Articles

Photos by Angie Reed If one word can describe Red Camel Collective, it’s momentum. It’s no coincidence that Heather Berry Mabe, the lead singer and guitarist for the band, won the 2024 IBMA Momentum Award for Vocalist of the Year. She is also nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year by the Society for the…

Fiddling Gopher Addis (or, More on Don Reno Sidemen) In last month’s column, we fielded a query concerning two musicians who worked with Don Reno and Red Smiley in the early 1950s: Chuck and Jay Haney. The Haneys had the distinction of appearing on Reno & Smiley’s first recording session together, on January 15, 1952…

The histories of old-time country music are pretty clear on the subject: everything important happened in the southeastern part of the U.S. Except it didn’t. The music was everywhere. In fact, one the most popular and celebrated old-time stringbands of the late 1920s and early 1930s came out of California.  This band toured widely on…

North Carolina born and raised fiddler Amy Kassir has a deep affection and powerful affinity for old-time fiddle music. Recently, she’s been a member of several California-based bands, which is where she now resides. On these nine-cut all-instrumental collection of old-timey music, she is joined by Carter Eddy (bass), Fred Levine (fiddle), Jake Eddy (guitar,…

By Dick Spottswood Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine August 1978, Volume 13, Number 2 Over thirty years ago an astute jazz promoter named Norman Granz had an idea. Big bands had dominated the jazz and pop scenes before World War II, producing much of the significant talent which emerged during the era. But between the…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine February 1995, Volume 29, Number 2 John Hartford keeps heading into the future by delving way back into the past. It’s not that Hartford stays lost in thoughts of by gone days; his busy career includes the recent release “The Walls We Bounce Off Of” on his Small Dog label,…