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United States Arizona  Bluegrass on the Beach March 1-4, 2024 699 London Bridge Rd,  Lake Havasu City, Arizona 86403-4655 570-721-2760 www.bluegrassonthebeach.com Desert Bluegrass Festival  March 8-10, 2024 Gladden Farms Community Park 12205 N Tangerine Farms Rd. Marana, Arizona  www.desertbluegrass.org Dave Polston 520-245-6126 [email protected] Pickin’ in the Pines Bluegrass & Acoustic Music Festival September 13-15 Ft…

Originally from Michigan, Jeremy Rilko relocated to Asheville, North Carolina, after serving in the Air Force and graduating from Western Michigan University. It was while in the service and at college that he became enamored with bluegrass music. He has been a banjo player since he was 24, and was influenced by the likes of…

Lloyd Loar stands, like Mario Maccaferri and Gibson’s Ted McCarty and Leo Fender, as one of the foundational stringed instrument designers in recent history. His acoustic engineering advancements in Gibson’s mandolin family instruments in the 1920s created (inadvertently) the ultimate bluegrass mandolin design—the legendary F-5 played by everyone from Bill Monroe to Wyatt Ellis.   …

Maryland’s Roger Cline has put together a nice collection of mostly original material on this new project of stories about bravery, courage, tenacity and about those who have it. He is joined here by a host of musicians including: Scott Freeman (mandolin), Debbie Durant & Tom Hensler (bass), Gary Hultman (resonator guitar), John Scott Walker…

Jody Stecher has been around forever—or at least since the 1960s when he emerged from the remnants of the folk music revival.  On his latest album, a collaboration with the distinguished Boston-based string band Mile Twelve, he sounds better than ever. His warm, lived-in voice and his intriguing original songs bring to mind a West…

When it comes to the nearly all-original material on this Milwaukee-based band’s second album, the term youthful exuberance comes to mind. The MilBillies’ (that’s with a CAPITAL “B,” mind you!) music is shot through with humor, rowdiness, wild times and angst. There’s an almost punkish, hard-partying edge to some of the ragged vocals, frenetic playing…