Missy Werner's new album, Turn This Heart Around, feels like two albums in one. Roughly half of the tracks feature the singer/mandolinist in a contemporary bluegrass setting with her road band, and the balance finds her singing modern acoustic country
Kentuckians are notoriously proud of their home state. The innumerable odes to the Bluegrass State sung by bluegrass musicians can testify to that. However, there are perhaps few prouder than Gary Brewer, a native of the Louisville area. On the
After performing together for the past several decades in and around their home base of southern Indiana, husband and wife duo Jim and Lynna Woolsey have released their first album together. The record, The Road That Brings You Home, is
Over the past few years, North Carolina’s Balsam Range has established itself as one of the most consistent hit-producing and award-winning bands in bluegrass music. Now, coming off of the success of 2012’s Papertown (last year’s IBMA Album of the
Story songs have a long history in bluegrass and other forms of traditional music. From murder ballads to train songs, from lost love to the Civil War, bluegrassers love to tell and hear a good story. On Kathy Kallick’s latest
This terrific documentary aired on PBS in 2011. Producer Stephen Parrys Hayloft Gang Productions now offers it for sale at www.hayloftgang.com. It includes never-before-seen footage of pre-WWII country music. Although Chicago's WLS National Barn Dance isn't known for bluegrass, it
Family bands are nothing new in bluegrass music, although in recent years it seems the focus has been on siblings who have shown musical prowess at a young age, rather than on the entire family unit. West Virginia’s The Stevens
If you get a good look at Darrell Webb, he doesn't appear to be old enough to have spent 20 years working professionally in bluegrass. In fact, he won't turn 40 until later this month, and got his start touring with
There’s no denying that almost every bluegrass musician recording and performing today has been influenced by the artists who came before them, particularly “founding fathers” like Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, and the Stanleys. Most musicians choose to honor those
There’s not that much distance between bluegrass Gospel music and Southern Gospel, and many artists find themselves drifting back and forth between the two throughout their careers. Groups like The Isaacs and Dailey and Vincent, while prominent in the bluegrass
