Articles

In many places in the U.S., at most small universities, depending on the location, a full-fledged bluegrass program can be hard to sustain. But, that is exactly what has happened at Colorado College, located near Colorado Springs, Colorado.  A private university founded in 1874; Colorado College was created when the so-called “Wild West” period was…

 Tim O’Brien has been a fixture in contemporary bluegrass ever since fronting the band Hot Rize starting back in the late 1970s. Along the way, he’s collaborated with everyone from fellow West Virginian Kath Mattea to Steve Martin and Alison Brown. He’s also penned songs for a number of Nashville’s leading lights. For the last…

There’s More to be Scene The Seldom Scene is changing…again, and this is to be expected. Longtime guitarist and vocalist Dudley Connell has stepped aside and Clay Hess has joined the band.  If one looks back at their fifty-plus years you’ll note that about every seven or eight years there’s a change in the band….

Part Two: Early Bluegrass Fiddling, Music Row Songwriting, and a Creative Family Band Fiddler Jim Lunsford’s musical pursuit of excellence and innovation in music took him all over the map, from his native Southeast to Nashville’s music industry, from California’s dancehalls to Vietnam’s U.S. military bases. By the early 1950s, some of the musicians Lunsford…

On the Road with The Travelin’ McCourys It’s 3:45 p.m. on Friday, April 11, and banjoist Rob McCoury of the Travelin’ McCourys is chilling behind the historic Park Theatre in McMinnville, Tennessee. Almost four hours remain before the band takes the stage, but much work needs to be done before the first note of the…

Steve Cooley is a veteran of the Louisville, Kentucky, bluegrass scene that has played with many of the greats of the genre over his extended music career. He was lucky enough to be around back in the days when Sam Bush was on the Louisville scene when J.D. Crowe still played the hotel bars in…