Articles

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine March 1997, Volume 31, Number 9 Bluegrass music is enjoying a new golden era. The artists riding the crest of today’s wave are creating and inventing their own music just as the original giants of the music did. One of the shining stars of modern bluegrass and acoustic music is…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine August, 1988, Volume 23, Number 2 If someone were to say “weary hearts” to you, you’d probably think that they were referring to a new romance novel or day-time soap opera. However, anyone familiar with bluegrass music knows of the song, “The Weary Heart You Stole Away,” recorded by the…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine April 1990, Volume 24, Number 10 It was a weekday night in late September of 1988, that Doyle Lawson called. Jim Mills remembers it well. “He said, ‘Would you be interested in playing banjo for me?’ I said, ‘I sure would.’ Jim thought to himself: This is it!” Ten days…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine July 1983, Volume 18, Number 1 In the often imitative annals of bluegrass music, Frank Wakefield is an original. He is a living legend among mandolin players for his technical virtuosity. He is well known to bluegrass aficionados as the composer or co- composer of such songs as “Leave Well…

After half a century, legendary bluegrass gospel group, The Primitive Quartet, has taken its final bow. The foursome wrapped up fifty years of performing May 20th in White Pine, Tennessee, at the Lakeway Performing Arts Center. Over the course of their remarkable career, The Primitive Quartet recorded more than 500 songs on at least 50…

Shares Her Own Story in Song Cycle “Jubilee” Fans of the Becky Buller Band are accustomed to story songs—“John D. Champion,” “Calamity Jane” or “The Barber’s Fiddle.” In her latest album project Jubilee, this time the story is her own. She first pitched the idea for the title song to co-writer Aoife O’Donovan when they…