Australian bluegrass songbird Kristy Cox has won yet another Golden Guitar award at the Australian Country Music Awards, held this month in Tamworth.
She’s won in 2025 in the Bluegrass Recording of the Year category for her current Billy Blue Records project, Let It Burn. This is her seventh Golden Guitar award.
Cox has been singing since she was pre-teen in her native Adelaide, located in the southeastern corner of South Australia. She received a scholarship to study at the CMAA Australian College of Country Music, graduating in 2005, with her debut album following a year later. At this time Kristy was recording contemporary country music, but made a move to a bluegrass sound after that first release.
She came to live in Nashville in 2013, and has since been recording for American labels like Pisgah Ridge, Mountain Fever, and now Billy Blue. Throughout she has been closely associated with Jerry Salley, who has produced and contributed songs to most of the records she has made.
Here’s a listen to the title track from Let It Burn.
Congratulation to Kristy Cox for her seventh Golden Guitar!
As we reported earlier, the parking lot of the Sheraton Music City hotel, which hosted the event, and several others in the vicinity, were victimized by smash and grab robbers. What many refer to as the “lower parking lot,” down the hill from the Sheraton and not controlled by them or their security, was hit both Friday and Saturday evening, as were the lots for the adjacent Hampton Inn and Embassy Suites properties.
In her statement, Jones describes break ins that occurred on Saturday evening as happening on Sunday, as that’s how the police reports have it. They didn’t arrive at the hotel until after midnight, though the breaking of windows occurred earlier.
Here is the statement from SPBGMA events.
As SPBGMA closes out the 50th Anniversary Celebration this past week in Nashville Tennessee, we want to send out our heartfelt sympathies and express our shock and dismay at the senseless acts of vandalism that occurred at the Sheraton Music City Hotel.
The vehicle break ins occurred on the Sheraton Music City Hotel property on Sunday January 26, 2025 with four (4) cars damaged that were SPBGMA guests. Mark Deinhart, Area Managing Director at HEI Hotels & Resorts, which includes the Sheraton Music City, indicates they are working with Nashville Police to be sure that this never happens again. He also states the Hotel will possibly position police vehicles in the lot for special events and are determined to keep the parking lot safe for all guests.
Sheraton Music City Hotel Director of Front Office Joshua Urias told us the hotel has reached out to the four (4) affected SPBGMA guests and are assisting them in any way they can. If anyone has concerns with the unfortunate events on Sunday January 26th or needs assistance, please reach out to Joshua at the Sheraton, phone: 615-231-1125 email: Jurias@sheratonmusiccity.com or to SPBGMA email: stephanie@spbgma.com.
We deeply regret that this occurred during our Anniversary Celebration and please know that preventing this will be a main focus for events in the future. Thank you for your support and know that we support you as well.
You can be sure that both SPBGMA and the Sheraton Music City staff will be on top of this issue in the future.
The International Bluegrass Music Association has announced the 2025 class invited to attend their annual Leadership Bluegrass course, held March 10-12 in Nashville. This year marks the 25th anniversary of this groundbreaking course, designed to identify and facilitate future leaders in the bluegrass community
Participants are chosen in a competitive process to be a part of this educational and networking experience, where they meet and learn from existing industry leaders, and from one another.
IBMA Executive Director Ken White speaks highly of this group.
“This year’s Leadership Bluegrass class is as strong as any I’ve seen. The large number of diverse and high-quality applicants is quite a statement about the impressive qualifications of those selected, and the reputation of the program.
Our association’s mission is to connect, educate, and empower bluegrass professionals, and IBMA’s Leadership Bluegrass continues to be one of the most important professional development programs in the bluegrass music industry.
Participation in this class, and future alumni activities, is an impactful commitment to one’s career, the IBMA, and the bluegrass community. Congratulations to the Class of 2025!”
