Articles

Bluegrass  Incubator Many times, people who are known as but a footnote in history actually have vibrant lives that belie their postscript status. Such is the case with Roy Sykes, whose claim to fame is that his band, the Blue Ridge Mountain Boys, provided the career launch pad for Stanley Brothers. Less well known is…

If you loved the New Acoustic music catapulted into the stratosphere by David Grisman, Tony Rice, John Reischman and others exploding out of the Bay Area in the 1970s and early ’80s, you know the legacy of the Gasoline Brothers. At small concerts and close-quarter gigs around the Bay Area and beyond, the interaction between…

Dark Shadow DSR 202101 The is Rick Faris’ newest release on which he is joined as the core group by Laura Orshaw (fiddle), Russ Carson (banjo), and Zak McLamb (bass). While Faris plays guitar and sings lead, he is also joined on various cuts by Sam Bush (mandolin, vocal), Ronnie McCoury (mandolin, vocal), Jason Carter…

Coming off winning a Grammy for his stunning 2019 release Home, plus an IBMA “Entertainer of the Year” award in Raleigh last October, Billy Strings, in many ways, defines bluegrass music in the 21st Century for a multitude of fans. The subject of an in-depth portrait in The New York Times that plumbed the depths…

In 1998, throat-worn and road weary, the divine Miss Emm needed a musical break from touring with her thrilling, yet vocally taxing, fully electric Hot Band. Looking for not just relief for her physical voice, but also for her muse, Harris turned to longtime friend John Starling, and the good doctor penned the perfect prescription….

Norman Blake, who has recorded and collaborated with everyone from Bob Dylan and Joan Baez to Johnny Cash and Tony Rice, is a devoted keeper of the keys to the heritage and history of American popular music. Blake’s latest record—which he recorded in a single afternoon in a Fort Payne, Alabama studio—contains of couple of…