Author: Chris Jones

We discussed bluegrass death last week, and if things followed along the expected timeline, this week should be all about the bluegrass afterlife. Instead, though, I’d like to back up to the part  just before death: bluegrass retirement. I know what

Well, it’s the heart of summer; it’s extremely hot in many places, and our thoughts turn naturally to death. This may seem a little morbid, but this is a column about bluegrass music, after all. Aside from the moment when

A while back (about as specific as I get now about past events), I wrote a column in which I substituted a line or two of current pop lyrics for the original lyrics of some bluegrass standards, just to see

I touched on this issue in the introduction to last week’s column rerun: people aren’t listening to the lyrics of bluegrass songs. By “people” I mean human beings, obviously, but specifically the people who are fans of bluegrass music, and

With a Bryan Adams love song having made it into the second round of voting in the IBMA Awards, the subject of people paying no attention to the lyrics of bluegrass songs has come up again as a topic. I’ll

Mr. Bluegrass Manners is back a lot sooner than usual. Generally he emerges from his hermit-like, yet very polite life at his southern Indiana ranch-style home to answer a few questions, then disappears for months on end, presumably working on

I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but bluegrass songs about bluegrass are more popular than ever. I saw at least a couple of them on the IBMA second ballot, and the charts have been full of them. What’s not

I don’t want to alarm you about the passage of time, or, if I’m honest, I do want to alarm you about the passage of time, because it’s fun: The movie Oh Brother Where Art Thou came out almost 20

Mr. Bluegrass Manners is back. We’re not sure where he went, but I have it on good information that wherever he was, he tore pretty heavily into the Bluegrass Today expense account. Now I ask you, was that good manners?

It’s been such an exciting development to see the growth of bluegrass music in higher education. Programs like those at ETSU, Glenville State, Berklee, and Morehead State are not just providing degrees to students who are pursuing their musical passion,