by Christine | May 6, 2013 | Welcome Column
Good morning from Whiskey Creek, where the days-long whacking of weeds will finally come to an end no later than Wednesday, Thursday being Parkfield departure day. Fire hazard abatement, Round One, will give way to the likes of Roland White, Junior Blankenship and...
by Christine | Dec 29, 2015 | Welcome Column
Good morning from Whiskey Creek, where the Christmas holiday continues today with the arrival of our son number two and his little family. Peter and Summer and Ted and Lucy will arrive in the early afternoon; Phillip and Ivona and Lexy and Ava visited over the...
by Christine | Feb 19, 2019 | Welcome Column
This is a re-post of an interview that previously appeared in the CBA Breakdown.Tonya NewstetterTonya plays guitar, sings and writes most of the songs for the band Old Belle that she co-founded. We chatted on the Bearcat Stringband’s couch at the Good Old Fashioned...
by Christine | May 15, 2018 | Welcome Column
Tonya plays guitar, sings and writes most of the songs for the band Old Belle that she co-founded. We chatted on the Bearcat Stringband’s couch at the Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival this year.db: How did you get started playing music?tn: I grew up with music....
by Christine | Apr 19, 2018 | Welcome Column
Too busy!A UK television commercial for a well-known credit card caught my attention a few months back. The opening sequence shows a London music shop, with a woman looking at a window display of fretted instruments described as ‘ideal for...
by Christine | Apr 12, 2007 | Welcome Column
When I was twenty-one and enrolled in graduate school at San Jose State University I entered a short story in a writing contest. The short story was called ‘Just About Four Seconds Flat’ and the contest was called the Phalen Competition, which included entrants from...
by Christine | Jan 22, 2015 | Welcome Column
I apologize to you folks for missing my fourth Thursday welcome column last month. About two or three times a year, for some unknown reason I cannot focus my eyes properly for a day or so, and that struck me again on the Wednesday before the fourth Thursday when my...
by Christine | Mar 14, 2010 | Welcome Column
I did it again. Despite the fact that I already have scores of bluegrass tune books lying around all over the house, I succumbed to yet another book sale appeal from Elderly.com. Now I’m the proud owner a few more books of great music that I can barely play. It’s past...
by Christine | Oct 4, 2007 | Welcome Column
On any given day, there are somewhere around 5,000 acoustic guitars listed on eBay available for viewing and bidding from one‘s home computer. Additionally, one may find up to 800 mandolins, 300 resophonic guitars, and perhaps 800 banjos (yikes!). For the bluegrass...
by Christine | Jul 14, 2013 | Welcome Column
A while back I wrote a column called Too Many Books in which I detailed the pathology of my obsession with purchasing practically every bluegrass instructional book that’s ever been written. My bookshelf is still loaded with bluegrass music books, (which...
