Articles
IssueM Articles
A Passion for Promoting
Nearly seventy-eight years after Earl Scruggs first joined Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt, Chubby Wise, and Howard Watts on stage at the Grand Ole Opry—and defined bluegrass music as we know it today—the music is still thriving. To a large extent, the continued success of the bluegrass genre is due to the hundreds of bluegrass festivals…
For Old Time’s Sake
Horseshoes & Hand Grenades have crafted a modern take on bluegrass featuring all the elements of traditional bluegrass you would expect to find, tight vocal harmonies, inventive soloing, and strong instrumental interplay, but delivered with a youthful energy, an engaging honesty, and a loose sense of fun, allowing them to exist as something new, a…
Dave Evans—The Voice of Traditional Bluegrass
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine January 1981, Volume 15, Number 7 The song on the radio was barely audible over the din of our bluegrass party, but there was something unusual, something “extra lonesome” in the voice filtering through the room that made you stop and listen. The power and intensity were enough to impress…
The Special Consensus—Bluegrass, Chicago Style
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine February 1979, Volume 13, Number 8 The room is long and dimly lit, the tables packed closely together. Family groups sit elbow-to-elbow facing the stage, which occupies the width of the narrow room. The loud hum of conversation is punctuated by the sound of children’s laughter and the scrape of…
Bill and Earl Bolick Remember the Blue Sky Boys
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine September 1981, Volume 16, Number 3 Of the many mandolin-guitar groups of the thirties, none was of greater importance, in terms of tradition, than Bill and Earl Bolick, popularly known as ‘The Blue Sky Boys.’” So writes Bill C. Malone in his book, “Country Music U.S.A., A Fifty Year History.”…
Bob Paisley & the Southern Grass
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine November 1983, Volume 18, Number 5 I got off the escalator at the third floor of the downtown Philadelphia department store, Strawbridge and Clothier, and turned the corner. As promised in the store’s ads, Bob Paisley was there along with most of the Southern Grass. The band was picking and…