Articles

North Carolina born and raised fiddler Amy Kassir has a deep affection and powerful affinity for old-time fiddle music. Recently, she’s been a member of several California-based bands, which is where she now resides. On these nine-cut all-instrumental collection of old-timey music, she is joined by Carter Eddy (bass), Fred Levine (fiddle), Jake Eddy (guitar,…

Adam Granger is a guitar player from Norman, Oklahoma who lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.  He learned banjo from fellow Normanite Alan Munde in 1968.  He was a columnist for Flatpicking Guitar Magazine, and is the author of Granger’s Fiddle Tunes for Guitar, published by Mel Bay.  Adam played and wrote humor for A Prairie…

Originally from Massachusetts, Amy Clay studied to become a classically-trained violinist. However, after moving to the San Francisco Bay area, she began getting into other styles of playing, like country and bluegrass music. She played with area musicians and attended local jams, and a few years ago she started writing her own material about subjects…

Fiddling Gopher Addis (or, More on Don Reno Sidemen) In last month’s column, we fielded a query concerning two musicians who worked with Don Reno and Red Smiley in the early 1950s: Chuck and Jay Haney. The Haneys had the distinction of appearing on Reno & Smiley’s first recording session together, on January 15, 1952…

The Brothers Have a Sister Photo By Shana Leigh The Brothers Comatose is a San Francisco, California based five-piece bluegrass band that have headlined festivals such as Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, High Sierra Music Festival, and the Kate Wolf Music Festival and toured with Yonder Mountain String Band, Lake Street Drive and A.J. Lee and Blue…

Photos by Angie Reed If one word can describe Red Camel Collective, it’s momentum. It’s no coincidence that Heather Berry Mabe, the lead singer and guitarist for the band, won the 2024 IBMA Momentum Award for Vocalist of the Year. She is also nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year by the Society for the…