When road musicians get together, reminiscing about gigs past is a pretty typical sort of conversation. There can be fond memories of the festival with the extraordinary scenery, the theatre with the great sound and near-perfect acoustics, or maybe the
One of the words people use in describing bluegrass is integrity. Even accounting for a few posers, let’s say on the integrity scale of 100, bluegrass is a 95. Before we start celebrating, let’s consider that on the income scale bluegrass
When Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys performed at the Mid Pointe Music Festival in Cincinnati on September 29, they also shot a video for a local outfit that is restoring the old Emery Theatre there in town. Videographer Michael Wilson met the
The road can be dreary. This fact struck a deep and resonant chord with me again recently while driving between West Memphis, Arkansas and Cape Girardeau, Missouri en route to a show in southern Illinois. The following description has many slight variations,
This week’s guest trivia master is Roland White, born Roland LeBlanc in Madawasca, Maine. The bluegrass Roland is not to be confused with the Roland LeBlanc who was captured at the Battle of Crécy in 1346 and later exchanged for
We’ve spent some time here discussing altered and erroneous song titles and lyrics, mostly blaming the mistakes on good old human error. Human error, though, can at times be matched by the computer, the “smart” phone, and yes, the satellite radio
We’re two years into the sesquicentennial of the Civil War and, I don’t know about you, but it seems to me there hasn’t been a whole lot said about it. The anniversary of Antietam—the bloodiest day in American history—passed on
I’m pleased to announce that not only did I find it a very satisfying IBMA World of Bluegrass this year, I’m actually feeling pretty good, both physically, mentally, and spiritually, in the aftermath of the event. This is all thanks
I had a bittersweet moment Saturday morning, seeing Nashville in the rearview mirror. I don’t know when I’ll be back now that IBMA’s World of Bluegrass is heading to Raleigh, N.C., in 2013. But I’m looking forward to seeing what Raleigh
Once when asked how he managed to write three columns a week, the conservative commentator William F. Buckley replied that the world reliably annoyed him three times a week. The world of bluegrass reliably annoys, amuses, and astonishes me at least
