Regrouping and Charging Ahead

I have to admit that these 200 word-columns for the new Breakdown format feel like trying to write a Haiku, which is more-or-less a 3 verse, 17 syllable poem about something to do with nature. Well Bluegrass music has its own structure built around (mostly) 3 cord...

Rehearsin’ and Woodsheddin’

Before I can launch into this week’s essay, I need to offer a sincere apology to all you readers and to the CBA’s amazing webmaster and Board Chairman emeritus, Rick Cornish. I missed last Wednesday’s deadline, and I didn’t realize it until the next day. Wednesday...

Remember the Luddites!

One of the things that makes bluegrass music so appealing is its organic nature. In a world where music is big business, bluegrass is the music that was played on rickety front porches long before technology became the new musical instrument in the land. The music is...

Remembering a great songwriter, Pete Goble

It hasn’t happened all that often that I hear a song that so impresses me that I can remember just where I first heard it, and that I spent the next few days learning it, and it is still one of my five or ten favorite bluegrass songs 30 years later.The death last...

Remembering Allen Light

If you have read the postings on the Message Board the last couple of days you know how beloved Allen Light was, how much he accomplished, and you’ll get an idea of the huge contribution he made to the bluegrass community. And I know those messages are just a...