Articles

Preparation meets opportunity Photos by Joseph Tipton For a Murfreesboro, Tennessee-based multi-instrumentalist whose musical roots stretch back six generations and predate the 1927 Bristol Big Bang, Mickey Harris is remarkably low-key. That simple acceptance of a musical heritage is the basis for his career with High Lonesome, Tim Graves and Cherokee, Larry Stephenson, Sally Jones…

The Suwannee Spring Reunion Photos by Frank Serio In March 2022, I went to the Suwannee Spring Reunion to write about the event and interview a few musicians.  I had no idea what to expect. I’m a little embarrassed to say that I had never been to a music festival. Although I went to cover…

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…

Hometown Hero Of N.C. Bluegrass Broadcasting  Photo by Lee Capps Buddy Michaels loves to talk.  Ask him a question then sit back and enjoy the ride, because he’s likely to detour through a story or two before arriving at the answer.  His favorite subject: music and the people who make it.  So what better path…

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…