Miscellaneous bluegrass news

Friends and fans of noted newgrass vocalist John Cowan have long held that he has a heart as big as his voice, but even the heartiest isn't immune to health concerns. After experiencing chest pains last Thursday, John was hospitalized where

D'Addario Strings has announced a recall on their humidity control products in the Humidipak line. It seems there is a potential defect that allows the solution to leak through the product lining. We have discovered that we have a potential defect

Our industrious British correspondent, Richard F. Thompson, is back with an expanded overview of a story Brance posted last month. Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs will be among this year's five new inductees into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, the

Mandolin Cafe is handling the sale of a Gilchrist Model 1 mandolin, recently acquired through an anonymous donor, which be sold online to raise money for Butch Baldassari's medical fund. Butch is undergoing treatment for an inoperable brain tumor, and

Operation Happy Note was started after music store owners Steve and Barb Baker saw their son deployed to Iraq. They sent him a guitar and soon a buddy of his wanted one as well. Steve and Barb decided to find

We had posted late last year about Wechter Guitars and their newly installed Plek Pro fret dressing machine. This German made, computer-assisted contraption scans the neck while the instrument is strung up to pitch, and creates a detailed, three dimension

Tom Adams, celebrated former banjo player with The Johnson Mountain Boys, Blue Highway and others, has announced his plans to set the banjo down, and perhaps focus on guitar instead. He has been suffering from focal dystonia for the past

Banjo player John Drummond was hoping for success when he started his own business, unicycle.com, in 1999, but his hopes didn't aspire to making a living selling unicyles. By 2003 however, the business was going well enough that his wife

Last year around this time, we told you about Lonesome River Band banjo picker Sammy Shelor's side business when fall rolls around. He and his wife Sue plant a field of corn each spring, not to bring to market, but

Here's a fun YouTube clip we found on Sam Bush's web site. Those of us of a certain age will get a kick out of seeing a pop icon like Ringo Starr speaking excitedly about artists held in high esteem