Last week we gave some examples of how bluegrass bands' promotional material might read if we took out all the usual flowery and exciting adjectives and replaced them with one-sentence, blunt, "just the facts, ma'am" descriptions, e.g. "Five old guys
Opinion / Humor
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From The Side of the Road… a new way to think about band promo
When playing a show in Chicago recently, I stopped to eat at a Greek restaurant on the northwest side of the city and I ordered something pretty standard: the gyro plate, and it was an excellent choice. When it arrived,
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From The Side of the Road… the back story of bluegrass villains told at last
I've noticed within the entertainment industry a growing interest in the back stories of the villains of some of our legends, fairy tales, and classic superhero stories. Having milked most of the superhero and Grimm's fairy tale-based franchises dry, all
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From The Side of the Road… writing bluegrass songs about bluegrass
I don't know if you've noticed this, but bluegrass songs about bluegrass are more popular than ever. They seem to get airplay and the charts continue to be full of them. What's not to like? It's the music we love
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From The Side of the Road… would I lie to you?
I was flying out of the Nashville airport recently, and I passed by a large, prominently displayed electronic sign, which said the following: "Plane Truth #1: BNA stands for Best National Airport. For real" (BNA is Nashville's airport code). Then
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From The Side of the Road… Top 10 bluegrass conspiracy theories
Esquire magazine recently published a list of the top 30 conspiracy theories prevalent in the United States. They ranged from the faked moon landing and flat earth theories to the one about Disney making Frozen as a distraction from the
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From The Side of the Road… Dude, you smell good!
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
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From The Side of the Road… I got you on video!
The smartphone, especially the smartphone with video camera, has changed a lot of things in our society. Just ask any politician who has had video of something he or she said posted to social media that directly contradicted yesterday's statement,
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The School of Bluegrass with Doyle Lawson – Alan Munde with Jimmy Martin
In this recurring column, bluegrass legend Doyle Lawson answers your questions about his storied musical career. To ask a question, either comment below, or send us your question by email. Howdy folks howdy... (my best imitation of Mr Monroe) and I
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From The Side of the Road… perils of the gig economy
If you've ridden an Uber or Lyft lately, or stayed in an AirBnB, you know that the "gig economy" is the big trend in employment, especially in the service industry, and it's likely here to stay. People everywhere are becoming