Author: John Lawless

Anyone remember Z Mandolins? A couple of years ago a media executive and mandolin enthusiast named Lee Zapis set to work creating a F-5 style instrument made almost entirely of a carbon fiber composite material. He researched this as an experiment,

Family and tradition have always been a big part of bluegrass music, and the old time Appalachian sounds that inform it. When all those elements combine in a song, along with a touch of bluegrass history, we get a message

The Kevin Prater Band has announced the addition of fiddler Mallory Hindman to the group. She will perform with Kevin and company at all their 2021 show dates, helping Prater continue his mission of preserving the traditional bluegrass sound. Mallory, only

Eddie Stubbs, longtime WSM broadcaster, voice of the Grand Ole Opry, and former fiddler and bass singer with The Johnson Mountain Boys, has made a it possible for his music library and memorabilia to reside at the Bluegrass Music Program

Mountain Home Music has a number of new releases this week, starting with a lovely country-infused bluegrass single from Carley Arrowood. Carley's debut album with the label is expected later this year, and already several songs have found favor with bluegrass

Nothing says that bluegrass is getting back to normal like the annual band shuffles that take place at the beginning of the festival season. And with the warmer weather, that is exactly where we are. Wildfire has announced that Scott Napier

Dark Shadow Recording has another new single today, the first from their upcoming second album with Rick Faris. This is Rick's initial output since his recent departure from Special Consensus, where he had held forth since 2009, first on mandolin

The Pride Band of the Bluegrass, Old Time & Country Music Studies program at East Tennessee State University has released a single, When The Water Goes Down. It's a new song written by program alumni Tim Stafford and Becky Buller,

The Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum in Owensboro, KY was recently the host of the 2021 Kentucky State Fiddle Championship. The Museum will be the home of this fiddling tradition going forward. Held on March 20, the Championship featured

Attention mandolin fans! Billy Blue Records has released an interesting one-off single featuring two of the preeminent bluegrass mandolinists of the past 35 years, Doyle Lawson and Alan Bibey. Both have been innovators in our music for decades, and while Lawson