Summer issue of Bluegrass Music Profiles

The Summer (July/August) issue of Bluegrass Music Profiles is out, with Cody Shuler of Pine Mountain Railroad on the cover.

Cody discusses his mandolins, the members of Pine Mountain Railroad – including new bass player, Bryan Turner – and their brand new, self-titled project. He also talks about his friendships with Raymond Fairchild and Jimmy Martin.

As is the BMP style, the Shuler piece is presented in an interview format. Here’s just a taste…

BMP: How do you feel about your band’s latest project?

CODY SHULER: The album is self titled, Cody Shuler & Pine Mountain Railroad, and I can’t tell you how excited I am about it. The songs are a great fit for our style and I am very pleased with how the album turned out. Most of the songs are written in a traditional style, but performed with a new approach. There are some fast songs, sad songs, happy songs, quartets, and duets. I wanted the album to have some hard driving songs as well as a few gospel tunes. It’s full of music we really love to sing and play so what better than to self title the album. It is us.

How does this one differ from previous PMRR projects?

Well, I guess I could say that this album is different in many ways. For one, the last album, Pickin’, Praisin’, And Singin’ was all gospel, which we enjoyed doing. We were all raised in church and have sung several of those songs many times. It had a lot of quartets and songs with five-part harmony. The CD before that, Alone With Forever, was mostly bluegrass with a few gospel songs. A lot of people really liked it. The main difference in this newest album and the last two is that we have a lot of songs written in the traditional style that are really hard driving. The two albums before didn’t have that. This album really reflects what you will hear in one of our concerts.

Publisher Kevin Kerfoot fills us in on what else you’ll find in this issue of BMP.

“The new issue also includes a Grass Cats color poster, Brenda Lawson’s DJ Profile, interviews with Jamie Johnson of The Grascals and Carolyn Routh of Nu-Blu, a feature on Louie Setzer & The Appalachian Mountain Boys, ShopTalk with Sierra Hull, Bill Emerson and Randy Kohrs Bluegrass Favorites, a Promoter Profile on Michael Johnathon and the WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour, and Donna Hughes’ Songwriter Profile.”

Find single issue purchase and subscription info online.

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About the Author

John Lawless

John had served as primary author and editor for The Bluegrass Blog from its launch in 2006 until being folded into Bluegrass Today in September of 2011. He continues in that capacity here, managing a strong team of columnists and correspondents.