• New banjos, mandolin from Morgan Monroe

    The folks at Morgan Monroe have introduced a number of new instruments which may be of interest to the bluegrass/acoustic market. They are even giving away one of the new banjo models in July from their Facebook page to help

  • CBA Bluegrass Camp for Kids

    The California Bluegrass Association will add a new feature this year during their 38th Annual Father's Day Festival in Grass Valley, CA. It's a formal, four-day workshop for young grassers, ages 8-16. This is in addition to their Kids on Bluegrass program, which

  • Shelton Straps – How They’re Made

    While it would be nice if life could consist of all bluegrass, all the time, that's definitely not the reality for most musicians. In their off time, many bluegrass musicians have other careers, often somehow related to the music business.

  • Bad Girls and Banjos

    Louisa Branscomb didn’t, as Stephen Foster might have put it, come from Alabama with a banjo on her knee. She couldn’t. Girls didn’t play banjo. “I heard that a million times when I was girl,” Louisa told me the other night.

  • Chris Wade gets the best possible news

    For the past six months we have been following the medical saga of Chris Wade, the young banjo picker with Marty Raybon & Full Circle. In September of 2012, the 24-year old was given a diagnosis of Osteosarcoma, a form of

  • Barry Crabtree to James King

    Banjo picker Barry Crabtree is working now with the James King Band. After memorable stints with Larry Sparks and Wildfire, Barry took a few years away from playing music, though he did some shows with Harley Allen around Nashville, and filled

  • Alvin Breeden remembered

    This remembrance of Alvin Breeden, who passed away earlier this week, is a contribution from Geoff Stelling. Alvin played a Stelling banjo, and the two of them became friends Geoff moved his company to central Virginia in the early 1980s.

  • Alvin Breeden passes

    Noted Virginia banjo player Alvin Breeden has passed away. He died in a Charlottesville, VA hospital on Tuesday (2/27) following complications from lung cancer. He was 70 years old. Alvin was a friend and disciple of Don Reno, who kept the

  • Triple banjos on PHC

    Here's video of Bill Evans, Noam Pikelny and Joe Newberry's triple banjo version of Arkansas Traveler from last Saturday's edition of A Prairie Home Companion.   There are some further audio clips from the show, including an Earl Scruggs medley, on the