It’s a finely grained silicate material that can be molded when wet and used to make bricks, pottery, ceramics and some superlative, splinter-kicking, poignant bluegrass tunes. With the help of Tommy Brown, the Downhill Bluegrass Band, Bradford Lee Folk, The Dixie Travelers, Seldom Scene, Blue Highway and Higher Ground, Chosen Road, Hazel Dickens and Chris […]

We’ll be continuing our look at notable high, blue and lonesome achievements, milestones and high points from 2020 including award winners, Hall of Fame inductees and number one songs. Sister Sadie, the Slocan Ramblers, the Grasscals, Blue Highway, Larry Sparks and Becky Buller, among others, will be bringing home the bacon.

There’s no point mincing words–2020 was strange, surreal and unspeakably unsettling. On the bright side, it was filled with many examples of bluegrassical excellence—just when we needed them the most. With the contributions of Sister Sadie, Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper, Special Consensus, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver and Mile Twelve, we’ll be checking out award winners, […]

Per Andy Williams, it’s indeed the most wonderful time of the year and, as the Stanley Brothers so eloquently put it, it’s getting near. Christmas is filled with many time-honored traditions and is observed in a myriad of ways. Thanks to Larry Sparks, Lou Reid & Carolina, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver and Lorraine Jordan, we’ll […]

It’s a big word that has multiple connotations depending on how you use it. It’s an old-fashioned moniker for country music and nowadays sometimes alludes to old time and early bluegrass. When applied to people, most dictionaries say it refers to unsophisticated folks from the Southern Appalachians. It’s that “unsophisticated” part of the definition where […]

We’ll be diving into the meaning of one of BluegrassLand’s most hallowed words–and one with a great pedigree as well. It’s a word that gets to the very heart and soul of bluegrass music. It’s also one of those words that can be complimentary or derogatory depending on how you use it. In BluegrassLand, it’s […]

They’re falling into the new Bluegrass CD bins faster than a knife fight in a phone booth … just in the nick of time for holiday gift giving. We’ll be unveiling recent releases from Robert Hale with the 8th Wonder Band, the David Grier Band, Phil Leadbetter & the All Stars of Bluegrass, Turning Ground, […]

It’s an emotional state or reaction. According to Plutchik’s Weel of Emotions, there are eight of them: fear, anger, sadness, joy, disgust, surprise, trust and anticipation. In bluegrassland, there’s basically one: sadness.

We’ll be careening back to 1980 when, among other things, Ronald Reagan is elected president; Libya invades Chad; CBS bans Brook Shields’ Calvin Klein jeans commercial, 83,000,000 watch Dallas’ “Who Shot J.R.” episode; the pope visits West Germany; Dolly releases her 9 To 5 And Odd Jobs LP; and Larry Sparks, Ralph Stanley, John Starling […]

After the release of his first single, in 1954 — That’s All Right, backed by Blue Moon of Kentucky — the music world experienced a siesmic shift. The young man from Tupelo, Mississippi had planned to become a truck driver. Instead he would become a singer, actor, genre pioneer, sex symbol and cultural icon, who […]