Author: John Lawless

Two big pieces of news came from Sugar Hill Records yesterday. First, they announced that their main offices would be moved from Durham, NC to Nashville. The company had been headquartered in Durham since they launched in 1978. In addition, they announced

We just heard from Joe Carr, Assistant Professor of Music in the bluegrass program at South Plains College in Levelland, TX. Alan Munde has announced his retirement from his faculty position at the end of the Spring 2007 term, and

We posted yesterday that Ralph Stanley had been hospitalized last week with a mild case of pneumonia. We just heard from his publicist, Norma Morris, who shared this good news: "He was in the hospital for a few days, but he

Claire Lynch is offering a free CD from her online store to whomever comes up with the best haiku with a bluegrass theme. The contest runs through January 22, and only one entry per person is allowed. In addition to

Mel Bay has a new book of mandolin transcriptions from virtuoso player Mike Marshall. Entitled The Mike Marshall Collection, the book contains 11 of Mike's pieces, transcribed from his recordings. Each tune is shown in both tab and standard notation, including

The Banjo Lounge is hosting another of their periodic online banjo workshops on February 11. This one will be conducted by Bill Evans, and will focus on playing bluegrass banjo accompaniment, or backup. Bill has two popular instructional DVDs about banjo

The venerable Dr. Ralph Stanley has been in the hospital in Big Stone Gap, VA since earlier this week, suffering from pneumonia. We asked Lee Olsen, who handles Ralph's dates with Keith Case & Associates, and he suggested that Dr.

PineCone, also known as the Piedmont Council of Traditional Music, has posted two live performance video samples on their MySpace page. The videos are for The Wilders and The Red Stick Ramblers, both of whom are slated to appear at the

Mountain Heart unveils their new sound this weekend on The Grand Ole Opry, introducing guitarist/vocalist Josh Shilling for the first time on last night's Friday Opry, and performing again tonight on the Opry radio broadcast. They got a call back from

Mark Newton will be the guest on this week's edition of XM Satellite Radio's Studio Special on Bluegrass Junction (XM-14). He joins host Kyle Cantrell for a one hour show that mixes interviews with live (in studio) performances from Mark's