Articles

SCENIC NORTH CAROLINA CAMPUS STRIVES TO KEEP APPALACHIAN MUSIC, DANCE AND CULTURE ALIVE IN BRASSTOWN, NORTH CAROLINA The traditional Morningsong music program is offered several days a week at 7:45 a.m., and Friday performances are streamed live on the Folk School’s Facebook page. A socially distanced and masked crowd filled the historic Keith House Community…

For Dewey and Leslie Brown, seven is a lucky number. They wed in 2007. After seven years of marriage, the former Clinch Mountain Boy fiddler and his wife started their own business, Brown Entertainment, and opened their first musical venue, the Liberty Showcase, in Liberty, North Carolina, in 2014. Then, seven years later, they opened…

Any dyed-in-the wool fan of bluegrass fiddling will instantly recognize the names of such legendary fiddlers as Chubby Wise, Jim Shumate, Fiddlin’ Arthur Smith, Kenny Baker, and Bobby Hicks. The list goes ‘On and On,” as Bill Monroe would say.  One name you might not yet be familiar with is Aynsley Porchak. This young Canadian…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine January 1980, Volume 14, Number 7 What do you get when you cross a hillbilly, a fisherman in a cowboy hat, a mechanic, and a whittler, with satirical wit, meticulous musicianship, and a great respect for the heritage of bluegrass music? The Dry Branch Fire Squad, of course. And who…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine May 1980, Volume 14, Number 11 Nearly everybody has a part of their past they don’t really like to talk about. When Bill Harrell was being interviewed for this article, he was asked about a particular time during his association with the great banjo-player and songwriter Don Reno. Harrell’s happy…

When the four of them first got together and decided on a name for their new group, they chose Spectrum, to indicate their wide range of musical interests and abilities. The name is apt, as the music they produce together stretches from 1930’s popular music through Texas swing to jazz and country, while working within…