Bluegrass, Banjos and Barbecue

We’ve had a few posts lately about Rosine, KY. It brought back memories of a visit my wife Barbara and I made there shortly after Bill Monroe’s death. I poked around in the archives and found this story I had written for the August, 1998, Breakdown. The headline was:...

Bluegrass, Lasers, and Flashing Shoelaces

One thing you can count on with bluegrass musicians is they have a guaranteed and bonafide calico quilt of a musical pedigree. It seems like the more talented the player, the more diverse their roots. At any given bluegrass festival, usually if you stay up late...

Bluegrass: An Alternate History

Like Western Classical music and various other genres or musical styles, bluegrass has been assessed as and plagued by the notion that it is a static and dying music. Yet, the “death of bluegrass” conversation pivots away from other such discussions in the fact that...

Bluegrass: The Land of Opportunity?

While it’s probably old news to many of you by now, I hope you took the chance to read banjo player Chris Pandolfi’s April 2011 blog, titled “Bluegrass?” (if you haven’t read it yet, check it out by linking to http://chrispandolfi.com/?p=567). Chris’ essay arrived at...