Funny stuff

Because our touring season is winding down for 2013, and Thanksgiving is upon us, I wanted to open on a personal note: I feel grateful for the fact that this past year was the best and most rewarding year our

We just got through a two-part series on studio psychology, and the role of the engineer and producer in it, touching briefly on whether it’s better to eat regular or thin crust pizza during a recording session. I thought we

First of all, I should apologize for being a day late with this. Even though we gained an hour over the weekend when we returned to Standard Time, I seem to have lost a whole day in the process. It’s

Going into the studio to record is something that all professional and semi-professional (and in some cases, complete amateur) musicians will do at some point in their careers, usually early and often. The studio, as anyone with experience can tell you,

Often when I have been on the receiving end of interview questions, and particularly when the interviewers are from outside the bluegrass community, I’ll get a question about the growth of bluegrass music and the general level of interest in

A while back, I wrote here about bluegrass artists’ accessibility to fans, and about some of the interesting things people say to artists at their merchandise tables. Those that aren’t used to approaching people they don’t know and criticizing their work,

Well, if you’ve followed Bluegrass Today at all in the last week, you know there really is something more newsworthy and controversial than a government shutdown. It turns out to be the fact that a bluegrass artist decided to stop

Generally, when I write these around the week of the IBMA World of Bluegrass, I like to keep them extremely short, to match the nights of sleep I’ve had, and the attention span I have as a result. I guess that

A reader recently asked if I would consider, at some point, addressing the issue of playing for free. I replied: “Sure, for 80 bucks I will.” After some negotiation, my fee was reduced to barter payment of a used lime

Shortly after the announcements of the IBMA Awards nominations, an important discussion was started here in Bluegrass Today about the award nominations and voting process. Many readers joined in with ideas, constructive criticism, and in some cases, good old-fashioned griping. With