by Christine | Jun 3, 2017 | Welcome Column
Good morning from Whiskey Creek, where summer has loosed itself with one final push from a winter cocoon the likes of which this old man has never before experienced. A week from tomorrow I will drive to Grass Valley, California, for my 41st Fathers Day...
by Christine | Nov 7, 2015 | Welcome Column
The Daily Grist: “[Flaubert] didn’t just hate the railway as such; he hated the way it flattered people with the illusion of progress. What was the point of scientific advance without moral advance? The railway would merely permit more people to move about, meet and...
by Christine | Jul 28, 2013 | Welcome Column
Many of us have been in jams that just “sort of happened;” they weren’t planned in advance. You know the routine, you are at a camp-out or festival and you take a quiet moment to practice on your instrument of choice, another musician walks up and starts picking with...
by Christine | Jan 8, 2010 | Welcome Column
We all have our drug of choice. Mine is music. We all have our bad habits. Those things that tear us down, complicate our lives. Things that war against our best interests. Some folks drink too much (been there). Ingest too many chemicals (been there). Gamble away...
by Christine | Aug 12, 2011 | Welcome Column
As many of you know, Doyle Lawson has been experimenting with the use of drums lately. You may also know that I’m a big tent sort of guy and like to stretch the boundaries of the music I play. However, I’m not a big fan of drums. Now I don’t mind if somebody slips an...
by Christine | Oct 28, 2009 | Welcome Column
October is winding down, and with it, my bluegrass season. It’s a pattern I have observed for the past 5 or 6 years as a performing musician. As the leaves turn, the gigs start to dry up, and musical activities switch from paying gigs to jams. I’m not complaining...
by Christine | Apr 22, 2012 | Welcome Column
My debut Welcome Column was about the 2008 Spring Camp-Out, the first CBA event I ever attended. I knew not one CBA Member; my Martin Guitar was so new it still had the plastic film stuck on the pick guard and I only knew a couple songs that could pass as Bluegrass...
by Christine | Sep 2, 2012 | Welcome Column
I’m going though a mid-life crisis; I’m almost sure of it. I love blond women—my wife and daughter. I love fast cars—I sometimes get my 1999 Expedition up to 65 mph when I’m towing my trailer. Drugs and alcohol fill my life’s spare moments—Advil after I run, and cough...
by Christine | Mar 2, 2019 | Welcome Column
We often joke about bluegrass lyrics. It occurred to me long ago that a large proportion of the residents of Southern Appalachia must be blue- (or brown, never black or hazel) eyed girls waiting faithfully for the singer who is “going back someday.” And there’s the...
by Christine | Jun 3, 2020 | Welcome Column
When I was 6 or 7, the school I was in decided to have my IQ tested. I went and saw a nice man who asked me a bunch of interesting (thought provoking) questions, and I was told I scored very high on it. So I was told I was smart at a very young age, and who am I to...