Chosen for 2025 are:
Katherine Bestwick – Appalachian Fiddle & Bluegrass Association (Zion Grove, PA)
Jennifer Brooke – Floyd Music School, LLC (Floyd, VA)
Pamela Brown – Oregon Bluegrass Association / Shaniko Music Sanctuary (Shaniko, OR)
Trudy Chandler – Nick Chandler and Delivered (Weaverville, NC)
Sofia Chiarandini – Jacob’s Ladder / Tufts University (Cambridge, MA)
Joseph Cornett – Billy Blue Music Publishing (White House, TN)
Elizabeth Dewey – International Bluegrass Music Association (Nashville, TN)
Darren Eedens – Taff Rapids / Self (Cardiff, Wales)
Donna Harrison – Chattanooga Tourism Co. (Chattanooga, TN)
Jenny Hirt – Durango Bluegrass Meltdown / KSUT Public Radio (Durango, CO)
Sara Johnson – Vivid Events / Pickin’ In The Peaches Music Festival (Augusta, GA)
Ella Jordan – Ella Jordan Music (Nashville, TN)
Kirk Kenney – China Bluegrass Network (Shanghai, China)
Crystal Lariza – Never Come Down (Hood River, OR)
Jon Lundbom – Central Texas Bluegrass Association (Austin, TX)
Erin Moorman – Syntax Creative (Franklin, TN)
Robbie Morris – Grasstime (Nashville, TN)
Caroline Owens – Billy Blue Records / Billy Blue Publishing (Denton, NC)
Aynsley Porchak – East Tennessee State University (Gate City, VA)
Nancy Posey – Music In Community Network (Brentwood, TN)
Joshua Rilko – Touring Musician (Nashville, TN)
Erin Rouse – Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum (Owensboro, KY)
Mona Salyer – IBMA Foundation Board (Bristol, VA)
Danny Stewart Jr. – U.S. Navy Band / Turtle Hill Banjo Co. / Annapolis Bluegrass (Edgewater, MD)
Zachary Taylor – Planning Stages Inc. (Hixson, TN)
Ross Willits – Minnesota Bluegrass & Old-Time Music Association (Roseville, MN)
There is no fee to take part in Leadership Bluegrass, but class members pay their own room and board if they live outside Nashville.
More information about the program, and its more than 500 graduates, can be found online.
In their first question, the interviewer asked if Lee could define the term, “Americana Music.”
And he responded…
“Well, that’s an excellent question to begin with. In writing this book, I had to tackle that question because Americana tends to mean different things to different people. Some people think of it as another form of country music and they say, “I don’t like country music.” But I would say that Americana is a very, very wide umbrella, and Americana can encompass roots music, music from the Heartland, R&B, gospel. It’s a very wide umbrella. I would say as well, that Americana’s roots go back to the beginnings of this nation’s history. I mean, to me, Stephen Foster was the essence of Americana. The early settlers who came here and had these songs, for example, from the Civil War—When Johnny Comes Marching Home to The Battle Hymn of the Republic—those were undoubtedly Americana music. So, I think to sum it up, I would say that Americana music is a sound that reflects the essence of our nation’s history and culture.
Now, in a broader sense, Americana has also been adopted and adapted by musicians from other countries. In the UK, there’s a Americana association [Americana Music Association UK]. I do a column for a publication called Bluegrass Today, and the column is called Bluegrass Beyond Borders. That’s a regular column that I do. I look beyond our shores—to England, to France, to Japan, to Australia, and at the musicians that are making music.
I’ll say that how it began, if you really want to look at it, Americana began in the British Isles, in Ireland, in Scotland. When the settlers came over here and settled in Appalachia, they brought those musical traditions with them. So, we can’t say that Americana is strictly an American genre because, like everything, it came from somewhere else. It even came from Africa. The people that came over here on the slave ships brought the banjo. The banjo is an African instrument. So, [Americana] is a very complex and multi-hued form of music, which took its influence and essence from afar, and yet made it something that we can claim here, and which has now been exported overseas.
So, to answer your question, there’s really no succinct answer. There really isn’t. You can see examples of what Americana is now. You look at people like the War and Treaty or Billy Strings, or the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. In the book, I go back even further to the Everly Brothers and Elvis and Johnny Cash. They were more or less the pioneers of modern Americana, all of those people.
So, it’s a very wide umbrella. When I have friends who say, “I don’t like country music,” I say, “Well, you’re not really listening. You like blues, it’s blues. You like gospel, you like soul. It’s all in the mix in Americana.”
