• And who shall wear the robe and crown?

    People have lately been asking me to explain the hierarchy of bluegrass music (and by “people,” I mean my cousin Jimmy). Other than knowing that Bill Monroe is “The Father of Bluegrass,” I had to admit that I hadn’t given

  • It’s enough to give you the Willies

    A Bluegrass Junction listener—we’ll call her “Laura” (because that was her name)—emailed me recently, pointing out that there are an awful lot of bluegrass songs in which women are murdered. After much thought and reflection, I gave her this subtly

  • Potato… patahto

    Is it “Mon-ROE” or “MUN-roe”? Is how we pronounce bluegrass names important? It probably is, yet it’s not always as simple as it might seem. Do we pronounce people’s names the way they would pronounce them themselves, or do we

  • Spargel… get your Spargel!

    I’m on a flight across North America right now, the second of three legs of my trip home from our recent European tour. This seemed like a good time to write this column, because for one thing the deadline is

  • German phrasebook for the touring musician

    Greetings from Prague, in the Czech Republic, where our European tour is starting this week. Before I go on to much less serious and important subjects, I want to acknowledge a big loss in bluegrass music, especially for northeastern bluegrass fans:

  • Capotasto and the flat 1

    In his comment on last week’s column about stage communication, Dick Bowden requested that I write a follow-up article on band members who don’t know the number system. I don’t as a rule answer this kind of request, unless it’s