Ever since Facebook came on the scene, making people in vast portions of the world up to 58% less productive in their lives, bluegrass musicians, bands, associations, and other related businesses have tried to use it for promotional and networking
Chris Jones
The dreaded gender switch in song lyrics
Last week, I experimented with changing lyrics to some of our time-honored murder ballads, and most agreed with me that the results were less-than ideal, even though some lives were saved in the process. Some would even suggest that it’s never
Thomas Bowdler examines bluegrass lyrics
I heard recently from a SiriusXM listener who was bothered by the fact that we seem to play a lot of violent–even brutal–songs. She made the point that there was already plenty of violence in our media and culture, and
What’s your BKR? Take the test and find out!
Here it is April already and I’ve completely neglected the annual bluegrass quiz, which was originally intended to be a New Year’s feature. That’s just the way the first quarter of this year has been going. I expect to get
Would you like some logo-stamped artisan batteries with that?
We could learn a thing or two from The Roosevelts. I’m not referring to the recent Ken Burns series, but rather to a self-described “southern-raised indie rock” duo out of Nashville. These Roosevelts are breaking some new ground in the
2016 Tax Tips For the Bluegrass Musician
The first day of spring has past, Easter’s almost here, and that means that it’s time for our annual feature (except for the years when I forget to do it): Tax Tips For the Bluegrass Musician. For those who have just
Tonight I’m Gonna Ride video from Chris Jones
Chris Jones & the Night Drivers have released a new music video, a live (in studio) performance of Tonight I'm Gonna Ride, one of Chris' songs from their new album, Run Away Tonight. For most Night Drivers fans, this will be
Compression in bluegrass titling
I realize that there are musical rays of hope that break through the radio barrier periodically, but I still try to avoid most of the offerings of current pop music, and the same goes for “New Country.” Still, it’s almost
A look back at the rules of jamming
I got so caught up with reading the fine points of the Hawaii exit polls (where I detected just a hint of pineapple in the voting trends), that I let my Wednesday morning deadline slip my mind entirely. Here, then,
Politics in bluegrass, or evangelical dentists in Texas
Today is post-Super Tuesday Wednesday, sometimes called “Un-super Wednesday,” or “Super Tuesday Boxing Day” in Canada. By now we’ve all gotten our fill of exit polls with need-to-know statistics, like the fact that Ted Cruz managed to get 70% of