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
Previous columns including the last one about the Greenbriar Boys have mentioned Frank Wakefield, one of my all time favorite mandolin players. Frank’s achievements merit more discussion than fits in one column. Here is Part One. David Grisman, who is … Read More
New York City has been a folk music center since before the post-war folk revival. The book “Folk City,” by Stephen Petrus and Ronald D. Cohen, published in 2015 to accompany the exhibition of the same name presented that year … Read More
Norman Blake is my favorite guitar player, at least my favorite old time/bluegrass/country/and more guitar picker, and one of my favorite songwriters. This probably colors my view of his work and affects my objectivity, so bear it in mind when … Read More
Christmas songs dealing with both the sacred and secular aspects of the holiday have long been a staple of popular music. Indeed, these songs were sung long before there was anything that could be called “popular music.” Some carols are … Read More
Bluegrass lost a giant last month with the death of banjoist Sonny Osborne. With his older brother Bobby in the Osborne Brothers band, Sonny made some of the most innovative, exciting, and controversial bluegrass of the 1950s and 1960s. The … Read More
The pop and country music worlds lost another iconic musician with the recent death of Don Everly of the Everly Brothers, who were probably the most influential of the brother vocal harmony duet acts of the last century. (Don’s brother … Read More
I spent most of last week at the 2021 Monroe Mandolin Camp, held at the DuBose Conference Center in Monteagle, Tennessee. Heidi Herzog and Mike Compton hold the camp. Heidi is the executive director, who makes it all happen. Mike, … Read More
Word came this week of the death of two giants of bluegrass and country music, bluegrass banjoist Bill Emerson and country singer and songwriter Tom T. Hall. Emerson was a long time fixture on the influential Washington DC bluegrass scene, … Read More