• Great music – good cause

    Lee Marcus is the fine young banjo player with Wayne Taylor & Appaloosa, and starting a few weeks ago, an occasional correspondent for Bluegrass Today. He also has a solo project available, Grandpa's Pond, released in 2011, which he is using

  • Smilin’ Jim Mills on TV

    Banjo master Jim Mills is the subject of a short documentary piece produced by UNC-TV, the public television service at the University of North Carolina. The video starts with a musical biography on Mills, covering his early discovery of the banjo

  • Abigail Washburn in China

    Abigail Washburn spent November and December of 2011 in China, touring along the ancient Silk Road which once served as a trade route between China and the West. The tour was in the form of a cultural exchange, funded by

  • Washburn B7 at NAMM

    Washburn introduced a new open-back banjo, the B-7, at last week's NAMM show in California. The pot consists of a cast aluminum shell, with 18 tension brackets. A full-scale mahogany neck with dot inlays in the rosewood board, and to-the-side tuners

  • Letters from Camp: Day 7

    Jim Gabehart is journaling his time at the Pete Wernick Dr. Banjo Advanced Banjo Camp this week. After the excitement of our concert night, the morning of our last day began quietly, with discussion and reflection on the prior night's performance. Travel schedules

  • Letters from Camp: Day 6

    Jim Gabehart is journaling his time at the Pete Wernick Dr. Banjo Advanced Banjo Camp this week. After a morning touching on several subjects, including tuning, use of capos, movable chords and chord substitutions, most of the day was spent in preparation for

  • Letters from Camp: Day 5

    Jim Gabehart is journaling his time at the Pete Wernick Dr. Banjo Advanced Banjo Camp this week. We had another half-day session yesterday, starting at 9:15 a.m. and going to 1:30 p.m., leaving a nice opportunity to go sightseeing. Although there are many

  • Letters from Camp: Day 4

    Jim Gabehart is journaling his time at the Pete Wernick Dr. Banjo Advanced Banjo Camp this week. After a couple of eight-hour days in class, not including jamming and individual practice outside class, we were given the morning off to work on our

  • Expedition Quartet on NPR

    Experimental banjoist Jake Schepps and his Expedition Quartet are featured in a new edition of Tiny Desk Concerts at NPR.org. They perform music from their recent album, An Evening In The Village, which includes new arrangements of the music of Béla

  • Letters from Camp: Day 3

    Jim Gabehart is journaling his time at the Pete Wernick Dr. Banjo Advanced Banjo Camp this week. In my teens and early twenties I regularly entered banjo contests, primarily as a money-making proposition, and did quite well, winning or placing in the money