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The Winning Hand
Established over forty years ago, The Lonesome River Band is known for its consistent sound and song presentation. The band has gone through many member changes over the years, but both Sammy Shelor (banjo) and Mike Hargrove (fiddle) have been there for most of those years. Current member Jesse Smathers (vocal, guitar, mandolin) joined when…
Introducing The Southwest Bluegrass All-Stars
Members of the Southwest Bluegrass All-Stars are: banjo master Bill Evans, a recipient of the Steve Martin Banjo Prize; New Mexico-based bass player Anne Luna; Austin songwriter Elliott Rogers, who’s worked with the likes of Lyle Lovett and Nanci Griffith and the Alan Munde Gazette; and Steve Smith, a New Mexico-based mandolinist extraordinaire, who has…
Carl Sauceman: The Odessey Of A Bluegrass Pioneer
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine August 1976, Volume 11, Number 2 Carl Sauceman is a pioneer of whom all too little is known. As a youth, he and his younger brother J.P. Sauceman both witnessed and participated in the changes which transformed the mountain style music of the 1930s into modern bluegrass. Up to now,…
Ome Banjo Company
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine December 1973, Volume 8, Number 6 In the summer of 1971, four young men rented a mountain cabin fifteen miles northwest of Boulder, Colorado, high on Gold Hill, a snow-swept ridge overlooking the Rocky Mountain National Park. They had a panoramic view from their front door, but they had something…
Kristen Scott Benson with The Grascals — Cutting The Grass Ceiling
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine October 2010, Volume 45, Number 4 It’s hard to imagine, when today bluegrass boasts headliners such as Alison Krauss and Rhonda Vincent and a host of superpickers including Alison Brown, Sierra Hull, Missy Raines, and the SteelDrivers’ Tammy Rogers, but it wasn’t long ago that women weren’t welcome in the…
Get Ready for The Grascals
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine May 2005, Volume 39, Number 11 It was me and John and Paul, the best friends you ever saw. The lyrics from a new Harley Allen composition, released last February on the Grascals’ Rounder Records debut, is the poignant story of three friends who stick together—and stick up for each…