Award-winning songwriter Louisa Branscomb and her non-profit, Front Porch Productions, will host the first Southport Songwriter Festival this weekend in the coastal town of Southport, NC. But unlike many similar events, this one isn't centrally located, but spread across a number
As popular music keeps getting bigger, brighter, louder and more bombastic, we see more and more people drop off the other end. Looking for an expression of something genuine - something that can touch them using words and music, without laser lights, exploding
This profile of and interview with Alice Gerrard is a contribution from noted bluegrass songwriter, Louisa Branscomb, who also reviewed Gerrard's current release, Bittersweet, for Bluegrass Today. You can find out more about her music and songwriting clinics online. What's the Kitchen Got
This review is a contribution from Louisa Branscomb, one of bluegrass music's most prolific and celebrated songwriters. Do the math: a legendary singer-songwriter singing her own, plus a producer who understands the impressive scope of the material and how to render
Somewhere around the second or third trip through the buffet line, even the best-tasting dishes start losing their appeal. Too much, even of the good stuff, is, well, too much. I couldn’t shake that feeling while listening to the Daughters of
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.
One of the best parts about IBMA’s World of Bluegrass conference is you never know who you’ll meet around the next corner, or who will show up playing in a throw-together band. Two years ago, I dropped by an after-hours showcase
The next installment of the Bluebird in the Bluegrass songwriter series will take place next Thursday, September 13, at the Bluebird Café in Nashville, TN. The concept behind the series is to shine a spotlight on our bluegrass tunesmiths, while also raising
Imagine working with six or eight co-writers, with a goal of finishing a song and having a band learn, arrange and perform it — all in about eight hours spread over two days. Oh yeah, and the “studio” is a gritty
Molly Tuttle, she of The Tuttles with AJ Lee, took the top prize in the General Category of the Chris Austin Songwriting Contest at last weekend's MerleFest in North Wilkesboro, NC. In addition to performing with her family band based
