by Christine | May 17, 2020 | Welcome Column
I have to admit that these 200 word-columns for the new Breakdown format feel like trying to write a Haiku, which is more-or-less a 3 verse, 17 syllable poem about something to do with nature. Well Bluegrass music has its own structure built around (mostly) 3 cord...
by Christine | Mar 5, 2014 | Welcome Column
Before I can launch into this week’s essay, I need to offer a sincere apology to all you readers and to the CBA’s amazing webmaster and Board Chairman emeritus, Rick Cornish. I missed last Wednesday’s deadline, and I didn’t realize it until the next day. Wednesday...
by Christine | Nov 4, 2009 | Welcome Column
One of the things that makes bluegrass music so appealing is its organic nature. In a world where music is big business, bluegrass is the music that was played on rickety front porches long before technology became the new musical instrument in the land. The music is...
by Christine | Nov 24, 2011 | Welcome Column
There’s a lot of happy memories I can remember from my November’s of yore. Also one that bring back a lot of tears and heartache. All told, mostly happy memories, and lookin’ back as Lester was wont tosing, the good times outweigh the bad. Some of my...
by Christine | Aug 9, 2018 | Welcome Column
It hasn’t happened all that often that I hear a song that so impresses me that I can remember just where I first heard it, and that I spent the next few days learning it, and it is still one of my five or ten favorite bluegrass songs 30 years later.The death last...
by Christine | Apr 20, 2008 | Welcome Column
If you have read the postings on the Message Board the last couple of days you know how beloved Allen Light was, how much he accomplished, and you’ll get an idea of the huge contribution he made to the bluegrass community. And I know those messages are just a...
by Christine | Mar 7, 2016 | Welcome Column
(Editor’s Note: This morning we welcome a new Welcomer, Andrei Ferrera. Andrei is a communications director at Children’s Day School in San Francisco. He has been playing bluegrass music for close to twenty years. In recent years,...
by Christine | Jun 9, 2016 | Welcome Column
I wasn’t surprised to hear that James King had passed away last month. Having seen him live many times over about 25 years, I knew that James enjoyed beer. He was a singer’s singer — one of those rare people blessed with such a powerful,...
by Christine | Jul 9, 2009 | Welcome Column
There are memorial jams today for two friends of mine who were part of our bluegrass community, Nick Champlin and Reza Honarkhah. I wanted to write something remembering Nick and Reza this morning, and I think it is particularly appropriate to do it here, because I...
by Christine | May 20, 2007 | Welcome Column
Tonight as I sat here watching the sun go down, I was listening to my favorite Native American flute player, R.Carlos Nakai, as he played several traditional Native American [Indian] melodies, on a flute that is made of cedar, and has 5 or 6 finger holes on it. The...
