Author: Chris Jones

“I like the rules. I think you know how I feel about that.” – Fake Santa in Santa Clause 2 In the 1970s, once bluegrass music had evolved into its own genre, with its own festival circuit, its own record labels,

We live in an era of almost constant self-promotion across multiple platforms. We also live in an era of hackers, fat-free cheesecake, and the use of the word “platform.” In short, it may not be the best of times, but

Usually at the end of the year, or sometimes at the beginning of the year, or now and then in the middle somewhere, I provide a summary of the year’s least interesting stories in the world of bluegrass music. It

A longtime friend of mine in Austin, TX, mandolinist Paul Glasse, recently posted in social media about his professor dad having fostered in him the habit of looking up words he didn’t know or wasn’t sure of, in order to

I realized that after last week’s bro-country, four-writer co-writing session produced that moving alternate version of White Dove (I didn’t say how it moved you, or what it moved you to do, just that it was moving), you may have

Co-writing is definitely the mode of Music Row. We have a great co-writing tradition in bluegrass music, too, like the songs of Flatt & Scruggs, and it’s a tradition that’s alive and well in our music, and growing. It’s in

Mr. Bluegrass Manners is back! He needed some recovery time after IBMA World of Bluegrass. He’s now been through his patented 7-day “Well-mannered Bluegrass Cleanse” which mainly involves sleeping 9.5 hours a night, listening to a steady diet of Bill

What else is new: I managed to get sick after IBMA World of Bluegrass. I know my story is not an unusual one, but what is unusual is the fact that I’m not going to blame the ventilation in the

I wrote this song last night in about five minutes, and it probably shows. It was the late night result of musing about a common IBMA World of Bluegrass social issue. Note that I pitched it pretty low to keep

You may think of people who have chosen bluegrass music as a profession as fearless types who proceed boldly into the future without a care for their material comfort, or family and financial stability. Perhaps you’re correct about the financial