Articles

Exploring the Black Roots of Bluegrass, Old Time and Americana The first Biscuits and Banjos festival took place in Durham, North Carolina during the weekend of April 25th-27th, 2025.  The festival was initiated by Rhiannon Giddens and is dedicated to the celebration and exploration of Black music, art, and culture in her home state of…

Spreads the Love of Our Music To Southeast Asia Photos By Sunny Sachdev Bluegrass music has always existed within this overall modern age of technology. While the roots of bluegrass music go back centuries, the genre solidified when Bill Monroe brought Earl Scruggs into his Blue Grass Boys band in late 1945. At that point,…

Why Carter Stanley Ranks as the No. 1 Bluegrass Songwriter Carter Stanley’s song “The Memory of Your Smile,” came on strong as Tracy Nelson picked songs for an upcoming 1972 album.  Blues-rock singer Nelson grew so committed to the bluegrass number that she brought in banjo king Earl Scruggs and A-level fiddler Vassar Clements for…

Q: Could you provide me with some info on Fiddlin’ Mutt Poston? I will be playing one of his fiddle tunes on our radio program in the coming weeks and have been unable to locate any info about this gentleman. Thanks.  – Wilson Moore, Amherst, Nova Scotia A: Mercer Adron “Mutt” Poston was a fiddler from…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine August 1989, Volume 24, Number 2 In October, 1988, Banjo Newsletter, the 5-string banjo magazine, celebrated fifteen years of continuous publication. That’s one magazine a month for fifteen years! That’s 180 magazines—all devoted to the 5-string banjo. “Surely,” you ask, “can there actually be that much to say about the…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine July 1995, Volume 30, Number 1 [Sixty Years Ago This Month — Bluegrass Unlimited ran a column for a number of years titled “Thirty Years Ago This Month.”  Now that we are in our sixtieth year of publication, we thought it would be fun to look back at some of…