The Tradition

Reno & Smiley’s 1961 album, Folk Songs of the Civil War, featured 12 songs by Salem, Virginia, physician Albert J. Russo.

Notes & Queries – March 2024

Q: What ever happened to the person who wrote all of the songs on Reno & Smiley’s Civil War album? – Jerry Steinberg, Salem, Virginia A: The songwriter in question was Dr. Albert J. Russo, a doctor who practiced medicine in the Salem/Roanoke, Virginia, area for 39 years. His proximity to Reno & Smiley’s headquarters…

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Old and In the Way June 1973 (left to right) Vassar Clements, John Kahn, David Grisman, Jerry Garcia and Peter Rowan. // Photo Courtesy of Grisman Archives.

Fifty Years of Old & In the Way

The Long Strange Trip of Spud, Dawg, Red, Mule and Vassar Jerry Garcia’s burning ambition as a young musician was to play banjo in Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys. He never made it, and had to satisfy himself with being the leader of one of the most successful and beloved bands in rock music, the…

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David Allen “Dave” Freeman

(May 22, 1939 – December 25, 2023) “Dave (Freeman) single-handedly built a company that encompasses record labels, wholesale distribution and mail order to the public. He has made a fair amount of money doing it, but every dollar has been made absolutely fairly and squarely. He brought to this music the thoroughgoing integrity, dedication and love…

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Some of the performers helping celebrate Earl’s 100th Birthday: (left to right) Stuart Duncan, Abigail Washburn (seated), Gena Britt, Bryan Sutton (seated), Sierra Hull (seated), Jim Mills, Sam Bush and Del McCoury. Photo by Gary Hatley

Earl Scruggs’s 100th Birthday Celebration at the Ryman

On January 6, 2024, Earl Eugene Scruggs, the most influential and imitated banjo picker on the planet, would have turned 100 years old. To celebrate the occasion, Jerry Douglas served as musical director and assembled some of the best and brightest pickers in bluegrass for a magical three-and-a-half hour show in the historic Ryman Auditorium…

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Carter Stanley

Story Telling, Friendship and Carter Stanley

My Friend, Carter It all happened by accident. These things have a way of starting out like that. I hadn’t planned it, and I wasn’t looking for it . . . but “it” changed my life forever. Now “it” is kinda hard to describe. The easy part, it was a piece of vinyl shoved in…

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Kenny Baker, Bobby Hicks, and Bryon Berline at the 1975 Dick Tyner’s Golden West Bluegrass Festival. Photo by Sue & John Averill, courtesy of the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum.

Bobby Hicks Reflects On His Career

Famed fiddler and king of the double stops, Bobby Hicks, celebrated his 90th birthday in July. Due to problems with his balance and a torn rotator cuff, the fiddle icon can no longer drag the bow, but he has quite the story to tell of his lifetime in the music industry.  Growing up in central…

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