Author: Richard Thompson

Well known musician and music historian Bobby Patterson of the Galax, Virginia, area passed away on September 24, 2017. He experienced kidney failure, having been given new a kidney in 2010. Bobby Frank Patterson was born on April 1, 1942, in

To add to the rather tumultuous nature of changes that have been announced in the past few weeks comes the news that the North Carolina-based band The Grass Cats is following decisions by the Spinney Brothers and The Boxcars by

At the end of last month John McEuen, one of the founding members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (NGDB), announced his immediate departure from the iconic group. Stating “enough is enough,” McEuen left at the conclusion of the NGDB 2017

I have had to think long and hard about what to say about the recent Bill Clifton biography, America's Bluegrass Ambassador to the World, by Bill C Malone. In many respects it is a perfectly acceptable biography, scholarly, yet quite readable. However,

As previously reported, one-time Blue Grass Boy and life-long bluegrass musician and singer Vernon McQueen passed away on March 16, 2017. He was 86 years of age. Vernon McQueen was born on August 6, 1930, in McKee, Jackson County, in Kentucky. Periodically,

On this day … On November 2, 1967, Don Reno and Bill Harrell and The Tennessee Cut-Ups recorded two bluegrass Gospel tracks, Stepping Stone to Glory and I’m Just a Little Old Fashioned that were released as a single, King 45-6150. The

Ronald Ray “Ronnie” Allen, the bass-playing eldest son of Harley ‘Red’ Allen, passed away on February 21, 2017. He was 67 years of age. Ronnie Allen was born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1949. He started his involvement in music as a rock

The October 2017 edition of the long-standing British glossy publication Country Music People (CMP) is noted as a Blue Grass Special edition, the first time in my memory that the magazine has been devoted to the genre. The cover features the

Jay Ungar and Molly Mason Having heard the haunting tones of Ashokan Farewell, a waltz in D major composed by Jay Ungar in September 1982 and used in the soundtrack to Ken Burns' documentary series Civil War, few of us can

We are delighted to report that Buddy Merriam has come successfully through his surgery of yesterday (October 16, 2017). Kathy DeVine, guitarist with Buddy Merriam & Back Roads, gives today’s news and praises his medical team for all their efforts so