Articles

Bands Blurring the Lines of Bluegrass “I’m just proud that we got something down on tape that really captures the vibe of the Keel Stickley Duo,”  explains guitarist Jon Stickley about he and fellow guitarist Larry Keel’s recently released self-titled EP.  “It’s a monumental live act, but had we never gotten the recording done, it…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine April 1996, Volume 30, Number 10 It was a cold and snowy December evening in 1980, when I happened upon, what was then, Partners 2 Restaurant in Centreville, Va. Just recently having relocated from upstate New York to Manassas, Va. I was checking out the local forms of entertainment. The…

The first word that comes to mind while listening to the new album from Aaron and Adam Bibelhauser and their band is “powerful.” There’s a confidence in the playing and singing that shines through every track. The guests on the album sound perfectly at home, adding their own unique flavors in support of the songs….

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine July 1997, Volume 32, Number 1 Those devoted to the bluegrass music’s first generation could compile a list of great sidemen whose names and stories are unfamiliar even as their work lives on in reissued recordings and in the playing of younger musicians who learned from them. Former Clinch Mountain…

By Mike Greenstein Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine July 1977, Volume 12, Number 1 Joe Val and the New England Bluegrass Boys live in Boston, far removed geographically from the nation’s major bluegrass belt. In style and philosophy, however, this quartet with heavy Yankee accents still speaks the language of the bluegrass mainstream. Unlike many…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine January 1974, Volume 8, Number 7 The mailbox in front of the neat Fairfax, Va., home bears the name “Arnold Walter Ryan.” But in Jackson, Miss., Bean Blossom, Ind., and Nashville, Tenn., they know the man as “Buck Ryan — World Champion Fiddler.” “There’s only one thing as entertaining as…