• Byron Berline storms back

    Celebrated fiddler Byron Berline has been more visible of late with his violin shop than he has as a touring and recording artist. But that is about to change. A pair of new projects are expected this year that will warm the hearts of fiddlers [...]

    Byron Berline storms back
    | May 18, 2012 | 1 Comment
  • A Waltz For Earl from Tim Carter

    Nashville banjo picker Tim Carter has composed and recorded a lovely tribute to Earl Scruggs, using the uncommon form of a banjo waltz. The tune is titled A Waltz For Earl, and Tim has used it as a backdrop for this video containing dozens of [...]

    A Waltz For Earl from Tim Carter
    | May 18, 2012 | 1 Comment
  • Life Goes On from MACC

    For the past 25 years, Darrel and Phyllis Adkins of Adkins Productions have hosted the Bluegrass Classic music festival in Columbus, Ohio. After their daughter, Mandy, passed away from an inoperable brain tumor in 2000, they joined with numerous bluegrass musicians to turn their annual [...]

    Life Goes On from MACC
    | May 18, 2012 | 0 Comments
  • Festival photos at Bluegrass Today

    Some of the most popular features we run at Bluegrass Today are the festival photo galleries that appear during the spring and summer season. Jason Lombard had some fine images from MerleFest, and Frank Baker is at Gettysburg this weekend. We’ll publish Frank’s photos as [...]

    Festival photos at Bluegrass Today
    | May 17, 2012 | 0 Comments
  • Scruggs tribute album due June 5

    An all-star bluegrass tribute album to the late Earl Scruggs is set for release on Rounder June 5. This project, the brainchild of former Lonesome River Band guitarist and noted recording engineer Tim Austin, was recorded well before Scruggs’ recent passing, with most of the [...]

    Scruggs tribute album due June 5
    | May 17, 2012 | 3 Comments

Latest Music News

Byron Berline storms back

Byron Berline storms back

Celebrated fiddler Byron Berline has been more visible of late with his violin shop than he has as a touring and recording artist. But that is about to change. A pair of new projects are expected this year that will warm the hearts of fiddlers [...]

A Waltz For Earl from Tim Carter

A Waltz For Earl from Tim Carter

Nashville banjo picker Tim Carter has composed and recorded a lovely tribute to Earl Scruggs, using the uncommon form of a banjo waltz. The tune is titled A Waltz For Earl, and Tim has used it as a backdrop for this video containing dozens of [...]

Life Goes On from MACC

Life Goes On from MACC

For the past 25 years, Darrel and Phyllis Adkins of Adkins Productions have hosted the Bluegrass Classic music festival in Columbus, Ohio. After their daughter, Mandy, passed away from an inoperable brain tumor in 2000, they joined with numerous bluegrass musicians to turn their annual [...]

Scruggs tribute album due June 5

Scruggs tribute album due June 5

An all-star bluegrass tribute album to the late Earl Scruggs is set for release on Rounder June 5. This project, the brainchild of former Lonesome River Band guitarist and noted recording engineer Tim Austin, was recorded well before Scruggs’ recent passing, with most of the [...]

Doug Dillard passes

Doug Dillard passes

Another bluegrass legend is gone. Doug Dillard, 75, died Wednesday night after being rushed to a hospital in Nashville. Doug co-founded The Dillard’s, whose first fame came on The Andy Griffith Show, where the band performed as The Darlings. Those TV appearances helped bluegrass music [...]

Bluegrass At Large

RD-310 from Recording King

RD-310 from Recording King

Recording King has announced the debut of their latest solid-wood guitar, the RD-310. It’s a 14-fret, dreadnaught body guitar with African mahogany back and sides, and an Adirondack (red) spruce top. The top braces are a forward-X (pre war) style, and the neck is mahogany [...]

Is It Bluegrass – cigar box guitars?

Is It Bluegrass – cigar box guitars?

Today we launch Is It Bluegrass, a new series at Bluegrass Today. It will appear sporadically on the site as topics suggest themselves to the question. Some posts will be decidedly tongue-in-cheek, while others will contain items that may be of interest to much of the [...]

