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Golden State Boys Blue Diamond Boys The Hillmen In 1954, Herb Rice and his wife Louise Poindexter packed up their three sons—Larry, Tony and Ron (in utero)—and left Danville, Virginia, for the Los Angeles area, settling in Downey. Herb was a master welder following the work and soon had a good job at Douglas Aircraft….

There aren’t many people who have led a working bluegrass band for 50 years. Bill Monroe did it, with his Blue Grass Boys. Mac Martin did it in Pittsburgh, with his Dixie Travelers. And Butch Waller has done it in San Francisco, with High Country, an outstanding traditionally oriented bluegrass band now in its fifty-third…

 “We started out right/Pickin’ in the pines/It’s a music that stays in your soul.”   Although AJ Lee is currently only twenty-four years old, she has been turning heads at California bluegrass events for nearly two decades.  AJ attended her first festival when she was five years old and, as part of the Kids On…

With A Lot of Help from Its Friends Shaken by tragic personal loss and global economic turmoil, the Santa Cruz Guitar Company and its founder, legendary luthier Richard Hoover, have come through a perfect storm of emotional and business challenges over the past two years and emerged stronger than ever as the company celebrates 45…

California Bluegrass Pioneer Herb Pedersen’s life was utterly transformed—in the blink of an eye—in a record store on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California. There he was, a fresh-faced, guitar-playing teenager flipping through records in the folk music section, studying the newest release by the Kingston Trio. Suddenly, a stranger was standing by his side. He…

Bluegrass Blessings & Music Milestones Photo by Lori Stoll As agreed, the two mandolin players met up at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. They opened their instrument cases and brought out their vintage Gibson F-5 instruments while a professional photographer stood by to capture their meeting.  One was Bill Monroe, the Father of Bluegrass…