Articles

Photos by Chelsea LaFond It’s an excellent time for bluegrass LP seekers and collectors. And the folks at Heady Wax Fiends, with help from Real Gone Music, have certainly sweetened the pot by bringing classic bluegrass LPs back on premium vinyl.       Their rerelease of Manzanita by the Tony Rice Unit sparked our initial…

Louisa Branscomb Marks 36 Years of Songwriting retreats March 2025 marked the 36th consecutive year of songwriting workshops, usually twice a year, hosted by veteran songwriter Louisa Branscomb. Louisa founded Woodsong Farm Songwriting Retreats in 1989, at her farm in Georgia, and continued to hold 2 to 4 retreats a year for the next 30…

Since his 2019 debut with the album North Country, Irish-born Danny Burns has received his share of accolades. He possesses a robust baritone and a deft songwriter’s eye and ear for emotional detail that lends itself well to his unique blend of Celtic, folk, country and bluegrass music. Burns’s new album features a pair of…

Woody Guthrie’s Grandson and his NYC-based Bluegrass Band  Woody Guthrie has a strong legacy in American music.  Part of the reason is obvious—the music and the lyrics speak for themselves.  Additionally, musicians such as Bob Dylan, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Pete Seeger, Woody’s son Arlo, and others, have praised Guthrie as an influence and mentor and…

Fiery Bluegrass Fiddler Annie Staninec has a lot going for her. First, she has what might be the biggest smile by several inches of anybody except possibly Doug Dillard. Second, she is a fiery bluegrass fiddler, perhaps the “grassiest” fiddler of them all.  I was honored to interview her for this article. I chose to…

Sound Guy And So Much More Elijah Doty is a 23-year-old Illinois boy who is “living the dream” according to his Facebook intro. He loves God, country and bluegrass music, horses, and emergency management. In the bluegrass community, he is primarily known as a sound technician and multi-instrumentalist. However, Doty also serves his community as a…