Articles

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine May 1983, Volume 17, Number 11 Jimmy Arnold popped in and out of the bluegrass scene in the seventies. During that time, the Virginia native managed to record one banjo and one guitar album for Rebel. Jimmy also put in a few years playing mainly banjo with Joe Greene, Cliff…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine February 2007, Volume 41, Number 8 As I pulled off 1-81 at the Marion, Va. exit and headed into the mountains on Rt. 16, I recalled the first time I ever met Wayne Henderson. I had enrolled in a guitar workshop at the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, W.Va., and…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine November 1973, Volume 8, Number 5 Among bluegrass musicians, fiddlers have frequently achieved special attention. At a number of festivals in recent years fiddlers such as Tex Logan, Chubby Wise or Howdy Forrester make guest appearances and occasionally several fiddlers perform at once on stage. Not even the banjo —…

Q – Did the Stanley Brothers, or Ralph Stanley for that matter, ever record with a Dobro? I’ve got just about everything the Stanley Brothers recorded, including the Rich-R-Tone stuff, the Columbia, Mercury, and King recordings. I don’t remember them recording with a Dobro. Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs pre-mid ‘50s, and Reno…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine August 1979, Volume 14, Number 2 A couple of summers ago in Harris, North Carolina, guitar maker John William Gallagher sat on a board stretch across some concrete blocks for seating at a bluegrass festival and remarked, “I don’t play myself, but I take pleasure in others enjoying what I…

I called Ron Thomason on his eightieth birthday, September 5th, to schedule an interview for Bluegrass Unlimited. I had just recently reviewed his latest album, Ancient Songs Et Al. I had also watched the recent documentary about Ron and the Dry Branch Fire Squad, The Court Jester. I had read numerous articles highlighting Thomason’s many…