Articles

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine October 1989, Volume 24, Number4 Whereas bluegrass band leaders and some musicians have long had an enduring quality about them—Bill Monroe being only the most obvious— continuity of personnel in bands is much less common. One quite atypical group in bluegrass music that has long endured with a consistent quality…

Queries Q: Does anyone know how Margie Sullivan of the Sullivan Family is doing. I know Enoch passed away, but haven’t heard anything on Margie? Still think she is one of the best female bluegrass gospel singers ever. Thanks. – John Bond, via email. A: We were able to contact a family member who reported…

By Some of the Best Musicians in Bluegrass My first opportunity to see J.D. Crowe perform was at the Stone Valley Bluegrass Festival, a short-lived event that took place in the late 1970s alongside the beautiful Whitewater River near West Harrison, Indiana. I did not get to meet Crowe, however, until almost 20 years later. …

Setting The Standard For Art And Function What do you get when you combine a master metalsmith/engraver with a multi-instrumentalist?  In the case of Ron Landis, the answer is that you get custom crafted sterling silver fingerpicks unlike any other fingerpicks currently available.  While Archimedes postulated that “the shortest distance between two points is a…

By Chris Hillman & Gram Parsons You might wonder what place a Flying Burrito Brothers song has in the world of bluegrass.  Quite a worthy one, as you’ll see from the history of the iconic “Sin City,” penned by Chris Hillman (The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Desert Rose Band, Manassas) and the late Gram…

The Banjo Sound  Never Gets Old If you were to picture someone sitting outdoors picking on a five-string banjo, the setting that comes to mind would probably be somewhere in the southern regions of the United States—most likely in the area of southern Appalachia—as opposed to say, southern California.  Southern California and banjos are not…