This week we feature multi-instrumentalist Rickie Simpkins. Rickie has played with many great bands over the years, including the Virginia Squires, The Tony Rice Unit, Continental Divide, the Lonesome River Band, the Seldom Scene, Carolina Star, Emmy Lou Harris, and more. He has also been recorded on over one hundred albums during his long career and we talk about some of those projects.
This week we feature bass player Mark Hembree. As many bluegrass fans know, Mark played bass with Bill Monroe back in the 1980s and has since written a book titled “On The Bus with Bill Monroe” about his experiences with the father of bluegrass. We talk to Mark about his time with Monroe and his work on the book.
This week we feature guitar player, singer, songwriter, and band leader Chris Jones. We’ll talk with Chris about his early years in bluegrass music all the way up through the present day as the leader of Chris Jones and the Nightdrivers. Additionally, we’ll talk with Chris about his radio show and his work with Bluegrass Today.
This week we feature Larry Stephenson. Larry has had a long career in bluegrass, including spending time playing with our January 2023 cover story artist David Parmley in the Bluegrass Cardinals. We’ll talk with Larry about his early days in bluegrass and about the many years he has been fronting the Larry Stephenson band.
This we feature fiddler Jason Carter of the Del McCoury Band and the Traveling McCourys about his new solo album Lowdown Hoedown. We talk with Jason about how he got his start in bluegrass, and his joining the Del McCoury Band thirty years ago. From there we talk about each track of his new album and you will hear some cuts from the recording.
This week Dan Miller reaches back into his interview archives to present an interview he conducted in 1999 with banjo player Billy Ray Latham. Dan talks with Billy Ray about his early career and his work with the Country Boys, the Kentucky Colonels, the Dillard and Clark Expedition, the Dillards, and more.
This week we feature banjo and guitar player Tom Adams. We talk with Tom about his early years in bluegrass performing with his family’s band and his moving on to perform with the Johnson Mountain Boys, Jimmy Martin, Blue Highway, Lynn Morris, Bill Emerson, Michael Cleveland and others.
This week we feature banjo player Charlie Cushman. We are calling December 2022 banjo month since Earl Scruggs is on our cover and this week we talk with Charlie Cushman, of the Earls of Leicester, about his career in bluegrass and his friendship with Earl Scruggs.
This week we feature banjo player Jim Mills. We are calling December 2022 banjo month since Earl Scruggs is on our cover and we feel fortunate to have the opportunity to talk about Earl with some of the best Scruggs style players in the country this month. We are going to kick it off this week talking with Jim about his career in bluegrass, Earl Scruggs, J.D. Crowe, and his vintage Gibson banjo business.
This week we feature guitar player and band leader Jon Stickley. Jon and banjo player Andy Thorn met in high school and performed in a number of bands together prior to Jon joining the Biscuit Burners and then later forming his own band the Jon Stickley Trio. We talk to Jon about his career in music and you’ll hear a few cuts from the Jon Stickley Trio.
This week we feature mandolin player Joe K. Walsh. Our November issue features an article about Darol Anger and Joe is currently in a band with Darol. We’ll talk with Joe about that band, his early career performing with the Gibson Brothers, his teaching position at the Berklee College of Music and his new solo album. You’ll also get a chance to hear some cuts off of that album.
This week we feature John Carlini. John was involved with the original David Grisman Quintet, as its musical director, and from that time forward he continued a close relationship with Tony Rice. Although known primarily as a guitar player, John is also a skilled banjo player and was close with legendary fiddler Tex Logan, who he considers his bluegrass mentor. In this podcast we talk with John about his long, varied and vast career in music.
