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IssueM Articles

Never Come Down—(left to right): Ben Ticknor, Kaden Hurst, Joe Suskind, Crystal Lariza and Brian Alley. Photo by Sol Gutierrez

On the Way Up with Never Come Down 

Never Come Down isn’t just riding high, they’re moving fast. One listen to their new album, Greener Pastures, out in June, or glance at their packed tour schedule and it’s clear this innovative five-member Portland, Oregon, band is going places. Yet it was only six years ago that band members Joe Suskind (guitar, vocals), Crystal…

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Nothin’ Fancy—(left to right): Chris Sexton, Curt Gausman, Mike Andes, Jenkins, and Jacob Flick. // Photo by Susie Neal

Nothin’ Fancy

Celebrates 30 Years In the Bluegrass World Hailing from the fertile musical grounds of Virginia, the bluegrass band Nothin’ Fancy has kept a steady roll in a hard and volatile business by putting the music and the fans first. Now, in 2024, the band is celebrating its 30th anniversary as a group, which is an…

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Bluegrass & Bourbon

Dierks Bentley Embraces Two Western Kentucky Traditions Photos by Zach Belcher Owensboro (Kentucky’s fourth largest city) is known as the culinary and cultural hub of western Kentucky due in large part to its extraordinary three B’s—Bluegrass, Bourbon and Barbecue.  As the birthplace of the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) and the home of the Bluegrass…

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Tomie Thompson featured with Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys in DeRidder, Louisiana, ca. 1946. Front row, left to right: Tomie Thompson, Earl Scruggs and Howard Watts (Cedric Rainwater); back row, left to right: Jimmy Kish, Bill Monroe, Chubby Wise and Lester Flatt

Remembering Earl Scruggs at 100

Photos Courtesy of the Earl Scruggs Center Collection [Editor’s Note:  In our January, 2024 issue we ran an article about the new Earl Scruggs exhibit at the Earl Scruggs Center in Shelby, North Carolina.  Part of that exhibit includes information from a 17,000 word document that Earl had written about his life.  In our previous…

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Todd Phillips — A Musician’s Musician

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine October 1997, Volume 32, Number 4 “What is amazing is that Todd Phillips never ceases to amaze me! — Tom Rozum (Laurie Lewis and Grant Street) It seems, for the average audience member and for many trade magazines, that all of the attention is focused on the lead singers, or…

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Laurie Lewis—Shining Star of Bluegrass Music’s New Golden Era

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine March 1997, Volume 31, Number 9 Bluegrass music is enjoying a new golden era. The artists riding the crest of today’s wave are creating and inventing their own music just as the original giants of the music did. One of the shining stars of modern bluegrass and acoustic music is…

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