Author: Richard Thompson

Blue Highway’s Wayne Taylor started playing guitar when he was 13. Due to some health problems he spent a couple years in a wheelchair. Taylor had a cousin who played and he showed him a couple chords and he took it

Bluegrass enthusiasts of a certain preference and/or of a certain age will be familiar with the name Monroe Fields. His musicianship has been compared with such excellent side-men as Joe Stuart, Paul Warren, Curly Lambert, George Shuffler, Ralph Mayo, Ernest Ferguson,

Every year since 1991 the IBMA initiates the induction of deserving personnel into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame (first called the Hall of Honor). The Hall of Fame is situated in the Owensboro, Kentucky-based International Bluegrass Music Museum and

Dixie Hall passed away on January 16 (2015). She had been ill for much of the previous year. She was born in Birmingham Maternity Hospital on May, 26, 1934, and lived for a while in the Birmingham district of Erdington before

Robert Billy ‘Bill’ Yates Sr., who passed away on January 26, 2015, was born on April 30, 1936, in Big Rock, Virginia. He learned an appreciation for music from his family as they worked on the farm, sang in church or

Julia Mainer, wife and long-time musical partner of old-time country music artist  the late Wade Mainer, passed away on January 21, 2015, aged 95. She had sustained fatal injuries in a fall a few days earlier. Julia Mae Brown Mainer was

Ozarks’ bluegrass DJ and MC Ray Hicks passed away yesterday, Wednesday, January 14, 2015. He was 68 years old. Born August 11, 1946, from Rolla, Missouri, Hicks was troubled by poor health in his later years, suffering a stroke in the

Hard-core bluegrass duo Vern Williams and Ray Park, from Arkansas, were a tremendous influence on bluegrass music in California. Ever since meeting in 1959 they brought the sounds of the Ozarks to the west coast playing concert and dance halls, radio

A death that we have only recently learned of is that of Ernest Ferguson, mandolin player with the Bailes Brothers. Ernest Charlton Ferguson (96) passed away in his sleep on the morning of October 19, 2014. He had been in declining health

Stringing along with the seasonal greetings and almost before the first slice of turkey is eaten are the ‘best ofs’ chosen for various music publications by writers who have their fingers on the pulse. For PopMatters, an enthusiastic Steve Leftridge rates