Chris Jones

This week, Chis Jones' contribution is an encore presentation from 2011, or as Chris put it... "After a weekend that took us from Bean Blossom to Ontario, CA, then straight to Kaufman Kamp on a red-eye, I’m going to have to reach into

Last week we discussed the blending of bluegrass music with other styles, including some that may not at first listen seem that compatible, like bluegrass and heavy metal, the fusion which kicked this whole subject off in the first place. Some

I recently got a message from a musician with a band called Grandpa’s Cough Medicine (I was a little hurt that they rejected my band name idea, Grandpa’s Immunosuppressant Rheumatoid Arthritis Medicine, but I got over it). He suggested that

A while back, I wrote a two-part series on bluegrass dream analysis. Since that time, for whatever reason, I’ve had almost no bluegrass-related dreams. Perhaps I had gotten them out of my system. In the last year, most of my

I’ve never been a fan of daytime talk shows and all the advice they dispense about everything from nutrition to finances to pet psychology. I’m not big on advice columns either (this isn’t one of those, is it?). One reason may

Sevier County is a unique spot in East Tennessee. The cities of Sevierville, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg - each well under 10,000 in population - exist almost solely as tourist destinations. Think of a beach town without the beach -

Ah, Facebook. We love it and we hate it, sometimes at the same time. And, best of all, just when we think we understand it, they change it on us. It’s enough to make you go back and revamp your

This will be a two-part series on the use of social media by bluegrass artists and business people. The second part may be just one long rant. Those of us who are attempting to make a full or part-time living in

There’s a perception in some places, in Nashville especially, that songwriters and publishers are becoming overly aggressive in their song-pitching strategies. I have to respectfully disagree with this viewpoint, and below I will submit my argument that, in fact, people aren’t

Last week I urged you to celebrate Musical Illiteracy Month. My hope is that by now, you’ve hidden and found your musical illiteracy eggs, and placed tablature under the children’s pillows to be replaced by monetary gifts in the middle