by Maggie Sokolik | Aug 26, 2021 | Interview
On August 17, in spite of a few technical difficulties, I managed to catch up with AJ Lee and Blue Summit, who were touring the East Coast. Zooming from my Airbnb in Eugene, Oregon, to their hotel room in Truro, Massachusetts, we talked about their new album, touring,...
by Bert Daniel | May 6, 2021 | Welcome Column
After 14 months of pandemic captivity, I played a gig last Saturday. It was so much fun, I’m planning to do it again this Saturday at the same venue, R&W Vineyards in Cupertino. The band that I’m playing with (and I use the term band loosely) is the Ames bluegrass...
by robin | May 3, 2021 | Welcome Column
I’ve been criticized for not taking Bluegrass seriously and disrespecting the music because good bluegrass music makes me want to dance. It’s fun music. Not just fun, it’s also funny. Bluegrass has a well-established sense of humor. To prove it, I asked some of...
by robin | Apr 23, 2021 | Welcome Column
“The CBA has been a thrill ride for me… I’m grateful to the CBA for the help raising my kids, taking me seriously in a leadership position, and turning the Grass Valley nights into magic.” (Mark Varner, Facebook, April 19, 2021) I’ve recently been recruited to...
by robin | Apr 20, 2021 | Welcome Column
When I discovered bluegrass music back in the mid-1960s I was puzzled by the contrast between the instruments used by the majority of bluegrass musicians and the folksy origins of ‘mountain music’ as it was often called. Impoverished hill farmers and miners couldn’t...
by robin | Apr 16, 2021 | Welcome Column
Bluegrass fans have heard about Alex Leach long before his hit single “Mountain Heartache” became a jam standard in the blink of an eye. Becoming a DJ at the age of 9 in East Tennessee at WDVX, Alex began his musical career behind the scenes and not on the stage. Of...
by robin | Apr 15, 2021 | Welcome Column
A couple of years back your CBA board established a Communications Strategy Committee to, among other things, review the website and suggest improvements. The website had been developed some two decades ago, and though it had been revised and patched up over the...
by Christine | Apr 8, 2021 | Welcome Column
Well, then… Urrmm, now. I´ll begin at the beginnin´. [From The Quiet Man 1952.] I met Bert Daniel in the summer of 1990 when Bert, his first cousin Wilson Cooper and I packed in to my Chevy S-10 pickup which had a bench seat behind the front seats and drove from...
by Christine | Nov 2, 2013 | Welcome Column
I am honored to announce that I will be a guitar teacher at the Great 48 Jam in Bakersfield, California, so I thought I would take this time to talk about my teaching philosophy. In my earlier years, I was a student at the CBA Music Camp, and later I was a teacher’s...
by Christine | Feb 12, 2014 | Welcome Column
I have said many times, one of the appeals of bluegrass music is the stories, and there are many recurring themes, some of which I have outlined in previous columns. One of the most touching recurring themes that have touched me over the years is the love of the home...
