Author: John Lawless

We reported on Tuesday that Sammy Shelor had been selected as the 2011 recipient of the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass Music. This is the second year that Martin has endowed this $50,000 annual award, which

Dale Ann Bradley has released a video for the first single from her new Compass CD, Somewhere South Of Crazy. The song is Come Home Good Boy, the poignant plea of a fearful mother with her young son away at war,

Punch Brothers' banjo monster Noam Pikelny is set to releases his second solo project, Beat The Devil and Carry A Rail, on Compass October 25. Fellow Punch Brothers Chris Thile and Chris Eldridge provide mandolin and guitar respectively, while Punchy fiddler

Mountain Heart's That Just Happened radio show on WSM in Nashville airs the first Tuesday of each month from 2:00-3:00 p.m. (Central). Jim Van Cleve and Josh Shilling are your jovial hosts for a program that shares a name with

Dailey & Vincent are on tour in Ireland, and took a moment during their visit to St. Patrick's Cathedral to throw out a rendition of Amazing Grace. You can see in the video how hearing their own voices spiraling up to

Bearfoot has just released an online video, highlighting a recent visit the band made to both an elementary and high school in Gillette, Wyoming this past February. The group was created in Alaska some years ago as a result of just

Nu-Blu has chosen an online video to introduce their most recent member, mandolinist Austin Koerner. Austin isn't really all that new - he appears on the band's recent CD, The Blu-Disc - but he is the newest, and he shares a

Travers Chandler & Avery County have announced that Terry McGill is now working with them on banjo. He has actually been with them for about a month, and will be joining the band in the studio as they set out

Lonesome River Band leader Sammy Shelor has been announced as the 2011 recipient of the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass Music. The award is in recognition of Sammy's high level of musicianship, and the impact he has

We are saddened to learn from Dick Spotswood that centenarian banjo picker Wade Mainer is in failing health, and has been returned home into hospice care after a brief hospitalization. Dick shared that Mainer's wife Julia suspects that Wade has only