Amos Perrine

The first Farm Aid concert in 1985 was the brainchild of Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and John Mellencamp. It had two purposes: 1) To raise funds to keep farm families on the land; and 2) to increase awareness about the loss of those farms. To date, the nonprofit Farm Aid

As the calendar turns to October, the roots music festival season begins to wind down, so what better way to celebrate what the year 2022 has brought than to head west and visit the largest, most encompassing free festival there is: San Francisco's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. Conceived and

This week bluegrass takes over the column, just days after the International Bluegrass Music Association’s annual takeover of Raleigh, North Carolina, with its World of Bluegrass festival. The fest demonstrated two things to me: 1) bluegrass just keeps becoming more vibrant every day; and 2) a shining new talent

This week the Through the Lens column explores the vitality of roots music festivals regardless of their locales, as well as two different approaches to their presentation, via two such festivals held earlier this month. BeachLife Ranch bills itself as a music festival “born in the South Bay of Los

As this year’s AmericanaFest was being held across so many far-flung venues in and around a Nashville that old-timers would not recognize, I decided early on to be happy in my adventure. I’d select showcases and events off the beaten path, the ones I sensed would more likely

It’s going to be an explosive five days in Nashville as the Americana Music Association presents its annual AmericanaFest, starting today. This year's edition reflects the vibrancy of roots music while presenting new challenges to festgoers. First, the lineup, in terms of the number of showcases and