Articles
IssueM Articles
Joe Val and the New England Bluegrass Boys
By Mike Greenstein Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine July 1977, Volume 12, Number 1 Joe Val and the New England Bluegrass Boys live in Boston, far removed geographically from the nation’s major bluegrass belt. In style and philosophy, however, this quartet with heavy Yankee accents still speaks the language of the bluegrass mainstream. Unlike many…
Buck Ryan
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine January 1974, Volume 8, Number 7 The mailbox in front of the neat Fairfax, Va., home bears the name “Arnold Walter Ryan.” But in Jackson, Miss., Bean Blossom, Ind., and Nashville, Tenn., they know the man as “Buck Ryan — World Champion Fiddler.” “There’s only one thing as entertaining as…
Backbone Bluegrass
Iowa’s Oldest and Largest Bluegrass Festival In Northeast Iowa, around 4 miles south of a small town called Strawberry Point (home of the World’s Largest Strawberry) and a few miles north of Backbone State Park, lies a picturesque 20-acre wooded site. During the last full weekend of July, this beautiful location is full of campers…
The Gerald Anderson Luthierie
The name Wayne C. Henderson is synonymous with the finest guitar construction in the world. Henderson has received many accolades over the years, and having a school of arts named after him is only befitting for a man of his caliber. The Wayne C. Henderson School of Appalachian Arts (The Henderson), in Marion, Virginia, is…
Across The Sea
This is the sixth project from this Athens, Georgia-based duo of Jason Cade and Rob McMaken. Cade plays fiddle, and McMaken plays lap dulcimer and mandolin. Since forming in 2013, the two players have combined their love of Appalachian old-time music traditions with the historical contributions of many of the area’s older fiddle masters. To…
Little Songs
Rrinaco is a nickname that singer-songwriter Corrina Rose Logston Stephens acquired while in middle school in the 1990s. Growing up in Missouri, Stephens spent time listening to music, learning the fiddle, singing, and enhancing her efforts as a songwriter. She played and jammed locally with her parents and other artists. Now living in Nashville, Tennessee,…