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This is a trio based in the Brooklyn, New Yorik area and consists of Walker Shepard (vocals, guitar, banjo, fiddle), Jackson Lynch (vocals, fiddle, guitar, banjo), and Eli Smith (banjo, guitar, banjo-mandolin, pump organ, harmonica), however Walker Shepard has since relocated to Wisconsin. There is also guest artist Hannah Shepard on cello.  This is the…

Photos by Jack Bernhardt It’s 3 p.m on a comfortably warm October 4, 2024. Rita Forrester is hard at work, getting food and concessions in order before fans arrive for the evening’s show featuring Marty Stuart and the Tennessee Mafia Jug Band. Tonight’s concert is part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the Carter Family…

Mark Maggiolo is an accomplished musician who plays most of the bluegrass instruments at a professional level. He has played with touring bands and taught music to hundreds of students through the years, but is not a household name. Mark was born in 1957 and spent his early childhood on a dairy farm in New…

The members of Appalachian Smoke all hail from the area of Southern Appalachia and their music invokes both the traditional and contemporary feelings and styles of the region. The band is BJ Taylor (mandolin, octave mandolin, vocals), Mikel Laws (banjo, guitar, vocals), Jamie Mason (guitar, banjo, vocals), Kenneth Rymer (resophonic guitar, vocals), and Tim Williams…

Tim Stafford’s and Thomm Jutz’s sophomore album is kind of like a songwriting class on CD. They really show how it’s done. Jutz, a prolific writer and former IBMA Songwriter of the Year, does in fact lecture on songwriting at Nashville’s Belmont University. Stafford, also a an IBMA Songwriter of the Year, is a former…

Brandon Godman is a fiddle player and luthier based in San Francisco, California. Originally from Kentucky, Godman spent time in Cincinnati and Nashville learning his playing and instrument making skills. Along the way he has played with such artists as Melvin Goins, Dale Ann Bradley, Doyle Lawson, and David Peterson, among others, and he has…