Current Issue February 2023
The Tradition
Baseball, as America’s national pastime, has endured through many of the country’s toughest, most trying epochs. Civil war soldiers played the game, and prisoners of war during that time played…
Queries I have a 45 by the Page Valley Boys on Franc Records from Arlington, Virginia. The record is “Reubens Train” and “Old Blue.” Were they from Page County, Virginia,…
John William Hall was born on November 29, 1933 near Front Royal, Virginia and grew up on a small family farm. He went to the Washington, D.C. area in 1951…
Photo Courtesy of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine Yet what made Dudley unique is that, for as great of a picker as he was, he chose to take a life path away…
The Artists
The Entertainer Photo by Gary Hatley Legendary performer, Ronnie Reno, readily agreed, “Little Roy Lewis is probably the best entertainer in bluegrass and gospel music. You never know what he’s…
Someone Bluegrass Can Count On Photo by Sandlin Gaither At just 21 years old, Jaelee Roberts is off and running as fast as she can, chasing her musical dreams. Along…
Photos by Johnny Calcagno There is no groove in American music quite as deep as the one laid down by a hard-driving old-time stringband in full roar. It doesn’t require…
The Sound
A Gem From Coal Country’s Deep Heart Photo by Callie Thomas In today’s hyper-competitive custom luthier marketplace, excellence is only the price of admission for new mandolin builders. For an…
In my continuous journey to find and highlight exceptional songwriting, I arrived this month on “Oh, Me Of Little Faith,” a song written for the contemporary Christian genre and successfully…
A new record label launched by longtime songwriting collaborators Billy Droze and Chris Myers is turning heads in the bluegrass music industry. RBR Entertainment is churning out hits on bluegrass…
Learning how to play a musical instrument by ear is a skill that is vital to your development as a musician in traditional genres of music. While reading music can…
The Venue
Nearly seventy-eight years after Earl Scruggs first joined Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt, Chubby Wise, and Howard Watts on stage at the Grand Ole Opry—and defined bluegrass music as we know…
