The Four Ts of Bluegrass: Tone, Taste, Timing … and Technology
Earl Scruggs has long been lauded for the tone, taste, and timing of his banjo playing, and those same measures have been applied to bluegrass music as a whole. When bands exhibit strengths in developing and maintaining a tone, playing their music with exquisite taste, and carefully maintaining excellent timing,
Buddy Emmons: An Appreciation
When pedal steel guitar great Buddy Emmons died this week, we lost more than an exceptional musician from the country music landscape. Like the legendary artist who discovered him, Little Jimmy Dickens (when he died last year) the passing of Emmons is the passing of an era.
Buddy Emmons was
The Hummingbirds – 13 Days
I have to stop mentioning where some of these fine Americana-Roots artists hail from. Every few months I am pleasantly surprised by how good some of these musicians are interpreting a wholly American style of music and they are not necassirly rooted in the South – or in a geographical area
The Honeycutters - Irene & When Bitter Met Sweet
The Honeycutters obviously work at snail's pace. They finished their crowdfunder years ago (well, it seems like it anyway) and spent another year or so finishing up the new album (Me Oh My), all the while honing their chops and preparing for the road (which they obviously wanted
Growing Up with Delanie Pickering
Delanie Pickering has shifted gears. Or maybe the teen machine from Concord, NH, was feeling like Muddy Waters did when he decided it was his time to leave the land of cotton for the Windy City.
Robert will always be there.
Maybe Blind Willie too.
And if Pinetops’ home in
Making Music at the Farmers Market
Pioneer Square was where we used to go when we skipped class during high school. It’s a big brick square where a wide range of Portland residents gather to have lunch, converse, and people-watch. But today, I lugged my speaker, microphone, merch, and guitar to a little tent in