Articles

Casey Henry was only four years old when her mother, Murphy Hicks Henry, started teaching students throughout the world how to pick the 5-string banjo via her highly acclaimed Murphy Method instructional tapes and, a year later, her articles in Banjo Newsletter.  So, seeing how adept Casey is on the 5-string today, you’d think that…

By Don Cusic Sometimes, it takes a while for a song to find the perfect home. “It Rains Everywhere I Go,” written by Don Cusic in the late 1970s, didn’t find its just-right singer for more than two decades. Ultimately, the song was released on Lynn Morris’s Mama’s Hand in1995 by Rounder Records, and Rounder…

Living Large in Bluegrass Photo by Kim Brantley Bluegrass singer and songwriting ace Donna Ulisse is doing exactly what the title of her new album implies, Livin’ Large. The award-winning tunesmith has created an arsenal of bluegrass songs that other bluegrass artists have cut along with many that her critically-acclaimed voice has recorded. It’s a good…

When you visit your favorite venue or festival and watch the bands perform, you may often find yourself in awe of the talent of the musicians on stage and you can appreciate the years of hard work that it took for them to get to that place.  What you might not think about though is…

I’ll have to confess that the first record album that I owned was not a bluegrass album.  I was a suburban kid listening to rock radio in the 1960s and my first album was Paul Revere and the Raiders Spirit of ’67.  When I got the album, I not only listened to the music over…

Queries Q: I’ve always liked the song “Swinging A Nine Pound Hammer,” which I first heard from the singing of Mac Martin (from a 1970 album). I later heard live versions by Ralph Stanley (his first issue of the song was from 1983 on the Live At Old Home Place LP). I’ve long wondered where…