Articles

Two Masters of Flatpicking Join Forces Photos by Joshua Black Wilkins Years ago I wrote an article about Norman Blake and stated that if there were a Mt. Rushmore for flatpicking guitar, the players whose faces would be carved in that mountain would be Doc Watson, Clarence White, Dan Crary, Norman Blake and Tony Rice….

Photo by Laci Mack Ashleigh Graham is a new source of inspiration in the bluegrass music world that has been a lifetime in the making. Originally, her desire was to follow her heart in music, but life took a detour, sending her on the practical journey of marriage and motherhood. Along the way, she battled…

Fiddle player Glen Harrell founded Volume Five in 2008 after hearing other musicians in some local jams. Based in Mississippi, Harrell asked local players Jason Burleson (guitar, vocals) and Chris Wade (banjo) to join the group, and back then, he also brought in Nick Keen (mandolin) and Wyatt Harman (bass). There have been the usual…

Bryan Sutton remembers well the times when he was the new young gun guitarist in the bluegrass world. As a young man, he had his eye on moving to Nashville and being a studio musician, and that happened in the mid-1990s. Then, he soon found himself performing and recording with some of the most amazing…

Mandolin Ambassador While I was browsing YouTube a while back, I ran across a video titled “Mandolin (small…but MIGHTY).” At the opening of the video, Jake Howard of Henhouse Prowlers was blazing through a mandolin solo.  Rob Scallon, the video’s host and interviewer, was sitting next to Jake and playing the guitar.  Two members of…

When Marty Falle writes, he thinks in records, not singles. “That’s what I believe the original singer-songwriter artist is all about,” he says. His formula, which works for him, is “to write the record: write what’s in your heart, in your experience.” To judge by the radio play and the number of tracks charting off…