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Featuring The Bluegrass Cardinals, Hot Rize and Arnold Shultz Whenever I have interviewed bluegrass musicians who were born and raised west of the  Mississippi River, not only do I tend to ask them about the bluegrass scene in their part of the world, I also ask them if they felt like they grew up far…

[Editor’s Note: We ran this review in the September 2025, however, there were some inaccuracies in that review.  Because of those inaccuracies, I decided to run the review again with corrections included.  Our apologies to Volume Five for the previous inaccurate review.] Mississippi fiddle player Glen Harrell founded Volume Five in 2008, originally as a…

Photos Courtesy of Alisa Murphy People describing the Station Inn, Nashville’s iconic music venue, use such words as home and family. Some call it magic. An Ohio couple who retired to Nashville for the music and who regularly attend the Sunday jams and Monday shows called it their church. Greg Cahill of Special Consensus, looking…

Bluegrass fans are always impressed by the musicians who can play blistering fast solos with accuracy, clarity and tone. This skill is certainly impressive and a guy like mandolin player Josh Rilko knows how to do it. However, the thing that impresses me the most about Josh’s mandolin playing is his ability to play solos…

Ever since Earl Scruggs stepped on stage with Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys in December of 1945, banjo players have been interested in learning how to play the five-string banjo like Earl.  Early banjo players slowed down recordings and went to watch Earl play in order to figure out how he was executing those…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine June 1990, Volume 24, Number 12 The Hot Rize boys have just been called back to the stage for their third encore at Liberty Hall in Lawrence, Kansas. Roses are delivered to the stage by four young ladies and the entire packed house, including a group of guys in the…