Sammy Shelor has announced a big change coming next month for Lonesome River Band. Long time guitarist Brandon Rickman is leaving the group after almost two decades of touring and recording with the group. Current mandolinist, Jesse Smathers, will move
Mountain Home Music Company is set to release another single tomorrow from its Bluegrass at the Crossroads project, a band scramble sort of recording where members of various bands and solo artists are grouped into unexpected ensembles. They have intentionally
Sammy Shelor, fearless leader of Lonesome River Band, and his wife Jordyn are celebrating the arrival of their first child, Samuel Ellis Shelor. He was born on April 9 at 4:57 a.m. at the Montgomery Regional Hospital in Blacksburg, VA
With this post we introduce a new feature, which will appear sporadically at Bluegrass Today. The column may be new, but you all know the contributor, Katy Daley, a familiar voice from the Katy Daley Show each weekday morning at WAMU's
When Aerosmith's legendary lead singer Steve Tyler made it known that he was moving to Nashville to get involved in country music, there were a lot of doubters. "What does this rocker know about country music?" and "It's just a
Sammy Shelor, banjoist extraordinaire and leader of the indomitable Lonesome River Band, was surprised last week when he was presented with the Key to the City of Martinsville, VA. Shelor was performing with some buddies of his at Mtn' Jax Restaurant
Virginia was a busy place for bluegrass pickers this past weekend. In addition to the Virginia Bluegrass Band Championship in Chesterfield, the first annual Scott Street Five String Finals were held during the Richmond Folk Festival. This new competition is especially for younger banjo
Sammy Shelor and Mike Hartgrove of Lonesome River Band were invited to perform at last night's gala honoring Steve Martin with the 43rd American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award. They were featured onstage with comedian/actor Martin Short singing the song, Friend Of Mine. While
We had posted back in January about Bud Bennett, the Appalachian Music Specialist at Radford University's McConnell Library, and his series of videos with banjo legend Butch Robins, who lives near Radford. Butch spoke at length about his life and music, and his
This past Sunday (June 22), Sammy Shelor performed with the Zac Brown Band in Bristow, VA. Brown and his eclectic country band have been known to favor bluegrass music and acoustic artists, and his former bass player and current guitarist,
