by Bert Daniel | Feb 26, 2025 | Welcome Column
Unless you count the untold dozens of dollars most bands pay themselves, the biggest expense by far is travel. It is daunting enough to move a solo or duo act from home 20 miles to Point A and then 20 more miles to Point B while ensuring that everyone arrives on time...
by Bert Daniel | Mar 9, 2025 | Welcome Column
The pedal steel guitar: what it is, how it works Sean J. Barry-2025 The pedal steel guitar is closely identified with country music as a main contributor to the “traditional” Nashville sound, but it has also been used frequently in jazz, swing, and rock music. The...
by Bert Daniel | May 3, 2025 | Welcome Column
Brazilian rosewood seemed finally to be unavailable outside of Brazil, but a mix of legal exceptions such as lumber supposedly accumulated before the 1992 CITES Appendix I listing (“pre-CITES” wood) and wood salvaged from non-living sources (“stump wood,” purportedly...
by Bert Daniel | Apr 29, 2025 | Welcome Column
This is a factual account of the post-1960 history of Brazilian rosewood in US guitar production. Part 1 covers the effects of Brazilian rosewood availability changes on the CF Martin Company, the largest US importer and user of Brazilian rosewood for stringed...
by Bert Daniel | May 12, 2025 | Welcome Column
(Editor’s note: My musical feed while driving home today happened to hit on the tune Three Forks of the Cumberland. I love crooked tunes so I figured it was time to rerun this column from fifteen years ago) My astrological sign happens to be Cancer. And as everybody...
by Bert Daniel | May 14, 2025 | Welcome Column
(Editor’s note: I published this article more than a dozen years ago after the death of perhaps the greatest bluegrass fiddler who ever lived) As most of you know already, this month we lost one of the finest bluegrass musicians of all time. Kenny Baker, who fiddled...
