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IssueM Articles

The Seldom Scene (right to left) Ron Stewart, Lou Reid, Ronnie Simpkins, Clay Hess and Fred Travers. | Photo by Kevin Slick

The Seldom Scene

There’s More to be Scene The Seldom Scene is changing…again, and this is to be expected. Longtime guitarist and vocalist Dudley Connell has stepped aside and Clay Hess has joined the band.  If one looks back at their fifty-plus years you’ll note that about every seven or eight years there’s a change in the band….

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Students at Colorado College work on a recording (left to right) Maren Snow, Sam Johnson and Anabel Shenk. // Photo by Schylar Woods

Collegiate Bluegrass Programs in Colorado and Tennessee Working Together to Help North Carolina Storm Victims

In many places in the U.S., at most small universities, depending on the location, a full-fledged bluegrass program can be hard to sustain. But, that is exactly what has happened at Colorado College, located near Colorado Springs, Colorado.  A private university founded in 1874; Colorado College was created when the so-called “Wild West” period was…

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Volume 4

As the title suggests, this is the 4th album release from Kane and Gellert, two artists with long careers in Americana-Roots music. The music is spontaneous and often sparse, guitar and fiddle or two guitars with light percussion supporting the vocals. Originals flow easily into traditional tunes, due perhaps, to their ability to write such…

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Jim Lunsford (right) with Don Gibson, 1950.

A Singular Fiddler and More: The Music and Times of Jim Lunsford

Part Two: Early Bluegrass Fiddling, Music Row Songwriting, and a Creative Family Band Fiddler Jim Lunsford’s musical pursuit of excellence and innovation in music took him all over the map, from his native Southeast to Nashville’s music industry, from California’s dancehalls to Vietnam’s U.S. military bases. By the early 1950s, some of the musicians Lunsford…

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Shelby Means

Kentucky-born, Wyoming-raised Shelby Means has been around the music biz for a while. She’s a former member of the acclaimed band Della Mae and more recently has served as the bass player with Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway. Thus, it’s no surprise that her debut album is such an accomplished and assured outing. Means has…

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Paper Flowers

 Tim O’Brien has been a fixture in contemporary bluegrass ever since fronting the band Hot Rize starting back in the late 1970s. Along the way, he’s collaborated with everyone from fellow West Virginian Kath Mattea to Steve Martin and Alison Brown. He’s also penned songs for a number of Nashville’s leading lights. For the last…

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