Articles

Don’t think that it is hype or marketing hyperbole to read that Sideline’s latest album, Ups, Downs and No Name Towns is their best project to date.  For a group that literally started as a part time gig for a group of outstanding pickers—hence the name, Sideline—it is a big statement to claim “best.” After…

We live in a golden era for flat picks, with custom and boutique pick makers producing beautifully fashioned plectrums in a truly bewildering range of space age materials, shapes, and bevels. Into that market comes C.F. Martin with its newly introduced Luxe Contour Pick. Using a shape similar to the Blue Chip TP-1R, it features…

A concept album of 16 songs focusing on stories and characters from the Cumberland Gap area of Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia takes the listener back in time. Twenty-seven artists whose familes are originally from the region are featured, with lead vocals from Teddy Cosby, Bryan Turner, Phillip Powers, James Clark, Joseph Wilson, Randall Massengill, Jason…

Website Opens Up Doors to Heart of Bluegrass Bluegrass music was basically created in Nashville in 1945 when Kentucky native Bill Monroe asked North Carolina fiddler Jim Shumate if he knew of any powerful banjo players who could keep up with his up-tempo music. That is when Shumate introduced Monroe to the innovative three-finger banjo…

And His Fabulous Fiddle Shop Many of the artists that we interview in Bluegrass Unlimited grew up in musical families.  The majority of them are raised in southeastern regions of the United States where bluegrass and country music was played in their homes from the time they were born.  California native Phil Salazar also grew…

A Short— But Brilliant— Bluegrass Career Don Bryant’s experience playing bluegrass in the mid-1950s would be the envy of any professional bluegrass musician.  In the span of just a few short years, Don performed with Benny and Vallie Cain, Bill Harrell, Mac Wiseman, and then for nearly three months he subbed for Earl Scruggs with…