My guest this week is Fretboard Journal's Jason Verlinde. Jason shares the story of how Fretboard Journal started, back in 2005, and how it's grown from a print magazine to include a series of great podcasts and The Fretboard Summit events. We also chat about the current state of the acoustic instrument market and how the vintage market has changed over the past two decades, plus what people can expect from this year's Fretboard Summit, which kicks off in Chicago in just two days. Visit fretboar...
Aug 21, 2024•49 min•Ep. 412
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. This week, news of a brand new record by Daniel Patrick of the Mandolins and Beer podcast and a new flatpicking course from Grant Gordy on Peghead Nation. There's also new music from Stephen Mougin and Ned Luberecki, Jason Carter and Michael Cleveland, Sarah Jarosz, Any Leftwich, Aoife O'Donovan and Hawktail and Jerry Douglas! Don't forget, you'll find the new releas...
Aug 19, 2024•13 min•Ep. 411
My guest this week is Rebecca Frazier. Rebecca was the first woman ever to appear on the cover of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine and her band Hit & Run are the only band to win all three Rockygrass, Telluride, and SPBGMA Festival Band competitions. She joins me to chat about her new record Boarding Windows in Paradise . We talk about working with legendary producer and engineer Bill Wolf, recording with Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Stuart Duncan and the band Love Canon and the decade gap between this ...
Aug 14, 2024•54 min•Ep. 410
My guest this week is Becky Buller. Becky is the winner of 10 IBMA awards, including the 2016 awards for Fiddler and Female Vocalist. She's the first woman in the history of IBMA to receive the Fiddle Player of the Year award and the first person ever to win in both vocal and instrumental categories. She joins me to talk about her fabulous album and song cycle 'Jubilee'. We talk about the FreshGrass commission that sparked the piece, co-writing with Aoife O'Donovan, taking part in an historic al...
Aug 07, 2024•47 min•Ep. 409
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 Interview episodes by category News and Announcements (Church Street News) IBMA announcement Lessons With Marcel Molly Tuttle book Peghead Nation Folk and Bluegrass Songs for Fiddle Don’t forget the promo code below for a free month! Releases (The Grass is New) Billy Strings Leadfoot video The Grass ...
Aug 05, 2024•11 min•Ep. 408
This week's episode is a Food For Thought episode. If you're not familiar with them, they're a series of short episodes on a single idea, designed to get you thinking and (hopefully) deepening your understanding of a particular music related area. This week we've got a simple idea from Dolly Parton - "Find out who you are and do it on purpose." So many of us think we should decide what kind of musician (or person!) we want to be, then work to become that, but the reality is we've all got somethi...
Jul 31, 2024•7 min•Ep. 407
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 news & info Releases (The Grass is New) The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist Other bits Sign up for emails https://bluegrassjamalong.com/contact/ The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist Full list of interviews Peghead Nation Use the code ‘jamalong’ for a fre...
Jul 29, 2024•11 min•Ep. 406
My guest this week is Alister Atkin of Atkin Guitars. I've been following Atkin's progress for a few years now and have been blown away by the quality of guitars they're producing. They combine some cutting edge techniques with a bespoke approach, to bring out the uniqueness of every guitar they make. As Alister puts it: 'We're all about getting the feel and the sound of the instrument, and the aura of a great instrument.' We talk about some of these processes, including baking wood, freezing gu...
Jul 24, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 405
Last week we lost Happy Traum, one of the shining lights of acoustic music for over half a century. It’s hard to fully grasp, in our online world where everything is right there whenever we need it, just what an enormous contribution Happy and the Homespun team made to helping people learn roots and acoustic music. I was lucky enough to get to chat to Happy a couple of times for the podcast, and he spoke about how strongly he felt that their role was to document, as well as teach. Watching the v...
Jul 22, 2024•55 min•Ep. 404
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 award nominees Releases (The Grass is New) David Grisman & the Rounder Album Band - Live at Grass Valley The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist Other bits Sign up for emails https://bluegrassjamalong.com/contact/ The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist Full li...
Jul 22, 2024•15 min•Ep. 403
My guest this week is Roger Siminoff. Not only is Roger an authority on instrument making, the physics of music and tap tuning, he's also an expert on the life and work of Lloyd Loar. Loar worked at Gibson in the early 1920s and oversaw the production of some truly remarkable, game changing instruments - most notably the F5 mandolin, which went on to become an integral part of bluegrass music and shape how we see mandolins for the next 100 years. We talked about Lloyd Loar's background, why his ...
Jul 17, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 402
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 Black String Band Symposium Volunteer at IBMA Email volunteer@ibma.org for more info Releases (The Grass is New) The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist Scroll on Buddy East Nash Grass at DelFest Tony Rice Native American vinyl reissue Other bits Sign up for emails...
