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 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.
Country Music Hall of Famer, Bluegrass Hall of Famer, performer, executive, songwriter, and general country music advocate Mac Wiseman has passed away. He was 93-years-old, and was one of the last living links to country music’s golden era. He died on Sunday, February 24th.
Bob Montgomery, most famous for being the teenage friend, songwriter, and duo partner of Buddy Holly, and for writing iconic country songs like “Back in Baby’s Arms” by Patsy Cline, and “Misty Blue” recorded by Eddy Arnold, Wilma Burgess, and many others, has died according to his son and fellow musician Kevin Montgomery. He was 77-years-old.
Robert Earl Keen may be best known for his storytelling songs and laid back Texas country style, but for Keen’s next project his grass is going blue. The Houston, TX native has been working on a bluegrass album over the last couple of years, and Happy Prisoner: The Bluegrass Sessions is scheduled to come out in February 2015 through Dualtone Records.
In a world of plastic banana music monkeys, Bradford Lee Folk is the real deal. The lineage of bluegrass from legendary bands like Flatt & Scruggs is in good hands with Bradford Lee Folk and the Bluegrass Playboys, and nowhere is that truth more evident than when listening to their song “Foolish Game of Love” off Somewhere Far Away. And you can hear it here first before the rest of the world.
Many of the bold changes in the direction of popular music begin with artists that are too fey, too polarizing to become popular themselves. So it takes others who understand how to soften music with sensibilities to make it accessible to the masses, and hopefully, if time is on their side, transect the popularity timeline, resulting in superstardom.
Over the weekend the .357 String Band said farewell in the form of a pair of shows in their home state of Wisconsin. Regardless of how obscure they were, along with Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys, Flatt & Scruggs, and a few others, the .357 String Band was one of the greatest, most groundbreaking, and influential bluegrass bands of all time.