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A Little Bit of Bluegrass
Lorraine Jordan and her band Carolina Road have maintained a solid presence in traditional bluegrass for decades, championing the genre’s essential elements while introducing and welcoming many new fans to the party. With their latest album, they deliver the talent and consistency we’ve come to expect. Released last fall on Pinecastle Records (Jordan’s seventh for…
I Never Knew
John Cadley is a talented singer-songwriter who presents this new project of his original tunes. Cadley, who sings all lead vocals, is joined by his wife Cathy Cadley on vocals, and by Clay Hess (guitar, electric guitar, mandolin, banjo, bass, vocals), Tim Crouch (fiddle), Roger Williams (resonator guitar), Dave Morrison (steel guitar), and Josh Shilling…
Highways and Heartaches—How Ricky Skaggs, Marty Stuart, and the Children of The New South Saved the Soul of Country Music
Hachette Books, 2023 Most avid bluegrass music fans are familiar with the similar trajectories of the careers of Ricky Skaggs and Marty Stuart. Both Skaggs and Stuart started performing at a young age with first generation bluegrass legends—Skaggs with Ralph Stanley, Stuart with Lester Flatt. They then both entered the journeyman phase of their careers…
Second Annual Malpass Brothers Bluegrass and Country Music Festival
Photos by Ricky Davis Smack dab between Murphy and Manteo, where Carolina clay colors the soil and the landscape can’t quite make up its mind whether to be rolling or flat, is an idyllic patch of ground where the world passes by in Jim Reevesque fashion. When the stream of traditional bands start arriving leading…
Roger Sprung
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine January 1969, Volume 3, Number7 Roger Sprung is 38 years old, tall dark and handsome. He is reminiscent of a Gregory Peck type in appearance. Shy soft spoken and friendly. When I met him in 1950, he had already learned all of the banjo styles that were popular. Frailing, Scruggs…
Good Ol’ Persons
Photos by Gene Tortora Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine October 1984, Volume 19, Number 4 “I’m sorry, but when it comes to singing bluegrass, most women just can’t cut it.” “Women bluegrass musicians are such wimpy players.” “If God had intended women to play bluegrass, He would have created “Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass…