Some years ago, I briefly toured the Midwest playing harmonica with Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys. Quite how an English teenager came to be there still mystifies me as much as it surely ...

Bluegrass aficionados recognize the pivotal role of banjo instrumentation in crafting its vibrant sound. While instruments like fiddles, upright basses, guitars, and mandolins contribute significantly ...

"I felt, in writing this piece, that there was an openness, or a kind of a renewed freshness, I had working with music materials, because I was working in a new form. It took out all the cobwebs in ...

If bluegrass quintet the Steep Canyon Rangers were booked at the New Orleans Jazz Fest on their own, they'd likely be on the intimate Sheraton New Orleans Fais Do-Do Stage. The Steep Canyon Rangers ...

Violinist Tessa Lark takes flight in Sky, a violin concerto written just for her by Michael Torke. Inspired by her Kentucky roots, Torke weaves a touch of Bluegrass into the classical form, ...

When he was three years old, Jerry Douglas heard the groundbreaking banjo licks of Earl Scruggs on the turntable each morning during breakfast at his childhood home in northeastern Ohio. “And we’d ...

The “godfather” of progressive bluegrass, he grew up in New York, honed his skills in the mountains and flourished in Greenwich Village in the ’60s. By Alex Williams See more of our coverage in your ...

Earl Scruggs revolutionized the way we play and appreciate the banjo today. Scruggs, who was born 95 years ago this month, developed his own three-finger method of picking the five-string banjo – an ...