Preserving The Tradition of Bluegrass Into The Future

3:00 a.m., the spooky hour here on the Wee Farm. Why do my eyes fly open consistently at this time of a morning? If I fell asleep at 2:45 a.m. I would still come out of a dream around 3:00 a.m. …sigh. I cain’t have nuthin’ nice. Now granted, most times I lie there and argue with my sleepy self, insisting I fall back to sleep but it’s usually a battle. I always wake up the next morning patting myself on the back for winning the war. But this morning, yep, here I sit in the sil

“SOMETHING BORROWED, SOMETHING BLUEGRASS” Choosing Tunes for Wedding Playlists As spring turns into summer, weddings in city churches, country chapels, and the great outdoors are echoing with tunes familiar to Bluegrass brides and grooms. “If a June night could talk,” said English writer Bernard Williams,

Don’t tell Rebekah Speer she can’t do something. She will, no doubt, prove you wrong. In the eight years that I have known her, I haven’t seen much that Rebekah can’t do, and what she does, she pours her heart and soul into. Early Years Maybe it was growing up on a family farm in Lincolnton, Georgia, where she did hands-on work like tending to cattle, logging, carpentry, brick masonry, and even septic services, that Rebekah became a real jane-of-all-trades. Childhood was dif

A few years ago musician, vocalist and songwriter Zach Williams stretched himself to do something he didn’t want to do. It was outside his comfort zone. For Williams and his bandmates, however, an unexpected reliance on community would leave a creative mark. The Lone Bellow is known for heartfelt Americana soulfulness, and rootsy, emotionally sensitive lyrics. The group’s gospel-esque harmonies are capable of making even the hardest among us get a little misty when the music

For “worldgrass” trio Tanasi, music is about ideas that are understood personally but felt globally. The people, ideas, and music of different places and cultures provide inspiration and prove yet again that music is a universal language. “One of the things the three of us realized early on – beyond our shared love of tight Appalachian harmonies and beautiful melodies – is how deeply we all value travel and the chance to meet people from around the world who share that same l

On a Saturday afternoon in March, three musicians stood on a wooden stage built around the base of an old-growth sycamore tree on an idyllic piece of property outside of Kosciusko, Mississippi. They were playing for the kickoff of Heart Farms, the passion project of Terry Hunt. “I call Rosalee Walsh my niece,” Terry says. “I just knew I had to get her band to play today.” It was the end of a week of teaching for The Little Mercies, the band Rosalee has with her friends, Shan

Unable to participate in a phone interview, the band corresponded via email. If jamming bluegrass fires you up, What a Life—Magoo’s debut album—will catch your ear. Based in Colorado, Dylin Flynn (dobro), Erik Hill (guitar, lead vocal), Courtlyn Bills (mandolin), and Denton Turner (bass) stretch tradition beyond its boundaries. Magoo says the album represents the payoff of relentless effort, often recording into the early morning hours at Courtlyn’s home studio in Rollinsvill

Hillary Klug is a dancing fiddler who wows audiences wherever she goes. Recently, she was in New Orleans, along with Meredith Moon, where they had the crowd at the Cigar Box Guitar Festival on their feet for a power-packed show in the New Orleans Jazz Museum. “The organizer of the festival, Collins Kirby, wanted me to find an accompanist for my gig there. I met Meredith a while back, and we have been wanting to play together.” As fate would have it, Meredith, the daughter o

It’s natural, perhaps, to be inspired to form a bluegrass band if you’re from a place where the music is part of the culture, such as Kentucky or North Carolina. But how does a band in Kelowna, British Columbia,---that’s Canada, folks--come to bluegrass? For the members of Under the Rocks, it took curiosity, happenstance, a love of traditional Canadian fiddle music, and the discovery of a five-string legend. “Yeah, we definitely stumbled into it,” says guitarist and vocalist

Nashville Songwriting Hall of Famer Jim Lauderdale might make you think country and western, but the two-time Grammy Award winner spoke about his bluegrass heroes, Ralph Stanley, Rolland White, and his latest work with the hard driving Po Ramblin Boys. Known for his country songs, Lauderdale had an early struggle. “I used to be concerned years ago that I had to do just one style of music. And if I didn't do that, then people might not be accepting of me. But I didn’t find tha

“Our goal is to keep our band going,” explains mandolinist and lead singer Brian Eversole, father of Julia, 16, and David Eversole, 15. The Eversoles, along with friend and Scruggs-style banjo player Ashton Murray, 13, form the family-run Grassy Creek Bluegrass Band. For those not yet familiar with this band from Gatlinburg, Tennessee, they just recorded their first single, “Weather Girl,” and are thrilled to talk about it. “I was a little nervous, but it was a lot of fun. On

Twenty-three-year-old luthier Joshua Young doesn't waste time talking about guitar players; instead, he prefers to rattle off about tone, wood, bracing, jigs, and fretboards—and he does so with the authority of a master craftsman. By all accounts, he is the youngest maker of pre–World War II Martin-style replicas today. Take a stroll over to his YouTube channel, and you will see top-notch pickers Brad Paisley, Tommy Emmanuel, and Billy Strings in awe as they test-drive his c