Ralph Stanley II on the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium (1/17/25)
January 17 was a special night for Ralph Stanley II. After many years of playing the Grand Ole Opry as a member of the Clinch Mountain Boys, alongside his father, the great Dr. Ralph Stanley, he had his first opportunity to play the Opry under his own name, leading The Clinch Mountain Boys as his father and uncle had done in the past.
To make it even sweeter, the show was at The Ryman Auditorium, where it all began, and it was in honor of Dr. Ralph’s induction as an Opry member on January 15, 2000, the first member of the new millennium!
So II brought the band to Nashville, and tells us that he really felt the thread that runs through the multi-generational Stanley sound.
“Being back on the Ryman stage where I had stood many times with my dad, but now as a solo headliner meant the world to me. There were so many emotions that night! I was proud and honored to represent my dad, and also show the world that the Stanley sound is alive and well!!!”
With him were regular members of the Clinch Mountain Boys Alex Leach on guitar, Curtis Coleman on banjo, Stanley Efaw on fiddle, and Randall Hibbitts on bass, along with special guest Wyatt Ellis on mandolin.
II shared a number of photos of his big night, along with this behind-the-scenes video of their time at the Ryman.
The American Banjo Museum, located in Oklahoma City and dedicated to promoting and preserving banjo players and music of all kinds, has announced five new members to their Hall of Fame. They will be officially inducted during the weekend of October 9-11 as part of their annual Banjo Fest weekend in Oklahoma City.
Two of the new members will be well familiar to our readers, Noam Pikelny of Punch Brothers fame, who is going in for Five-String Performance, and Dom Flemons, noted multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and folklorist, who goes in for Promotion.
Also to be inducted in 2025 are 20th century four string virtuoso Fred Van Eps in the Historical category, Sean Moyses for Four-String Performance, and banjo builder Vinnie Mondello for Education & Innovation.
The Museum has provided the following thumbnail biographies of their newest Hall of Famers:
Noam Pikelny – Five-String Performance – Born in Skokie, Illinois in 1981, Pikelny began playing the banjo at the age of eight, studying at the Old Town School of Music. Best known for his current band, the Grammy award-winning Punch Brothers, Noam’s extraordinary talent and eclectic musical tastes found him performing in groups such as Leftover Salmon and the John Cowan Band, in addition to his own solo endeavors. Respected by a diverse musical community, Pikelny was named IBMA Banjo Player of the Year in 2014 and 2017 and, in 2010, was the first recipient of the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass. Currently residing in Nashville, Tennessee, Pikelny and the Punch Brothers continue to excel in and expand the perceived boundaries of bluegrass, folk, and acoustic music.
Sean Moyses – Four-String Performance – From his first banjo ukulele strums as part of a family band to a present day one man show, Sean Moyses has devoted his life to music and the banjo. Inspired by Eddie Peabody, Moyses has taken a journeyman approach to a musical career, adapting his skill set as needed, and devoted enough to go where the work was. Whether performing as part of British and European jazz bands, lending his formidable stage presence to comedy shows, or taking listeners on a unique musical journey from ragtime to classics to pop, Sean pours his kind heart and impressive talent into every show he does. Admittedly born with an “old soul,” Moyses bridges the gap between the banjo’s glorious past and its modern-day identity.
Fred Van Eps – Historical – After learning to play the banjo by studying the recordings of Vess Ossman, Fred Van Eps went on to even greater popularity than his mentor. A fixture in the Edison studios in the early 1900s, he – as both a soloist and leader of different bands – made hundreds of audio recordings which documented the technical skill and musicianship which was required of banjoists during the instrument’s Classic Era of the late 1800s. Having been chosen to appear in early experimental sound films, as well as marketing the Van Eps Recording brand of banjos, is indicative of the artist’s popularity during the first three decades of the twentieth century.
