Bluegrass instrumental music isn’t always easy-going like last week’s playlist… sometimes, it’s downright hard-drivin’. On this week’s playlist, we hear tough-as-nails instrumental melodies from banjo heavyweights Bela Fleck and Alison Brown, guitar virtuosos Bryan Sutton and Clay Jones, and mandolin … Read More
Instrumental music has always had a prominent place in the bluegrass genre. But it’s not all fast-paced, driving fiddle and banjo melodies—instrumental bluegrass is often its best when it’s at its most plaintive. This list of some of today’s and … Read More
I don’t know if it’s just me, but I absolutely love when bluegrass artists cover songs that are outside of the bluegrass pantheon. There’s such an incredible sense of fun when you hear a banjo playing the Beatles, a fiddle … Read More
If jazz is America’s one true art form, bluegrass music comes in at a close second. While its instruments may have global origins (like the banjo in West Africa, the mandolin in Italy, and the guitar in England), the sounds … Read More
Time for more bluegrass double plays! Bluegrass is all about borrowing from tradition—even the first bluegrass pickers were inspired by jazz, Celtic, and country western styles. Today, modern masters of the bluegrass genre look to the classic melodies and lyrics … Read More
Sam Bush is one of the most storied names in bluegrass music. As a foundational musician of the 1980s and 1990s, there arguably is no more influential mandolinist working today. He featured prominently in genre-bending acts like New Grass Revival … Read More
Bluegrass is a genre full of stories. The earliest ballads, love stories, and tales of the old home place permeated the genre from its inception, making it known early on that bluegrass is a medium for telling stories as much … Read More
Bluegrass is best played fast! When the beats per minute crest 160 and the banjo picks get revving, the fun can officially start. Today’s modern bluegrass pickers turn up the tempo dial to 11 with increasing accuracy, leading to fantastical … Read More
Where would bluegrass be without the banjo? Well, if you listened to last week’s playlist, you’d know it wouldn’t be that bad… but we’d all miss the five-string all the same! Despite having a history that goes back many centuries, … Read More
Whoever said that the banjo is the backbone of bluegrass music has clearly never heard this playlist. Some of the best modern bluegrass cuts—even some of the best modern bluegrass groups—have eschewed the five-string banjo to make music with bluegrass’s … Read More