Current Issue
January 2026

The Tradition

Bill Monroe in Linebaugh’s in 1973, nearly 30 years after being photographed there in 1944. Courtesy of Carl Fleischhauer.

Notes & Queries – January 2026

By Gary Reid

In the Mail: Bill Monroe Photo Revisited The 1944 photo of Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys, George D. Hay, and Uncle Dave Macon (as featured in the November…

Read More

The Artists

The King James Boys (left to right) Curtis Lewis, Cole Spencer, Will Hart, Randy Spencer. // Photo by Cherry Rose Photography

Minister with Music

By Bill Conger

The King James Boys’ latest music has been heating up a lot of excitement like an old-time gospel tent revival. Their 13th studio album, Get a Transfer, on Pinecastle Records…

Read More
Geraldine (left to right) Cory Chubb, Josh Anderson, John Bolten, Jonathan Vocke, Sarah Larsen. // Photo by Casey Ryan Vock

On The Fringe

By Tim Newby

Bands Blurring the Lines of Bluegrass “What I really appreciate about this band is that there are not a lot of no’s creatively,” explains Geraldine’s multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Vocke. We are…

Read More

Becky Buller Releases Songs That Sing Me

By Nancy Posey

Songs That Sing Me, Becky Buller’s first covers album, puts a spin on the concept. Rather than simply her take on familiar favorites audiences already know by heart, she has…

Read More
Larry Sparks and the Lonesome Ramblers at Bill Monroe’s Homecoming and Bluegrass Festival, Rosine Kentucky, September 1973. // Photo by Carl Fleischhauer

Larry Sparks

By Tom Netherland

Way Back When  Pure as summer sunshine, Larry Sparks makes bluegrass like Mother Nature provides warmth. Sparks, in rarefied air among living bluegrass masters, offers blankets of comfort whenever he…

Read More

The Sound

Daniel Flanigan at his workbench // Photo by Joseph McDonough

Token Picks

By Dan Miller

At the 2025 International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) conference held in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the exhibition hall featured a new vendor booth—Token Picks. I love to stroll through the exhibit hall…

Read More

The Venue

Founder of the festival Ken Seaman

Colorado’s Midwinter Bluegrass Festival Celebrates 40 Years

By Kevin Slick

In most of the Bluegrass world, the beginning of festival season generally happens sometime around Memorial Day. In northern Colorado, however, everyone knows that it begins over President’s Day weekend.…

Read More
Photo by Tim McGuire

Blue Ox Music Festival

By Derek Halsey

Finds Success and Fills a Niche By all measures, the Blue Ox Music Festival is a young musical gathering. Now going into its 12th year, the festival will return once…

Read More
Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival with its Epic Glamping Village in the lower left corner. The tents that look like yurts from the air. Photo by Alan R. Hamilton

Festival Innovation & Evolution

By Darcy Cahill

Written by Dale and Darcy Cahill Over the past thirty years of attending bluegrass festivals, Dale and I have witnessed festivals evolving beyond rough camping and one-stage events. Some of…

Read More
Joe Val. Photo Courtesy of Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

The Return of the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival

By Dan Miller

Twenty years after the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival won the award for the International Bluegrass Music Association’s (IBMA) Event of the Year in 2006, the festival is returning to the…

Read More

2026 Festival Guide

By Bluegrass Unlimited

United states Alabama Bluegrass at the Station APRIL 23-25, 2026 University Station Rv Resort  3076 Al Highway 14 W, Auburn, Alabama 36832 570-721-2760 bluegrassatthestation.com Arkansas Spring Mountain View Bluegrass Festival March 12-14,…

Read More