Bluegrass Jam Along Interviews

My guest this week is Jacob Jolliff, who joins me to talk about his wonderful new record  Instrumentals 2: Mandolin Mysteries We talk about the process of writing the record and how many of the tunes began on piano rather than mandolin, plus the great band Jacob assembled to record and tour the album. We also chat about what it was like to sit in with Bela Fleck for part of the  My Bluegrass Heart...

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass. Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode. News and announcements - Church Street News  IBMA international stage Fisher Center’s Bluegrass on Hudson 2024 Series Releases (The Grass is New) David Grisman’s Unexpurgated Grass The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 pl...

My guest this week is Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, who returns to chat about her great new record 'I Built a World', which comes out on Friday May 24th. This is Bronwyn's first record as a lead singer and we chat about her song choices, the musicians she chose for the record, the wonderful line up of backing singers she has and how the record came together. We also talk about the journey Br...

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass. Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode. News and announcements - Church Street News  Blue Ridge Music Center Summer Series Blue Highway Fest IBMA tickets Releases (The Grass is New) The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist Scroll on Buddy Billy Strings Ma...

My guest this week is Oliver Burkeman, best-selling author of the book 'Four Thousand Weeks - Time Management for Mortals.' 'Four Thousand Weeks' isn't a book about bluegrass, or American acoustic music...or even about music. But, it addresses so many of the the things that can trip us up and stop us from making the space in our lives for the things we love, like music. I&...

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass. Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode. Podcast news Dave Sinko interview News and announcements - Church Street News  North Carolina Guitar Celebration Telluride Lineup Releases (The Grass is New) The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist Other bits Sign...

My guest this week is legendary sound engineer Dave Sinko. Dave joins me to talk about his 17 year collaboration with Punch Brothers, including running their live sound, from using mics and pickups on every instrument, right down to single mic shows (and most points in between). We also chatted about Dave's long standing collaboration with Edgar Meyer, recording some of the most influential r...

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass. Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode. News and announcements - Church Street News  IBMA Industry Awards My recent interview with Jim Mills Releases (The Grass is New) The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist Other bits Sign up for emails https://bluegra...

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass. Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode. News and announcements - Church Street News  IBMA Industry Awards My recent interview with Jim Mills Releases (The Grass is New) The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist Other bits Sign up for emails https://bluegra...

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass. Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode. News and announcements - Church Street News  Church Street Blues reissue Church Street Blues 40th Anniversary Episode part 1 Church Street Blues 40th Anniversary Episode part 2 Releases (The Grass is New) The Grass...

My guest this week is Stephen Mougin, guitarist in The Sam Bush Band and founder of Dark Shadow Recording. In this episode we talk about Stephen's work as a band coach. We chat about his training as a vocal teacher, what bands should be working on, including how they should be rehearsing, why preparing for the studio isn't really all that different from preparing to play live and how to...

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass. Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode. News and announcements - Church Street News  Library of Congress list Releases (The Grass is New) The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist Scroll on Buddy Billy Strings a capella quertet Jacob Jolliff Vera performan...

Kristina R. Gaddy joins me again to celebrate the paperback release of her fascinating book “Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo's Hidden History”. We chat about the reception to the book's publication in hardback, what information has come to light since publication, Kristina's hopes that her book will inspire others to pick up where she left off and dig deeper, plus how Beyonce&ap...

**This interview was originally posted in September 2022** My guest this week is Kristina R. Gaddy, who joins us to discuss her fascinating book “Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo's Hidden History”. We chat about how she came to write the book and some of the key discoveries she made along the way, in particular the banjo’s unknown history as an instrument of ritual and rebellion. Kristina’...

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass. Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode. News and announcements - Church Street News  Church Street Blues reissue Releases (The Grass is New) The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist Other bits Sign up for emails https://bluegrassjamalong.com/contact/ The...

My guest this week is Matt Glaser, Artistic Director of Berklee's Center for American Roots Music. Matt joins me to celebrate 15 years of the program, but also to delve into some of the themes of his superb Keynote Speech at IBMA 2023. In the speech, Matt sets out the idea that American music can be seen as one thing, rather than simply a series of genres, and goes on to give countless exampl...

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass. Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode. News and announcements - Church Street News  Fretboard Summit Rhiannon Giddens on collaborating with Beyoncé on 'Cowboy Carter' Releases (The Grass is New) The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist Scroll o...

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass. Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode. News and announcements - church street news  IBMA ticket info Releases (The Grass is New) The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist Scroll on Buddy Bob Minner - Sulphur Dell Other bits Sign up for emails https://blue...

My guest this week is Lindsay Lou, who joins me to talk about her wonderful record  Queen of Time . We talk about the arc of Lindsay's creative journey, from her previous record  Southland  to this record, and beyond. We also chat about why it's important to know where you came from, both personally and musically, and why that led to Lindsay using interviews with her grandmother on two t...

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass. Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode. News and announcements - church street news  Well of Souls - Kristina Gaddy Releases (The Grass is New) The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist Scroll on Buddy Punch Brothers - Just What I Needed Other bits Sign up...

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass. Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode. News and announcements - church street news  Earl Scruggs Music Festival lineup Mike Marshall and Caterina  Lichtenberg’s mandolin retreat Releases (The Grass is New) The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist Scroll...

My guest this week is singer-songwriter, producer, author, and playwright Michael Johnathon. Michael is probably best known as the founder, producer and host of The Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour. He joins me to talk about Woodsongs' extraordinary history, from its humble beginnings in a tiny room with an audience of 12, to being broadcast on 537 radio stations and heard by over two million li...

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass. Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode. News and announcements - church street news  North Carolina Guitar Celebration Chris Thile’s Acousticamp Releases (The Grass is New) The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist Scroll on Buddy New Music Streaming Bill...

My guest this week is guitarist Ethan Sherman. Ethan joins me to talk about his new record 'Passages', which is due out on March 8th. We chat about working with producer Wes Corbett on the project, why it was important to write for specific players and how Ethan came to string band music in the first place. We also chat about a wonderful book Ethan co-wrote with Adam Levy called 'St...

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass. Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode. News and announcements - church street news  Lessons With Marcel Tony Rice video Releases (The Grass is New) The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist Scroll on Buddy Earl Scruggs’ D18 Other bits Sign up for emails h...