• John McGann – mandolin at Berklee

    We've written often about Berklee College Of Music in Boston and their recent embrace of the banjo and mandolin as principal instruments. Like most top music schools, Berklee requires all degree students to complete a minimum of two years of

  • Sierra Hull has Secrets

    When a 16 year old bluegrass prodigy enlists some of the biggest names in the business to help record her debut project for a major independent label, it's fair to presume that we are looking at something special. Such is

  • Free mandolin lesson at Gibson.com

    Gibson has been posting free instructional videos on their web site of late. Most of them have reflected the larger size of their market that comes from the world of rock music, but two mandolin lessons were posted recently. They are

  • Sore Fingers Bluegrass week

    Our friend Laura Leder from Cool Mandolin Company emailed recently to ask us to remind students of bluegrass and old time music - both here in the US, and in the UK and Europe - about Sore Fingers Week

  • Six Minutes Apart

    Most of us can remember, and will tell the story with enthusiasm, how we became interested in bluegrass music. Many of those stories would be similar, "I heard it on the radio and had to pull my car over" or

  • New Baldassari mandolin CD

    Butch Baldassari has released a new old recording of jazz mandolin music on his Sound Art label. The Vespa Love Festival sessions was recorded in 1997 with Butch on mandolin, Jim Hoke on soprano sax, Byron House and Andy Spicher on

  • Mike Marshall mandolin DVDs from Homespun

    Homespun Video has released two new instructional DVDs for mandolinists taught by Mike Marshall. The two releases each carry the title Mike Marshall's Mandolin Fundamentals for All Players, with DVD #1 subtitled Building Technique Through Exercises and Melodic Studies and DVD

  • Free audio from Acoustic Disc

    The folks at Acoustic Disc are offering free daily downloads from their web site. A different track will be available each day from one of their many fine audio recordings. Acoustic Disc is the label owned by David Grisman, and tracks

  • Weber reso models debut

    Weber Fine Acoustic Instruments is celebrating their 10th Anniversary with a new line of resophonic guitars. Bruce Weber started his small shop with just himself and three other instrument crafters, and now has a staff of 12 luthiers working in a

  • Free Bibey tabs online

    Speaking of free tabs... Mando monster Alan Bibey has recently added a free tab section on his new web site, where he also plans to offer tips for mandolinists. The first two transcriptions posted are for mandolin tunes Alan has written and