Articles

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…

‘Me’ is Don Depoy and ‘Martha’ is Martha Hills and they are based in the town of Swoope, Virginia. Originally Martha Hills is from the coastal town of Belfast, Maine where she learned to love the area’s music. Around 1990, she heard live bluegrass and was strongly attracted to it. In 2000, Don Depoy met…

Daniel Patrick, host of a popular podcast called Mandolins and Beer,  traveled far and wide, to five different recording studios in nearly as many states, to put this project together. The outcome is a series of vocal and mandolin duets with 11 of his favorite players on distinctly non-bluegrass songs—“because,” Patrick explains in the media…

Much More Than “Mandolins and Beer” Photos by Doug Julian Over the course of the last five years, Daniel Patrick has made a name for himself in the mandolin world by hosting the very popular “Mandolins and Beer” podcast.  Having produced and published over 250 podcast episodes, he has interviewed most all of the top…

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…

After moving to Nashville in 1987, Irwin set to developing his songwriting talents. It took a few years while working as a bartender and collaborating with other writers, that he finally landed some songs that were recorded by folks like Randy Travis, Alan Jackson. Tim McGraw, Blake Shelton, and Jimmy Buffett. It was Alan Jackson’s…