Articles

Making Changes to Become Much More Than Just a Main Stage Event Tucked away in the Upper Midwest, just 90 miles from Minneapolis and due west of the massive and beautiful inland sea known as Lake Superior, the small town of Richmond has been the home of the Minnesota Bluegrass Festival for the last 23…

If there was a bluegrass mandolin hall of fame, there is no doubt that John Reischman would have a plaque on the wall.  He is not only an extremely innovative player, but his clean notes, rich tone, fluidity and expert use of dynamics are what every serious mandolin player strives to achieve.  He has set…

Barbara Martin Stephens met Jimmy Martin in 1953 when Martin was working with Bill Monroe.  She lived with Jimmy Martin from 1953 until 1966.   Her story of that relationship was told in a book that the University of Illinois Press put out in 2017, titled Don’t Give Your Heart to a Rambler: My Life…

A Year-Round Folk Festival If Hollywood was the place to be, the place to be in Hollywood was the Ash Grove coffeehouse. Between 1958 and 1973, the Ash Grove was, arguably, the premier music venue in the country when it came to presenting folk, bluegrass, old-time country, blues and other forms of traditional American music. John…

Pick and Howl, winners of the 2022 Rockygrass band competition, cites its influences as coming from across the stylistic board: from Flatt & Scruggs and Billy Strings, to the Grateful Dead and Townes Van Zandt.   The band wears these influences well, with provocative original songs and robust vocals and harmonies underpinned by a super-charged…

Doni Zasloff and Eric Lindberg the husband and wife duo known as Nefesh Mountain have sent a love letter of hope and possibility to the world with their new album. The release is a double disc set of songs that exemplify the old adage of “Three Chords And The Truth” and while there may be…