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IssueM Articles

Has Eastman Brought Affordability TO Bluegrass Guitars?

Photos by Bud Osborne Eastman Music Company, over the last decade or so, has quietly but unmistakably risen to the challenge of building guitars that can satisfy discerning bluegrass players, while retaining the affordability that is the hallmark of APAC (Asia-Pacific) instrument manufacturing.        Case in point is the well-crafted and luxuriously appointed…

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I’ll Take Love

Louisa Branscomb and Dale Ann Bradley A song can create an out-of-body experience, not only for listeners upon hearing it but also for songwriters as they write. This according to renowned songwriter, psychologist, and performing artist Louisa Branscomb, PhD, who had such an experience while strolling the hills of her famous (and now former) Woodsong Farm….

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The Dirty Grass Players, (l to r) Ben Kolakowski, Connor Murray, Alex Berman, and Ryan Rogers play a sold-out album release show at the Recher Theatre in Maryland. // Photo by Liz Pappas (Barley Moon Photography)

On The Fringe

Bands Blurring the Lines of Bluegrass The idea of the grand voyager can invoke many images in your mind. It invokes the idea of travel, exploration, discovery and a journey. For Baltimore’s Dirty Grass Players it holds all those meanings and more. “Grand Voyager” is a track from their first album, Beneath the Woodpile. The track is…

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Curly Seckler—Willis Spears and the Nashville: Grass A Legacy Lives On

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine February 1990, Volume 24, Number 8 John Ray (Curly) Seckler, notable pioneer of bluegrass music was born on Christmas day, 1919, near China Grove, North Carolina. Since then he has been proclaimed by many including the late Lester Flatt as the greatest tenor singer in bluegrass music. All the Seckler…

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The Future of Bluegrass Festivals—An Editorial Discussion According to Me and Sam

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine January 1994, Volume 28, Number 7 What would you say if I told you that we both could go to one festival and on the same bill hear all these performers. Let’s see, there would be Alison Krauss, Michael Doucet, Beausoleil, the Seldom Scene, C.J. Chenier, California, the Basin Brothers,…

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First Annual South Carolina State Bluegrass Festival

Photos by Ed Huffman Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine February 1971, Volume 5, Number 8 Bluegrass came to South Carolina on Thanksgiving weekend November 27-29th. The festival was held at the modern and relatively new Myrtle Beach Convention Center. It offered fans a welcome-wealth of conveniences. People …. you may not believe this …. but…

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