Articles

A Bluegrass Pioneer:Ralph Pennington North Carolina’s Vivian Pennington Hopkins made it her mission to share the legacy of her late father, Ralph Pennington. In doing so, she orchestrated the recording of an album and two music videos that pay homage to her dad’s many talents. A gifted songwriter, musician, and luthier, he helped formulate the…

There is a sound that belongs to Raleigh each fall. It rises from downtown streets and echoes between brick buildings. It carries the bright ring of mandolins, the warmth of fiddles, and the rhythm of a hundred tapping feet. It is the sound of bluegrass, and it is the sound of Raleigh Wide Open. Every…

Q: Can you please help? Since County Sales folded, I have been unable to find a good source for bluegrass CDs. Yes, I know about Amazon and Walmart, but County offered a single source with good service, fair prices, and multi-item discounts. And yes, I could order directly from the artists, but that would result…

In Dan Miller’s wonderful and thorough retrospective article on Don Reno found elsewhere in this edition of BU, he gets into the music side of this amazing IBMA Hall of Fame artist.  Here, after wonderful interviews with his sons, Ronnie, Don Wayne, and Dale Reno, I try to unveil Don Reno as a man and…

The Brooklyn-based trio Damn Tall Buildings has crafted a deep roots sound that, while tight, has enough rough edges to keep the music fresh, honest, and relatable. The band uses the soulful grooves of bluegrass and roots music to sing about the search for where we’re going, who we are, leaving home and coming home,…

Introducing Billy Strings as the keynote speaker for the IBMA World of Bluegrass, Executive Director Ken White called him a “generational talent” and acknowledged the kind of “watershed moment” that comes along every twenty years or so, putting “bluegrass music in the center of popular culture.” Along with such phenomena as Will the Circle Be…