• California pickers: Ed Neff

    This post is the first in what will be a series of articles on prominent west coast musicians who may not be familiar names back east. Ed Neff is a mandolin and fiddle player from Petaluma, California. Though those are his

  • Winter Harvest from Matt Flinner Trio

    I first became aware of Matt Flinner when I was living in Missoula, Montana in the early nineties. One night, after a beer-powered folk duet performance with a buddy, we made our way over to the Wilma Theater to see

  • Mike Compton picks Rotten Taters

    It has been five years since Mike Compton released an album: the Acoustic Disc release Stomp, with David Long. Otherwise nothing; not even work as a session player. Some friendly persuasion from Australians Paul Duff and Mick O'Neill, who both thought

  • Merry Christmas from Roland White

    Roland White is offering a mandolin Christmas gift to anyone who would like to add a holiday favorite to their repertoire. He has created a free online video lesson for Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, with an accompanying tab file downloadable

  • Frank Wakefield Tribute To Bill Monroe

    Frank Wakefield spent a lot of time Saturday night telling people how lousy he is. “I’m the world’s worst mandolin player,” he told a full house in Garrett Park, Md. “If you don’t believe it, just ask me.” Later, after the

  • Welcome Rylan Wesley Davis….

    Congratulations to Chris Davis and fiance Julie Reeves on the birth of their son, Rylan Wesley Davis. He entered the world at 9:50 a.m. on November 5, 2011. Little Rylan weighed in at 8 lbs 2 oz. and was 21

  • Old Brooklyn from Andy Statman

    Andy Statman has been something of an enigma to the bluegrass world for the past 40 years. Clearly a master mandolinist with a demonstrated facility in the bluegrass idiom, he was even as a teenager drawn to incorporating elements of

  • Some sad news from the Sizemores

    We have learned that last week, both Herschel and Joyce Sizemore received separate cancer diagnoses. I spoke with Joyce this morning, who relayed that she and Herschel took calls from their doctors less than 15 minutes apart. Herschel, of course, is

  • Dave Denman on the mend

    Another member of the bluegrass community on the mend is popular Indiana musician Dave Denman, who is at home recovering from triple bypass surgery. Among Dave's claims to fame is being the mandolin/guitar player with the original version of Union Station,