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WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Doc Watson, the Grammy-award winning folk musician whose lightning-fast style of flatpicking influenced guitarists around the world for more than a half-century, died Tuesday at a hospital in Winston-Salem, according to a hospital spokeswoman and his manager. He was 89. Watson, who was blind from age 1, recently had abdominal surgery that resulted in his hospitalization. Arthel "Doc" Watson's mastery of flatpicking helped make the case for the guitar as a lead instrument in the 1950s and 1960s, when it was often considered a backup for the mandolin, fiddle or banjo. His fast playing could intimidate other...

Guitar master and singer Doc Watson was listed in critical condition Thursday at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center after a fall at his home in Deep Gap earlier this week. Watson's daughter, Nancy, said in a telephone interview that Watson fell Monday. She said he didn't break any bones but that he's "real sick."

(Chinese Bluegrass (REDGRASS): Red Chamber 紅庭, Jaybirds) A very nice mix of Bluegrass (banjo and guitar included) with Oriental instruments :) Give it a listen, you may be surprised :)

Banjo player and TV performer Doug Dillard, who gained fame for his appearances on "The Andy Griffith Show" with musical group the Dillards (known on the TV series as the "Darlings") has died following a lengthy illness. A family spokesperson tells The Boot that Dillard was taken to a Nashville emergency room on Wednesday night (May 16) and died shortly thereafter. Doug Dillard was born in Salem, Mo., in 1937 and was playing guitar by age 5. He received his first banjo as a teenager and soon began performing with various bands on radio and TV. He had been encouraged...

"It took Bach for me to figure out there was something mighty and substantial in classical music," Thile said before the concert, sitting with mandolin in hand, his left foot resting over his right, alongside conductor Jeffrey Kahane. "It always seemed to me that it wasn't grooving – which is very simplistic. It grooves, in a different way. To me, it was a revelation; it was mesmerizing to my core." The desire to learn Bach's solo Sonatas and Partitas for violin pushed Thile to teach himself to read music, he said, as learning Bach by ear "was slow-going."

Legendary banjo picker Earl Scruggs, one of the pioneering figures of bluegrass music, has died at 88. "The Essential Earl Scruggs"Scruggs reached his highest level of fame in the 1960s when he and partner Lester Flatt recording the theme song for The Beverly Hillbillies, which became a beloved weekly staple in living rooms that wouldn't think of ever putting on a bluegrass record, as well as a No. 1 smash on the not usually so rootsy Billboard country chart. But his stardom continued to give him a healthy touring career to the very end, especially at roots-music gatherings like the...

Country and bluegrass pioneer Earl Scruggs has passed away in a Nashville hospital at the age of 88. Scruggs was born in Shelby, NC and started playing the banjo at the age of four, an instrument that would fill his days during the depression and after his father died. Originally, he played using two fingers but, by the age of ten, he had evolved to a three-finger style that would eventually revolutionize bluegrass music and become known as "Scruggs Style Picking." Scruggs started his professional career in 1945 with Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys but, in 1948, he left Monroe's...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Bluegrass legend and banjo pioneer Earl Scruggs, who teamed helped profoundly change country music with Bill Monroe and later with guitarist Lester Flatt, has died. He was 88. Scruggs' son Gary said his father passed away Wednesday morning at a Nashville, Tenn., hospital. Gary Scruggs said his father died of natural causes. The elder Scruggs was an innovator who pioneered modern banjo sound. His use of three fingers rather than the clawhammer style elevated the banjo from a part of the rhythm section — or a comedian's prop — to a lead instrument.

These kids are great!

On the final day of the 10th anniversary of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Hazel Dickens, the festival's spiritual leader, stood on the Banjo Stage and told the audience that she thought it wouldn't even make its first anniversary. If Emmylou Harris is the face of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Dickens was the heart. Onstage, she never minded teasing private equity investor Hellman, and he never minded the teasing.

Tony is quiet about his politics but a very conservative guy, from what I hear.

