Guest Questioner and Prize This month’s guest is a respected mover-and-shaker in bluegrass: the Yoda of Yellow Springs, the Doyen of Dayton, the Savonarola of Southern Ohio—Fred Bartenstein. Fred was the editor of Muleskinner News from 1969 to 1974, and has been
A while back I was invited to bring my fiddle to a potluck party some friends of mine hosted in the mountains near Asheville, North Carolina. I brought along my instrument in the hopes of finding some bluegrass musicians to
With dog talk seemingly taking over the US Presidential race, it seems like a perfect time to highlight this clever piece of work from Zach White. Zach is a country/bluegrass musician currently studying commercial music at Belmont University, where he performs with
People that are new to bluegrass music sometimes need some help in translating our jargon. Hearing that someone is “tearing it up on the five” may sound like ordinary and recognizable information to us, but to the uninitiated, it’s not
Janet and I just got back from Sore Fingers Summer School, a bluegrass camp in the Cotswolds in England—affectionately dubbed by Tim O’Brien, Hillbilly Hogwarts. We taught a week-long class on bluegrass harmony to 30 Brits who spent their hard-earned pounds
In 1992, Bill Clinton grabbed headlines with the phrase “It's the economy, stupid," and used it to unseat George Bush as President. I’m not trying to stir up old political feuds or throw a hissy fit, but my point here should
Lisa McCoury shared this precious photo of husband Rob playing the banjo for their next little McCoury, due to hit the scene in about six weeks. She tells us that he was playing some Don Reno-style banjo, since Lisa is a
The primary purpose of pursuing our musical interest is the music itself, and I enjoy simply sitting in the living room practicing with our group, with no one watching. The process of writing a song, arranging it and bringing it
If you will recall, last week I discussed the holding of a parallel World of Bluegrass purely for the purpose of arguing about various aspects of bluegrass music. Below, I have outlined a proposed schedule of events for the Argumentative
If there’s one thing I love, it’s arguing about bluegrass music. Oh, it’s fun to play it, and it’s great to listen to it, as far as that goes, but it’s just much more rewarding to treat it as a
