Music

The good news for bluegrass fans last year: A lot of terrific music was released. So much, in fact, that it made picking my annual best-of list harder than usual. I eliminated bands that recorded songs I wrote because of

Mountain Fever Records has released a debut single from their upcoming Junior Sisk album, Poor Boy's Pleasure. This will be their first record for Junior and his band, Rambler's Choice. The single, Longneck Blues, features a duet between Junior and his

Edgar Loudermilk has released a first single from his upcoming Pinecastle solo project, Georgia Maple. The song is one he wrote called My Kentucky Home, recorded with his current group, The Edgar Loudermilk Band, featuring Jeff Autry. Edgar is on bass,

Doug Sebranek, one of the several founders and promoters of Wisconsin's Larryfest Music Festival, died suddenly on December 31. He was only 52 years old, and succumbed to a suspected heart attack. The festival, sponsored by the Kickapoo Valley Acoustic Music

One of bluegrass music's stalwarts is singer, songwriter and fiddle player Laurie Lewis, a main-stay among Bay Area musicians since the mid-1970s. A lover of the hard-edged style of bluegrass music, she re-enforces that link with her up-coming album, The Hazel

Colorado banjo player Jake Schepps has come up with a creative way to fund his various musical musings, and keep the many fans of his experimental five string projects in the loop. He's created a new web site, Round Window Radio,

Regular readers may recall a number of videos we had posted over the year of Japanese shamisen player Takeharu Kunimoto, who utilized this traditional instrument of his native culture to play bluegrass music. We were saddened to learn that Takeharu died

Kameron Keller, bassist and tenor vocalist with Junior Sisk this past year, is taking over that same position with the Darrell Webb Band. He cites the fact that Webb is based in the same part of East Tennessee as he

Back To The Mountains, the debut CD from The Po' Ramblin' Boys on Randm Records, won't officially be released until February 4, but the guys have offered this special sneak peek of the opening track as a Christmas week gift

The Bluegrass, Old Time, and Country music studies program at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City has announced the six newest graduates from their department, and two who received advanced degrees at the Fall commencement on December 12. Baccalaureate degrees