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News and Highlights

This Week: The Hillbenders, Best of Mountain Stage 2011 and more!

  • On Open Mic, we highlight some of the best bluegrass performances from Mountain Stage for the year 2011 including sets from Hot Rize, SteelDrivers, Charlie Sizemore, and The Grascals.
  • On Bluegrass Breakdown, The Hillbenders will be bending notes, genres and maybe a few hills to boot when they join us live!
  • On Bluegrass Signal, we feature the second of a two-part special with Kathy Kallick. Most of the musical selections are from Kathy’s “Between the Hollow & the High-Rise” and “Count Your Blessings: A Bluegrass Gospel Collection,” as well as a preview of the next Kathy Kallick Band album. Topics covered include Kathy’s band mates, songwriting, singing with Laurie Lewis, and other aspects of her music.
  • On The Dick Spottswood Show, Dick features an informal session with his neighbor Bill Metts, a fine singer who adroitly adapts Mississippi John Hurt guitar licks to other music he likes.
  • Also, be sure to check out videos of recent live performances from our Washington, DC studios.

Read about all this and more in the January 21-27 Highlights.

Graham Sharp on The Katy Daley Show


Graham Sharp of Steep Canyon Rangers joins Katy Daley for an interview on Tuesday, January 31st at 9:15 a.m. ET.

Graham will chat about Steep Canyon’s new website and app, their new CD which will be released in March, upcoming tour dates, their Grammy nomination for Rare Bird Alert, and more.

Ticket Giveaway


WAMU’s Bluegrass Country and George Mason University’s Center for the Arts are giving away a pair of tickets to Arlo Guthrie.

This event takes place on February 11, 2012 at 8 pm in Fairfax, Virginia.

Read More

More news >
  • Music Shed’s loss is WNCW’s gain

    When Music Shed closed its doors in December, they found themselves with a substantial amount of inventory remaining – even after a month-long going-out-of-business sale. Rather than offer these bluegrass recordings as a lot at auction, the company made the decision to donate it all [...]

  • Louisville sez… don’t forget us!

    Raleigh, NC is not the only city wooing IBMA’s World of Bluegrass once its contract with the Nashville Convention Center expires this year. Lousiville, KY – which hosted the event prior to the move to Nashville – has also launched a campaign to bring WOB [...]

  • ‘Dusters do Jackson Hole

    The Infamous Stringdusters showed up in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on the tail end of an incredible winter storm that brought about 5 feet of snow to the surrounding mountains. Considering these guys are on their Ski Tour the timing was excellent. The Pink Garter, located on Broadway [...]

  • Raleigh, NC courts World of Bluegrass

    The International Bluegrass Music Association is not only looking to hire a new Executive Director, they are also seeking a new home for their annual convention, World of Bluegrass. This week long event, which combines an industry trade show, awards celebration and business conference during [...]

  • Special C’s Turtle Top hits 500K

    Special Consensus is one of the most well-traveled bands in bluegrass. And so, by extension, is their trusty Turtle Top van, Snowball. It has taken them all across the US and Canada since it went into service in December 2002. Greg Cahill and the band are [...]

  • Blue Yodel #15 – NAMMMMMMM

    The NAMM (National Association of Music Merchandisers) Show is held less than a mile from Disneyland. One is a commercial shrine to prepubescent entertainment and sensory overload. The other is a theme park. Or, maybe I should say the NAMM Show is Disneyland without the [...]

  • A Shot of Uncle Randy Driskill

    Randy Driskill (Randolph to his bluegrass music friends, except for Terry Baucom who still fondly calls him Disco) is as much of a natural musician as there is. God truly gave this man a talent for hearing a song and then reproducing it on just [...]

  • I’ll Fly Away Foundation launches

    The family of groundbreaking Gospel songwriter Albert E. Brumley has announced the formation of the I’ll Fly Away Foundation, named for his most popular song. The organization is chaired by Brumley’s granddaughter, Betsy Brumley, and was chartered with a mission to support young musicians. According [...]

  • Two new guitars from Recording King

    Recording King introduced a pair of flat top, steel string guitars at last week’s NAMM show in California. Their new Greenwich Village model is designed to offer hybrid styling and features – a 13 fret, dreadnaught scale on a deeper, smaller body. It is offered [...]

  • O Brother remembered at Bluegrass On The Bay

    Maryland’s Jay Armsworthy will dedicate his weekly radio show, Bluegrass On The Bay, to the 10th Anniversary of of the Coen brothers movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou. If you haven’t picked up the Deluxe Edition 2 CD, 10th Anniversary edition of the soundtrack, tune in and [...]

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