• Epilogue: A Tribute to John Duffey

    It’s early to start thinking about the 2019 IBMA awards, given that the finalists for this year haven’t been selected yet. But I already have a frontrunner for next year’s recorded event of the year, the award that goes to a

  • Epilogue: Tribute to John Duffey

    Well over 20 years after John Duffey’s passing in December 1996 he continues to be revered. And thanks to Sugar Hill Records (in 2000) with Always in Style: A Classic Collection and Rebel Records (in 2011) with Rebel Years: 1962-1977

  • Akira Otsuka talks John Duffey’s mandolins

    Akira Otsuka with John Duffey's F-12 - photo by Michael G. Stewart American bluegrass audiences became aware of Akira Otsuka during Bluegrass 45’s first U.S. tour in 1971. Bluegrass 45 will celebrate their 50th anniversary by playing the Red Hat Amphitheater

  • A Bluegrass Fan’s Moment in the Sun

    Like many fans of the Seldom Scene, Bengt Adielsson’s memories of the band span the decades. But few take their adoration of the long-running act as far as Adielsson has, and even fewer have been rewarded with a stint on

  • The Seldom Scene Turns Back the Clock

    Novelist Thomas Wolfe was wrong. You can go home again. The Seldom Scene proved it Sunday night, returning to the venue that provided the seminal band’s first home more than 40 years ago for a show that included current members and

  • Bluegrass 45 renion tour in Japan

    Back in the early 1970s, a talented young Japanese band caused quite a sensation at festivals here in the US - and not simply for what was then the novelty of a foreign band playing bluegrass. Calling themselves Bluegrass 45,

  • Akira Otsuka’s First Tear

    The first time Sam Bush heard Akira Otsuka and his friends in the Japanese band the Bluegrass 45, he remembers a band that was well rooted in bluegrass traditions but not afraid to push the boundaries. Bush particularly remembers a

  • First Tear from Akira Otsuka

    Patuxent Music has released an album from noted mandolinist, Akira Otsuka, entitled First Tear. Joining the former Bluegrass 45 mando man are Tony Rice, Kenny Smith, Phil Rosenthal, Chris Stifel, Al Petteway and David Grier on guitar; Rickie Simpkins, Phil Bloch