This is the third in a series on stage-show MC work. In the previous installment, I tried to answer a few frequently asked questions (or FAQ, for those in a hurry), covering issues like who should do most of the
Funny stuff
-
-
From The Side of the Road…some more stage MC basics
Last week I tried to break on-stage MC work down to basics to make the mission seem less daunting for anyone who may find speaking to an audience intimidating. To sum up and review: you're just trying to make the audience
-
From The Side of the Road… no, you do it – I don’t want to do it
Something that you or your band must eventually face (besides your sound check and your non-existent retirement plan), is that at some point, usually no more than three or four songs into a show, you will have to say something
-
From The Side of the Road… Mr. Bluegrass Manners tells the truth
Mr. Bluegrass Manners has taken time away from his book tour promoting his new bestseller, Jam Session Offenses, Real and Simulated - Navigating bluegrass etiquette in the age of AI, to take the latest burning bluegrass questions from readers. As related
-
From The Side of the Road… cologne for the man who plays bluegrass
Since it has been established in the advertising world that if you can identify a niche, you can target it, it was probably inevitable that we would one day see the rise of bluegrass men's cologne. Bluegrass women's fragrances had already
-
From The Side of the Road… where are they now?
Last week, after passing along some of the findings in my research into the whereabouts of some familiar characters in bluegrass songs, I received some questions, comments, and suggestions. The suggestions, which mostly involved where I should go, and what I
-
From The Side of the Road… the rest of the story, bluegrass song edition
People always seem interested in where music celebrities, or lesser-known one-hit wonder types, have disappeared to. I seem to recall VH-1, or one of those channels that used to show music videos in the '80s, devoting a whole show to
-
From The Side of the Road… email shorthand for grassers
We've all been seeing the ways in which AI technology is already being used to improve our lives, that is before it destroys civilization as we know it about two years from now. As an example of its practical application,
-
From The Side of the Road… Bill v. Earl, revisited
For some reason, pandemic nostalgia perhaps, there has been a whole new round of comments about an editorial written by David Morris in Bluegrass Today back in late 2020 about who the real "Father of Bluegrass" is, Bill Monroe or
-
From The Side of the Road… more bluegrass translations
Last week I was preoccupied with another side business I have, which is the raising of prize miniature llamas (one of the llamas had gone off her feed and would eat nothing but stir-fried alfalfa pellets, and the whole thing