All posts filed under: Bluegrass Music

I grew up with Flatt & Scruggs and WSM’s Martha White show on the radio every morning, but truly went down the rabbit hole the first time I placed the needle on side 1 / track 1 of the “Circle” album

NEA Heritage Fellows Bring Back Memories

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On Friday, September 19th, the National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellowships free concert will be held at Bethesda’s Strathmore Music Hall.  Each year the NEA awards one-time-only awards to traditional and folk artists, and I have special memories of the music of two of this year’s recipients. Bluegrass master Mac Wiseman has one of the great voices in bluegrass music.  Back in the early 1970s, I had stopped listening to rock and pop and was acquainting myself with all types of acoustic and traditional music.  I decided to attend a bluegrass festival, and the one I chose was Mac Wiseman’s Bluegrass Festival in Renfro Valley, Kentucky.  This was a time before the huge festivals and the Wiseman affair was definitely small scale.  However, it was very friendly to a young college student eager to soak up the music.  I remember hearing Wiseman, Martha and Eddie Adcock (they were also doing the sound), the Lewis Family, and more.  Mac Wiseman’s tenor and Adcock’s innovative banjo playing stuck with me through the years, and when I hear Wiseman …

Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile To Release First CD Together

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Double-bassist Edgar Meyer and mandolin phenom Chris Thile are set to release their first CD together on September 23rd on Nonesuch Records.  Entitled – appropriately enough – Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile , the new release brings together two of the most amazing instrumentalists of their respective generations of acoustic musicians.  My friend Scott Gerloff and I had the chance to see Meyer earlier this year when he played in Washington with Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas.  The show was terrific and Meyer was phenomenal.  We were both slack-jawed.  And I’ve written to countless friends through the years following Nickel Creek concerts with accounts of some amazing piece of musicianship from Thile.  Needless to say I’m looking forward to this collaboration. The Nonesuch site provides a good background on both musicians: Throughout a lifetime of performing and composing, Edgar Meyer has turned the double bass into a modern virtuoso instrument that is equally at home in classical music and in the American vernacular. In 1994, Meyer became the first bassist to win the Avery Fisher Prize. …

How do those bluegrass guys (and gals) play so fast? The true story!

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(NOTE from 2021: Since I wrote this post way back in 2008, the website referenced is no longer active. Nonetheless, since it saw some recent traffic, I decided to keep it here as I think you can get the gist of the report from this now-departed Onion-like online site.) Thanks to a heads up from The Bluegrass Blog, I was introduced to the perfect post-convention antidote that puts all the postings from The Daily Kos (or insert your favorite right-wing blog) in perspective. Want to know how all those bluegrass phenoms play so darn fast?  Steroids!  Check out this stunning revelation from the incredibly funny Bluegrass Intelligencer which reports on the government-funded study to uncover rampant performance enhancing drug use among all the major bluegrass bands, including Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder (see photo at top).  As one “fan” put it, “I mean, when you go to a festival and you see Cody Kilby playing those guitar solos with Kentucky Thunder, you know that it’s not naturally possible, yet everyone just looks the other way,” …

Baseball and Bluegrass

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Oh my!  Major League Baseball has finally caught up with the key themes of More to Come…(a blog for family and friends about acoustic music, baseball, places that matter, and other random topics) with the post on MLB.com entitled Bound by Baseball and Bluegrass.  This is an article on the new Gibson Brothers CD Iron and Diamonds.  Who knew we were so cutting edge here at More to Come… DJB

Pandora Radio and Ben’s Chili Bowl

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A couple of random topics about unique institutions that you may find of interest… Pandora Radio – My friend and colleague Scott Gerloff introduced me to Pandora Radio, the Internet radio station that allows you to program your own music.  If you’ve never tried Pandora, I recommend you pay it a visit.  No matter your musical taste, you’ll enjoy it…because you get to program it! In a posting today on the Bluegrass Blog, there’s a story about the difficulties Pandora is facing due to royalty issues with the music industry.  Check out the blog, learn more about Pandora, and become a listener.  Let’s hope we can all enjoy it for a long time to come. Ben’s Chili Bowl – There’s a Washington institution celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and the blog at PreservationNation captured the celebration at Ben’s Chili Bowl on historic U Street in a posting today.  The Washington Post also had a terrific article earlier this week that covers the history – and future – of Ben’s.  After coming back from two weeks …

