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OK to Wonder

Arkansauce had no genre borders in mind when they set out to record their fifth album OK to Wonder. As a rule, says bassist Tom Anderson, the band members write what they like and “it just comes out as it comes out; any sort of genre or descriptor comes afterwards,” he said, adding, “A lot…

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The Dupree School House. Photo By Meg Johnson

Dupree School House

How One Girl Ended up Down at the Bluegrass Crossroads (and got her soul back….) On the morning of Saturday, May 25 I had a rude awakening. My weather obsessed daughter made a 6 a.m. appearance at my bedroom door. I knew as soon as I saw her face that we would be having tornados for breakfast…

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Les Butler. Photo Courtesy of Les Butler

REAL Traditional Southern Gospel Music 

At the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum New Years Eve 2021, I was walking down the hallway at the Jekyll Island Bluegrass Festival when I heard someone say, “Hey REAL Southern Gospel Music man!”  I turned around and saw an elderly couple seated on a bench in the hallway waving for my wife…

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The Johnson Mountain Boys: (kneeling left to right) Eddie Stubbs, Ed D’Zmura (standing left to right) Richard Underwood, Larry Robbins, Dudley Connell

The Johnson Mountain Boys

All who love to explore bluegrass music’s history in depth are aware (or arguably should be!) of the longstanding and ever-growing series of books devoted to “Music in American Life,” published by the University of Illinois Press since 1972. As a whole, the catalog of books explores all forms of American vernacular music, documenting not…

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Buck White and the Downhomers

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine May 1973, Volume 7, Number 11 The sprawling, desolate Texas plains have never been the spawning ground of bluegrass talent that the Appalachians have. Involved for years with its own gift of genius to American music Western Swing Texas has made bluegrass music fight hard for a toehold out there,…

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David Grisman

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine February 1989, Volume 23, Number 8 David “Dawg” Grisman is back in the bluegrass once again with a new two record album featuring the likes of Red Allen, Del McCoury, the Nashville Bluegrass Band, Doc Watson, Ricky Skaggs, Herb Pedersen, Bobby Hicks, Tony Rice, Curly Seckler, J.D. Crowe, Sam Bush,…

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