An early post in this series, about the evolution of bluegrass banjo styles, devoted a few paragraphs to banjo innovator Don Reno. Although Reno had mastered the three finger banjo style at the same time that Earl Scruggs was coming … Read More
by Andy Bing For fans of the traditional, hard driving, take no prisoners, blood and guts bluegrass singing, it’s hard to improve on Red Allen. Red was an incredibly powerful bluegrass singer and guitarist whose heartfelt and highly personal vocal … Read More
One of the risks of having a bluegrass musician write about the music and its personalities is that the writer will focus on those who play his or her instrument. At the risk of trying the reader’s patience (“What, another … Read More
Bill Monroe, the Father of Bluegrass, is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in addition to the Country Music and Bluegrass Halls of Fame. His presence in the Rock Hall may surprise some folks but on reflection it’s … Read More
In June of this year, bluegrass mandolin players worldwide celebrated the 100th anniversary of the first Loar-signed Gibson F5 Master Model mandolin. OK, “celebrated” may be too strong a word; perhaps “noted” would more accurately describe the festivities. But the … Read More
Many years ago, for several summers running, I attended a bluegrass festival in central New York where I would jam with a particular banjo player. Two things about him linger in my memory. The first was that he was a … Read More
Jimmy Martin was one of the founding fathers of bluegrass music, from the generation of musicians just after Bill Monroe who helped make Monroe’s very personal style of mountain string band music into a genre of American roots music. Martin … Read More
Summer is nearly here and that means that bluegrass festival season is upon us. This summer is especially exciting for bluegrass fans, promising (fingers crossed) a full line up of festivals for the first time since 2019. For fans, including … Read More
In the world of bluegrass Dobro guitar playing, three names stand above the rest—Josh Graves, Mike Auldridge, and Jerry Douglas. All of them were innovators; each took the acoustic steel guitar to music and places it had not been before. … Read More
The previous post in this series described Frank Wakefield’s many innovations and contributions to bluegrass through his mid-1960s tenure with the Greenbriar Boys. By then, Frank had taken to heart Bill Monroe’s advice to develop his own style of mandolin … Read More