My Bluegrass Town – Everett Lilly interview

My Bluegrass Town – Everett Lilly interview

Many thanks to West Virginia author Betty Dotson-Lewis, who has agreed to let us share her 2007 interview with Everett Lilly as a remembrance of his passing yesterday. It is excerpted from her book, The Sunny Side of Appalachia: Bluegrass from the Grassroots. Her other titles include [...]

Alison Krauss to be honored at Berklee

Alison Krauss to be honored at Berklee

The Berklee College of Music is in the habit of handing out honorary degrees as a part of their annual commencement ceremony, as are many colleges and universities around the world. Of course, Berklee selects its honorees from within the music community, offering such tributes [...]

Welcome Eli Jenkins

Welcome Eli Jenkins

Congratulations to Justin Jenkins, banjo picker with Grasstowne, on the birth of a son, Eli Dean Jenkins earlier this morning. Eli and Justin’s girlfriend, Reba Collier are doing fine. He hit the scene at 7 lbs, 14 oz, and 21 inches long. Welcome Eli, and [...]

Latest Events

Festival photos at Bluegrass Today

Festival photos at Bluegrass Today

Some of the most popular features we run at Bluegrass Today are the festival photo galleries that appear during the spring and summer season. Jason Lombard had some fine images from MerleFest, and Frank Baker is at Gettysburg this weekend. We’ll publish Frank’s photos as [...]

Peter Rowan to tour with Mosier Brothers

Peter Rowan to tour with Mosier Brothers

Peter Rowan, who has see-sawed between traditional and experimental music throughout his career, has announced a four day run of dates with alt-grassers The Mosier Brothers in June. Rowan, of course, needs no introduction to most Bluegrass Today readers. He burst onto the scene as [...]

Banjos with the San Francisco Symphony

Banjos with the San Francisco Symphony

As part of a tribute to San Francisco-based philanthropist Warren Hellman, who passed away this past December, the San Francisco Symphony will include a suite of banjo music in their concerts this week. Hellman, a banjo player himself, was a strong supporter of the symphony, [...]

Winner announced in Silver Dollar City contest

Winner announced in Silver Dollar City contest

Regular readers of Bluegrass Today will surely have noticed the campaign by Silver Dollar City offering free passes, accommodations and more to their big Bluegrass & BBQ Festival, starting next week. We know some of you were following it closely, as we started getting email queries [...]

Vince Gill going bluegrass again this summer

Vince Gill going bluegrass again this summer

Vince Gill will once again be embarking on an acoustic bluegrass tour this summer, with an all-star cast in tow. Starting in mid-June, Gill has shows scheduled throughout the southern and central US with Jim Mills on banjo, Stuart Duncan on fiddle, Jeff White on [...]

Bluegrass in the Media

NoiseTrade – a useful tool for bluegrass artists

NoiseTrade – a useful tool for bluegrass artists

Many of you may have downloaded the new exclusive digital release, Live – Fan Favorites, from Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers. The six-song EP is a FREE download as a gift to their fans. After jumping up and down because you received some free [...]

Josh Williams goes above and beyond

Josh Williams goes above and beyond

If you’ve ever wondered how Josh Williams has won the hearts of so many bluegrass fans, this video from last weekend’s Doyle Lawson Bluegras Festival in Denton, NC may help you understand. Saturday evening, after Josh closed out the show and the sound crew had [...]

IBMA makes the Raleigh announcement

IBMA makes the Raleigh announcement

The International Bluegrass Music Association has formally announced what we reported last night, that their World of Bluegrass business conference and Fan Fest will move from Nashville to Raleigh, NC for the 2013-15 events. Events will be hosted at at the Raleigh Convention Center, the Raleigh [...]

