In many parts of our society, we place a high value on being positive. “Just stay positive,” we’re often told, even if we’ve just received the news that we have three months to live. Some countries are more positive than others,
Author: Chris Jones
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Mr. Bluegrass Manners rides again
Mr. Bluegrass Manners has been away for awhile. First he was dealing with final exams at ETSU where he teaches a class in the bluegrass program there called “Bluegrass Etiquette in a Rude Rude Rude Time.” Then he took a
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Collective nouns every bluegrass child should know
We in the bluegrass music community have our own vocabulary, like referring to the banjo as “the five,” an instrumental solo as a “break,” a professional bluegrass income as “a living,” etc. I think we could all still stand to
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The definitive list of year end lists!
Late December and January are always the time for countdowns and lists of the top “things” of the past year. You know, we have the Bluegrass Today top 30 songs of the year, the top 10 movies no one cares
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Celebrate 2019 with a new Bluegrass Quiz!
I have a New Years tradition: I resolve to quit smoking, then realize I didn’t smoke to begin with. That was easy. I also take this time to give an annual bluegrass knowledge quiz. This time around, I thought veteran readers
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Yes, Virginia, there is a Bill Monroe
Merry day-after Christmas. I’m spending the holidays in a somewhat remote area of western Canada, where it was necessary to write and send this column in late November, to allow time for it to be delivered by dog sled (with
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Have a truly traditional Christmas this year!
I hope you’re having a wonderful holiday season so far. Much of traditional Christmas literature, including, I believe, the first chapter of Matthew (“Like, Really Awesome News for Modern Dudes and Dudettes” translation), refers to this week as “crunch time.”
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Bluegrass gift giving guide for Christmas
Do you give holiday gifts to the bluegrass people in your life, like your band members, your agent, your manager, your sound engineer? It’s not usually expected, which is good in a way: you’re off the hook if you don’t
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Emergency Christmas songs, and millennial songs part deux
Last week’s millennial bluegrass songs generated a lot of suggestions for additions. Many were good ones, and I’ll include some here. One reader pointed out what I already knew: my list is incomplete without a song title that makes some reference
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Millennial adaptations of bluegrass standards
We love to make fun of millennials; you know, with their selfies of their own wedding proposals, their own baptisms, and their own gas station fill-ups; their inability to perform labor-intensive tasks like coal mining or voting. But of course