Opinion / Humor

How do we define "success" in the bluegrass music business? We certainly can't do it by the standards used in the mass market music world, where success is considered to have been achieved when you own your own airplane and

If you're playing bluegrass music professionally, or even semi-professionally, at some point you're going to have to endure that dreaded pre-hiring ritual called the audition.  Mind you I don't mean to assume that everyone will go through the process of being

It's always exciting when new research sheds some light on the mysterious origins of some of the songs we sing, and the stories behind them. I was particularly thrilled, then, when a number of "prequels" to some of our beloved

I've discussed the issue of CD sales here in the past. Disregard whatever I may have said before because there have been some important new developments on that front. Well, one, mainly: people really aren't buying the things.  I'm exaggerating a

It's time for the annual bluegrass quiz, which fills some readers with excitement, others with dread, and still others with the urge to ignore it and move on to one of Bluegrass Today's other top stories: "Oral Surgery Postponed For

Happy New Year! Next week it will be our annual Bluegrass Knowledge Test (or whatever it's being called now), so be studying up on that bluegrass trivia. Here's some help: the answer to question #2 is going to be "B." For

Merry Christmas to all! I've been given the day off (with pay), though when I told my boss here, John Lawless, that it was only once a year, he replied, "A poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every 25th

Last week it was announced here in Bluegrass Today that there was a Hallmark-esque Christmas movie (actually from Imagicomm Entertainment) with a bluegrass theme called—and I know this may surprise you—A Bluegrass Christmas. As soon as the article appeared I

I recently encountered one of the more pointless and irritating social media threads I've seen, at least since the 2024 election. It had to do with lyrics of the Christmas song, I'll Be Home For Christmas. In the thread I

We’ve just made it through Thanksgiving, and I chose the phrase "made it through" deliberately. Let's be honest, for all people's happy and thankful social media posts ("I'm so thankful for my kitty Snooky-wookums, and the humans in my family