Bill Monroe will forever be the Father of Bluegrass. But it was Jimmy Martin, who studied under Monroe, who was able to rear back and declare himself “The King of Bluegrass.”
Recently, Billboard published a list of what they believe are the “100 Greatest Country Artists of All Time.” As always with these lists, it has stimulated lots of conversation, and some controversy.
It’s a common cliché and idiom here in 2024. Whenever someone gets up to sing in front of others and their talent is less than … well, professional let’s say, we chide, “Don’t quit your day job.” This is what Elvis was told.
It’s tough to know where to start enumerating the many contributions of fiddle legend Bobby Hicks, and impossible to encapsulate them all in a few sentences and paragraphs. He was also one of the oldest country legends at 91.
Taking a quick detour from her towering albums of original songs, the “Pearl of Kentucky Country Music” Kelsey Waldon stops down to leave behind some signature versions of her most favored songs.
It’s in the Grammy Hall of Fame. It’s in The Library of Congress. It sold Gold. It sold Platinum. Chet Flippo once said it was one of the most important albums that ever came out of Nashville. “Will The Circle Be Unbroken…”
On this day fifty years ago, November 10th, 1973, Stringbean Akeman frailed his final phrases on a Vega #9 five-string banjo, did his signature hand wave and hat flip one last time, and stepped off the Opry stage.
There are many iconic instruments that just like their players, have gone on to define the very meaning of country music. But if there was a crown jewel of the Hall of Fame’s “Precious Jewels” collection, it would arguably be this Gibson F-5 mandolin.
It’s the end of an era as one of the last living links to the very formative years of bluegrass has passed on to the sweet by and by. Jesse McReynolds was a bluegrass legend, an influential and innovative mandolin player.
Nearly 90 years after Bill Monroe laid out the foundation of the bluegrass discipline, the country subgenre is arguably reaching both its popular and creative apex, and it is doing so off the blazing fingers of music phenom Billy Strings. Generational in its scope, and Earth-shattering in its reach…
Nothing has ever happened on the Grand Ole Opry stage, good or bad, that tops the moment that the recently-minted Country Music Hall of Famer and the even more recently dearly departed Jerry Lee Lewis enacted when he made his Grand Ole Opry debut 50 years ago.
Hunting for the gravestones of country legends can be one of the most fulfilling enterprises for dedicated country music fans. It’s a way to get filled with the country music Holy Ghost, and gives you an opportunity to pay your respects to some of the titans of the genre.
From performers, to songwriters, to executives and producers, to the strong scene of bluegrass entertainers from New York that have gone on to define the very highest reaches of the discipline, these Jewish contributors deserve our recognition and appreciation.
‘Rolling Stone’ published a list of the The 100 Greatest Country Albums of All Time this week, and as per usual, it has many arguing its merits, omissions, and inclusions. There was a time when whatever Rolling Stone said was taken as the definitive word in music. These days it’s more polarizing.
Country music is country music, and the best definition of what country music is, is that you know it when you hear it. It’s self-evident. But the genre has birthed many subgenres, many stylistic movements over the years, and at times has seen a splintering and Balkanization.
There are not many sectors of bluegrass music that weren’t at one point or another touched by the work of mandolin player Roland White. The brother of fellow bluegrass legend and later country rocker Clarence White, an original member of The Kentucky Colonels…
Bluegrass music is a distinct art form specifically from Kentucky and the southeastern United States. But one group took it upon themselves to import this important form of country music north of the border to Canada, and became very successful doing it. They called themselves the Dixie Flyers, not to be confused with a Nashville […]
When it comes to the banjo in bluegrass or anywhere else, aside from maybe Earl Scruggs, nobody else has been heard and enjoyed more than Sonny Osborne of The Osborne Brothers. Both prolific and influential, the Osborne Brothers rendition of the iconic song “Rocky Top.”
Fiddler Byron Berline lived many lives in one, and now it’s all come to a close, but not before leaving an impact that stretches from being a genuine Bill Monroe Bluegrass Boy, to being flown out to California to record with The Rolling Stones.
A week ago, the international television audience tuning into see the 2021 Grammy Awards got to see a little slice of country music history when the presentation cut to the acoustic room in Nashville, Tennessee known as The Station Inn, and its owner JT Gray.
It’s just unfortunate to even see the talk of cancelling Ricky Skaggs, discounting his music, disinviting him from future events, simply because he decided to accept an award he wholeheartedly deserved, and was likely to get from whomever was President at this moment.
To help in the COVID-19 recovery effort, the Hall of Fame is planning a special live streaming event that will match up many of the iconic instruments in the “Precious Jewels” collection and other displays with many of the best artists and players of today.
Also as part of the reopening, the Hall of Fame is planning a special live streaming event on October 28th, and one they hope will be one of their biggest fundraisers ever, called “Big Night (At The Museum)”. It will match legendary instruments with many of the legendary artists of today.
If you’re a country music fan and are disappointed that your favorite artist didn’t get enough screen time in the Ken Burns film on country music, well guess what, your favorite genre did, and by the most revered documentary filmmaker of our time, and before rock n’ roll, pop, the blues, soul music, or hip-hop.