The day before we Dixie Bee-Liners left for our trip to Arkansas and Oklahoma last week, we paused in Nashville to visit with Ned Luberecki at the Sirius/XM studios. The studio is in the tower attached to the arena in downtown Nashville (which used to be the Gaylord Entertainment Center, and then the Sommet Center,… Continue reading Bee-Liners visit Ned Luberecki
Month: March 2010
A Bridge Just for Bluegrass
Maple mandolin bridges are still catching on, though slowly. So far I've sold almost 700 of them myself. Over the last 7 or 8 years I've gone through a few different models of the bridges, and I'm considering making another change. For the last four years or so, my standard bridge has been an 11-hole… Continue reading A Bridge Just for Bluegrass
New Group of Misfits
Last week four of my students participated in their first-ever jam. Each student has been playing for about a year and, amazingly enough, knows roughly the same songs. (Guess which ones?) They all have been introduced to vamping (F shape only, following my latest inclination to teach vamping that way first). And they all know… Continue reading New Group of Misfits
From The Road
I write this from the back seat of our 15-passenger van in Hope, Arkansas (birthplace of Bill Clinton, I learned from the binder in my hotel room). We played in Little Rock last night and drove a couple hours after the gig, getting to bed around two a.m. The Mexican restaurant and bar we played… Continue reading From The Road
iPhone Blog coming
Today I’m going to try something that I’ve never done before: blog from the road on my iPhone. Since the Dixie Bee-Liners roadtrip is so short this week, I decided to try and go computerless. I can email from my phone, which is the only essential thing I would need my computer for anyway. WordPress… Continue reading iPhone Blog coming
Starting a New Student
Last month I started a new student, a young boy maybe eight years old named Mike. He plays one of those short-neck Deering Goodtime banjos (lightweight with no resonator) which fits his shorter arms perfectly. Last night he asked, “Am I going to be playing this banjo the rest of my life?” “No,” I said,… Continue reading Starting a New Student
The Dixie Bee-Liners This Weekend
As most of you probably know, I play banjo with the Dixie Bee-Liners. This weekend is our first weekend of the season. Sure we played back in January, but we've had two months off and Spring is in the air. We're headed west to Little Rock, AR on Thursday, further west to Hugo, OK on… Continue reading The Dixie Bee-Liners This Weekend
WillFest 2010
Chris, Jenny (his fiddle-playing girlfriend), and I drove down to Florida recently for the Will McLean folk music festival, and we had a great time. It was a long way for us to go, being held not far from Tampa, but it was certainly worth the drive. The festival is named in honor of Florida's… Continue reading WillFest 2010
Square Dancing (With Bluegrass Content)
(This is, like, way long! Sorry! As Virginia Woolf says, “Nothing has really happened unless it has been recorded.”) This past weekend I had the unbelievably fun experience of spending Friday and Saturday at a square dance festival at the Hilton Hotel in Alexandria, Virginia. Oh, my! [Here's a clip] of one of the dances.… Continue reading Square Dancing (With Bluegrass Content)
For Your Amusement, part 2
Since we started this week with a squirrel picture, I thought we could end the week with another. Really it's an expansion on the original picture, courtesy of my banjo student Ginny. We've posted her banjo art here before, and here's another example of where how nature interacts with bluegrass in her imagination: