Articles

Colorado and the Midwest have always been locations where bluegrass music has flourished. The bands from that area have based their sound on bluegrass but have also been known for pushing the edges of the music. High Lonesome is one of these newer groups that do just that. Founded in 2018 by guitarist Chuck Sitero,…

The band is the brain-child of Portland, Oregon native Kenny Feinstein, who spent the past 15 years putting this group together. His original band was the Water Tower Bucket Boys which then became the Water Tower String band. He moved to Los Angeles in 2018 and reformed into the current Water Tower, whose members are…

Old Settler’s Music Festival Sustains a Robust Community Photos by Steve Levine/stl.images      The 38th Annual Old Settler’s Music Festival, happening this year over the final weekend in April,  was not just the latest installment of the longest-running festival anywhere near Austin, Texas. It was not just an eclectic mix of beloved and outstanding “roots”…

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…

Beth and Randy Judy’s nationally recognized music festivals have changed the lives of many and changed names from MagnoliaFest (held in October) and Suwannee SpringFest (held in March) to Suwannee Roots Revival and Suwannee Spring Reunion respectively. While I’ve always considered all four of these festivals to be one and the same, I used to…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine September 2015, Volume 50, Number 3 Four decades ago, J.D. Crowe & the New South went into the studio to record one of bluegrass music’s most influential albums. The band consisted of J.D. Crowe, Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Douglas, Tony Rice, and Bobby Slone, and their 1975 eponymous album is commonly…