Eddie Hoyle to Edgar Loudermilk Band
The Edgar Loudermilk Band has announced the addition of banjo player Eddie Hoyle to the band. Eddie and Edgar have been friends for years, and the two played together on a 2013 project that Loudermilk recorded, My Big Chance Tomorrow. Hoyle is a life-long banjo player, growing up in his family’s band. He started on […]
Two new armrest designs from Banjolit
Banjolit, the innovative Czech company manufacturing accessories for bluegrass and acoustic musicians, has introduced a pair of new arm rest designs for banjo and mandolin as they celebrate their 10th anniversary this month. Their Dr. Arm arm rest for banjo was one of their first product releases, offering a smooth piece of carefully-shaped tone wood […]
Introducing The Landon Fitzpatrick Band
Following four years on banjo with RalphStanley II & The Clinch Mountain Boys, banjo player Landon Fitzpatrick left the band last year to return home to Georgia, where both he and his wife would be closer to family. He has now resurrected his own Landon Fitzpatrick Band, with whom he had toured since 2015, in […]
Ralph’s Banjo Special video from Alison, Kristin, and Gena
Kristin Scott Benson, Gena Britt, and Alison Brown in the Compass Records Studio Amongst yesterday’s nominees announced for the 2025 IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards were two for a banjo tune first recorded by The Stanley Brothers in 1959, Ralph’s Banjo Special. Aficionados of early bluegrass know it as Ralph Stanley’s version of the old favorite […]
Tim Goins passes
Timothy Goins, a bluegrass multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, died unexpectedly on the morning of July 10. He was 61 years of age. A native of western North Carolina, Tim was living in Virginia when he passed. He had learned to play taking lessons from the Easter Brothers, who hired him to work for them as soon […]
Button Bender debuts for reso-guitar and banjo
Scotty Cockerham, a Florida bluegrass picker and entrepreneur, has introduced a new product for banjo, reso-guitar, and tailpiece guitar that allows the user to mimic pedal steel bends using a simple, palm activated device behind the bridge. Called the Button Bender, it can be installed quickly, removed just as easily, and tuned in a few […]
He Likes To Fish from Gena Britt
Sister Sadie banjo picker Gena Britt has a new single this week for Mountain Home Music, just in time for Father’s Day. He Likes To Fish is one Gena wrote and sings, a sweet remembrance of her own father who she loved dearly. Most of us can bring up memories of our dads that resonate […]
Jody King to Southern Legacy for the summer
The ongoing 2025 tour of Alison Krauss & Union Station has caused another minor disruption in the bluegrass force, with Jody King announced as the fill-in banjoist with Southern Legacy for the duration. Southern Legacy is a bluegrass supergroup which includes Ron Block on banjo, alongside Josh Williams on guitar, Don Rigsby on mandolin, Steve […]
Free To Go from Jason Burleson
Jason Burleson, founding banjo man with Blue Highway, has a new single on his own, a rare but special occurrence in bluegrass music. It’s one he wrote with his wife, Courtney, called Free To Go, available now online. Studio assistance came from his son, Jacob, currently with Volume Five, on guitar and mandolin, Blue Highway’s […]
Go Back and Fetch It for fiddle and banjo
The University of North Carolina Press has set a September 16 release date for a new book by noted banjo performer Rhiannon Giddens and music writer Kristina R. Gaddy, Go Back and Fetch It: Recovering Early Black Music in the Americas for Fiddle and Banjo. It’s representative of a very encouraging trend, primarily within academia at this […]
