Got 'Grass?

Send us Fan Mail Terry Eldredge has had an illustrious 50+ year career in bluegrass, with everyone from Bill Monroe, Dolly Parton and The Osborne Brothers, to Larry Cordle, The Sidemen and The Grascals. One of bluegrass' best lead and harmony singers. A fascinating life in music, with some major ups and downs, including a near fatal car crash in 2001 and a long battle with alcoholism, he stil...

Send us Fan Mail From Toronto, banjo star Frank Evans is now touring with Bronwyn, and her high energy band. A virtuoso on old time and bluegrass banjo, he's also a fine singer and composer. He was with the Slocan Ramblers before moving to Nashville, where he lives now. He and his talented friends have made East Nashville the center of most of the great bluegrass being played these days. He t...

Send us Fan Mail Wayne Benson has been mandolinist for the legendary bluegrass band Russell Moore and lllrd Tyme Out for 30 years. He has a large following on his YouTube channel, and is married to 5-time IBMA banjo player of the year Kristin Scott Benson, with whom he often performs as a duet.  A fascinating conversation about all things bluegrass!

Send us Fan Mail Tim Surrett is a North Carolinian through and through. From high school he began a musical career as a bassist, singer and dobro player, that led him to the Grand Ole Opry, Carnegie Hall and the Ryman Auditorium. He's played and recorded with everyone from Tony Rice and Doyle Lawson to JD Crowe and Ralph Stanley, He is a gospel singer of note with The Kingsmen, The Inspiratio...

Send us Fan Mail Ethan Setiawan won both National Mandolin Championship and Rockygrass Mandolin Championship. After attending Berklee, he's become a leading voice of the mandolin, through traditional bluegrass, classical, and jazz. His 2025 release “ Encyclopedia Mandolinnica ” explored the mandolin through duets and trios with friends, mentors, and heroes includinh John Resichman, Matt Flinn...

Send us Fan Mail Grammy-nominated mandolinist Matt Flinner has made a career out of playing bluegrass and American roots music in new ways. Hailed by Downbeat Magazine as "one of the best mandolin players ever," Flinner has established a reputation as one of the most respected composers and innovators in modern American acoustic music.  In a fascinating and wide ranging conversation, we...

Send us Fan Mail Zoe Guigueno is a Canadian bassist & singer/songwriter, now living in Eugene, Oregon. Her music has been described as having “the smartness and delivery of early Suzanne Vega with the structure and musicality of Elvis Costello” (Melissa Farrick). Zoe studied jazz bass at Humber College in Toronto. She has been touring internationally for 20 years in a variety of acoustic proje...

Send us Fan Mail Soraya and Luciya are the heart of The Sullivan Sisters bluegrass band. Raised in North Carolina, living in Chicago, and now both at Berklee School of Music, they were just profiled in Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine.  With strong sister harmony, great musical chops, and fine original songs, they are a young five piece band on the rise, with unlimited potential, produced by Stephen M...

Send us Fan Mail Jeff Picker is a star bassist in Nashville. Married to 6-time Grammy winnner Sarah Jarosz, he's played with everyone from Ricky Skaggs and East Nash Grass to Nickel Creek and the Grand Ol' Opry house band. After many years in NYC playing jazz, he has a unique perspective on bluegrass, as a sideman, bandleader and studio ace. Really nice guy too, tells it like it is. 

Send us Fan Mail Mandolinist Jimmy Gaudreau tells wonderful stories of Charlie Waller, David Grisman, John Duffey, and has especially fond memories of Tony and Wyatt Rice, with whom he played for 10 years. That band had a rhythm section "Like a wall of sound." Lots of fun, nicknames, etc... Jimmy is retired, but has lots to say about bluegrass, playing mandolin, and the stars he has play...

Send us Fan Mail A wonderful conversation with this soulful and thoughtful singer, songwriter, and virtuoso on banjo and slide guitar. He won the National Bluegrass Banjo Championship in Winfield, Kansas in 1987 and 1991.  He recorded 18 critically acclaimed albums, with master musicians like Alison Krauss, Jerry Douglas, Tim O’Brien, Stuart Duncan, Kelly Joe Phelps and Mike Marshall. He has toured...

Send us Fan Mail Ron Reno retired in 2019, after 60 years in bluegrass and country music. He started at age 7, with his dad Don Reno, and Red Smiley. He recorded ten albums during his 9 years with Merle Haggard, and played five years with the Osborne Brothers. He played with everyone from the Louvin Brothers and Ray Price to the Stanley Brothers and Johnny Cash.  A prolific songwriter, producer an...

