Bedtime Stories

Bedtime Stories

When I was a little kid bed time stories were a real highlight at the end of my day. One of my favorite movies of all time now is the Princess Bride which revolves around a bedtime story. The off the cuff wild bedtime stories I told to my kids when they were growing...
Porches

Porches

Our bluegrass music is definitely made for picking on the porch with friends. One of my favorite CDs of all time is the Dillard’s Back Porch Bluegrass. Dooley, Ground Hog and the banjo standard Doug’s Tune are all on that recording. I wish COVID-19 had never happened...
Short Attention Span

Short Attention Span

With the advent of digital media technology our society has new problems to solve about how we live our lives. Our culture has gone from word of mouth to print to radio then to television and beyond at a dizzying pace. But the human race has had problems all through...
Learning the Bluegrass Way Redux

Learning the Bluegrass Way Redux

(Editor’s note: One of my favorite welcome columnists and picking buddies over the years has been Marcos Alvira. Marcos knows a lot about bluegrass, baseball and a lot of other things. Here is one of Marcos’s columns from way back. I hope you have as much fun...
Practicing With the Metronome

Practicing With the Metronome

Bluegrass music, like all music, relies on accurate rhythm to make it sound right. When we play music together we have to find the groove and adjust appropriately to the prevailing rhythm of our ensemble.  Some people tend to speed up and some people try to control...