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This is Blue Yodel #53, the same number of times that local bluegrass band The Remington Riders of Free Dirt, Texas, played their signature song, Remington Ride, at a wedding on November 19, 1995. It was band policy to play the tune whenever someone requested anything by ZZ Top. An insistent drunk egged them on [...]
This is Blue Yodel #52, the same as the world-record number of strings broken by the band High Wind Advisory the night of December 5, 1983 in Delphi Plains, Ohio, when they attempted a bluegrass version of the rock opera, Tommy. I bring up Ohio only because tomorrow the good people of that state will once [...]
The First Train Robbery was written by Chris Stuart, and has been recorded by Larry Cordle and Lonesome Standard Time and released on the 2007 album Took Down and Put Up (LDR-011). Stuart has this to say about the story behind the song …… “The First Train Robbery is about an historical event that happened [...]
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 is a 15. These figures were verified by my personal statistician, Nate, of Nate’s [...]
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 three English knights and an autographed copy of the LP The Crécy Colonels: Live at [...]
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 9/17 without much of a mention. Maybe it’s the not-often-celebrated nature of a 150th anniversary, [...]
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 that often. That said, I know I ask a lot of readers of this [...]
Hello? Anybody out there who’s not in Nashville this week? Janet and I just left for World of Bluegrass 2013. We ran a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the trip this year, but only raised enough to buy a moped. We’re currently in the Mojave Desert and have broken down at Ed’s Last Chance [...]
With less than a week to go before IBMA’s World of Bluegrass, I believe I have evidence of a conspiracy so pernicious and heinous it forced me to look up those words. This past Thursday I flew to Nashville to take part in an IBMA songwriter’s round at the Bluebird Café. My flight from San [...]
This week’s trivia master is Peter “Pete Wernick” Wernick, who as Dr. Banjo makes house calls from his Niwot, CO home. Originally from New York City, Pete began his professional career in 1971 by winning the title America’s Top Chef while playing with Country Cooking (the world’s first bi-banjo band—with Tony Trischka). In 1976, Pete [...]
