Articles

The band is called The Kody Norris “Show,” and over the last few years, a listener only must take in a couple of songs to get it.  The band’s latest release, Rhinestone Revival, is another step towards the top tier of bluegrass. Although the single “Mountain Rosalie” was released last fall, the full album didn’t…

Though still a relatively young man, Ben Krakauer has put together a remarkable career. He’s been a professor and lecturer at a number of prestigious universities. He’s an ethnomusicologist who has studied and written on topics ranging from experimental bluegrass in New York City in the 1970s to the dotara players of West Bengal. Krakauer…

One day in 1953, Earl Scruggs answered a knock at the door of his suburban Nashville house. Standing there was a sixteen-year-old kid with a banjo and a grin as wide as the Mississippi River. It was Doug Dillard, and he wanted to know if Scruggs would sell him a set of “Scruggs tuners,” a…

Photos by Kevin Stevenson The Los Angeles NAMM show is the annual trade show for the National Association of Music Merchants, held this year in April. It’s part business conference, part three-ring-circus, and part live music extravaganza. Manufactures from every continent display their products, often with celebrity endorsers on hand. It’s a large four-day event at the…

Photo by Melanie Lunden Montz is a fascinating character. He lives off the grid, four miles up a mostly gravel road on Cradoc Hill, which is approximately 30 miles southwest of Hobart, Tasmania. His one-room house with a loft is solar powered, and he uses a rocket stove for heat when needed. Montz is a…

Over the past 15 years or so, the guitar industry has embraced a controversial, even divisive, new trend: relicing new guitars to make them sound, appear and feel like they’ve been played for decades. Some people love this, and companies like Pre War Guitar Co. have carved a strong niche in this area. Others, however,…