Articles
IssueM Articles
Roger Sprung
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine January 1969, Volume 3, Number7 Roger Sprung is 38 years old, tall dark and handsome. He is reminiscent of a Gregory Peck type in appearance. Shy soft spoken and friendly. When I met him in 1950, he had already learned all of the banjo styles that were popular. Frailing, Scruggs…
Good Ol’ Persons
Photos by Gene Tortora Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine October 1984, Volume 19, Number 4 “I’m sorry, but when it comes to singing bluegrass, most women just can’t cut it.” “Women bluegrass musicians are such wimpy players.” “If God had intended women to play bluegrass, He would have created “Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass…
Jim & Jesse—Testing the Boundaries of Bluegrass Music (With A Little Help From Charlie Louvin)
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine September 1982, Volume 17, Number 3 It is one of the great ironies of bluegrass music that one of its most consistently popular acts has also been consistently stepping outside the bluegrass mainstream. Throughout their career Jim and Jesse have stretched the definition of this music, have experimented with arrangements…
The Osborne Brothers
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine July, 1984, Volume 19, Number 1 Bobby Osborne—Living Out The Legend, Outliving The Threat Bobby Osborne has a dream of making a movie someday, a story about bluegrass. “Maybe my own life story,” he suggests. In many ways, the Osborne Brothers’ story is the story of bluegrass. The events in…
An Oasis of Roots Music and Dance in the Blue Ridge Mountains
The Blue Ridge Parkway is one of America’s great tourist attractions. The word ‘attraction’ might not be a proper description, however, as it is simply a beautiful drive on a road built almost a century ago on top of the Blue Ridge Mountains that exposes the beauty of the Appalachian Mountains, considered the second-oldest mountains…
Railroad Town Without A Train
By Thomm Jutz and Tim Stafford Thomm Jutz and Tim Stafford have a knack—individually and together—for writing historical-themed songs. The two have cowritten such songs for other artists and for their aptly named duo album, Lost Voices (March 2023), which includes“Take That Shot,” about the place of photography in our lives historically; “Vaudeville Blues,” based on…