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Fiddler Justin Branum was one of these musicians.  Before the pandemic, Justin was on the road with Lee Ann Womack, but it wasn’t just the pandemic that prompted him to come off the road.  In 2019 he got married, had already been teaching fiddle for many years, and he had also had success producing a…

Photo by Bud Osborne Over the last four decades, Australia’s Paul Duff has earned mention in mandolin and bluegrass circles as one of the premier mandolin-family builders. His instruments, which range from an A4-style mandolin to outrageous feats of luthiery like recreating one of Orville Gibson’s early, highly ornate archtop guitars in exacting detail, reflect…

Queries  Q: I was reading John Hartley Fox’s article ‘Muleskinner & Clarence White’ in the June 2023 Bluegrass Unlimited and noticed what I think are (slight) errors.  I grew up in LA and had been to the Ash Grove many times to see the likes of The Kentucky Colonels and Bill Monroe with Billy Keith…

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…

Earlier this summer, the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum collaborated with Billy Strings to create a pop-up store in its gift shop.  The museum collaborated with the artist’s team to create a unique display that features Billy Strings merchandise which includes apparel, vinyl records, and CDs.  The museum store is located near the…

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…