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Notes & Queries – November 2023
Q: I’ve heard it said that the 1959 Folkways album Mountain Music Bluegrass Style was the first bluegrass album ever recorded. I guess that means a set of songs and tunes recorded specifically to be released in album format. Does that sound right to you? I recall purchasing albums by the Stanley Brothers, Bill Monroe,…
Billy Cardine
Resophonic Explorations Billy Cardine has explored the possibilities of the square-neck resophonic guitar far beyond the genres of bluegrass, folk, country, Americana and blues. While musical explorations that push the outer bounds of genre are not typically embraced by bluegrass hardliners, Cardine is a musician who knows how to reign in his expansive musical abilities…
Putting the I in IBMA
Photos by Ben Wright With the release of their latest album Lead and Iron and after more than nineteen years as a band, Chicago-based Henhouse Prowlers has settled on the right combination. They started as a six-piece band playing every Tuesday night at a neighborhood bar on the north side of Chicago. As they started…
It Never Gets Old
Chosen Road’s latest release, It Never Gets Old is a collection of soulful gospel tunes highlighted with wonderfully blended vocals and instrumentation. The group has been together for over a decade and produced a chart-topping album, Appalachian Christmas, last year. This reviewer was fortunate enough to review Water Grave a few years ago—an early, solidly…
Keep It Old-Time—Fiddle Music in Missouri from the 1960s Folk Music Revival to the Present
University of Missouri Press Howard Wight Marshall, a Professor Emeritus at the University of Missouri, has recently completed his trilogy covering the history of fiddling in the state of Missouri. The first book in the series, titled Play Me Something Quick and Devilish (2013) begins with what is known about fiddling from the time of…
The Louvin Brothers
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine August 1972—Volume 7, Number 2 I. Why The Louvin Brothers? Not only because they played with a full bluegrass band for a year, and not only because of their deep roots in old-time duet singing, but because of the firm impression their songs and style have had on bluegrass music….