Author: David Morris

  • Time to Help A Bluegrass Friend

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    Pardon me, while I get a little personal. Bluegrass musicians and fans are known for digging deep when a member of the community needs a helping hand. Now, it’s time to help an institution that has done so much for bluegrass over

  • The Bankesters Grow Up

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    One thing I enjoy as a music writer is watching bands develop and improve over the years. Some of the fastest improvement in the last few years has come from The Bankesters, a family band from Carbondale, IL. This point was

  • Tim O’Brien Cooks Up Some Business

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    Tim O’Brien, apparently, never sits still. But Bluegrass Today was fortunate to catch up with him twice in recent days, once over the weekend before his solo set at the DC Bluegrass Union festival in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, and

  • More In Store for the Earls?

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    Bluegrass fans everywhere can rejoice because Jerry Douglas did something for purely selfish reasons. He wanted to hear more Flatt & Scruggs music. He couldn’t find it on the radio. He didn’t hear it at festivals. And he couldn’t find musicians

  • A Washington Monument Steps Back

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    On the night that he won a coveted award, Ben Eldridge had a bit of a secret to share. “I’m cutting back,” the last original member of the Seldom Scene said between signing CDs after the band’s set Friday night at

  • Ben Eldridge to accept 2015 Monument Award

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    Forty-four years after he invited some friends over to play music in his Bethesda, MD, basement, Ben Eldridge is on a roll. Last fall, he and other original members of the Seldom Scene were inducted into IBMA’s bluegrass hall of fame.

  • Frank Solivan with the Earls

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    Frank Solivan landed a high-profile fill-in gig while his band, Dirty Kitchen, is on its winter break. He’s playing 10 gigs with the Earls of Leicester, the all-star band channeling Flatt and Scruggs. Solivan, fresh off a Grammy nomination, will be

  • That Was Then – Springfield Exit

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    One of my biggest gripes as a lover of bluegrass music is to hear terrific picking and singing on a CD only to hear that the band in question can’t replicate that sound – or even come close – on

  • To stream or not to stream

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    An issue much on the minds of performing artists and songwriters these days is the rapid growth of streaming audio services like Pandora or Spotify, which offer targeted music streams designed to follow the tastes of individual listeners, but which

  • Wood, Wire & Words – Norman Blake

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    Norman Blake is the Zelig of roots music, popping up at key moments over the decades, just like the title character in the Woody Allen film. He played guitar on pivotal recordings by Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan, teamed up with