Current Issue
February 2023

The Tradition

Unemployed Musicians Baseball League

By Tim May

Baseball, as America’s national pastime, has endured through many of the country’s toughest, most trying epochs. Civil war soldiers played the game, and prisoners of war during that time played…

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Notes & Queries – January 2023

By Gary Reid

Queries I have a 45 by the Page Valley Boys on Franc Records from Arlington, Virginia. The record is “Reubens Train” and “Old Blue.” Were they from Page County, Virginia,…

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Bayou Boys publicity photo—Seated Buck Austin (Pete Pike was not available for the photo shoot). Standing (left to right) Buzz Busby, John Hall and Don Stover. Photo Courtesy of John Hall

Classic Fiddler From The Early Days Of Bluegrass

By Tom Knowles

John William Hall was born on November 29, 1933 near Front Royal, Virginia and grew up on a small family farm. He went to the Washington, D.C. area in 1951…

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Remembering Dudley Murphy

By Chris Wathen

Photo Courtesy of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine Yet what made Dudley unique is that, for as great of a picker as he was, he chose to take a life path away…

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The Artists

Little Roy Lewis

By Sandy Hatley

The Entertainer Photo by Gary Hatley Legendary performer, Ronnie Reno, readily agreed, “Little Roy Lewis is probably the best entertainer in bluegrass and gospel music. You never know what he’s…

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Jaelee Roberts

By Bill Conger

Someone Bluegrass Can Count On Photo by Sandlin Gaither At just 21 years old, Jaelee Roberts is off and running as fast as she can, chasing her musical dreams. Along…

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The Onlies—(left to right) Sami Braman, Riley Calcagno, Vivian Leva, and Leo Shannon.

New Growth on an Old Vine

By Jon Hartley Fox

Photos by Johnny Calcagno There is no groove in American music quite as deep as the one laid down by a hard-driving old-time stringband in full roar. It doesn’t require…

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The Sound

Aleyas Mandolins

By David McCarty

A Gem From Coal Country’s Deep Heart Photo by Callie Thomas In today’s hyper-competitive custom luthier marketplace, excellence is only the price of admission for new mandolin builders. For an…

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Oh, Me Of Little Faith

By Casey L. Penn

In my continuous journey to find and highlight exceptional songwriting, I arrived this month on “Oh, Me Of Little Faith,” a song written for the contemporary Christian genre and successfully…

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RBR Entertainment  Rises Like A Phoenix

By Vicki Dean

A new record label launched by longtime songwriting collaborators Billy Droze and Chris Myers is turning heads in the bluegrass music industry.  RBR Entertainment is churning out hits on bluegrass…

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Learning By Ear Course

By Dan Miller

Learning how to play a musical instrument by ear is a skill that is vital to your development as a musician in traditional genres of music.  While reading music can…

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The Venue

Danny Stewart (bottom right with singer/guitarist Greg Blake sitting behind him) at a jam session on the Alaska bluegrass cruise in 2017.

A Passion for Promoting

By Dan Miller

Nearly seventy-eight years after Earl Scruggs first joined Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt, Chubby Wise, and Howard Watts on stage at the Grand Ole Opry—and defined bluegrass music as we know…

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