Dom Flemons – Promotion – Dominique “Dom” Flemons is an American old-time, and blues multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. He is a proficient player of the banjo, fife, guitar, harmonica, percussion, quills, and rhythm bones. Known as The American Songster, Flemons’ repertoire of music spans nearly a century of American folklore, ballads, and tunes. A founding member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops from their inception in 2005 until 2013, Flemons played a key role in black culture’s recapturing of the banjo’s African heritage. In addition to performing and recording with numerous artists and bands including Mike Seeger, Taj Mahal, and the Old Crow Medicine Show, Flemons has released numerous albums under his own name, including Black Cowboys (which was nominated for a Grammy award in 2018).
Vinnie Mondello – Education & Innovation – With a family musical performance and instrument manufacturing lineage going back three generations, Vinnie Mondello seemed destined to become the “go to” banjo builder and repairperson of the current generation. Utilizing mechanical skills and philosophy developed while working on high performance cars and boats, Mondello willed himself to learn the necessary skills and passion for maximizing a banjo’s tone, playability, and appearance. While the goal of his repair work is to match the original manufacturer’s fit and finish as closely as possible, the custom instruments crafted in his shop have set new and exacting standards in tone and décor.
More details about Banjo Fest 2025 and the gala Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be announced in the near future.
Two Nashville vocal powerhouses have joined together to form The Herculeons, in the persons of John Cowan and Andrea Zonn. They have a new album coming in March on True Lonesome Records which will also feature fellow singing stars Michael McDonald, Darrell Scott, John Hall, and Reese Wynans.
Today they have released a first single, Face of Appalachia, tracked back before the terrible storm that ravaged so many communities in that area at the end of September ’24. So they have decided to use the song, and its music video, to continue raising awareness about the ongoing needs of these mountain people and their families, especially now that media attention has been drawn to the ruination from the California wildfires.
Speaking jointly, John and Andrea say…
“When we recorded this song, we couldn’t have foreseen the fate that would befall our beloved Appalachian region with the destructive force of Hurricane Helene. The heart center of the music and musicians that have nurtured and nourished us has been dealt an unimaginable blow.
Our dear friend and gifted photographer, Madison Thorn, traveled to the region in the aftermath of the hurricane and captured stunning images of the devastation. We asked her to help us make this video to raise awareness and funds as this region embarks on the long and difficult process of rebuilding their homes and their lives.”
Face of Appalachian is a lovely song, written by John Sebastian and Lowell George, and recorded on Sebastian’s 1974 album, Tarzana Kid. This is the same team that composed Dixie Chicken, the title track of Little Feat’s 1973 album, also included on Tarzana Kid.
Andrea sings the lead here, with John’s harmony wailing behind her, on a stark track that lets their voices take the forefront. Beautifully done.
They are using the video to encourage people to contribute time and treasure, as they are able, to the various organizations who are doing such exemplary work to bring relief to the Appalachian region.
The Herculeons, i.e., John and Andrea, especially recommend the following agencies when you consider donations:
The combination of these two artists, at the opposite ends of their careers – Rowan is 82 and Ellis is 15 – has captured the attention of people both inside the bluegrass world, and well beyond.
Now Wyatt has released a music video for Winds of Rowan County, filled with behind the scenes clips from the recording studio. Ellis and Christopher Henry play mandolins, with Rowan on guitar and vocals, David Mansfield and Christian Ward on fiddles, Max Wareham on banjo, and Mike Bub on bass.
Saturday morning at SPBGMA brought the first round of the band competition. Over a dozen bands from all over the country took part. Contestants from Alaska to Florida and all points in between vied against one another in the 50th SPBGMA International Band Competition. The second round took place later in the afternoon with the final rounds to name the champions to be crowned on Sunday.
Saturday evening brought great entertainment in the form of The Larry Stephenson Band, The Junior Sisk Band, Nothin’ Fancy, The Grascals, and Rhonda Vincent and the Rage.
The awards show brought a few surprises. Junior Sisk made a very emotional speech as he accepted the trophy for album of the year. Junior was totally unaware that he had even been nominated for the award. He was backstage tuning his guitar when his name was called. The big winner for the night was The Kody Norris Show, taking home five awards including Entertainer of the Year.
This past Saturday and Sunday the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America held their annual Band Championship during their 41st National Convention in Nashville. Competitors performed multiple times for the judges over the two days, before the final results were announced yesterday afternoon.
