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...
by Christine | Dec 17, 2013 | Welcome Column
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...
by Christine | Nov 25, 2015 | Welcome Column
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...
by Christine | Nov 23, 2016 | Welcome Column
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving – my favorite holiday. It’s completely secular, devoid of scandal or partisan taint. It satisfies a very important, and very human, need: Step back from the bustle and bother of daily life, and give thanks. Hopefully, this is not the...
by Christine | Mar 31, 2013 | Welcome Column
Happy Easter everybody! I had another column all written for you today. But I sent it to to my web posting emissary (a guy who actually owns and raises llamas, if you can believe that), when I realized that today is Easter! It falls early this year and even earlier in...
