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Q – I am a big fan of Ernie Thacker and know that he was in Ralph Stanley’s band from 1988-1994. I am trying to find all the albums that feature him singing lead with Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys.  Do you happen to know the titles of the albums that Ernie was…

Part 1: Jim Lunsford: Growing music from the mountains and beyond At a Charlotte, North Carolina, studio in April 1954, 26-year-old Jimmy Lunsford cranked up wild fiddle solos on “Dixie Breakdown,” a tune he’d written with banjo innovator Don Reno. Lunsford’s presence on Don Reno & Red Smiley releases was just one of the creative…

A West Virginia Bluegrass Legend’s Signature Song Revived for Modern Times by Kenny and Amanda Smith Pocahontas County is not only one of the most beautiful counties in West Virginia, it is one of the most nature-filled regions in all of the 400-year-old Appalachian Mountain chain. The county, which contains the headwaters of eight rivers,…

There’s more to harmony than simply playing the right notes. Some musicians have that special something, hard to name but impossible to overlook. Jason Carter and Michael Cleveland’s latest project Carter and Cleveland—their first collaboration of its kind—is Exhibit A.The friendship between the two fiddlers began back in their teens. When Cleveland was about thirteen,…

The Newest Punch Brother For many reasons, bluegrass music is a unique genre amongst the various forms of music performed and recorded in the United States.  One reason is that a relatively high percentage of the fans of the music also play the music.  At any given bluegrass festival, the main reason many of the attendees…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine April 1995, Volume 29, Number 10 J.D. Crowe has been described as a “musician’s musician” and indeed the subtlety of his playing and his clever innovations are the type of things frequently best appreciated by other musicians. Yet Crowe’s popularity has been far from limited to pickers. The enthusiastic response…