Lead Story

New Product: Hot Guitar Licks

Introducing Hot Guitar Licks Premier Product Offering:
Hot Bluegrass Licks Volume 1
Pick the Licks the Pros Know - An Instructional Product designed
to help spice up improvisational bluegrass flat-picking for guitar players.
So often guitar players are looking for the magic bullet to spice up their playing and will turn to complete tabbed breaks to try and isolate [...]

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People

Pete Gobel: Bluegrass’ Songwriter»

The world of bluegrass music has been blessed with many good songwriters in addition to musicians. Many songwriters‚ writers who have given us some wonderful stories about life include the likes of Harley Allen, Carl Jackson, and Tim Stafford. Harley Allen’s heart warming song, The Little Girl, (though a country hit) is a perfect example [...]

Performance

Prime Cuts of Bluegrass Radio Service»

So, let’s see. You got a band together. You sound pretty good. Been playing around town, got a few good gigs at the local bluegrass festivals. Practice keeps sounding better every time you get together and the band even has a little following of people that really dig your sound. A couple band members start [...]

Music

The Secret to Improving as a Musician»

I am forever in search of information and wisdom about improving as a musician, yet I long for wisdom in life as a whole. Nothing irks me more than seeing talented musicians, with potential, settle for mediocrity and thus spend their lives never maximizing their potential. I can’t tell you how many times I have [...]

Reviews

Simply Beautiful Mandolin Straps»

As a banjo player myself, I find that I am often in awe of the beautiful straps that I see mandolin players with. I also find it amusing to see the shoestrings, pieces of rawhide and other slightly well, scarey looking straps that hold up wonderful vintage and expensive instruments! I understand… [...]

Editorial

Thoughts About the Progress of Bluegrass Banjo: No Fuddy Duds Allowed»

I have spent many years trying to ring everything possible out of the banjo, be it bluegrass, blues, jazz, or classical.  Ever since I’ve been a part of the band, Hardline Drive, I’ve put a significant amount of increased time into studying just how to utilize the Pentatonic and Mixolydian scales for the five string [...]

History

The Bluegrass Breakdown: Bill Monroe’s Bus»

The Bluegrass Breakdown
Bill Monroe’s Bus Seeks a New Home

BY SHERRI CHEKAL
It’s hard to imagine that one single bus could offer so many stories and memories, yet, there is a bus in bluegrass history that could write a book! It’s the Bluegrass Breakdown, one of Bill Monroe’s favorite touring buses of the 1970’s. This [...]