Author: Richard Thompson

Frank Ray, the leader of Cedar Hill, has contributed many songs to theband’s stage and recorded repertoire. However, about two years ago, Ray lost his son, Scott, and his father, Dallas, and he has experienced a song writer’s block ever

Keith Little, much acclaimed singer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and performer who has recorded and toured with the likes of Rose Maddox, California bluegrass pioneer Vern Williams, Dolly Parton, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, The Chieftains, David Grisman and Peter Rowan, has

A Quiz ….. From the very beginning playing bluegrass music has been a particularly precarious job, even for the very, very talented. Bill Monroe worked at Sinclair Oil in the 1930s; Kenny Baker often went back to the coal mines even though he

Ocotillo Rain and Thunder Bluegrass Band, the southern Arizona bluegrass band that keeps on giving, has chosen Susan G Komen as their charity for March. The Ocotillo Rain and Thunder Bluegrass Band, named in part for the beautiful Ocotillo flowering plant

Arthur St Clair Robinson, one of British bluegrass music’s true high-lonesome vocalists, passed away on Friday, March 6, 2015. He suffered a seizure at the beginning of February and was hospitalized for a while before being moved to St. Catherine's

Wade Ray Jessen, the head of several of Billboard magazine's charts, including the bluegrass music chart, passed away in the early hours of March 5, 2015, due to a massive heart-attack. The 53-year-old media veteran and country music champion was being

Larry Sparks is noted for his unique soulful, bluesy style of bluegrass that from a distance appears to be effortless. But clearly, there is no doubt that he works hard to keep his audience entertained. His voice and guitar could not

I have to declare upfront that I had a peek at an early draft of this book. Also, over the years (from about 1981), I have watched Reid gather together the building materials that have gone towards the writing of The Music

Church in the Wildwood isn’t a recently written song. It was actually composed in 1857 by a young music teacher named William S Pitts as a result of a June visit to Bradford, Iowa. Pitts was on a stagecoach ride that

The area including Baltimore, Washington D.C. and surrounding region, Maryland and northern Virginia, is noted for a power-packed style of bluegrass music, notably in the 1940s and 1950s, although it is often the style of choice even today. During that era