• Eric Ellis to record

    Back in the fall of 2007 we told you about the Appalachian Music: Roots and Influences concentration being offered at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. At the time we reported that former Joe Val and the New England Bluegrass

  • Berklee Acoustic String Festival

    The Berklee College of Music in Boston holds intensive crash courses each summer, both for incoming or potential students to get a taste of the Berklee experience, and to allow non-matriculated students to benefit from the school's storied faculty. For several

  • Saturday Night Waltz from Joe Walsh

    Young mandolinist Joe Walsh has found himself mentioned several times of late on Bluegrass Today. We posted a report in May 2006 when Joe was still a student at the Berklee College Of Music, and performed with other Berklee bluegrassers at

  • Bluegrass at Denison University

    WOSU Public Media in Columbus, OH ran a piece yesterday about the bluegrass ensemble at Denison University in Granville, OH. Andy Carlson, the chair of the music department at Denison, began the bluegrass ensemble in 2000. Carlson is a classically trained

  • Bluegrass at UCLA

    Last week, Brance had a wonderful story about Joel Sidney, a recent University of California at Berkeley graduate, whose honors thesis was entitled Innovation and Tradition in Bay Area Bluegrass: Historical Review and Analysis of Distinctive Regional Features. Here's another encouraging

  • Bluegrass goes to UC Berkeley

    Here's a cool story that demonstrates a bluegrass, can-do attitude. Joel Sidney graduated yesterday from the University of California at Berkeley. Joel's story is unique though. His grade-point average was almost perfect, his degree in American Studies, the subject of his

  • Punch Brothers at berklee.edu

    Our friend Dave Hollender gave us a nice report last month after Chris Thile and Punch Brothers offered a clinic at the Berklee College of Music in Boston on April 7. Dave shared some photos and a nice run down

  • Berklee Spring Break in Nashville

    This post is a contribution from David Hollender, Professor at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Dave has been a member of the ensemble department for several years, and teaching upright bass. He also teaches banjo for students following

  • Bluegrass music class at Appalachian State University

    Students at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC have been learning a lot about bluegrass recently. In the fall of 2006 the university began offering a concentration in Appalachian Music: Roots and Influences from the College of Arts and Sciences for