From The Side of the Road… flogging CDs from the stage in 2025
I’ve discussed the issue of CD sales here in the past. Disregard whatever I may have said before because there have been some important new developments on that front. Well, one, mainly: people really aren’t buying the things. I’m exaggerating a little: a few people are buying them, which is why we’re still selling them, […]
From The Side of the Road… 2025 Bluegrass Quiz!
It’s time for the annual bluegrass quiz, which fills some readers with excitement, others with dread, and still others with the urge to ignore it and move on to one of Bluegrass Today’s other top stories: “Oral Surgery Postponed For Jason Trimble.” Last year, there was a name change for the quiz, which was generally […]
From The Side of the Road… unnecessary musical accessories
Happy New Year! Next week it will be our annual Bluegrass Knowledge Test (or whatever it’s being called now), so be studying up on that bluegrass trivia. Here’s some help: the answer to question #2 is going to be “B.“ For today, though, I’m busy working on my resolutions. Currently at the top of the […]
From The Side of the Road… you will be visited by three spirits
Merry Christmas to all! I’ve been given the day off (with pay), though when I told my boss here, John Lawless, that it was only once a year, he replied, “A poor excuse for picking a man’s pocket every 25th of December!” Below is a repeat of a Christmas column from 2015, that I have […]
From The Side of the Road… can you count on me?
I recently encountered one of the more pointless and irritating social media threads I’ve seen, at least since the 2024 election. It had to do with lyrics of the Christmas song, I’ll Be Home For Christmas. In the thread I saw, which was on Meta’s relatively new Twitter/X alternative, Threads—the post had over 500 comments […]
From The Side of the Road… post-Thanksgiving bluegrass shopping ideas
We’ve just made it through Thanksgiving, and I chose the phrase “made it through” deliberately. Let’s be honest, for all people’s happy and thankful social media posts (“I’m so thankful for my kitty Snooky-wookums, and the humans in my family are pretty good, too!”), we all know this is a holiday that’s fraught with potential […]
From The Side of the Road… using bluegrass to deflect difficult Thanksgiving conversations
I want to wish you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving. Mine is a simple one: I’m up in the frozen north of western Canada, where Thanksgiving was last month. I’ll be eating a pizza and filling in for other SiriusXM DJs so they can enjoy the holiday. Also, it’s 10 below zero with snow […]
From The Side of the Road… are banjo players a moon sign?
I’ve become very disillusioned with the zodiac, I have to admit. First there were the overly general daily horoscopes: “Make sound financial decisions today. Expect news from a friend, family member, or other human being you may or may not know.” These are no better than fortune cookie fortunes, just longer, and without the cookie […]
From The Side of the Road… have I got a theme for you!
Greetings from Germany, where I’m on tour playing some duo shows with Paolo Ercoli. On Friday of this week (3:00 p.m. Eastern), the classic bluegrass show I do for SiriusXM, Truegrass, will be broadcast from the tour and will feature classic bluegrass covers of country songs, like Bill Monroe’s Cry Cry Darlin’. This is a theme, of […]
From The Side of the Road… German bluegrass phrasebook
Greetings from Italy, where I’m starting a tour this week with Italian dobro player Paolo Ercoli. Since I am writing in from Europe, I thought I’d address one potential issue on European tours, and that is the language barrier (revised and reprinted from an earlier column and tour). The truth is, in most European countries, […]
