Articles

Presides Over One of the Most Important Two-Week Spans in Bluegrass History The rise of Billy Strings has been an amazing thing to watch. While playing a combination of open-minded, progressive roots music next to straight-ahead bluegrass, he has garnered a following that boggles the mind. Several years ago, Strings began to sell out the…

Photo by Craig Etchison For many musicians, releasing an album at twenty would be considered quite an achievement. At twenty, Liam Purcell of Cane Mill Road is preparing to release his fifth full-length album later this year. Now a senior at Berklee College of Music, where he studies music business and performance, Purcell continues a…

Bluegrass Unlimited first conducted a Reader’s Poll in 1967, the year after the magazine was established.  A second poll was conducted in 1971.  I asked Dick Spottswood, who was working for the magazine in those days, if he knew why the Reader’s Poll was not continued.  He replied, “In 1967 we were still trying to…

Published by MOC Press Mark O’Connor has written an emotional detailed account of his experience as a child musician. He first started on guitar as a six year old and began learning fiddle at age eleven.  He was a quick learner and at age twelve he won first place in the Junior Division at The…

At a recent concert, after her sound check, bluegrass veteran Murphy Henry heard music over the house speakers that stopped her in her tracks. Bewildered, she was hearing one of her original songs being sung by the Queen of Bluegrass Rhonda Vincent. Running through her mental bluegrass database, there was no notion found anywhere in…

This here’s a mighty fine tribute to the legendary John Hartford. It is arranged and played by Chris Coole on banjo and John Showman on fiddle. The Canadian duo have picked twelve of their favorite Hartford tunes spanning over thirty years of his career, including cuts from Hartford’s Mark Twang, Aereo-Plain and Good Old Boys…