• The Murder Chord and Bluegrass Fusion

    I recently got a message from a musician with a band called Grandpa’s Cough Medicine (I was a little hurt that they rejected my band name idea, Grandpa’s Immunosuppressant Rheumatoid Arthritis Medicine, but I got over it). He suggested that

  • Tossing and turning in the key of B

    A while back, I wrote a two-part series on bluegrass dream analysis. Since that time, for whatever reason, I’ve had almost no bluegrass-related dreams. Perhaps I had gotten them out of my system. In the last year, most of my

  • Bluegrass lyrics as a life coach

    I’ve never been a fan of daytime talk shows and all the advice they dispense about everything from nutrition to finances to pet psychology. I’m not big on advice columns either (this isn’t one of those, is it?). One reason may

  • Again with the Monetizing

    Ah, Facebook. We love it and we hate it, sometimes at the same time. And, best of all, just when we think we understand it, they change it on us. It’s enough to make you go back and revamp your

  • #SocialMediaResistance

    This will be a two-part series on the use of social media by bluegrass artists and business people. The second part may be just one long rant. Those of us who are attempting to make a full or part-time living in

  • Nice guitar you got there…

    There’s a perception in some places, in Nashville especially, that songwriters and publishers are becoming overly aggressive in their song-pitching strategies. I have to respectfully disagree with this viewpoint, and below I will submit my argument that, in fact, people aren’t

  • Don’t let old Satan hold your hand, Steve

    Last week I urged you to celebrate Musical Illiteracy Month. My hope is that by now, you’ve hidden and found your musical illiteracy eggs, and placed tablature under the children’s pillows to be replaced by monetary gifts in the middle

  • Don’t know nothin’ ’bout lit-ra-cy

    You may not be aware of this, and your calendar may not show it, but in addition to this April of 2014 boasting Easter, Passover, and the U.S. and Canadian tax deadlines, April is also Musical Illiteracy Month. If you’re like

  • Road restroom ratings for troubadours

    For the male road musician, the highway men’s room is a sad fact of life. Last week I promised (or threatened) to begin publishing road bathroom reviews in this space, and if I fail to deliver on that, I’ll be

  • Road restroom reviews – an analysis

    At one point several years ago, my bandmate Ned Luberecki and I were going to start writing road restaurant reviews. It was never going to include any upscale places, because that would have required actually eating in an upscale restaurant.