Jul 16, 2024•12 min•Ep. 401
My guest on the podcast this week is Chris Eldridge, guitarist with Punch Brothers and Mighty Poplar. Chris is not only one of my favourite guitarists, he's also one of my favourite people I've had on as a guest, so I'm delighted to welcome him back to Bluegrass Jam Along to celebrate the podcast's 400th episode. In this special episode we're chatting about Bela Fleck's ground breaking record Drive . It's a record that's really important to Chris, and also played a key role in the early days of ...
Jul 09, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 400
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 Gabe Witcher interview Brittany Haas interview Releases (The Grass is New) The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist Scroll on Buddy Fretboard Summit IBMA Bluegrass Ramble Other bits Sign up for emails https://bluegrassjamalong.com/contact/ The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist Full list of interview...
Jul 08, 2024•8 min•Ep. 399
My guest on the podcast this week is Brittany Haas, fiddle player with Hawktail and, now, Punch Brothers! I interviewed Gabe Witcher last June, a few days after he played his final shows with Punch Brothers at Telluride. Almost exactly a year later to the day I spoke with Brittany to chat about joining the band as his replacement. Brittany had just played with Punch Brothers at Telluride, so there was a lovely symmetry to it. We chatted about how Brittany got the gig, the challenges of replacing...
Jul 02, 2024•34 min•Ep. 398
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 Booth info Contact Christopher Howard Williams (IBMA board member) via the contact form on the Bluegrass in La Roche website Nice Like That Kickstarter page Blue Ridge Banjo Camp Releases (The Grass is New) The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist Scro...
Jul 01, 2024•12 min•Ep. 397
My guests this week are Ruth Oxenberg and Rob Schumer. They join me to talk about a very special series of concerts they've curated called Bluegrass on Hudson, which are happening at The Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, in New York's Hudson Valley. But we start by talking about a wonderful documentary they directed and produced called Bluegrass Journey. It's a movie I've watched multiple times and really love. We chat about how they got into bluegrass in the first place (in...
Jun 26, 2024•57 min•Ep. 396
My guest this week is Tony Trischka, who returns to Bluegrass Jam Along to chat about his superb new record Earl Jam . We talk about Tony receiving a thumb drive containing 200 unheard recordings of Earl Scruggs jamming with John Hartford, and his amazement at not just how many tunes were on there that he'd never heard Earl play, but also hearing Earl play in different styles and tunings too. Tony started transcribing the breaks and that was the start of the project that became Earl Jam, which f...
Jun 11, 2024•53 min•Ep. 395
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 Peghead Nation - Weekly Mandolin Workout Releases (The Grass is New) The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist Scroll on Buddy Billy Strings and Bryan Sutton at Blue Ridge Guitar Camp Other bits Sign up for emails https://bluegrassjamalong.com/contact/ The Grass is (mostl...
Jun 10, 2024•9 min•Ep. 394
Today - June 8th - is Tony Rice's birthday. To celebrate, I'm reposting the chat I had with Alison Krauss as part of the 'Church Street Blues' 40th anniversary celebrations last year. The final episodes ended up being almost 5 hours long, so I thought it would be fun to re-post this as a standalone episode for those who missed it (or just want to listen again to celebrate Tony's birthday). In this episode Alison talks about what Tony's music means to her and shares some memories of spending time...
Jun 08, 2024•21 min•Ep. 393
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 tour and some of the things Jacob leaned from Bela about rehearsing and leading a band in the process...
Jun 04, 2024•49 min•Ep. 392
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 playlist In my ears Alan Rusbridger - Play It Again Other bits Sign up for emails https://bluegrassjama...
May 29, 2024•11 min•Ep. 391
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 Bronwyn's been on over the past couple of years with Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway, including winning a Grammy. You...
May 22, 2024•35 min•Ep. 390
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 Marc Maron interview Other bits Sign up for emails https://bluegrassjamalong.com/contact/ The Grass is ...
May 20, 2024•8 min•Ep. 389
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'm not entirely sure this podcast would exist if I hadn't read Oliver's book. The fact that it's lasted long enough for this t...
May 15, 2024•57 min•Ep. 388
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 up for emails https://bluegrassjamalong.com/contact/ The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist Full lis...
May 12, 2024•9 min•Ep. 387
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 records in all of acoustic music, including Uncommon Ritual, plus why building a racing yacht is very simi...
May 07, 2024•58 min•Ep. 386
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://bluegrassjamalong.com/contact/ The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist Full list of interviews Peghead Nation...
May 06, 2024•7 min•Ep. 385
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 is (mostly) New 2024 playlist Scroll on Buddy Toy Heart Alison Krauss episode Other bits Sign up for ...
Apr 28, 2024•9 min•Ep. 384
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 listen to music in order to learn from it. There are so many fascinating insights that will be invaluable to b...
Apr 23, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 383
