I’ve become very disillusioned with the zodiac, I have to admit. First there were the overly general daily horoscopes: “Make sound financial decisions today. Expect news from a friend, family member, or other human being you may or may not
Opinion / Humor
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Blue Yodel #38 – Ask Mr. Blue Grass Smarty Pants
Guest Trivia Master – Bill Evans This month’s guest is banjo maven Bill Evans, who again received second-place in the Most Famous Bill Evans in the World contest at the People Named Bill Evans conference held annually in Evansville, Indiana. (There is
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Great opening lines for your favorite pickers
After last week’s column, I was inundated with requests for more uninteresting stories from the world of bluegrass, or any other worlds that may contain tales of the boring and predictable. I had no idea there was this unfulfilled need out
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Blue Yodel #37 – Desert Island Discs
I hate lists. I have a to-do list that always seems to have the same ten items on it. It’s not so much a to-do list as a never-do list. What I do: I’ll do something, then write it down on
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Bureau of Uninteresting Stories
While in England recently, I was looking through the local newspaper and came across the headline “County gets new non-emergency number.” I was immediately comforted to know that the boring headline, followed by the even more boring story, isn’t just
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Blue Yodel #36 – The Inertia Awards
Inertia: (noun) The resistance of any object to a change in its state of motion or rest, or the tendency of an object to resist any change. Wikipedia, p. 39,537,435. Further evidence of an IBMA conspiracy to promote bluegrass came to
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Show contracts for Dummies
Bluegrass musicians, and musical artists in general, often fall into a category of people who have a hard time with the bureaucratic and organizational side of the music business. Heck, some artists have a hard enough time just getting themselves dressed in
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Blue Yodel #35 – The Crash Davis Guide to Bluegrass Interviews
You may remember a scene from perhaps the best baseball movie ever made, Bull Durham. (Come on, Field of Dreams? Not even top ten.) Crash Davis, played by Kevin Costner, is the aging catcher who gives advice to the rookie phenom,
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Dropping names for fun and profit
Jim Lauderdale (I call him “Jim”) does a characteristically hilarious name-dropping bit on stage, which often involves the names of semi-famous government officials, e.g. Madeline Albright. I paraphrase: “I was just talking to Condoleeza Rice on the phone, and she
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What your capo says about you
Our friend Zach White has sent along another clever graphic he devised, picking up on a theme originated by Caroline Melby of Nash Street. Zach said that anyone who wants to dispute these characterizations can catch him with Nash Street at the Full