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Musicians and Community Support One Another Photos by Ricky Davis 2024 was preordained to be a bittersweet IBMA year, like a high school graduation, throwing caps in the air, fully realizing that the World of Bluegrass landscape as we knew it was about to change. After 12 years in Raleigh—a period long enough to be a…

Here’s to the next 10 years! Williamson Branch, a family bluegrass band featuring parents Kevin and Debbie Williamson with daughters, Melody Williamson Keyes, Kadence Williamson Reynolds, and Caroline Williamson, celebrated 10 years of performing in 2024. With six albums and a Christmas DVD under their belts, a 2020 “Best Vocalist” IBMA Momentum Award for Melody,…

Listening to the new duo CD from Mike Compton and Joe Newberry feels like reading the manuscript of a lost Faulkner novella discovered at a flea market in Mike Compton’s native Lauderdale County, Mississippi. The stories are real and raw, but disclosed in measured doses, through voices at times tortured and others reverent. It’s music…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine August 1988, Volume 23, Number 2 If the term “Morgan Thoroughbred” makes you think of horses, and not banjos, then you haven’t met Tom Morgan yet. If you already know that the Thoroughbred banjo is a superb instrument designed and built by Tom and hand-crafted at the Morgan Company, you…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine May 1983, Volume 17, Number 11 Jimmy Arnold popped in and out of the bluegrass scene in the seventies. During that time, the Virginia native managed to record one banjo and one guitar album for Rebel. Jimmy also put in a few years playing mainly banjo with Joe Greene, Cliff…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine February 2007, Volume 41, Number 8 As I pulled off 1-81 at the Marion, Va. exit and headed into the mountains on Rt. 16, I recalled the first time I ever met Wayne Henderson. I had enrolled in a guitar workshop at the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, W.Va., and…