Articles

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…

We all have days when we could use a good-humored song with a classic feel. If that’s you today, I recommend “End of the End of the World,” written by Adam Wright, which fits that bill with playful perfection. As the title suggests, it takes a run-of-the-mill phrase, end of the world, and gives it…

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…

Bands Blurring the Lines of Bluegrass “The cool thing about Broke Mountain Bluegrass Band is we thought we were something special,” says Anders Beck with a laugh, “but we were just five dumb kids.  Only time can tell if we were right or not.  I guess we were something pretty special though, because the bands…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine June 1990, Volume 24, Number 12 One of the most cherished traditions in country and bluegrass music is that of the performing family group. In addition to numerous brother and sister acts we have had the Carter Family, the Pickard Family, the Phipps Family, the McLain Family, the Lewis Family,…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine August 2012, Volume 47, Number 2 It may sound like a setup for a really bad banjo joke, but five-strings can bring people together. And, in at least one case, help forge a bluegrass power couple. Terry Baucom has established himself among the great banjo pickers of the last four…