Opinion and commentary

This has been a week that I know a lot of you have faced already: having to put a loved one into hospice care and then watch as—in my case, my mother—slowly, quickly passed away from us. Alpha Mell Stanley Stuart

While we count our many blessings, I want to take a couple of minutes to note some of the things I’m thankful for in the bluegrass world. For starters, I’m grateful that folks like Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs

When Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys performed at the Mid Pointe Music Festival in Cincinnati on September 29, they also shot a video for a local outfit that is restoring the old Emery Theatre there in town. Videographer Michael Wilson met the

We’re two years into the sesquicentennial of the Civil War and, I don’t know about you, but it seems to me there hasn’t been a whole lot said about it. The anniversary of Antietam—the bloodiest day in American history—passed on

I had a bittersweet moment Saturday morning, seeing Nashville in the rearview mirror. I don’t know when I’ll be back now that IBMA’s World of Bluegrass is heading to Raleigh, N.C., in 2013. But I’m looking forward to seeing what Raleigh

Once when asked how he managed to write three columns a week, the conservative commentator William F. Buckley replied that the world reliably annoyed him three times a week. The world of bluegrass reliably annoys, amuses, and astonishes me at least

With my return to the Carrboro/Chapel Hill, NC area in April to join the staff of The ArtsCenter, life has been largely a reunion recently. Two recent trips to the mountains possibly turned out even more poignant for me in

This is a debut column from Art Menius, who we hope will be a regular contributor at Bluegrass Today. Art has many years' experience as a writer, and in the organizational realm of traditional music. His will be a welcome

Every Saturday I take my mother two Reese’s cups. She lives in a residential care facility with four other ninety-somethings and a rotating cast of under-appreciated care providers. She often calls me by my father’s name, her father’s name, or her

My travels and adventures in bluegrass music have touched every thread of fabric in my life. At times this has been beautiful beyond comprehension. At other times, it's been a horrific nightmare - but I would trade none of it.