t quite place him. (The Louvin Brothers’ real surname was Loudermilk, so perhaps that’s what you’re thinking.) Often the case for band leaders is to start as sidemen in prominent bands. Loudermilk stepped out in 2013…
Larry Rice and His 1959 F-5 Gibson Mandolin
This article provides an insight into Larry Prentis Rice and his mandolin, and contains anecdotal recollections about him from friends, family, and bandmates. As the oldest of the four Rice Brothers, and born into a musical family, Larry Rice wrote, played, recorded and produced memorable music. Born on April, 24, 1949 in Danville, Virginia, he…
Friends Don’t Let Friends Start Bluegrass Festivals…Or Do They?
The Challenges of Running and Starting a Bluegrass Festival After over thirty years of attending bluegrass festivals, more than once we have heard the saying, “Friends don’t let friends start bluegrass festivals.” While it is meant playfully, we wondered if there is some truth in it and decided to look at the complexity of starting…
Rose Maddox—Queen of the West
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine September 1984, Volume 19, Number 3 You’re as important in country music today as Roy Acuff was ten years ago.” Hank Williams was summing up his appreciation for Rose Maddox after a two hour conversation with her in a deserted Los Angeles night club. A few weeks later they were…