by Bert Daniel | May 14, 2025 | Welcome Column
(Editor’s note: I published this article more than a dozen years ago after the death of perhaps the greatest bluegrass fiddler who ever lived) As most of you know already, this month we lost one of the finest bluegrass musicians of all time. Kenny Baker, who fiddled...
by Bert Daniel | May 12, 2025 | Welcome Column
(Editor’s note: My musical feed while driving home today happened to hit on the tune Three Forks of the Cumberland. I love crooked tunes so I figured it was time to rerun this column from fifteen years ago) My astrological sign happens to be Cancer. And as everybody...
by Bert Daniel | May 3, 2025 | Welcome Column
Brazilian rosewood seemed finally to be unavailable outside of Brazil, but a mix of legal exceptions such as lumber supposedly accumulated before the 1992 CITES Appendix I listing (“pre-CITES” wood) and wood salvaged from non-living sources (“stump wood,” purportedly...
by robin | May 1, 2025 | Bluegrass History, Bluegrass Musicians, Featured CBA Members/Bands
Ambassador Joselyn Sky talks with Laurie Lewis In this series, Joselyn explores what it takes to make the leap from campground picker to professional performer. In the first installment, we hear from Laurie Lewis, whose many accolades as a multi-instrumentalist...
by robin | Apr 30, 2025 | Bluegrass History
My 50th anniversary celebration will be a couple weeks late. Vancouver Co-op Radio began broadcasting on April 15, 1975, and I was on the air for the station that day. I was the producer and host for numerous shows on Co-op Radio during the next 20 years. And I...
by Bert Daniel | Apr 29, 2025 | Welcome Column
This is a factual account of the post-1960 history of Brazilian rosewood in US guitar production. Part 1 covers the effects of Brazilian rosewood availability changes on the CF Martin Company, the largest US importer and user of Brazilian rosewood for stringed...
by Bert Daniel | Mar 28, 2025 | Welcome to California!
I’m cooking string beans tonight. I like to add a little bit of bacon bits, chopped onion and chicken broth for extra flavor but green beans are pretty easy to whip up. The green beans of today are much easier than those of my youth because they are so much less...
by Bert Daniel | Mar 9, 2025 | Welcome Column
The pedal steel guitar: what it is, how it works Sean J. Barry-2025 The pedal steel guitar is closely identified with country music as a main contributor to the “traditional” Nashville sound, but it has also been used frequently in jazz, swing, and rock music. The...
by robin | Mar 5, 2025 | General News
A friend invited me to a square dance in L.A. last month and then this happened . . . Photos by Robin Frenette Read full article in Bluegrass Today by Dave Berry...
by Bert Daniel | Feb 26, 2025 | Welcome Column
Unless you count the untold dozens of dollars most bands pay themselves, the biggest expense by far is travel. It is daunting enough to move a solo or duo act from home 20 miles to Point A and then 20 more miles to Point B while ensuring that everyone arrives on time...
