Author: Richard Thompson

Luke Thompson, bluegrass musician, bandleader, instrument builder and MC, passed away on June 12, 2019, in a Zachary Manor Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Zachary, Louisiana, where he had been for the past few months. He was 91 years old.  He was

News of new music from Niall Toner always raises expectations; what historic characters, events or creative stories has he woven into his songs since the last album?  So, you go to Delphi .. sorry, the oracle, Niall Toner, himself.  On this occasion

Being raised in Rosine, Kentucky, perhaps means one has a pre-ordained musical direction. Sometimes.  Certainly, 13-year-old traditional bluegrass and classic country fiddle player Mackenzie Bell is inspired by the great Bill Monroe.   She started playing in public when she was eight;

Bluegrass music’s own truck-driving man, Travers Chandler, is working on a new album of recordings and shared a video teaser to whet the appetite.   Having worked in the trucking business all his working life Chandler is ideally placed to speak

Last Fall we shared news that there is to be a bluegrass festival at the famous old Camp Springs site where music impresario Carlton Haney held Labor Day festivals from 1969 onwards. Developments are now well advanced to the point of

The locally known Montcalm Bridge, carrying County Route 11 over the Bluestone River in Mercer County, West Virginia, is to be named the Hazel Dickens Memorial Bridge. On March 9, 2019, the West Virginia legislature voted in favor of Senate Resolution

It’s 23 years since Bill Monroe passed away, and over the years since there have been a few Blue Grass Boy reunions. However, they’re not commonplace. So, Jack Hinshelwood, The Director of the Crooked Road, has assembled five former Blue

In 2011 Bean Blossom historian Thomas A. Adler gave a presentation at the International Country Music Conference in Nashville, during which he spoke about the possible reasons why Bill Monroe bought the Brown County Jamboree site at Bean Blossom in

Songs about coal mining have been a part of folk music from the time when major commercial production began in earnest in Appalachia in the 1870s, as exemplified by John Wallace Crawford’s Only a Miner Killed, composed in 1877.  Later, Florence

East, west, north and south, bluegrass music has its young musicians in many different regions. Some found off the beaten track are the Saline Fiddlers who open for bluegrass music legend, 15-time Grammy winner, and newly-inducted member of the Country