Ben Eldridge passes
Ben Eldridge, legendary banjo player and co-founder of the equally legendary Seldom Scene, passed away of natural causes on Sunday evening, Apil 14, 2024, aged 85. Benjamin ‘Ben’ Eldridge was born in Richmond, Virginia, on August 15, 1938. His early Influences included Earl Scruggs (predominantly), Don Reno, Ralph Stanley, Sonny Osborne, Allen Shelton, and Mac […]
Jim and Marianne Robeson benefit concert this weekend in MD
Folk and bluegrass music royalty will be turning out this Sunday, February 11, for a benefit concert in support of beloved DC-area recording engineer Jim Robeson and his wife Marianne, who are struggling with medical costs associated with her complicated health condition. The show will be held at Saint Mark Presbytarian Church in Rockville, MD, […]
Reason to Believe – new single from Seldom Scene
Bluegrass artists are really leaning on Rod Stewart of late. First Daniel Grindstaff has a big hit with Forever Young, and here comes The Seldom Scene with a grassed up take on Reason to Believe. Of course, recording bluegrass versions of pop hits had been a Scene strategy from their formation in 1971, before any […]
Seldom Scene’s new logo looks back with fondness
The Seldom Scene has revealed a new band logo, one that recalls the great John Duffey, who helped found the group in 1971, and played mandolin and sang until his passing in 1996. John had a special fondness for his whiskey sours, which he always had available when the band toured. He was a big […]
On Banjo – Recollections, Licks, and Solos by Ben Eldridge
Talk about a long time in coming… A book about the banjo music of Ben Eldridge is a great many years overdue. Since 1970, he has been among the most influential banjo pickers in the bluegrass world, through many years as a founding member of Seldom Scene, right up to his retirement in 2016. On […]
Bluegrass Stories presents The Seldom Scene @ 1983
Bluegrass Stories, the ongoing podcast hosted by Katy Daley and Howard Parker, has released a very special episode this week, taking us back to the early days of Seldom Scene in 1984. It’s a video produced by George Mason University for their on-campus network, and broadcast there in ’84. The 30-minute presentation mixes interviews with […]
Seldom Scene Live at the Cellar Door reenactment show
This past Saturday night the current members of Seldom Scene assembled at Mount Airy Farm near Warsaw, VA to reenact the performance from 1974 that was released as the classic album, Live at the Cellar Door, on Rebel Records. The album is among the top sellers in the history of bluegrass music, and had been [...] Live music at DelFest Lite at B Chord Brewery
The weekend of DelFest Lite in Round Hill, Virginia was for the most part grey with rains on and off, but the talk around the festival was all about how happy the folks were to be having fun at a music festival again. Both the folks playing the festival and those who came out to [...] Classic festival photos from Akira Otsuka shared online
Boone Creek at Watermelon Park in Berryville, VA 1977 - photo © Akira Otsuka Fred Robbins, one of the premier archivists in bluegrass music, has added a collection of photos taken by Akira Otsuka to his vast online repository of images and video. These include many classic photographs from the Carlton Haney bluegrass festivals in [...] Seldom Scene to recreate Live at the Cellar Door on stage in Virginia
This is exciting news for Seldom Scene fans in eastern Virginia, and for any willing to travel there to witness this one time only event. Mount Airy Farm near Warsaw, VA will host the Scene for a concert on September 25, during which they will perform a complete recreation of their classic 1975 album, Live [...] 