New Morning video from Jimmy and Moondi

New Morning video from Jimmy and Moondi

Jimmy Gaudreau & Moondi Klein have released a music video from their new Rebel project, Home From The Mills. It’s for the song, New Morning, written by Casey B. McPherson. The video, directed by Dan Almoney and Ed Fox with Media Boomtown, features Jimmy and Moondi performing [...]

IBMA headed to Raleigh

IBMA headed to Raleigh

IBMA’s World of Bluegrass will leave Nashville and move to Raleigh, NC, for the 2013 business conference and Fan Fest. An official announcement will be made tomorrow (Wednesday), according to sources familiar with the decision. A city official in Raleigh confirmed the news, saying she [...]

Latest Opinions

Listen up, sound guys

Listen up, sound guys

Last week, based on comments I received here and elsewhere, it seems that I suddenly became the best friend of sound engineers, simply by making an attempt to tell their side of the story. Now, could I get just a little more guitar in the [...]

Blue Yodel #28 – A Yellow Rose and Two Reese’s Cups

Blue Yodel #28 – A Yellow Rose and Two Reese’s Cups

Every Saturday I take my mother two Reese’s cups. She lives in a residential care facility with four other ninety-somethings and a rotating cast of under-appreciated care providers. She often calls me by my father’s name, her father’s name, or her little brother’s name (who’s [...]

The sound man is your friend

The sound man is your friend

There are plenty of tense and troubled relationships in professional bluegrass music. Minor scraps to major feuds can often develop between label and artist, artist and event producer, side musician and band leader, musician and landlord, but one of the most common and perennial struggles [...]

The Bluegrass Intelligencer returns

The Bluegrass Intelligencer returns

After a hiatus of more than two years, The Bluegrass Intelligencer has arisen like a phoenix from the ashes of a bad metaphor. This hilarious site, which features parody, satire and inside humor for fans of bluegrass and acoustic music, is the wok of Greg [...]

Blue Yodel #27 – Make the Web Go Away

Blue Yodel #27 – Make the Web Go Away

Wanted: young band needed to take part in promotional experiment. Must be willing to risk loss of career and ridicule of peers. But if it works: You can become more famous than the Beatles! Okay, here’s the idea. Let’s say you’re an artist. That’s easy. [...]

More Recent Bluegrass News

Album of the Week #23 – Keith Whitley’s Sad Songs & Waltzes

Album of the Week #23 – Keith Whitley’s Sad Songs & Waltzes

| May 16, 2012 | 3 Comments

This past week (May 9th) marked the 23rd anniversary of the passing of Keith Whitley. Every time his honest voice is heard, people across the globe wonder why he had to leave us so early in life. He joined the likes of Hank Williams, Carter [...]

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Colby Laney to Larry Stephenson Band

Colby Laney to Larry Stephenson Band

| May 16, 2012 | 0 Comments

Colby Laney has been announced as the new guitarist with the Larry Stephenson Band. He will start this weekend. Previously, Laney had performed with Volume Five. Larry is delighted with his newest addition, and remarks on the differences between the younger and more senior members [...]

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Big bluegrass doin’s at Berklee

Big bluegrass doin’s at Berklee

| May 15, 2012 | 0 Comments

This past weekend was a big one for bluegrass at the Berklee College of Music. Not only did the school award Alison Krauss an honorary doctorate, and feature some of their talented bluegrass students and recent graduates in the big pre-commencement concert on Friday night, [...]

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Bill Evans is In Good Company

Bill Evans is In Good Company

| May 15, 2012 | 0 Comments

Bill Evans, noted west coast banjoist and instructor, has released his latest recording, In Good Company, on his own Native & Fine label. The concept of this project is collaboration, with Bill inserted into a pair of established new grass bands (two banjos!), and matched [...]

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Doyle and the boys to sing at Charlotte race

Doyle and the boys to sing at Charlotte race

| May 15, 2012 | 0 Comments

Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver have been tapped to sing the National Anthem before this Friday’s N.C. Education Lottery 200 NASCAR qualifying race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. They will sing a cappella, with Mike Rogers, Josh Swift and Corey Hensley joining Lawson around the microphone. The band [...]

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