Articles

Covering All—Or at Least Some Of—the Basses Once upon a time the A. P. Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers were revolutionaries.  A traditionalist scholar once complained that—by introducing guitar into songs that had been previously sung unaccompanied—the Carters just ruined them.  Jimmie Rodgers featured jazz players and Hawaiian musicians on some of his recordings, and…

Photo by Joe Worthem It’s been a few years since Volume Five cut the poignant “Tell Me You’re Not Leaving” for Milestones, the band’s seventh record for label Mountain Fever. Far from a traditional bluegrass barn burner—something this band can get around—the slower, reflective song reached #2 on Bluegrass Today charts. Lead singer Glen Harrell…

Bluegrass Girl Photos courtesy of CDC Artists, Milton, Florida Amanda Cook and her band have become a household name and regulars on the bluegrass circuit. With three CD projects under her belt, a seven-year, five-CD project contract with Mountain Fever Records and recording engineer and producer job, it is clear that Cook has her own…

“You can’t talk about women in country music, vocal styles, rhythm guitar styles . . . without also talking about Wilma Lee Cooper.” – Alice Gerrard in SING OUT! Aug 24, 1977 For more than 30 years, Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper were among our nation’s premier country and bluegrass acts. Wilma Lee and Stoney…

Detroit’s  Miracle Mandolinist The muzzle of the .38 Special revolver looked as big as the mouth of the Detroit-Windsor tunnel. Six shots rang out and four bullets struck him right in the gut. Forty years later, Nolan Faulkner remembered that cold Michigan night – “Lucky for me, he was a bad shot!”  Faulkner’s near-death experience…

The Teenager Who Filled In for Earl Imagine that you are a high school kid who has learned how to play the banjo.  It is the mid-1950s and Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys are one of the hottest, tightest bluegrass bands in the country. You learned how to play the banjo because…