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Mandolin Picking Tunes—Old-Time Gems
Mel Bay Publications Mel Bay Publications has excelled at providing quality instructional material for stringed instruments for 0ver 75 years. One of their newest offerings for mandolin players displays the quality of material and presentation that students of acoustic music have come to love from this music publisher. Mandolin Picking Tunes—Old-Time Gems provides mandolin…
Notes & Queries – April 2023
Q: I have a question that I have been looking to have answered for years. Most people agree that the “Salty Dog” is/was a road house/tavern/speak-easy. The song “Salty Dog Blues” is an old bluegrass favorite with more than one person claiming authorship. After some investigation I have determined that the likely author(s) are the…
Stringbean and His Banjo
Photos Courtesy of Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum In the summer of 1972, Mark Jones, son of Grandpa Jones, auditioned to perform at the newly-opened Opryland theme park in Nashville, Tennessee. He had practiced his chosen number on the banjo, working out solos high on the neck. Before auditioning, he ran his performance…
Tina Adair
Embarks on Next Career Chapter Photo by Terry Wyatt Considering her family history, there’s little wonder that Grammy-nominated recording artist Tina Adair ended up in the music profession. Before she was born her mom and dad, Debra and Jerry, had formed their own bluegrass band Bluegrass Edition, and at one point even owned a music…
Mighty Poplar
“I was sitting with my bluegrass ensemble I teach at CU Denver and we were listening to the Bluegrass Album Band,” says bassist Greg Garrison. The Bluegrass Album Band was a 1980’s supergroup consisting of guitarist Tony Rice, banjo-picker J.D. Crowe, mandolinist Doyle Lawson, fiddler Bobby Hicks, and bassist Todd Philips. The group was founded…
East Nash Grass
When it comes to bluegrass venues, Nashville has long been a barren desert. For years, the only full-time bluegrass venue was the revered Station Inn. But in the past few years that has been slowly changing, due in part to a relatively new Nashville-based bluegrass band called, appropriately, East Nash Grass, as well as a…