• The Ballad of Jayden K. Smith

    The following column will be understood and appreciated only by people familiar with Facebook. Even then it may not be appreciated much, and I would certainly understand. If you’re not a Facebook user, congratulations! You are up to 68% more

  • Voting appeals and poor translations

    For your consideration: You don’t want to hear the rest of this, do you? Well, the good news for you is that apparently this form of promotion has fallen out of favor this year for the second round of IBMA awards

  • Rules for bluegrass living in 2017

    “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,

  • Sofar Sounds or Come On-A My House

    Most readers of Bluegrass Today are by now familiar with the house concert. If you aren’t, I’ll just explain that it’s a concert—and you may want to be sitting down for this—that takes place in a house. Some people like to

  • The view from Germany

    Greetings from the Night Drivers 2017 European tour. Traveling in places where you don’t speak the language can be challenging. This tour is taking us primarily through German-speaking countries, and while I speak a little German, my knowledge is primarily

  • Niche marketing to bluegrass fans

    A story ran recently in Bluegrass Today that began, “Are you a bluegrass banjo fan who also traps small game?” It immediately made me feel like I hadn’t really given niche marketing the attention it deserves. Okay, I haven’t given

  • The best it ever was

    It’s an extremely busy week, as the Night Drivers and I head off to Circa Blue Fest and then a European tour. Meanwhile I’m in the midst of some sort of satellite radio marathon. This is just a sign of