Well, though it's not acknowledged in all camps, the election of 2020 is behind us (pending the final vote count in Alaska, which I'm told to expect sometime next May), and I know you were probably hoping that you could
Funny stuff
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From The Side of the Road… are bluegrass lyrics supposed to make sense?
Ours is a music of lyric mysteries. Not always, mind you. "Tonight I'm alone without you my dear, it seems there's a longing for you still," is pretty straightforward, but for every song like that, we've got a song suggesting
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From The Side of the Road… studio budgets in the bluegrass world
If this week’s column seems at all disjointed, it’s only because The Night Drivers and I are in the studio all this week, and I’m writing this in between takes of our new medley of Next Sunday Darling is My
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From The Side of the Road… bluegrass songs as commercial jingles
Last week we discussed ways for bluegrass bands to cut costs, which ranged from laying off non-essential staff (like managers, bass players, or yourself), to sleeping in a ditch instead of a hotel. This week, I'd like to look at
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From The Side of the Road – Can I sleep in your barn tonight, Mister?
I know we’re all tired of bad news about the music business, and bad news in general, but the reality we're facing is that when in-person concerts and smaller music clubs are back up and running, things will still not
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From The Side of the Road – Jeopardy style band introductions
Do you ever watch Jeopardy? Do you ever give answers in the form of questions? This is confusing to people, don't you think? Do you ever just get sick of questions? Are you hoping there's prize money somewhere at the end
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From The Side of the Road – making virtual WOB like the real thing
In keeping with tradition - and we wouldn't want to break with tradition now, would we - Chris has delivered his weekly column during World of Bluegrass 2020 on video. Virtually, so to speak.
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From The Side of the Road – song titles for a suburban environment
In the radio work I do I get to hear a lot of current bluegrass releases, and I have to say that bluegrass songwriters may be in a bit of a subject rut. Our genre now seems dominated by songs
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From The Side of the Road – Dear Mr. Bluegrass Manners
Mr. Bluegrass Manners has been off for a little while. He chose to self-isolate after having had to spend some time in the Nashville Greyhound station (it's a long story). While in quarantine he continued to answer emails, even the
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From The Side of the Road – too early for 2021 predictions?
People love to make predictions. It's not important that almost all of them are hit-and-miss. That even goes for Nostradamus, and that was what he was known for; that, and apparently he grew some very impressive spaghetti squash. Usually people like to