Author: Chris Jones

I’ve become very disillusioned with the zodiac, I have to admit. First there were the overly general daily horoscopes: “Make sound financial decisions today. Expect news from a friend, family member, or other human being you may or may not

After last week’s column, I was inundated with requests for more uninteresting stories from the world of bluegrass, or any other worlds that may contain tales of the boring and predictable. I had no idea there was this unfulfilled need out

While in England recently, I was looking through the local newspaper and came across the headline “County gets new non-emergency number.” I was immediately comforted to know that the boring headline, followed by the even more boring story, isn’t just

Bluegrass musicians, and musical artists in general, often fall into a category of people who have a hard time with the bureaucratic and organizational side of the music business. Heck, some artists have a hard enough time just getting themselves dressed in

Jim Lauderdale (I call him “Jim”) does a characteristically hilarious name-dropping bit on stage, which often involves the names of semi-famous government officials, e.g. Madeline Albright. I paraphrase: “I was just talking to Condoleeza Rice on the phone, and she

It’s been a whirlwind couple of weeks that saw The Night Drivers and me going from Bean Blossom, Indiana to Huck Finn’s Jubilee in Victorville, California and back to Tennessee in less than a week. We did some night driving,

I realize this probably dates me, but I’m not a very good texter. I do have what is, technically speaking, a “smartphone”, but it’s a tiny secret agent-sized job that has no keyboard, therefore I rely on  the “predictive text”

International touring is something that most professional musicians will have an opportunity to do at some point in their careers, and last week I introduced you to some of the joys and hazards of this kind of work. I saved

I’m writing this from an airplane heading west back to North America after a short European tour. Since the flight is 9 hours long, I finished watching a mediocre movie over an hour ago, the seatbelt sign has been on

Last week, based on comments I received here and elsewhere, it seems that I suddenly became the best friend of sound engineers, simply by making an attempt to tell their side of the story. Now, could I get just a