Articles

The ToneSlabs Story At some point in their musical life—after acquiring a basic chord vocabulary and conquering the down-up picking pattern—most mandolinists or guitarists who play with a pick begin to think about how a pick’s shape, thickness and composition contribute to the sound they want to create. It’s just another worrisome concern if you…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine May 1994, Volume 28, Number 11 Sometimes the best way for a writer to tell an artist’s story is to tell as little as possible, instead politely getting out of the way and allowing the artist to put things in their own words. Such is the case with Claire Lynch….

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine February 1985, Volume 19, Number 8  Ben Eldridge is not your “typical” banjo picker. He is not from the hills of Tennessee, did not quit high school to go on the road with Jimmy Martin, has not written a banjo instruction book, did not join a family band at the…

Reprinted From Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine January 1986, Volume 20, Number 7 “Wide open” best describes the picking and singing style of the Lost & Found —one of southwest Virginia’s latest contributions to bluegrass music. Twelve years in the business seem to have taught the group several things. One is that planted-in-the-sod bluegrass lovers like their…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine February 1989, Volume 23, Number 8 Although it has been nearly two years since Mike Scott played banjo for Jim and Jesse and the Virginia Boys, he has not let his musical career remain idle. His experience with Jim and Jesse as well as his years with Carl Story and…

The members of this Italian band are devoted scholars of bluegrass music’s way-back, deep-catalog pages, and they do an excellent job of bringing some largely forgotten tunes back to the forefront while remaining faithful to the music’s raw and unadorned immediacy. The Truffle Valley Boys prefer to record much in the same way that most…