1: If Leigh were a soup and Eric a sandwich, what kind of soup and sandwich combo would you be? Leigh: Pea soup and bacon sandwich Eric: Tomato soup and bologna sandwich 2: What are your favorite 4-letter words? Leigh: Tony and Rice Eric: Earl
Author: Chris Stuart
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Blue Yodel #29 – Songwriting Challenge: One-Verse Wonders
This is the first in what I hope will be an occasional series of songwriting challenges to appear in the Blue Yodel column. In every songwriting workshop, one question always gets asked: which comes first, the words or the melody? I try
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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
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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
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Blue Yodel #26 – Ask Mr. Blue Grass Smarty Pants
Guest Questioner and Prize This month’s guest is a respected mover-and-shaker in bluegrass: the Yoda of Yellow Springs, the Doyen of Dayton, the Savonarola of Southern Ohio—Fred Bartenstein. Fred was the editor of Muleskinner News from 1969 to 1974, and has been
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Blue Yodel #25 – What is Bluegrass Harmony Anyway?
Janet and I just got back from Sore Fingers Summer School, a bluegrass camp in the Cotswolds in England—affectionately dubbed by Tim O’Brien, Hillbilly Hogwarts. We taught a week-long class on bluegrass harmony to 30 Brits who spent their hard-earned pounds
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Blue Yodel #24 – Moonwalking with Big Mon
Let me say up front that this article is not about a night I had on the dance floor in the 80s with the father of bluegrass. It’s about remembering lyrics, but would you have started reading something called “Fun
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Blue Yodel #23 – Thank You Georgia Lula Ruppe Scruggs
I will probably remember where I was when I heard of Earl Scruggs’ death as much as where I was on 9/11 or the shuttle Challenger disaster. I was in the kitchen lifting the cutting board out of the drainer. My
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Blue Yodel #22 – 20 Questions with Ned Luberecki
I first saw banjoist Ned Luberecki on stage at an IBMA showcase back in the ‘90s. He made a joke that about ten people in the room got and I immediately bonded with him. It took several more decades for us
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Green Yodel #21 – Sláinte! (Part 2)
This is the second part of a St. Patrick’s Day column. Yesterday was an interview with Richard Hawkins, the editor of the Bluegrass Ireland Blog. Today is an interview with Ronnie Norton, a 2012 graduate of Leadership Bluegrass. Ronnie is a Dublin-based