Effective Arguing

I’ve said many times, one of the things that bluegrass and baseball have in common is, they’re both fun to argue about. Bill Monroe or Jimmy Martin? Mickey Mantle or Joe DiMaggio? One of the life’s little pleasures is arguing back and forth the points that make either...

El Niño Got Nothing on This Music Camp

The thing that basically drives El Niño is heat, hot water, and more hot water from the south Pacific, pumping moisture into the atmosphere that just happens to make landfall on the California coast.  As the clouds go higher over the Sierras, the temperature gets...

Election Time – Again

Soon, the members of the CBA will asked to vote for the next Board of Directors. For many, this is considered too trivial to command even a moment’s attention. Nothing could be further from the truth. An organization must have leadership to survive, and the CBA has...

Ellie in the Tropics

After spending a lot of time in a workshop recently I can tell you that whenever you get mix more than two musicians with a luthier in a room together then the subject of airline guitar damage comes up. Everybody seems to have their own favorite story about when an...

Elton John at Plymouth?

I’m writing this on Wednesday before the Hobbs Grove Festival. I’m still rockin’ and reelin’ from a fun filled week at L & S Productions’ Bluegrassin’ in the Foothills. What a great line-up of bands! I sat through nearly every performance from the first Emerging...

Elton John at Plymouth?

(Editor’s Note–We’re reaching back five years today for a piece by Jean Ramos written just after the 2010 Plymouth festival.  A long-time Welcome writer, Jean has a way of capturing the spirit and ambiance of bluegrass get-togthers.  If you...