Articles

Jake Leg, based on Colorado’s Front Range is the kind of band that could easily fill up an album with mind-bending hot licks played at extreme speeds. Fortunately for us all, they chose to fill up an album with powerful songwriting, memorable melodies and picking that serves the song first and foremost.  The three original…

Even early in his life, John Cowan’s vocal talents surprised and impressed those who heard him. As Cowan, now 70, recalls in his memoir Hold To A Dream, it was the cute sister of one of his friends telling him—“You sing really good!”—that scotched his interest in playing football and motivated him to give his…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine August 1991, Volume 26, Number 2 New grass, bluegrass-fusion, country-rock, new-country, super- picker. All these terms and more have been used to describe or explain the new breed of hot pickers such as Jerry Douglas. They are usually in their late ’20s or early ’30s. Their parents were born in…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine October 1976, Volume 11, Number 4 Bluegrass banjo’s ever-widening popularity, both here and in Europe, has been greatly broadened through the innovative efforts of one 29 year old native of Norman, Oklahoma, Alan Munde. As an integral component of The Country Gazette for almost five years now, Al has more…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine December 1976, Volume 11, Number 6 While there are plenty of lightning-quick banjo pickers around, only a handful have directly contributed to the stylistic development of the instrument. Earl Scruggs, of course, is the giant in the field. Scruggs took the raw style he picked up in North Carolina from…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine October 1997, Volume 32, Number 4 After nearly 25 years away from bluegrass, Cliff Waldron has reformed his band. The band features former New Shades of Grass banjoist, Bill Wheeler, and new members Nevin Lambert and Steve Spence on mandolin and bass respectively. The band is playing the same kind…