Articles

Mark Whitt makes no bones about his love for playing and promoting traditional bluegrass music.  One need to look no further for the evidence of this Kentuckian’s desire to preserve the old time sound than his third album, Tennessee Moon. Whitt went into the vault to cover tunes from Earl Scruggs, Bill Monroe and Carter…

Charmaine Slaven and Charlie Beck met while exploring and promoting the old-time music and dance scene in the local Seattle, Washington Area. They continued in the manner for a few years and eventually resettled in the Brasstown, North Carolina area, and, along with daughter Hazel, they immersed themselves in the historic musical legacy of the…

Kristina Gaddy, a Baltimore-based writer and fiddler, has written exactly the book the banjo world needs right now. She explores questions that many among us, including myself, have been asking since the turbulent summer of 2020, including, “Why was it that an instrument constantly described as ‘Black’ and ‘African’ came to be thought of as…

Finally Takes Place with Potential for the Future Intact The Earl Scruggs Festival has been in the works for years now, yet the pandemic reared its ugly head and the hard decision to postpone it for two years in a row was made. Many music festivals had to shut down for at least one year…

Reprinted From Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine December 1986, Volume 21, Number 6 If there were four people in Louisville’s Riverfront Plaza/Belvedere in September, 1985 expecting Radio Flyer to be named “Best New Bluegrass Band of 1985” at Kentucky Fried Chicken Bluegrass Festival, it sure wasn’t Radio Flyer. After all, the year-old Springfield, Missouri band was following…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine February 1985, Volume 19, Number 8 October 1984 was another of many milestones in the music career of Carl Story, but this one was very special, as it marked 50 years since he initially formed The Rambling Mountaineers. During these 50 years in hillbilly and bluegrass music, Carl Story has…