Dixie Bee-Liners American Revival Tour – Day 2

This is the second in my series of tour blogs from the American Revival concerts. In order for you to make sense of them you’ll need to know this: The Dixie Bee-Liners are Brandi Hart (guitar, vocals), Buddy Woodward (mandolin), Rachel Johnson (fiddle), Jeremy Darrow (bass), Robin Davis (guitar), and myself Casey Henry on banjo.…

Dixie Bee-Liners American Revival Tour – Day 1

This is the first in my series of tour blogs from the American Revival concerts.  In order for you to make sense of them you'll need to know this: The Dixie Bee-Liners are Brandi Hart (guitar, vocals), Buddy Woodward (mandolin), Rachel Johnson (fiddle), Jeremy Darrow (bass), Robin Davis (guitar), and myself Casey Henry on banjo.…

Jamming–Turns or no Turns?

Folks, I attended a local jam session last night. I'd been there many times before, but this time things were different: there were only a few pickers, but a lot of listeners. And the listeners wanted to listen to music. Nobody was in charge. The pickers were standing around chatting, or acting as if they…

Lynn Morris on the Bluegrass Blog

Our friends over at the Bluegrass Blog have posted a lovely conversation with Lynn Morris, who teaches our Clawhammer Banjo Volume 1 and Volume 2.  It catches up with what she's doing these days, a question we get asked often. So if you've been wondering that yourself, click here and read the article.

Misfit Jam: Easy Audience

We had four banjos at the jam tonight, one guitar, one mandolin, and no bass, Bob Van having decided—again-- that it was more important for him to go to a Trustee’s meeting at his church than play with us. Present were Mark, Ellen, Bob Mc, Susan, Logan, and Josh, who was apparently not scared off…

How to Pack for a 26-day Tour

That's a question I've been pondering for the last couple of days. One thing is for sure. With only a 15-passenger van and six people plus instruments, luggage, and equipment to fit inside it, you sure as heck can't pack enough clean clothes for the whole time. So my plan is to do a lot…

Teachers and Students

Since we've had so much interest in lesson discussions recently, I thought we might like to talk about students and teachers. First of all, here are sample behaviors of a few different teachers I've seen. Which teacher would you rather learn from? Teacher #1. The teacher, who is a famous bluegrass musician, spends almost the…

Happy Anniversary To Us!

Today is Red’s and my 35th wedding anniversary, so we are taking the day off to celebrate. Just so this short blog will have some bluegrass content, I would remind you that Red and I first laid eyes on each other at a bluegrass festival in Georgia (Lavonia) in 1972, saw each other from a…

Long-Distance Learning

So I'm getting ready to leave with my band (The Dixie Bee-Liners --- are you tired of hearing me talk about them yet? Good. Cause you're probably gonna hear a lot about them from now on.) on a three-week tour of the southeastern US (VA, PA, NC, SC, GA, LA, AR, MO, IL, TX, KY).…

Misfit Jam: A Big Chess Game

We had some new faces at the jam tonight. Joining Bob Van, Bob Mc, and Susan were Josh, on mandolin, and Bill on bass. So with Bobby on bass, we actually had “stereo” basses. With this combo we did: A five song medley to start with: BITH, CC, Cabbage, FMB, and John Hardy. (This of…