The summer festival and music camp season is fast-approaching, and with that comes the workshop season. I thought of it because just today I was listing some of the potential workshops my band members and I might offer at a
Opinion / Humor
From The Side of the Road… pandemic fun, in retrospect
Now that we've passed the five-year anniversary of the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was interesting to look back on this column written a year or so after that world-altering era began. It was all about the aspects of
From The Side of the Road… music camp shenanigans
Music camp season is fast approaching. Do you have your camp outfits picked out (usually T-shirts from other camps) and washed yet? Do you have enough strings? Have you enrolled? In a typical music camp of any kind, there are the
From The Side of the Road… Mr Bluegrass Manners takes on 2025
Mr. Bluegrass Manners has been absent for quite a while, working on his forthcoming book, Advance and Retreat - A Guide to Appropriate Fan-to-Artist Distancing. We did persuade him to return, however, to take some questions that have been simmering
From The Side of the Road… mixed messages in bluegrass advertising
Greetings from the big city of New York. I'm here paying a visit to SiriusXM studios. Shortly I'm heading to Chicago to play with the Night Drivers on Friday, and on to Murphysboro, Illinois on Saturday. In short, I'm busy,
From The Side of the Road… Mr Bluegrass Manners does COVID
Next week there’s going to be a long overdue new Mr. Bluegrass Manners column, so to get you in the mood, we're rerunning one from 2020 this week. Not just any one, though; this is the first MBM column after
From The Side of the Road… should there be bluegrass sequels?
Sequels are so often disappointing, Santa Clause 2 being a notable exception. Speaking of holiday classics, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol 2: The Next Verse ,wasn’t bad either. If you recall, Scrooge becomes the manager of the Cratchit family band and
David Mayfield Parade reads mean comments
The David Mayfield Parade - photo © Itamar Gat David Mayfield has always walked to the beat of his own drum. Though he grew up playing in an easy-going family bluegrass band, Mayfield has created his own niche in the genre
From The Side of the Road… drop a name, enhance your status
I addressed the issue of name-dropping early on in the life of this column. Béla said he was pretty happy with it, so I felt no need to follow up. Dan and Suzanne had also given it their stamp of
From The Side of the Road… Flatt & Scruggs Haiku!
We haven’t discussed haiku much lately, and I'm not sure with all that's going on in the country and the world, if anyone has noticed. You'll just have to trust me on this. Haiku, for those who've missed all the earlier


