I’m writing this from an airplane heading west back to North America after a short European tour. Since the flight is 9 hours long, I finished watching a mediocre movie over an hour ago, the seatbelt sign has been on
Funny stuff
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Blue Yodel #30 – 20 Questions: The Gibson Brothers
1: If Leigh were a soup and Eric a sandwich, what kind of soup and sandwich combo would you be? Leigh: Pea soup and bacon sandwich Eric: Tomato soup and bologna sandwich 2: What are your favorite 4-letter words? Leigh: Tony and Rice Eric: Earl
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Listen up, sound guys
Last week, based on comments I received here and elsewhere, it seems that I suddenly became the best friend of sound engineers, simply by making an attempt to tell their side of the story. Now, could I get just a
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The sound man is your friend
There are plenty of tense and troubled relationships in professional bluegrass music. Minor scraps to major feuds can often develop between label and artist, artist and event producer, side musician and band leader, musician and landlord, but one of the
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The Bluegrass Intelligencer returns
After a hiatus of more than two years, The Bluegrass Intelligencer has arisen like a phoenix from the ashes of a bad metaphor. This hilarious site, which features parody, satire and inside humor for fans of bluegrass and acoustic music, is
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Blue Yodel #27 – Make the Web Go Away
Wanted: young band needed to take part in promotional experiment. Must be willing to risk loss of career and ridicule of peers. But if it works: You can become more famous than the Beatles! Okay, here’s the idea. Let’s say you’re an
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Seemed like a good idea at the time
The world of music is strewn with the decaying corpses of marketing ideas gone wrong, or ones that were just wrong to begin with. Many of them linger in our consciousness decades later, and not in a good way, providing
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Blue Yodel #26 – Ask Mr. Blue Grass Smarty Pants
Guest Questioner and Prize This month’s guest is a respected mover-and-shaker in bluegrass: the Yoda of Yellow Springs, the Doyen of Dayton, the Savonarola of Southern Ohio—Fred Bartenstein. Fred was the editor of Muleskinner News from 1969 to 1974, and has been
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The Dogs of Bluegrass
With dog talk seemingly taking over the US Presidential race, it seems like a perfect time to highlight this clever piece of work from Zach White. Zach is a country/bluegrass musician currently studying commercial music at Belmont University, where he performs with
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Bluegrass to English translations
People that are new to bluegrass music sometimes need some help in translating our jargon. Hearing that someone is “tearing it up on the five” may sound like ordinary and recognizable information to us, but to the uninitiated, it’s not