by Christine | Sep 29, 2014 | Welcome Column
After four years of missing this crazy, whacked-out, more or less unbelievable event, I’m headed back to Raleigh this evening. Prior to that I hadn’t missed in ten years. The past several evenings my wife, Lynn, and I have been watching the new Ken Burns documentary...
by Christine | Jul 24, 2019 | Welcome Column
How many times has this happened? You nestle into your seat at a concert or festival, to see one of your favorite bands, and they announce from the stage their regular fiddler couldn’t make it, but they have so-and-so filling in at this show? It’s pretty common,...
by Christine | Nov 24, 2013 | Welcome Column
Perhaps some of you have been to the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Though I have not visited this hallowed building, it is near the top of my “bucket list.” I didn’t know that it was originally called the Union Gospel Tabernacle. Thomas G. Ryman had it designed and...
by Christine | Apr 17, 2014 | Welcome Column
There’s a raging debate going on in the world of bluegrass between traditionalists and futurists. But bluegrass isn’t going to make a sound if nobody’s listening a generation from now. In 2009, a study by Simmons Research for IBMA revealed that 79% of the bluegrass...
by Christine | Mar 1, 2019 | Welcome Column
“If people did not love one another,I really don’t see what use there would be in having spring.” Victor Hugo“I enjoy the spring more than the autumn now.One does, I think , as one gets older.” Virginia WoolfMarch 1st… Spring.. Mornings...
by Christine | Nov 8, 2019 | Welcome Column
The act of READING is such a pleasure to me that I simply cannot understand that others don’t or won’t do it, especially when their reasons fall into categories like, “I haven’t the time” or, “I never got into the habit.” Today, without their thinking, the excuses may...
by Christine | Nov 22, 2014 | Welcome Column
By now I imagine that quite a lot of the bluegrass community has heard and already formed opinions on the current situation at the IBMA and the mass exodus of directors. I have my opinions too, but without knowing all of the facts or actually speaking with any of the...
by Christine | Feb 15, 2008 | Welcome Column
This is what the Red Queen said to Alice during her visit to Wonderland. It was also on the subject line of an email sent to me by my wife Wednesday morning. Here is, in part, what Lynn’s email said: “Bill from Hilltop Appliance came this morning but couldn’t fix the...
by Christine | Sep 18, 2013 | Welcome Column
Recently, I attended a dinner party, and the conversation turned briefly to bluegrass. “What IS bluegrass music”, one guest asked. I was about to answer, when another guest spoke up. The fellow who answered is not a bluegrass musician, or a bluegrass fan. He is a...
by Christine | Apr 27, 2020 | Welcome Column
I’d be willing to bet that almost all of you who are reading this now love bluegrass music. And I’ll bet that most of you also like to play bluegrass music. And most of you have surrounded yourselves over your years of enjoyment with various accoutrements that enhance...
