Author: David Thom

Paul Knight is the best soundman on the west coast, and maybe beyond. I first knew him as a bassist, and I believe that is what he would call himself first. He is the bassist for Peter Rowan, as well as

In my own small brush with posterity, I once exchanged emails with Craig Newmark of Craig’s List back in 1997. I had run an ad on the San Francisco-based bulletin board system that read, “Free beer and Bluegrass in Fairfax this

I just got a pre-release copy of Don Rigsby’s upcoming CD, a tribute to Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys called Doctor’s Orders. I asked Don how he came up with the name and he said, “The songs were hand

Northern California is rife with traditional bluegrass. In this writer’s opinion, there are two reasons for that: Vern and Ray, and Butch Waller’s band High Country. Formed in 1968, Waller has never strayed from the roots that Bill Monroe created and

This post is the first in what will be a series of articles on prominent west coast musicians who may not be familiar names back east. Ed Neff is a mandolin and fiddle player from Petaluma, California. Though those are his

I first became aware of Matt Flinner when I was living in Missoula, Montana in the early nineties. One night, after a beer-powered folk duet performance with a buddy, we made our way over to the Wilma Theater to see

The greatest proponent of bluegrass music in San Francisco, and perhaps the world, has died. Warren Hellman, best known in our community for his creation and funding of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, was a philanthropist that put his money

“Oh, oh, what I want to know is are you kind?” This famous line from the iconic song Uncle John’s Band, can easily be answered ‘Yes’ by the Rex Foundation, started by Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead 27 years

There’s gold in them thar hills! I don’t know if that’s ever really been said, but it came true last Saturday night in Grass Valley, California, when the Anderson Family Bluegrass Band invited Menlo Park, CA-based Windy Hill to come

About 6 months ago somebody high up in the biz told me, “If you don’t have a MySpace account, you’re missing it.  When it comes to a web presence for bands and musicians, MySpace has all the credibility.” I hadn’t looked