IBMA remembered

Howdy Readers! I have had quite a month! Last week I schemed and squirmed my way to the International Bluegrass Music Association’s week long World of/ Wide Open Bluegrass Extravaganza! The last time I went was back in Nashville, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. An...

IBMA Week

After four years of missing this crazy, whacked-out, more or less unbelievable event, I’m headed back to Raleigh this evening. Prior to that I hadn’t missed in ten years. The past several evenings my wife, Lynn, and I have been watching the new Ken Burns documentary...

Identity Crisis

How many times has this happened? You nestle into your seat at a concert or festival, to see one of your favorite bands, and they announce from the stage their regular fiddler couldn’t make it, but they have so-and-so filling in at this show? It’s pretty common,...

If Instruments Could Talk

Perhaps some of you have been to the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Though I have not visited this hallowed building, it is near the top of my “bucket list.” I didn’t know that it was originally called the Union Gospel Tabernacle. Thomas G. Ryman had it designed and...

If Nobody’s Listening, is the Grass Still Blue?

There’s a raging debate going on in the world of bluegrass between traditionalists and futurists. But bluegrass isn’t going to make a sound if nobody’s listening a generation from now. In 2009, a study by Simmons Research for IBMA revealed that 79% of the bluegrass...