Latest Articles
The Steve Martin Annual Banjo Prize Names Two Winners for 2024
by Josh Sharpe - December 17, 2024 Steve Martin and the Board of The Steve Martin Banjo Prize have announced two winners for this year’s prize. Building on the Board’s mission to recognize excellence across the spectrum of banjo styles, this year’s recipients represent excellence in both clawhammer and 5-string bluegrass banjo styles...
MerleFest Shares Full 2025 Lineup, Adds I'm With Her, Leftover Salmon, Stephen Wilson Jr., & More
by Josh Sharpe - December 02, 2024 MerleFest has added I’m With Her, Leftover Salmon, Stephen Wilson Jr., The Steel Wheels, Tami Neilson, Becky Buller, and more to its 2025 lineup. Taking place April 24-27, 2025, on the campus of Wilkes Community College, the annual celebration of founding legend, Doc Watson, will play host to both l...
Alison Brown and Steve Martin Share New Single with Vince Gill
by Josh Sharpe - November 12, 2024 Banjoists Alison Brown and Steve Martin tapped Vince Gill for 'Wall Guitar (Since You Said Goodbye),' their latest collaboration. What began as a gentle clawhammer banjo melody evolved into a wistful song about unrequited love, shimmering with melodicism and poetic lyrics. Listen to it here!...
Alison Brown & Steve Martin Team Up On 'Bluegrass Radio'
by Michael Major - March 15, 2024 Explore the exciting collaboration between Alison Brown and Steve Martin in their new single, 'Bluegrass Radio'. This unique blend of talent promises to deliver an unforgettable musical experience. The new single ticks all the boxes for a bluegrass favorite, including a flashy twin banjo solo from B...
Earl Scruggs' 100th Birthday Celebration Musical Tribute Airs LIVE On Veeps
by Michael Major - December 21, 2023 On Saturday, January 6, 2024, a stellar lineup of bluegrass and country artists will come together at Nashville's historic Ryman Auditorium to celebrate the 100th birthday of the legendary Earl Scruggs, whose revolutionary style of banjo playing forever changed the landscape of bluegrass music....
Alison Brown Collaborates with Kronos Quartet on 'Porches'
by Michael Major - April 21, 2023 “Porches” was composed by Brown and pianist Chris Walters who also wrote the string arrangement. Walters’ credits include stints with JD Souther, Jeff Coffin Mu’tet and Alabama. While many have come to know the banjo in the context of country and bluegrass music, its popularity dates back to late 19...
VIDEO: Amy Ray Shares a Video for 'A Mighty Thing' (Feat. Sarah Jarosz)
by Michael Major - August 09, 2022 The song, which captures the fervor of a tent revival meeting and features the propulsive banjo picking of Alison Brown, deals with how Jesus figures into the identity of gay Southerners raised surrounded by the Christian faith — 'they taught me how to hate myself' Amy sings. Watch the new music vid...
The Brother Brothers Announce New Album 'Cover to Cover'
by Michael Major - May 26, 2022 Adam and David Moss began earning Everly Brothers comparisons long before they officially joined their voices together as folk duo The Brother Brothers. But not even the late Phil and Don Everly, one of the greatest DNA-sharing duos in modern music history, could claim the kind of vocal symmetry Ada...
Caroline Jones to Release New Track 'Being A Woman (Is Like Being The Sun)'
by Michael Major - April 28, 2022 “Being A Woman (Is Like Being The Sun)” was written by Caroline, and features an incredible group of all-female Bluegrass musicians including GRAMMY Award-winning artist Alison Brown (producer/banjo), Rebecca Frazier (guitar/vocals), Kate Lee O’Connor (fiddle/harmony vocal), Mary Meyer (mandolin), a...
MerleFest Announces Trampled By Turtles, Colin Hay, The Steel Wheels, & Late Night Jam Hosts
by Michael Major - January 24, 2022 In addition to those mentioned above, the following artists and bands have previously been announced: Alison Brown, Andy May, Arlo McKinley, Banknotes, Caleb Caudle, Carol Rifkin, Charles Welch, Darrell Scott, Donna the Buffalo, Dr. Bacon, Happy Traum, Jack Lawrence, Jeff Little Trio, Jerry Douglas,...
MerleFest Announces Old Crow Medicine Show, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Steep Canyon Rangers, Allison Russell, & We Banjo 3
by Michael Major - January 10, 2022 Old Crow Medicine Show, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Steep Canyon Rangers, Allison Russell, and We Banjo 3 will join an already impressive lineup which includes performances by Emmylou Harris, Greensky Bluegrass, Rissi Palmer, and more. MerleFest is on the campus of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro...
