Dropping Octaves

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...

Drug of Choice

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...

Drums and bluegrass

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...

Duck Season? Wabbit Season? Jamming Season!

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...

Duct Tape

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...

Dude in Crisis

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...

Dueling with decibels

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...

Dumb Stuff I’ve Done

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...

Early Christmas Present

Good morning from Whiskey Creek, where it was an incredible 64 degrees yesterday…and STILL some snow remains on the ground. If you’re the sort of a person like I am whose love of listening to stories told by good story tellers goes back even before I could talk, it’s...

Easiest Column Ever – Happy Thanksgiving!

I can’t tell if anyone reads my Welcome Messages anymore – I don’t seem the elicit the reactions I used to. Possibly I’ve grown boring, or the readers are struck dumb in amazement. But it doesn’t matter, because the today the privilege of writing the Wednesday...