The Top Bluegrass Tracks of 2023
Once again, we have a list off the most played bluegrass songs of the previous year, based on reporting to our Bluegrass Today Weekly Airplay chart during the 52 weeks of 2023. Congratulations to everyone who made the cut! ARTIST TITLE LABEL SONGWRITERS TOTAL 1 Blue Highway Lonesome State of Mind Rounder Bobby Starnes, [...] Kinetic Tone – Balsam Range
Balsam Range is one of a select few bluegrass bands that has maintained consistency within their personnel. That, of course, changed in late 2022 with the departure of founding member, Darren Nicholson. Despite this new chapter in the group’s journey, Balsam Range has soldiered on. With the addition of mandolin great Alan Bibey, there’s a […]
Evergreen from Balsam Range
Balsam Range has just released their tenth album with Mountain Home Music, Kinetic Tone, and with it, a new single called Evergreen. This one comes from the writing team of Michael Hearne, Susan Gibson, and Monica Smart, and is sung by Balsam Range guitarist Caleb Smith. Evergreen tells of accepting and going along with the […]
We’ll All Drink Money from Balsam Range
Balsam Range also has a new single this week from Mountain Home Music, a gutty, medium tempo grasser called We’ll All Drink Money, written by Adam Louis Wright, who also contributed the band’s previous release, What The Years Do. The song tackles the concept of avarice through a dark character that cares for nothing but […]
Balsam Range brings the whimsy with Snake Charmer
Mountain Home Music has a new single this week from their upcoming project with Balsam Range, a song which offers a clever twist on the good old heartbreak story. Snake Charmer comes from Milan Miller and Beth Husband, who contributed a pair of hits from the band’s previous album, Grit and Grace and Rivers, Rains […]
What The Years Do from Balsam Range
Mountain Home Music has released a new single from Balsam Range that is loaded with firsts. What The Years Do is the band’s first single in over a year, the first from their next album, and the first with a lineup other than the original group that formed in 2007 with the recent addition of […]
Alan Bibey joins up with Balsam Range
Balsam Range has been among the very few bluegrass acts to spend serious time as a headlining act with no changes in personnel over the past two decades. But that reign came to an end when mandolinist and vocalist Darren Nicholson left to pursue a solo career late last year. So what does an established […]
Darren Nicholson announces his departure from Balsam Range
Perhaps the most difficult thing to do in the music world is keeping a successful band full of creative artists, singers, and songwriters together, especially as their prominence allows the individual members to consider striking out on their own. We’ve seen it happen time and again, with both the departing artist developing a solo career, […]
A Perfect Union: Balsam Range and the Atlanta Pops Orchestra Ensemble
Balsam Range with the Atlanta Pops Orchestra Ensemble - photo by Mike Duncan Photography Granted, one might consider a billing of bluegrass and small orchestra as an unlikely combination. And who could blame you? On the other hand, as Balsam Range and the Atlanta Pops Orchestra Ensemble proved when they performed together at the Clayton [...] Highway Side video from Balsam Range
We haven't noticed Balsam Range here at World of Bluegrass in Raleigh, though they don't live far away in western North Carolina. But they will be here soon if they aren't already for tonight's IBMA Bluegrass Awards. This past weekend they released a new music video for one of the tracks for their brand new [...] 