The Steve Martin Annual Banjo Prize Announces Five Winners
by Sarah Jae Leiber - October 12, 2020 Steve Martin and the board of The Steve Martin Banjo Prize have announced the five winners of this year's annual Banjo Prize. ...
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum Announces Most Ambitious Fundraising Event in its History
by Sarah Jae Leiber - August 31, 2020 The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum, in partnership with YouTube and the country music community, will stage the most ambitious digital fundraiser in the museum’s history, BIG NIGHT (At the Museum)....
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Announces LET THE MUSIC PLAY ON Participants
by Sarah Jae Leiber - August 26, 2020 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, one of the largest, free, and beloved music festivals in the country celebrating American roots music, announces its first participants in this year’s Let The Music Play On....
Brennen Leigh's Prairie Love Letter Offers an Ode to Home
by Robert Diamond - August 17, 2020 The state line between Minnesota and North Dakota is an area not often immortalized in song—until now. Brennen Leigh’s upcoming concept record, Prairie Love Letter, is an ode to where she grew up...
The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project, Volume 1 Available Everywhere June 26
by A.A. Cristi - April 15, 2020 John Hartford's nimble, whit-fueled songs have long been a focal point of the bluegrass and newgrass canon and Hartford's musicianship, on both the banjo and fiddle, has now been doted over for generations, but until recently, little has been known about his late-in-life, academic approach to fiddle...
BLUEGRASS NOW! to Premiere Nationally on PBS Through March 2020
by Kaitlin Milligan - February 27, 2020 Ever since Bill Monroe stormed out of Kentucky 75 years ago with a hot new take on traditional tunes, bluegrass music's metric drive and high lonesome sound has thrilled and inspired audiences around the world. That bluegrass high energy and soulfulness was captured live in December of 2019 at the B...
MerleFest Announces Final Lineup Additions For 2020 Festival
by Kaitlin Milligan - February 10, 2020 MerleFest, presented by Window World, is proud to announce the next round of artist additions for MerleFest 2020, which will be held April 23-26. Greensky Bluegrass, Mavis Staples, Paul Thorn, Cane Mill Road, Sweet Potato Pie, The Barefoot Movement, Nefesh Mountain, and Smitty and the Jumpstarters w...
MerleFest Announces Melissa Etheridge, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, The Marcus King Band, & More
by Kaitlin Milligan - January 13, 2020 MerleFest, presented by Window World, is proud to announce the next round of artist additions for MerleFest 2020, which will be held April 23-26. Melissa Etheridge, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, The Marcus King Band, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, and John Cowan will be joining the annual homeco...
Trent Wagler, Darrell Scott, and David Holt as Judges for 28th Annual Chris Austin Songwriting Contest
by Kaitlin Milligan - January 08, 2020 MerleFest, presented by Window World®, is pleased to announce Trent Wagler (of The Steel Wheels), Darrell Scott, and David Holt as judges for the 28th Annual Chris Austin Songwriting Contest (CASC). ...
Willie Nelson & Family, Alison Krauss, and More to Perform at MerleFest 2020
by Kaitlin Milligan - November 12, 2019 MerleFest, presented by Window World, is proud to announce the initial lineup for MerleFest 2020, which will be held April 23-26. The annual homecoming of musicians and music fans returns to the campus of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Moun...
Old Salt Union Album 'Where The Dogs Don't Bite' Out Today
by A.A. Cristi - August 16, 2019 Old Salt Union has released their 4th studio album, WHERE THE DOGS DON'T BITE, today on Compass Records. The album finds this non-traditional stringband digging deep into their eclectic and diverse interests to create this set of new music, which has already received praise in such publications as N...
Old Salt Union Announces New Album 'Where The Dogs Don't Bite'
by Kaitlin Milligan - June 07, 2019 Old Salt Union has announced their newest album Where The Dogs Don't Bite - Out everywhere on Aug 16 via Compass Records. The band once again enlisted GRAMMY-winning banjoist and Compass co-founder Alison Brown to produce the follow-up to their self-titled Compass Records debut. The resulting album,...
Acclaimed Guitarist David Grier Readies WAYS OF THE WORLD For 3/29 Release
by Tori Hartshorn - January 30, 2019 David Grier is pleased to announce his newfull-length album, Ways Of The World, due for release on March 29, 2019. Hosted on Grier's label, Dreadnought Recordings, and co-produced with Brent Truitt (The SteelDrivers), the project unveils ten original songs penned by Grier as well as two century-old ...
Grand Ole Opry Member, Jeannie Seely, Included in American Currents: The Music of 2018 at The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
by Tori Hartshorn - January 17, 2019 The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum has announced Country music royalty and a fifty-one year member of the Grand Ole Opry, Jeannie Seely will be included in the opening of its first exhibition of 2019, American Currents: The Music of 2018, on Friday, March 8, 2019. The exhibit runs through Fe... |