Articles

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine November 1971, Volume 6, Number 5 Everyone professing an enduring interest in bluegrass has at some point in time been confronted with the question, “Who is your favorite group?” Most of us of course in responding to this query, muse for a moment or two, utter one or two “well’s”,…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine February 1984, Volume 18, Number 8 Chris Hillman has made rock history, but he has given up the glitter of the pop music world to return to his musical roots in bluegrass. His lovely Sugar Hill LP, “Morning Sky,” is a clear demonstration of his commitment to acoustic-based country music….

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine March 1979, Volume 13, Number 9 Mention “Hot Rize” to a bluegrass addict and you’re liable to get a variety of responses. Within range of Nashville’s WSM radio, “Hot Rize” not only brings to mind the secret ingredient responsible for biscuits made from Martha White Self-Rising Flour, but also Lester…

More For the Good People In response to a piece in the April 2022 issue concerning the location of a church on the cover of a Stanley Brothers album, Vermonter Dan Linder wrote: “I’ve had that Stanley Bros gospel album, For the Good People, forever, but it never occurred to me to wonder where the…

Midwest band The Barley Jacks do things a little differently. Their third album, Coming Down the Mountain, is out—10 years after their previous album.  To get the album, The Barley Jacks joined a growing number of musicians and crowdfunded the work. At the time this review was written, Coming Down the Mountain had brought in…

The growing number of performers writing songs and developing their own sound within bluegrass and elsewhere face a couple of choices when preserving those carefully nurtured songs beyond a simple smartphone video or voice memo. If you want to overdub instrumental or vocal tracks, there’re several choices, including doing your overdubs and mixing directly on…