Chris is stuck working a double shift this morning at SiriusXM, so we are running this encore presentation of one of his best columns. There's a whole industry built around baby names. There are numerous books out listing baby names, their
Opinion / Humor
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Tenders of the Flame: Celebrating Women at the Heart of Bluegrass
This article is contribution from Theresa Seiders in celebration of International Women's Day on Match 8. It is part of the Monroe Mandolin Camp's commitment to the preservation and promotion of traditional bluegrass music, through building connection, understanding, and community among
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Ask Sonny Anything… Did Earl ever show you how he played something?
Good morning Chief, I hope you had a good week and either already have your COVID shot, or are on the list. I got mine late last week. Either way, fear not, we're all masked up out here in the
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From The Side of the Road… can you find the pop lyric in a bluegrass song?
If you've been reading these columns for any length of time, you know that I have periodically lamented the fact that a significant chunk of bluegrass music listeners aren't paying attention to lyrics, and may only be vaguely aware that
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Ask Sonny Anything… Chubby Wise and his hair lifting fiddle
Well Chief, I hope you stayed inside this week and enjoyed perusing Marty's Valentine's gift. From the sounds of things on the news, it's a good thing we didn't venture far from the driveway last week — at least to
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From The Side of the Road… an attempt at metric conversion for bluegrass
Should we consider adopting the metric system for bluegrass songs to broaden the music's appeal? Bluegrass musician Ira Gitlin brought this issue up to me recently, and I think it deserves some thought. This is a question almost no one
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Ask Sonny Anything… tell us about Lester Flatt
Good morning Chief! I'm reminded of The New South's cover of Gordon Lightfoot's 10 Degrees And Getting Colder this morning. In fact it was 9º overnight and with this layer of ice, Larry says we're not taking the Bluebird anywhere
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From The Side of the Road… bluegrass song titles from the ’80s!
I was recently reminded of a column I wrote in which we poked fun at Millennials with some alternatives to bluegrass standards, like “I’m a Man of Constant Netflix,” “Selfie On Top of the World,” and “You Don’t Know My
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Ask Sonny Anything… has bluegrass music gone too far from its roots?
Hey Chief, come on out, we're all ready for another road trip through the pages of time. Take us back to the good ol' days Sonny. And by the way, you were right. Ol' Larry backed this monster into the
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From The Side of the Road… what turned the nice snake so awful and dreadful?
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