Articles

When watching a musical performance, people generally focus solely on the artist(s). Little thought is given to the promoters, the sound/technical crew, the songwriters, the managers/booking agents, the bus drivers, and everyone else behind the scenes that make it all happen. It takes a village. In bluegrass music, Fred Bartenstein is a mayor of one…

Bluegrass is a genre of music that’s been evolving since it first came out of the oven.  The original recipe created by master chef Bill Monroe had five cornerstone ingredients:  mandolin, guitar, fiddle, banjo, and bass.  When Josh Graves joined Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs in the Foggy Mountain Boys in 1955, he introduced a…

Feeling the Joy Of Playing Together Again Photo by Sandlin Gaither It was March 2020. (Cue ominous music.) The Foghorn Stringband was looking forward to their East Coast tour. Reeb Willms and Caleb Klauder were flying in from Portland West (Oregon); Nadine Landry and Sammy Lind were flying in from Quebec. Nadine: “We were starting…

In 1967, and again in 1971, Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine presented a Reader’s Poll and we have decided to bring it back in 2023.  There are a lot of categories that we might have selected to include in this poll, however, we decided to stay with tradition and use the same categories that we have used…

The Future of Tablature Photo by Ryan Leach Learning to read music outside of the realm of classical or jazz music on instruments such as guitar, mandolin, banjo and Dobro, more often than not, involves learning how to read tablature.  Tablature is a written notation where the lines on the page represent the strings of…

Are you looking to attend to a music camp or workshop this year?   Camps and workshops are a great way to study with top professional players and talented instructors.  Camps and workshops also provide you the opportunity to meet new friends and jamming partners.  Below is a list of camps and workshops organized by…