Articles
IssueM Articles
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…
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…
Ben Eldridge
Bluegrass Music Loses Another Banjo Legend Photo by Dan Miller Benjamin Rolfe “Ben” Eldridge (August 15, 1938 – April 14, 2024) was a co-founder of the Seldom Scene and served as the group’s banjoist and longest-tenured member; he logged a total of 44 years with the band from 1971 until 2015. As an instrumentalist in what…
Notes & Queries – June 2024
Q: Chubby Collier played some awesome hardcore fiddle on several Charlie Bailey songs that I like extremely well. I believe he was from far southwest Virginia. I wonder if he recorded on more songs; I can’t think of any. Can you come up with anything about him? I’d love to learn as much as I…
Who’s That Knocking At My Door
“I’m not a writer of songs,” said Pat Enright, 79, who, despite his declaration, was indeed the writer who penned the decidedly bluegrass song, “Who’s That Knocking At My Door,” first recorded by The Dreadful Snakes on the band’s only album, Snakes Alive! (1983, Rounder Records). Humble to a fault perhaps, Enright’s “only” solo write…
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…