Along with recognizing some of the best live performances that happened before the lockdowns, it also feels important to recognize the top achievers in the medium of film, video, instrumentality, and production in 2020, since there were some stellar efforts in that direction in 2020.
In this new album, Sturgill Simpson isn’t just fulfilling a promise to fans to cut a bluegrass record, he’s finding and settling into the next phase of his career, which is as a full-blown bluegrass musician. Simpson saved his most personal songs for ‘Cuttin’ Grass, Vol. 2 (The Cowboy Arms Sessions).’
The 2021 Grammy Award nominees were announced on Tuesday (11/24), and as can be expected, there is some good, some bad, many worthy nominations, a few probably born of virtue signaling as you can expect. But overall, it’s about par for the course.
With little room for noodling or improvisation, and not a ton of conversation or rehearsal before heading into the studio, Cuttin’ Grass is still finely crafted and deftly executed by all involved, offering good to excellent bluegrass renditions of Sturgill Simpson songs.
When the COVID-19 shutdowns began in mid March, the Grand Ole Opry was one of the only live music institutions that endured, with the first non-audience show transpiring on March 14th with the evening’s regular scheduled slate of performers.
It wasn’t just your average Grand Ole Opry presentation Tuesday night (5-28). When you saw country traditionalist Kelsey Waldon was scheduled to perform in the same segment as John Prine, and that Sturgill Simpson was given his own extended set to close out the show, you had a sense something special was in the air.
If you’re wondering where bluegrass is headed in 2018, and where it could go in a world where music is constantly being tasked to evolve and engage with younger people, following the career track of Molly Tuttle is a good place to start.
The International Bluegrass Music Awards (IBMAs) held court Thursday (9-27) night at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts in Raleigh, North Carolina as the capstone of their yearly conference. Top performers in bluegrass walked away with coveted prizes, including Balsam Range winning the evening’s top prize.
One may ask why a journalist based in Austin, Texas would trek some 2000 miles to attend a music festival just outside of Portland, Oregon with all the more convenient options the “Live Music Capital of the World” can offer. But those people have probably never been to Pickathon before. Trumped only in stature for […]
The Pickathon Festival just outside of Portland, Oregon has just announced the initial lineup for their 20th Anniversary season, and like most every year, numerous important luminaries from the effort to help save country music have made the cut.
The International Bluegrass Music Association held their annual awards gala on Thursday evening (9-28) as part of their week-long conference in Raleigh, North Carolina, and the Earls of Leicester were once again a big winner for Entertainer of the Year, while a couple of young instrumentalists also made big news.
Early Wednesday evening (5/11), the nominees for the 2016 Americana Music Awards were announced via NPR’s live stream from the historic Mansion on O Street in Washington, DC. The event was hosted by the Milk Carton Kids, and featured performances from multiple Americana artists.