Author: John Lawless

Mel Bay Publications has released Easy Irish and Celtic Melodies For 5-String Banjo: Best-Loved Airs and Session Tunes by Tom Hanway, available as a book/CD combo or an ebook with MP3s. While Celtic music is more commonly played with a flatpick on

Most artist management and music business consultants will tell you that an identifiable vocal sound is the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd most important element in an artist or band sound. The ability to immediately recognize a vocalist is said to

Crossroads Music has announced a June release for New Primitive, a new solo project from Adam Steffey, on their new imprint, Organic Records. It will feature the award-winning mandolinist with The Boxcars on a mix of old time and bluegrass music,

Earlier this year, we reported on celebrated electric guitar builder Paul Reed Smith's move into the acoustic market, and his choice of hypersonic flatpicker Cody Kilby as an endorser. Recently, Smith convened an all-star panel of acoustic guitar masters for a

The folks at Morgan Monroe have introduced a number of new instruments which may be of interest to the bluegrass/acoustic market. They are even giving away one of the new banjo models in July from their Facebook page to help

It's been a year and a half since we heard from modern grassers Mustered Courage. At that time, the four young Australians had just released their debut album and, since then, they have been touring aggressively and working on a follow-up project. The

Here's an update to a story we did last summer... The March edition of Acoustic Guitar magazine has a very interesting story about Bryan’s legendary "Banjo Killer" dreadnought guitar, which was damaged in the devastating Nashville flood of May 2010. In what

Kevin Carter and Full Assurance has announced Tim Greene of Lenoir, NC as their newest member. He will play bass and share in the lead and harmony vocals with the North Carolina-based bluegrass Gospel band. Full Assurance is fronted by Kevin

John Bowman - fiddler, banjo picker and tenor vocalist with The Boxcars - has re-released his 2010 solo project, a bluegrass Gospel album called Family Chain. It is available now from his web site. Until coming off the road in 2006 to teach

No Borders from The Spinney Brothers isn't due until May 7, but Mountain Fever Records has released a single to radio this week. It's Grandpa's Way of Life, a new Brink Brinkman song that perfectly fits the band's kind of traditional