Author: John Lawless

The 27th annual International Country Music Conference is scheduled for later this week in Nashville. This annual event, hwld on the campus of Belmont University, brings together scholars and academics who make country music their field of study. Noted bluegrass historian

The Grascals were among the guests on Mountain Stage earlier this month, and the audio can be streamed online from the NPR web site. The 34 minute segment includes a number of songs from their latest CD, The Famous Lefty

Yesterday (5/18) marked the release of the fine new Crooked Still CD, Some Strange Country on Signature Sounds. Like their several previous projects, this one combines a modified string band format (banjo, fiddle, bass, cello) with wispy vocals on a

Brance has posted a couple of times about Gangstagrass, the brainchild of New York artist Rench. His concept involves mixing the acoustic sound of bluegrass instruments and rhythms with hip hop beats and rhymes. It may not please purists in

This past Friday evening (5/14), I had the good fortune to catch The Boxcars at a small venue here in Roanoke. If you haven't heard the name, you will surely be hearing it soon. This is the latest bluegrass supergroup to

Vivian Wagner teaches journalism at the Muskingum University in Ohio, where she also directs the school's interdisciplinary journalism program. She is also a widely published freelance writer, whose work has appeared in a variety of journals, Bluegrass Unlimited among them. In

Here is the third video preview from Yellow Tag Mondays, the upcoming album by The Farewell Drifters. This time, it's Sunnyside Drive, an autobiographical sketch from the musical brothers Britt (Joshua and Clayton). The song is yet another relentlessly cheerful Drifters

Steep Canyon Rangers will be musical guests on this weekend's edition of A Prairie Home Companion, broadcasting live from the Fox Theater in Atlanta at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday (5/22). The Rangers have gotten a huge visibility boost this past year

Yesterday (5/18) marked the release of the fine new Crooked Still CD, Some Strange Country on Signature Sounds. Like their several previous projects, this one combines a modified string band format (banjo, fiddle, bass, cello) with wispy vocals on a

And speaking of Brandon Rickman... Brandon and his wife Amy welcomed their first child, Briar Lee Rickman, into the world last week. Briar was born on May 11 at 12:45 p.m. (CDT). He weighed in at 7.9 lbs, standing 20.5'' tall. Welcome