Articles
IssueM Articles
Earl Jam
The story of Tony Trischka’s Earl Scruggs tribute album sounds like the makings of a song itself. During the pandemic, the banjo virtuoso received a package in the mail that contained a thumb drive. This wasn’t one with old photos or spreadsheets — it was recordings of Scruggs and John Hartford jamming, mostly made at…
Dan Levenson’s Master Collection of Old-Time Tunes
Dan Levenson’s name will be well known to anyone who is familiar with old-time music, especially banjo and fiddle players. He is a performer, recording artist and educator. He has published instructional books, produced videos, written magazine articles and taught many workshops. If you are familiar with any of this previous work, you will know…
Jerry Garcia
A Bluegrass Journey On March 28, 2024, the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum opens its largest and most interactive temporary exhibition to date—Jerry Garcia: A Bluegrass Journey. The exhibition traces the bluegrass career of Jerry Garcia, a music icon known as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. Born out of the counterculture…
Jeremy Fritts
The Doctor Is In To say that there are a lot of people providing guitar instruction on YouTube is an understatement…there are thousands…maybe tens of thousands. Refine your search to bluegrass and fiddle tunes and the numbers drop, but there are still hundreds. Refine the search again to look for someone who has taught bluegrass…
Shelby Means
The Heartbeat of Golden Highway There is no doubt that Molly Tuttle is extremely talented. This Grammy-winning artist has continually displayed the ability to write songs, sing and play lead and rhythm guitar with the best that bluegrass music has ever produced. But, typically, those who reach the mountain’s peak are blessed with others who…
Grateful Dead
And the Culture of Roots Music Throughout their career the Grateful Dead loaded their song repertoire with American roots music traditions from top to bottom. The Dead were interested in roots music largely because of Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter’s (the Dead’s lyricist) early exposure to Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music. This anthology…