Send us Fan Mail Every once in a while, I interview someone who is so natural and open that it feels like a chat with an old friend. That was the case with Heather Berry Mabe. In 2024, Heather won IBMA's Momentum Vocalist of the Year award. In 2025, her band, Red Camel Collective, won IBMA New Artist of the Year, and she was just chosen 2026 SPBGMA Female Vocalist of the Year.  Her band, Red...

Send us Fan Mail Liam grew up just down the road from Doc Watson's home in Deep Gap, North Carolina. A child prodigy on several instruments, he surprised everyone by sweeping the 2022 RockyGrass instrumental contests in guitar, mandolin and banjo, the first person to ever do so. He attended Berklee College of Music, and leads the band Cane Mill Road, which won IBMA's Momentum Band of The...

Send us Fan Mail Blake Wiliams played banjo with Lester Flatt and Nashville Grass, before his ten year stint with Bill Monroe and his Bluegrasss Boys. He was the longest tenured banjo player ever with Monore, and has some amazing stories to prove it! During his career, Blake has toured 48 states and 7 countries, played Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, and Lincoln Center. He recorded 2 albums wit...

Send us Fan Mail Darren Nicholson has played mountain music since his youth in Western North Carolina. A great mandolinist with Alecia Nugent, and seventeen years with Balsam Range, he’s also an introspective songwriter, a harmony singer, lead vocalist, and guitarist. These days, he's a man on a mission, to bring North Carolina roots music back to the local community.

Send us Fan Mail Ettore Buzzini is an eighteen year old banjo prodigy from North Carolina. Winner of Fresh Grass 2025 Banjo Contest, he’s a strong songwriter, instrumentalist, and vocalist, whose dream is to "bring as much of the human experience to our music as possible.” His banjo work is very melodic and sounds like no one else in bluegrass. I think he's a force to be reckoned with. C...

Send us Fan Mail Tim Stafford is a master songwriter, guitarist and teacher. From Alison Krauss & Union Station, to 30+ years with Blue Highway, he's had his finger on the pulse of bluegrass. A wide ranging intellect, with special love for Tony Rice, we could have easily talked for another hour!

Send us Fan Mail 4-time Grammy winner Andy Leftwich began playing fiddle at age 6, entered his first contest at 7, and won the National Championship for Beginners at 12. At age 19 he joined Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, where he played for 15 years. He's also one of Nashville’s most sought after studio musicians, for artists like Bruce Hornsby, Dailey & Vincent, Alan Jackson, Taylo...

Send us Fan Mail David Benedict is Grammy-nominated mandolinist. After 3 years with Missy Raines, he joined Mile Twelve, who were 2017 IBMA Momentum Award winners. David was also 2018 IBMA Momentum Instrumentalist of the Year, and a 2019 Grammy nominee. He might be even more well known for his You Tube channel, featuring his weekly series Mandolin Mondays, as well as his in-depth mandolin lessons....

Send us Fan Mail Fiddler Brittany Haas is "a musical force of nature" says Chris Eldridge. From The Republic of Strings at age 13, through Crooked Still, The Dave Rawlings Machine, Hawktail, and now The Punch Brothers, she is a huge talent, that covers many genres, with brilliance and boundless happy energy. She discusses her classical upbringing, her mentors Darol Anger and Bruce Molsky...

Send us Fan Mail This is a fascinating look into the realities of travelling and performing with Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys, back in the mid-60's.   Gene Lowinger, who played fiddle with Monroe, is well known for his exciting live  performances of Monroe's classic "Uncle Pen". He was on the bus with Monroe and Peter Rowan when they wrote "Walls of Time", and t...

Send us Fan Mail Josh Williams is one of the premier bluegrass musicians of our time. 3-time IBMA Guitar Player of the Year, a virtuoso on banjo, fiddle and mandolin, he also has one of the best voices in bluegrass/country music.  This conversation was heartfelt and emotional at times. It started with Josh talking about his family, and missing his dad Tony. Then it naturally turned to the other To...

Send us Fan Mail David Peterson is called the caretaker of traditionl buegrass and country music for a reason. He's an independent recording artist who cherishes the early music traditions.  His powerful voice has a mountain quality, that is full of Bill Monroe, Jimmy Martin and Hank Williams' blues. He needs no microphone. A Boston native, he moved to Nashville 30 years ago, and has bec...

Send us Fan Mail Russell Moore,  6-time IBMA Bluegrass Singer of the Year, is now the guitarist and singer with Alison Krauss and Union Station, featuring Jerry Douglas. He's has an expressive, emotional and eloquent take on the music we love, bluegrass. From 1986-1991 Russell was lead singer for Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver. He left to form IIIrd Tyme Out, the band he has now led for 34 ye...