John had served as primary author and editor for The Bluegrass Blog from its launch in 2004 until being folded into Bluegrass Today in September of 2011. He continues in that capacity here, managing a strong team of columnists and correspondents.
A recent edition of the How It's Made program, broadcast on The Science Channel, focused on the banjo - and how it's made. To film this segment, the producers and crew visited First Quality Musical Supply in Louisville, KY where The Sullivan Banjos are made. This led to a roughly five minute piece on the [...]
The Gospel Music Association has announced the nominees for the 2008 Dove Awards, and their bluegrass categories are chock full of familiar names. The awards will be announced at the 39th Annual Dove Awards on April 23 in Nashville, TN. The Bluegrass Recorded Song of the Year nominees are: He's In Control from Austins Bridge [...]
Tony Trischka will be the featured guest on tomorrow's (2/15) edition of Lonesome Pine RFD on WFDU-FM, broadcast in the New York City metro area. He will join host Carol Beaugard for a discussion about his upcoming CD release, Territory, and perform tunes live in the studio. Carol also plans to ask Tony about the [...]
Banjoist Jayme Stone and mandolinist John Reischman each received a JUNO nomination from The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences last week. The awards, which celebrate the work of Canadian musical artists, will be announced at the 37th annual JUNO Awards gala on April 6, 2008 in Calgary, AB. Stone is nominated for his [...]
Gibson has been posting free instructional videos on their web site of late. Most of them have reflected the larger size of their market that comes from the world of rock music, but two mandolin lessons were posted recently. They are taken from How To Play Mandolin by Bert Casey, and show both a split-screen [...]
Our friend Laura Leder from Cool Mandolin Company emailed recently to ask us to remind students of bluegrass and old time music - both here in the US, and in the UK and Europe - about Sore Fingers Week 2008. The annual event will be held March 24-28 in Oxfordshire (UK), with classes offered in [...]
Ernie Thacker has signed with Pinecastle Records to release his next CD. The as yet untitled project is finished, and expected to hit sometime in August. As many of our readers are aware, Ernie was seriously injured in an automobile accident in April 2006 and has been undergoing a difficult, but successful recovery since. The [...]
The Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville has just announced the list of this year's inductees, all of whom have a bluegrass connection. The honorees are selected annually in three chronological career categories: pre WWII, WWII to 1975, and 1975-present. Ernest V. (Pop) Stoneman will be honored in the first (pre WWII) category. He [...]
Bluegrass has always been a highly participatory genre, with a higher than average number of fans being amateur or part time players as well, something we share with jazz and folk music. One of the surest signs of the continuing growth of interest in bluegrass music is the success of the many new instructional camps [...]
Resonator guitarist and vocalist Randy Kohrs has named several new members of his touring band, The Lites. Joining Randy and existing members Ashley Brown on fiddle, Andrew Crawford on guitar and Chris Williamson on bass are Mike Sumner on banjo, Jesse Daniel on mandolin and Chris Wood on drums. Jesse is a school teacher in [...]
