Breaking it Down

Last week I took my banjo apart, right down to the smallest pieces. It was the scariest thing I’ve ever done, but I felt like I had to do it sometime, and I had put it off long enough. I am in the childhood of my banjo life, something like preschool age, and I...

Breaking News!

 Some of the truth is: the world has gone mad. It often feels like day is night and night is day. I couldn’t tell you anymore if fish are to swim upstream or down; or if songs are only to be heard, not sang. Every day we are bombarded by something—usually...

Breaking Up

We all have our favorite bluegrass bands. Some of them have been playing together for many years and they have a familiar mix that just never gets old. A band member may change from here to there but some bands have a consistency over time that is a big part of their...

Brief Impressions from FDF2012

Another Father’s Day Festival in the books. By nearly all accounts, it was a good one – although the comments directly following the festival always seem overwhelmingly positive. So, how was this one any better than others? From a CBA standpoint, that really can’t be...

BRIGHT STAR!

It ain’t Bluegrass , but it is darned good entertainment!  “Bight Star” is a near perfect play with straight-forward words and music, but at it’s core it is a story as old as humanity.  It is the story told by the Greeks and perfected for the English...

Bringin’ in the Bluegrass Mail

In the world gone web in which we live, it’s a novelty to receive, via the United States Postal Service, a personal letter. Ninety per cent of the mail I receive is bills and the other ten per cent is junk. So it was a surprise to find a small envelope of personalized...

Bristol

It is that time of year again when I get to go to Bristol to teach and coach at a one week jam camp in conjunction with the Rhythm & Roots Festival (http://lineup.bristolrhythm.com/# ). Bristol considers itself “The Birthplace of Country Music” and the museum...

Broken – HAVE YOU FALLEN SINCE YOUR LAST VISIT?

Not Waving But DrowningNobody heard him, the dead man, But still he lay moaning: I was much further out than you thought And not waving but drowning. Poor chap, he always loved larking And now he’s dead It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way, They...

Broken Crown

There was a lot to admire about my mother. I think what I admired, and to be honest, envied, most about her was the absoluteness and utter resolve with which she held to her priorities in life. I suppose part of that was simply a matter of her generation’s need to...

Brooks’ Trains

Writing a column is a funny thing. Some months, a plethora of topics flow like artesian wells in Calistoga. Other months, pounding sand comes easier than a novel idea. There was a two moth stretch when Bert me to the punch on a couple of themes that I thought were...