Articles

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine February 1987,  Volume 21, Number 8  It was some band. I can still remember my amazement hearing the Kentucky Colonels for the first time, wondering how any five individuals could play music with such speed, drive, and excitement, song after song. There was an unbridled — almost wild-eyed — enthusiasm…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine April, 1969, Volume 3, Number 10  One of the most significant of the urban bluegrass groups of the 60s were the Kentucky Colonels or the Country Boys. They were known under both names. Though the groups disbanded in 1965, their music is still talked about today. Their home base was…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine July 1975, Volume 10, Number 1 The grassy pasture land an hour’s drive above Augusta, Georgia, had turned into a field of wet grass and mud due to the heavy rains which had drenched the bluegrass music fans several hours earlier. Finally, the heavy rain had subsided to a mild…

Australia’s New South Wales is a long, long way from the hills and hollows of Virginia and Kentucky. Yet after listening to this delightful album from Australian wunderkind Angus Gill, it sure doesn’t sound that far away at all. The collaborators who’ve pitched in with Gill as cowriters and studio collaborators—Jerry Salley and Jim Lauderdale among them—are…

If you don’t know the tale of Roland White and brothers Clarence and Eric White,  who were born in Maine, moved as kids to California, and influenced every subsequent generation of bluegrassers, then you don’t know the full story of bluegrass. Fortunately, Bob Black’s superb new biography of the oldest of the White brothers demonstrates,…

Sometimes, when faced with an album the reviewer likes and appreciate the artistry involved, it is challenging to describe the work when it doesn’t really fit anywhere.  That’s the case with Indoor Vistas, the latest effort from Ethan Sherman.  From the stunning cover art to the first-class picking, it’s all enjoyable — but it doesn’t…