Opinion / Humor

It’s an extremely busy week, as the Night Drivers and I head off to Circa Blue Fest and then a European tour. Meanwhile I’m in the midst of some sort of satellite radio marathon. This is just a sign of

Is this the year bluegrass pioneer Hazel Dickens is inducted into the bluegrass Hall of Fame? It should be. Then again, last year, she didn’t even make the ballot, a head-scratching development that seems to defy explanation. But just as spring’s

Leadership Bluegrass is an IBMA-related program which has been going strong since the year 2000. Its stated purpose, according to IBMA’s web site, is “to pull together a cross section of people with exhibited or potential leadership qualities into a

Songwriting presents many challenges: how do you block out all of society’s noise to allow some musical inspiration to enter in? How do you get someone else interested in your songs once they’re written? Where can you get a good

The arrival of the first IBMA awards ballot is always interesting in one way or another, this year more interesting than most. Still, after having to start over this week with a new and less confusing ballot, folks at the

You’ve no doubt heard of the “bucket list.” Like “show me the money” and other overused phrases, it has its origins in the movies. If you missed it, the bucket list is a list of things you hope to do

Have you ever looked at the song titles of a new album and wondered what those songs are about? In some cases, the guesswork is removed for you by the specifics in the title, like Wreck of the Old 97,

Chris is out on tour with the Night Drivers this week, and asked us to re-run this column about bluegrass groupies. It originally ran in 2011, shortly after Bluegrass Today was launched. Wives of male professional bluegrass musicians may from time

This is just a quick follow-up to last week’s discussion about bluegrass baby names. I had some readers offer some excellent additional suggestions that I either didn’t think of, or I didn’t have room for last week, including these: “Maggie” – Small

There’s a whole industry built around baby names. There are numerous books out listing baby names, their meaning and origin, how popular they are, etc. There are also web sites that offer countless suggestions from “Aabir” to “Zzyzx.” I looked