Articles

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine January 1980, Volume 14, Number 7 The family band is a noble, long-standing tradition in bluegrass and traditional country music, extending back even further than the Carter Family, quite possibly as far back as the beginning of the string band itself. Today, the family unit is as strong as ever…

Bluegrass Unlimited first conducted a Reader’s Poll in 1967, the year after the magazine was established.  A second poll was conducted in 1971.  I asked Dick Spottswood, who was working for the magazine in those days, if he knew why the Reader’s Poll was not continued.  He replied, “In 1967 we were still trying to…

Photo by Craig Etchison For many musicians, releasing an album at twenty would be considered quite an achievement. At twenty, Liam Purcell of Cane Mill Road is preparing to release his fifth full-length album later this year. Now a senior at Berklee College of Music, where he studies music business and performance, Purcell continues a…

Vibrant Branches Sprout From Deep Roots Married partners Natalya Zoe Weinstein and John Cloyd Miller are living proof that music brings people from vastly different backgrounds and geographical regions together, and that the result can be an amazingly rich creative collaboration.  Natalya grew up in the college town of Amherst, Massachusetts, with a violinist mother and…

Q: I’m trying to find out who the Foggy Mountain Boys were who played on the original “Foggy Mountain Breakdown.” Thanks. Arthur Liblit, via email. A: According to research by Neil Rosenberg that was published in the booklet to a 1991 Bear Family boxed set of Flatt & Scruggs recordings, the personnel on the original…

Porter Church And Kevin Church Father And Son Porter Church left a grand legacy of musicianship and performance in the Washington, DC area. An extensive biography of him written by Fred Geiger appeared in the January, 1986 edition of Bluegrass Unlimited. Here are some of the highlights of his life and career and the story…