Articles

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited MagazineAugust 1970, Volume 5, Number 2 For the last few years Jim & Jesse have been perched precariously between the two kinds of music which, for some reason, seem to have the bitterest resentments toward each other. “Jim & Jesse have gone country” is the angry cry—”tune ‘em out!” So as…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine December 2015, Volume 50, Number 6 IBMA Hall Of Famer Jesse McReynolds certainly has nothing to prove after devoting 68 years to bluegrass music. He easily could have decided to retire from the business and rested on his accomplishments as one half of the famous bluegrass duo Jim & Jesse….

Re-printed from Bluegrass Unlimited MagazineAugust 1975, Volume 10, Number 2 The festival crowd, hot and sweaty, musters up some more energy and gives the departing group a good hand like the MC implores them to do. And as the audience consults their programs, a wave of excitement spreads through the crowd. The MC is building…

Photos By Michael Gomez After the passing of Jan Howard last March, Bluegrass Hall of Fame member Jesse McReynolds became the oldest living member of the Grand Ole Opry. In 2021 he will celebrate 57 years as a member—38 of those with his brother as “Jim and Jesse,” the longest running brother duo in the…

Photos By Shelley Swanger Providing a combination of sales, repairs, rentals, workshops, performances, and musical fellowship, The Violin Shop has been the choice of Nashville’s finest fiddlers for over 30 years. Meeting the needs of four- (and even five-) string devotees from bluegrass to classical, Celtic to old-time, The Violin Shop (at 2504 8th Avenue…

Photos By Bud Osborne Modern bluegrass mandolin players differ in many ways from their predecessors. Emerging players are more open to non-conventional bluegrass instruments, such as the lightweight Nechville banjo or the thin-bodied Bourgeois Guitars Odyssey Dreadnought played on stage by Andy Falco. Even Monroe acolyte Andy Statman joined that trend several years ago when…