From time to time, people from the Luthiers and Merchandisers constituency of the IBMA (unless I’m thinking of the Groupies and Stalkers constituency) ask me to test and review some of the new bluegrass-related products that have come out in
Opinion / Humor
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The Ballad of Jayden K. Smith
The following column will be understood and appreciated only by people familiar with Facebook. Even then it may not be appreciated much, and I would certainly understand. If you’re not a Facebook user, congratulations! You are up to 68% more
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2017 Bluegrass Today Chris Jones Column Quiz
It’s been my habit twice a year to run some sort of quiz. One is a general bluegrass knowledge quiz, which runs around the 1st of the year, while the other is a quiz related to subjects covered by this
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Royal line of bluegrass succession, or Queen for a Day
I’m on vacation this week, without a laptop, phone, or even a wallet. I’m pretty much down to just pants, a handful of cash, and a Blue Chip pick (product plug intentional). Since there has been some recent controversy in Bluegrass
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Voting appeals and poor translations
For your consideration: You don’t want to hear the rest of this, do you? Well, the good news for you is that apparently this form of promotion has fallen out of favor this year for the second round of IBMA awards
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Introducing the competitive spirit into bluegrass
Greetings from Bean Blossom! The Night Drivers and I are hitting the road hard this week, traveling from here to Tottenham Ontario by tomorrow night, so I’ve asked Bluegrass Today to pull one out of the vault for this week.
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Rules for bluegrass living in 2017
“I like the rules. I think you know how I feel about that.” – Fake Santa in Santa Clause 2 In the 1970s, once bluegrass music had evolved into its own genre, with its own festival circuit, its own record labels,
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Sofar Sounds or Come On-A My House
Most readers of Bluegrass Today are by now familiar with the house concert. If you aren’t, I’ll just explain that it’s a concert—and you may want to be sitting down for this—that takes place in a house. Some people like to
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The view from Germany
Greetings from the Night Drivers 2017 European tour. Traveling in places where you don’t speak the language can be challenging. This tour is taking us primarily through German-speaking countries, and while I speak a little German, my knowledge is primarily
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Niche marketing to bluegrass fans
A story ran recently in Bluegrass Today that began, “Are you a bluegrass banjo fan who also traps small game?” It immediately made me feel like I hadn’t really given niche marketing the attention it deserves. Okay, I haven’t given