If necessity is the mother of invention, guitars made of cigar boxes are a testament to human creativity in the face of financial hardship. A simple cigar box, commonly found, serves as the resonator of the instrument, with a neck made of wood – often a broom handle – then strung with screen wire or fishing line to create a do-it-yourself guitar with a distinctive sound. Cigar boxes, hubcaps, Coke crates, and more were used to fashion improvised string instruments played dur

There are studios where the red light comes on and the air tightens like a courtroom. Then there are studios where someone calmly leans into the talkback mic and says, “Do you guys want to check tuning really quick? I think your B string has gone south a little.” The second kind tends to make the records that last. That quiet moment lives at the center of Eric Uglum’s philosophy at New Wine Studios, a studio that began in Southern California in 1994 and now sits in Watertown,

The Lauderdale County FFA (Future Farmers of America) String Band made history at last year’s National FFA Convention and Expo. The trio comprises Titus Thornton and brothers Conner and Ty McMeans, and they became not only the first band but also the first musical act from Alabama to win the organization’s prestigious talent competition. All three boys were exceptionally young when they became interested in music. Conner began learning banjo at nine, and Titus was the same ag

My name is Donna Ulisse and this is going to be my new landing spot in the Bluegrass Standard magazine. The folks here know about me through my music and also my Facebook postings called “The Wee Farm Musings” where I regale readers with my life; every mundane, insane and joyful part of living here on our 8 acre place complete with a pole barn and a huge hay field we let our neighbor farmer mow throughout the season. Oh, we harvest things here…we plow through songs like you w

In the song “Nashville Cats” the singer describes guitar pickers who can “pick more notes than the number of ants on a Tennessee anthill.” Flashy, fast, high-octane playing on any instrument is prized in bluegrass music. But so is harmony singing. And two veteran bluegrass musicians/educators have created an app that helps people learn how to create the vocal sound that is an essential element of bluegrass music. The name says it all: singbluegrassharmony.com “I love a good

In the early days of bluegrass, musicians created festivals so people could have a place to gather and hear them play. Small festivals popped up like mushrooms around the country, and fans traveled to hear their favorite artists. Del McCoury recalls those days, back when he first began to play with Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys in 1963. Since then, he’s played on countless stages as he has risen through the ranks of bluegrass royalty. The bluegrass legend hails from York Co

Another Hall Of Fame For The Stanley Brothers With this spring’s announcement of a new class of honorees in Nashville, the Stanley Brothers took their place among legendary acts selected to both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Bluegrass Hall of fame. They were selected to the Bluegrass Hall’s second class of honorees in 1992. “Hailing from mountainous southwestern Virginia, the Stanley Brothers—Ralph and Carter—were a foundational act in Bluegrass whose music has influ

Figuratively speaking, Stephen Mougin wears a lot of hats. (Literally, he’s nearly always seen in a black pork pie number). He’s a songwriter, producer, studio owner, radio host, solo performer, and, since 2006, he’s been singing and playing guitar with bluegrass legend Sam Bush. But every year attendees of the International Bluegrass Music Association’s conference pack a convention hall room to see Mougin (“Mojo,” nearly everyone calls him) in a different role as he conduct

When Danny Roberts learned to play the mandolin while growing up in Kentucky, he never dreamed it would take him all over the world. “When I was coming up, my musical idols played in contests. They did it on the weekends, then went back to their regular jobs. That’s what I saw, and that’s what I wanted to do.” He never dreamed that he could have a full-time career in music. Yet, for the past 22 years, Danny has been playing with The Grascals, a group he formed with a childho

From historic ice cream parlors to roadside frozen custard stands, these seven spots are local favorites with delightful flavors across Appalachia. Ellen’s Homemade Ice Cream — Charleston, West Virginia Address: 225 Capitol Street, Charleston, WV 25301 Website: https://www.ellensicecream.com Ellen’s has been a sweet landmark in downtown Charleston since September 1997. All of its ice cream, gelato, sorbet and sherbet are made on site from scratch, and the menu rotates seasona

Artist Lakin Fain grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, and now lives in Denver, Colorado. She has been painting her whole life. In recent months, her love of bluegrass and her talent in art have come together in a unique way that she didn’t see coming. Lakin went to college to study environmental design. “It’s a broad degree that explores production design, fabrication, and even 3D modeling in the woodshop,” she explained. It was during those classes that Lakin first started maki

When asked if she always wanted to be a violinist, Sharon Winters Bounds immediately responds with a vehement “No” and a gleeful chuckle. Both of her grandfathers and her father played the old-time style of fiddle, which is derived from traditional European dance melodies. Not all children necessarily want to follow a family tradition, and the young Sharon had no interest in being a third-generation fiddler. When an opportunity to learn classical music arose in grade school,