Encore!

Encore!

What a treat last week to once again sit in a lawn chair at Grass Valley and listen some of the best musicians in the land! We had a lively crowd, mild weather and lively jams sometimes fueled by recent graduates of the reborn yearly music camp. I hope our venerable...
A Noble Instrument

A Noble Instrument

The Daily Grist: As her lute doth live or die, Led by her passion, so must I: For when of pleasure she doth sing, My thoughts enjoy a sudden spring, But if she doth of sorrow speak, Ev’n from my heart the strings do break. (Thomas Campion) All of our traditional...
Child Number Ballads

Child Number Ballads

It is interesting to think of just how old some of the music that crept into the bluegrass genre from long ago is. Bluegrass songs often tell a story. That might be a murder (most likely by a guy named Willie) but it might be something quite different. In the middle...
Dancin’ John

Dancin’ John

Photo credit: Robin Frenette I have to leave for Grass Valley in a couple of days. The festival has always been a centerpoint for my bluegrass experience and I am happy that the festival has risen from COVID ashes to be a real festival again. But I am really sad that...
The Death of Poetry?

The Death of Poetry?

The Daily grist: “if you have to keep declaring, over and over, that poetry is dead, it can’t actually be dead.” (from a college literary magazine) I read a disturbing article a couple of months ago from Washington Post columnist Christopher Ingraham. The...