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Justin Freeman (guitar), Troy Jackson (bass), Amelia Freeman (mandolin), Savannah Hardin (guitar), Elijah Freeman (banjo) and Daniel Hardin (banjo). Amelia, Savanna, Elijah and Daniel are all High Lonesome Strings scholarship winners. Photo by Pammy Davis Lassiter

High Lonesome Strings Bluegrass Association

High Lonesome Strings (HLS), the central North Carolina-based bluegrass club, has been in existence for almost 27 years. Pammy Davis Lassiter founded the musical organization in July 1997. It has been going strong and growing ever since with a current enrollment of 202 members. Board member Lassiter, who still handles membership, the G Run Newsletter,…

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Jim Lauderdale // Photo by Mike Dunn

Jim Lauderdale

Songwriter & So Much More North Carolina-born and raised, Jim Lauderdale has devoted his life to music. Not only is he a singer, he is a prolific songwriter. For his eleventh bluegrass album, he collaborated with the Po’ Ramblin’ Boys. The Long and Lonesome Letting Go (2023) features twelve powerful bluegrass tunes that Jim Lauderdale co-wrote…

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Fire on the Prairie

Jake Leg, based on Colorado’s Front Range is the kind of band that could easily fill up an album with mind-bending hot licks played at extreme speeds. Fortunately for us all, they chose to fill up an album with powerful songwriting, memorable melodies and picking that serves the song first and foremost.  The three original…

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Let It Burn

This sweet-voiced veteran Australian songbird has been called Australia’s “Queen of Bluegrass,” and it’s hard to argue with that handle, based on her latest release. It’s a masterful mainstream bluegrass outing full of fine performances and memorable songs. Cox, who topped the Billboard bluegrass charts with her seventh album back in 2020, kicks things off…

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Orin Friesen in his studio. Photo by Jesse Friesen.

A Broadcast Legend

Bluegrass Radio Show Hits the 50 Year Mark While various areas of the Appalachian region are considered the main hotbed for bluegrass music, there are other faraway parts of the U.S. where the music is appreciated and thrives. One excellent example of this is Orin Friesen’s bluegrass radio show, which has been broadcast from Kansas…

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The Jerry Douglas Story

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine August 1991, Volume 26, Number 2 New grass, bluegrass-fusion, country-rock, new-country, super- picker. All these terms and more have been used to describe or explain the new breed of hot pickers such as Jerry Douglas. They are usually in their late ’20s or early ’30s. Their parents were born in…

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