bluegrass

Musicians are always getting gigs, and in bluegrass, pickers move around among bands like musical chairs for terms both long and short. It’s part of the business. But fiddle star Jason Carter has, I swear, the greatest got-the-gig story I ever heard.

Guitar-playing jamgrass juggernaut Billy Strings was named Entertainer of the Year at the 33rd annual IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards for the second year in a row, but Thursday was an even bigger night for banjo innovator Béla Fleck.

AmericanaFest is back in Nashville, running Sept. 13-17 for its largest and longest edition since 2019, inviting us all to consider again the variety and meaning of the music that lives in the Americana house. The category and community was born in the 1990s largely to preserve and protect traditional country music and country rock, but acoustic and traditional roots have been part of the mix from the beginning, ebbing and flowing in the mix. This year’s convention is an especially good one for lovers of old-time and bluegrass, or for making new fans, with a mixture of veterans and youth that suggest that trad is rad once again.

After two postponements, the Earl Scruggs Music Festival premiered on Labor Day weekend in southwestern North Carolina. Its equestrian center venue proved a comfortable and highly functional space for thousands of fans, while the lineup told the story of Earl Scruggs the sonic pioneer and open-minded collaborator. Craig Havighurst took it in and filed this report.

Western North Carolina bluegrass and roots band the Steep Canyon Rangers has filled the vacancy left by the recent departure of founding member Woody Platt with songwriter/guitarist Aaron Burdett of Saluda, NC. Platt surprised the band and the Americana world in April when he announced he’d be stepping away after 23 years. The Rangers have been touring with Burdett on a trial basis for a number of weeks and are announcing today that he’s officially a member.

American original Peter Rowan will turn 80 on Monday, the Fourth of July. June 24 saw the release of Calling You From My Mountain on Rebel Records, which comes in the middle of an impressive roll for a septuagenarian. Craig spoke with the one-of-a-kind bluegrass and roots star about the influence of Bill Monroe, his global inspirations and a new album that takes on 21st century America.

We've visited so far this year with the Infamous Stringdusters and Greensky Bluegrass about their journeys to top billing slots in the acoustic hybrid scene known as jamgrass. In Episode 202, Craig interviews Adam Aijala and Ben Kauffman, founding members of Yonder Mountain String Band, possibly the dominant jamming bluegrass band of the past two decades.

Bill Monroe's most devoted student Mike Compton has unearthed 13 tunes by the father of bluegrass and recruited Music City's finest to bring them to life. With a record at the top tiers of bluegrass since the 80s, nobody is more qualified.

Alloys make the strongest metal, so it was fortifying to hear that German-born guitarist Thomm Jutz and SteelDrivers fiddler Tammy Rogers had joined voices to record an album together. Key players in the world of bluegrass, Jutz and Rogers have built on a five-year co-writing relationship to make the new duo project Surely Will Be Singing.

The String speaks with Kalamazoo, MI jamgrass stars Greensky Bluegrass on the occasion of their eighth studio album Stress Dreams. Mandolinist Paul Hoffman and bass player Mike Devol join Craig Havighurst from home.