Articles

IssueM Articles

The Eastern Kentucky University Bluegrass Ensemble (left to right): Danny Barnes, Reece Taylor, Alexa Snyder, Zach Yates, Pam Perry, Lauren Keller and John Maupin. // Photo by Terry Vaught

Eastern Kentucky University Bluegrass Ensemble

Students attending Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) in Richmond, Kentucky can consider themselves extremely fortunate if they have any interest in learning to play bluegrass music.  Although the university does not have a bluegrass music degree program, they do offer a Bluegrass Ensemble course and the person who teaches that course is multi-instrumentalist and singer Pam…

Read More »

The Belmont Bluegrass Ensemble performs at the 33rd Annual President’s Concert & Reception at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, April 22, 2023.  Photo Courtesy of Belmont University

The Belmont University Bluegrass Ensemble

The past academic year has been marked by top-shelf performance experiences for members of Belmont University Bluegrass Ensemble. On April 9, the group made their debut on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry, an ultimate musician’s bucket list item. Ryan Joseph, director of the ensemble and coordinator of strings at the university, has played…

Read More »

If There’s a Will There’s A Way

Harry Carpenter “Junior” Sisk, who has been penning, playing and singing songs modeled in the truest fashion of traditional bluegrass music for many years, has brought us another great record. Known for his tremendous vocals and locomotive sound, Sisk is sure to please the diehard purist. His 2020 album Load the Wagon, won the IBMA…

Read More »

Silver Bullet Bluegrass

Bob Seger cut a wide swath across the rock ’n’ roll landscape for decades, giving us classic hits like “Night Moves,” “Turn the Page,” “Main Street,” “Like a Rock” and “Old Time Rock ’n’ Roll,” among others. These songs have endured because they often captured the uneasy spirit of their times. This fine collection reminds…

Read More »

Jubilee

Tennessean Becky Buller is an award-winning multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. She has won awards for Fiddle Player and Female Vocalist, and her songs have won Grammy awards for groups like The Travelin’ McCourys, The Infamous Stringdusters, and Molly Tuttle. Her songs have also been recorded by such as Ricky Skaggs, Doyle Lawson and Rhonda Vincent. …

Read More »

The Songwriter

Jerry Salley can best be described as a songwriter’s songwriter. Since 1982, Salley has written over 540 songs and has had them recorded by country artists such as Loretta Lynn, The Oak Ridge Boys, Chris Stapleton and Reba McEntire, and bluegrass artists like the Osborne Brothers, Joe Mullins, IIIrd Tyme Out, Rhonda Vincent, Seldom Scene,…

Read More »