Articles

Bluegrass has always tenbrooks’ed the fast and the powerful. Racehorses, big rigs, steam drills, sleek trains and burly freights cannonball through bluegrass standards. I’m sure there must be bluegrass from the ‘50s and ‘60s that mirrored the California car culture pop of Jan and Dean and the Beach Boys, but I can’t think of any…

 If you are learning to play the Dobro and are having trouble finding quality instruction, you need look no farther than Rob’s Reso Room.  Rob’s Reso Room is an internet-based teaching platform developed by fifteen-time IBMA “Dobro Player of the Year” Rob Ickes and his business partner Craig Spinney.   Launched two years ago, Rob’s…

Lori King and her husband Joe front this rustic and robust veteran band that’s based in Iowa and has been plying its craft on the midwestern bluegrass scene for years.  The Kings, veterans of the band Bluegrass Addiction, are both commanding vocalists and they get sure-footed backing from Kevin Amburgey (mandolin and vocals), Mark Hargrove…

From the depths of the winter season in Ontario, Canada, and created during the equally-bleak depths of the covid pandemic comes a wonderful album called Adeline.  Long story short, this is an all-star collaboration between musicians that normally play for other Canadian bluegrass and old-time bands. To further describe the atmosphere behind this recording, these…

Fans of the band High Fidelity won’t be surprised to hear that frontman Jeremy Stephens credits older generations for most of the influence on his music.  With a new solo project titled How I Hear It, Stephens has produced an album with a bounce and vocals that hark back to an earlier time. Stephens called…

Rising mandolin star Scott Napier’s career and life are on an upward trajectory. He’s just joined Wildfire as their new mandolinist, and he’s married to the stellar Lauren Price Napier of the Price Sisters, one of the top players and teachers of the pure Monroe-style bluegrass mandolin embodied by the likes of Mike Compton and…