Well, if you’ve checked your email, yesterday’s Bluegrass Today stories, or just talked to one of your perpetually in-the-know friends (that third one is usually the least reliable of these sources), you’ve already heard that the IBMA World of Bluegrass
Chris Jones
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The least interesting bluegrass stories of 2020
Every year I do my best to compile what I believe to be the year’s most uninteresting developments in the bluegrass music world. Sometimes this requires a little digging, as there are some surprisingly captivating stories in our music over
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Anniversary gift suggestions for budget minded bluegrass couples
Do you have a big wedding anniversary coming up? We just recently celebrated our 30th, and I decided to consult the list of year or milestone-appropriate gifts as a guide for my gift (the 60th anniversary gift, by the way,
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The last batch of quarantine songs, or homebound songwriters lament
Some aspects of our economy and our society opened up to varying degrees over the Memorial Day weekend, but the fact remains that we have all spent a great deal of time at home, going pretty much nowhere. I’ve been
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Make any happy song into a sad one – video edition
Can you make any cheerful bluegrass song into a somber - even mournful - number? Let's ask Chris.
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What is your pandemic bluegrass band name?
Coming up with some form of alias, whether it be your stage name, your rapper name, or your superhero name, started as a word-of-mouth tradition, then its spread was heavily accelerated by social media, as these kinds of things so
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Crooning and emoting tips for singers… from the birding world
Have you ever played in a band with a lead singer who changes the way he or she sings in the presence of an attractive member of the audience, or what might be called a “potential mate?” You know what
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Bluegrass dream analysis in the time of COVID-19
We’ve discussed bluegrass dream analysis in past columns, so if you’ve read any of those, you’re already familiar with the four classic bluegrass dream archetypes: The stage anxiety dream in which you’re introduced by the MC, only to look around you
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Spring is come, and with it the return of Bluegrass Haiku
Spring just always seems to inspire me to write in haiku form, since there’s no baseball and bluegrass festivals are cancelled for a while. We’ve covered this short form of poetry, which originated in Japan, in columns past. Some of my
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Chris Jones assumes management of Winfield NewSong Showcase
Organizers of the long running Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, KS have announced that Chris Jones will serve as the new curator of their NewSong Showcase. As they look forward to the 49th annual festival in 2020, their songwriting competition