At this past weekend's MerleFest, winners were chosen in the 22nd Annual Chris Austin Songwriting Contest. The invitational competition is held each year during the festival, with finalists chosen in advance. Congratulations to these 2014 winners: Bluegrass 1st Place - Paul Harrigill (Murfreesboro,
Thanks to Russ Carson, new banjo picker with Ricky Skaggs, and a talented photographer to boot, for this set of images from this weekend's MerleFest in North Carolina. See more of Russ' images online at www.russcarson.com.
Fans of teenaged grassers Sleepy Man Banjo Boys will want to stay up late, or set their DVRs, to catch the boys on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show on Monday night. They will surely be featuring a song from their upcoming
A lot of folks excited about the start of the big Willie Nelson/Alison Krauss tour have been disappointed to see a number of the early dates cancelled or rescheduled. The official word is that "an unforeseen and urgent health concern
Much of the world's attention in late March was centered just east of Seattle, WA where a devastating mudslide took the lives of 41 people, destroyed hundreds of homes, and washed out critical highways in the area. Needless to say,
Last weekend, GuitartownCT Productions held their Tony Rice benefit at the Unitarian Hall in Hamden, CT. A bevy of top northeastern bluegrass talent performed to help raise money to support Tony financially while he works to reclaim his voice, and receive treatment for
We banjo players have endured unkind banjo jokes for as long as we've been playing. Always derogatory, often at the expense of our intelligence, appearance or job prospects, these jabs sting the refined five stringer to the core. With Murphy and
We have learned that Billy Hawks, fiddler with Junior Sisk & Rambler's Choice, will be leaving the band after today's performance at MerleFest. Junior says that Jamie Harper will be filling in with the band the rest of this weekend, and
Ask any musicologist about the origins of old time and bluegrass music, and a disquisition on banjo and fiddle music won't be far behind. Particularly in the Appalachian regions where self-sufficient immigrants from the British isles and their descendants tended
Rachel Johnson Boyd and her husband Chris are celebrating the birth of their first child. Luke Holston Boyd was born on April 21 at 5:06 p.m., weighing in at 6 lbs 14 oz. Rachel had worked in bluegrass since she was a