Interviews with Dobro Master Jerry Douglas

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My father sent along the news that WPLN public radio in Nashville featured an interview on August 18th with Dobro master Jerry Douglas that some readers will find interesting.  The interview and an on-line web extra are available at WPLN’s web site.   Many of you will recognize Douglas’ name from his work with Alison Kraus + Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas, but those of us who’ve been listening to bluegrass and new acoustic music since the 1970s know that he’s played with just about everyone – from the Country Gentlemen (his first professional gig as a teenager), to J.D. Crowe and the New South (with bandmates Tony Rice and Ricky Skaggs), to Boone Creek, to Nashville session man extraordinaire from the 1980s on.  At least one regular reader of More to Come thinks Jerry Douglas is God.  If you want to see him live, go to YouTube to see this great set from Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Festival featuring Vince Gill and Jerry Douglas. This posting reminds me that I haven’t made my quarterly update on …

Charles Wolfe Inducted into IBMA Hall of Fame

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When I was a young undergraduate student at Middle Tennessee in the late 1970s, there were two English professors who influenced my life in ways that I’m still only understanding.  One was Ralph Hyde, who was serving as editor of the Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin.  Ralph published the first articles of mine in a professional journal or magazine, introduced me to the rich cultural traditions of the mid-South, and gave me my first bottle of moonshine.  I still think all three are significant in shaping my life (although that’s the first and only time I drank moonshine!) The other was Charles Wolfe, who taught English, succeeded Ralph as the editor of the TFS Bulletin, and – most importantly – brought scholarship and love to old time and bluegrass music.  Charles was an avid collector, writer, and recorder of music from the mid-South, and I was lucky enough to be with him on occasions when he was recording or interviewing some of the area’s old-time musicians. Just the other day my father sent me a note saying that Charles – who …

Chinese Bluegrass

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I thought is was appropriate – on the morning after Michael Phelps won his eighth gold medal at the Beijing Olympics – to post something about China.  Luckily, the Bluegrass Blog helped me out, with this recent post and video about Mei Han’s Red Chamber playing Katy Hill along with mandolinist John Reishman.  So from Durango, Colorado – which has its own strong bluegrass community (I just missed seeing Tim O’Brien who plays in town next week) – I’ll pass along this post in the Olympic Spirit.  The bluegrass enthusiasts among the readership will enjoy, and the others may find it mildly amusing. More to come… DJB

Lovell Sisters at Strathmore Music Center

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It was a beautiful evening in Bethesda, Maryland as a few hundred fans stretched out on the lawn in front of the Strathmore Mansion with picnics in hand to enjoy a free concert by the Lovell Sisters Band.  This band of three young sisters from Georgia played two spirited sets bringing together bluegrass and country classics with some very tasteful original music.  All three sisters – Jessica on fiddle, Megan on Dobro, and Rebecca on mandolin and guitar – are excellent instrumentalists and the harmony singing is as good as expected from three musical siblings.  While all three sisters had their moments, the standout for me was the youngest, Rebecca – the writer of much of the original material and the owner of a nice bluesy voice that will only get better as she matures.  She also played some spirited mandolin breaks, trading licks with guitarist Matt Wingate.  During the concert I turned to my wife and said “that guitarist is good,”  so I wasn’t surprised to find out later that he is a former Merlefest guitar …

MVYRadio – A Wonderful Source for Good Music

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I discovered MVYRadio (Martha’s Vineyard Radio) when I was unable to attend the 2008 Merlefest Celebration in Wilkesboro, NC.  Remembering their advertisements at previous Merlefest events, I checked them out online and found they were streaming live from the festival and had a rich archives of performances from past years.  Check out the archives section and you’ll find performances from a number of great festivals. Recommended! DJB