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
This post discusses two very worthwhile books about regional bluegrass. One of them, “Industrial Strength Bluegrass” (Illinois 2021), was published this year. The other, “Bluegrass In Baltimore” (McFarland & Co. 2015), is six years old. These books are histories of … Read More
click photo to enlarge – photos by Tobey Sandford In a March column about the “big tent” of bluegrass I discussed some of the reasons that I don’t care for a lot of contemporary bluegrass. My main complaint was that, … Read More
In his long career, J.D. Crowe played some of the hottest, drivingest, bluesiest bluegrass banjo ever recorded. He is rightly spoken of by banjo pickers and fans with reverence. And he was one of the bandleaders who took bluegrass in … Read More
In his very long life, long-time Hudson Valley resident Pete Seeger made a name for himself as, among many other things, an iconic (probably the iconic) folk singer and banjo player. Pete was known to everybody, even those who didn’t … Read More