by Christine | May 22, 2018 | Welcome Column
New Country SongIf I could write a country song -say all red, white and blue -you know the stuff – ‘bout love and lossand I been done wrong too,I’d bring my darling up on stageand light her bright gold hair that she had doctored up for mein case I’d call her...
by Christine | Dec 2, 2015 | Welcome Column
Over the years, I have written a fair number of songs. Not hundreds (although I have started hundreds), but dozens. I don’t write songs steadily, but in dribs and drabs. Some have made their way into the repertoires of the bands I play with. One found its way into the...
by Christine | Sep 16, 2012 | Welcome Column
Have you ever been on a picnic? You know what I mean, where someone (the picnicker) takes the trouble to spend time making sandwiches or maybe frying chicken, baking cookies, tossing up some good potato salad, chilling a thermos of freshly brewed sweet tea or a bottle...
by Christine | Jun 22, 2012 | Welcome Column
How long does it take you for life to get back to “normal” after a Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival experience? That’s a profound question on several levels, when you stop to think about it. For me, re-entry into regular life began on Sunday afternoon with the fading...
by Christine | Jul 19, 2018 | Welcome Column
In my humble opinion bluegrass music sounds best on a front porch, or in someone’s kitchen, or under a canopy in a festival campground.About 20 years ago when Mac Martin came to California for a series of shows I “interviewed” him for a story in the Bluegrass...
by Christine | May 8, 2015 | Welcome Column
Anybody that knows me, knows that I love gospel music. Not the kind of gospel that will make you snore on Sunday morning, the stuff that touches your heart or sets your soul on fire. Give me a black Baptist choir singing call and response gospel with a Hammond draw...
by Christine | Feb 22, 2016 | Welcome Column
”It’s friendship, friendship, just the perfect friendship. When other friendships will be forgot, ours will still be hot.”–Writer unknownIt was nice to see so many bluegrass associations represented at the Great 48 last month. And to see the many fans and...
by Christine | Jan 20, 2019 | Welcome Column
Southern Pacific locomotive number 4449, the last of the GS-4 classof locomotive’s that pulled the coast daylight train between SanFrancisco and Los Angeles. It was built in May of 1941 by the Limalocomotive Works, and it was a 4-8-4 configuration, which...
by Christine | Nov 19, 2008 | Welcome Column
The heart of Bluegrass was beating last night at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley. It was the second of two special nights, showcasing bands who participated in the ?Take the Stage? program. Created by Nell Robinson Music, the program takes ?closet musicians? and...
by Christine | May 14, 2018 | Welcome Column
If one has read my reviews, they would realize I emphasize album cohesiveness and variety more than many fellow bluegrass writers. I do this because if bluegrass is to be recognized in the same breadth as more popular and appreciated genres, we must hold ourselves to...
