Articles

One thing that fiddle player Betsy Heron, banjo player Gretchen Bowder, guitar player Whitney Roy and bass player Lindsay Lassonde have in common, is their love of Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerard’s music as well as a mutual respect for the women themselves. In March of 2020 when they began to enjoy casually getting together for an…

If there was a bluegrass mandolin hall of fame, there is no doubt that John Reischman would have a plaque on the wall.  He is not only an extremely innovative player, but his clean notes, rich tone, fluidity and expert use of dynamics are what every serious mandolin player strives to achieve.  He has set…

How does a band with a legendary status continue to live up to the mythology that inevitably grows and threatens to overshadow any new recording? The legendary Seldom Scene answer the question with their new album that positively glows with the same causal brilliance that has always been a hallmark of the group. The line…

This Young Lady is the Whole Package! If you have yet to hear music by bluegrass singer, songwriter and guitarist, Caroline Owens, you will soon…and be prepared to be impressed. Last year Caroline was signed to Billy Blue Records—first as a writer with Billy Blue Publishing and then as a recording artist. As this issue of Bluegrass…

Pick and Howl, winners of the 2022 Rockygrass band competition, cites its influences as coming from across the stylistic board: from Flatt & Scruggs and Billy Strings, to the Grateful Dead and Townes Van Zandt.   The band wears these influences well, with provocative original songs and robust vocals and harmonies underpinned by a super-charged…

Q: I have been playing bluegrass music for at least five decades. The Stanley Brothers are one of my favorites to listen to and get inspiration from. It was recently brought to my attention by a friend, who was acquainted with Henry Dockery, that the wordage, “Get down boys, go back home…” is incorrect in…