Back in the 60s St. Augustine was a gathering spot for some of the best folk and bluegrass artists. I got to know some of them.Paul Champion was a quiet and shy man, he could sit in a corner unnoticed for hours, until he started with a banjo or guitar.One night he was onstage picking, stomped a little too hard and went through the stage up to his knees. and he never missed a lick.Lots of MP3 files you can download.

Hazel Dickens wrote and sang songs about West Virginia coal-mining towns and working-class women. She influenced bluegrass, folk and country singers like Emmylou Harris and Allison Krauss, who inducted her into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame. She died Friday at the age of 75. Dickens was born in 1935, but one critic, Robert K. Oermann, called her voice "the sound of the mountains in the 19th century." She grew up poor in West Virginia's coal country, listening to the Grand Ole Opry broadcasts and the unaccompanied singing in church. She brought those sounds with her to Baltimore, where...

If you live in the Bay Area, chances are you’re familiar with Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. Chances are you’ve even attended at least once over its 10 years running. It’s hard to disregard a massive, three-day festival that’s six-stages large and hundreds of thousands of attendees deep with a star-stacked lineup that takes place out in the emerald expanse of the Golden Gate Park every first weekend of October—the sunniest, warmest time of the year in San Francisco. This coming weekend, Hardly Strictly is poised to throw what could be the biggest and best year yet with a staggering lineup that...

Winter's done and spring has sprang -- time to get out and about. The 15th Annual Fiddlers & Fiddleheads Festival will take place on April 24th, 2010, from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Farmhouse Gallery & Gardens in Unicoi, Tennessee.  Twenty Bluegrass artists are scheduled to perform at the Farmhouse Gallery's two venues.

In the mid-1990s, Kentucky was one of eight state governments that boldly went where the rest of the country refused to go: The commonwealth imposed Clintoncare’s restrictions on its insurance companies, even though Clintoncare had been vanquished from the national stage. In Kentucky and the other seven states, insurance premiums skyrocketed, healthy people stopped buying insurance, and insurance companies exited the market in droves. Only three of the eight were able to untangle themselves from the harmful provisions; only one, Kentucky, was able to pull off a full repeal. Trey Grayson was elected Kentucky secretary of state in 2003, the...

This is a cut song, Gathering Flowers For The Master’s Bouquet, sung Bluegrass style by the Stanley Brothers.

Arranged with Bluegrass mandolin and a-cappella singing!

This is NOT from the Onion or a Republican media creation. My question is: What in the name of God would convince Ralph Stanley to bastardize his own world-famous signature song like this and further perpetuate big media's image of Appalachian ignorance? Is he that desperate for money or has senility set-in and his fellow Democrats are simply taking advantage of his clouded judgment? I'm not only embarrassed for him but for the entire populace of the Appalachian Mountains as well. Please accept my apology.

This weekend's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass — the name changed in 2003 to reflect the inclusion of multiple music genres — is expected to draw upward of 500,000 people to Golden Gate Park's Speedway Meadow, about what it did last fall. Beyond the size of the crowd, the scope of this event is just enormous. The 2009 lineup will include some 80 acts, ranging from bluegrass titans Ralph Stanley and Del McCoury to banjo-playing comedian Steve Martin and '60s rock icon Marianne Faithfull, performing on six stages this Friday through Sunday.

Once again I am reminded that my musical heroes are simply dumb ignorant hooman beans (hat tip Patrick McManus from Outdoor Life 1978). Here's to hoping old Ralph has since had a change of heart.

The White House went a little bit country Tuesday. "Now, I know folks think I'm a city boy, but I do appreciate listening to country music," President Barack Obama said to guests gathered in the East Room for a performance by country musicians Alison Krauss and Union Station. Brad Paisley and country music legend Charley Pride also entertained the audience, which included first lady Michelle Obama, Cabinet secretaries and lawmakers.

It's been a year and a half since the new-age bluegrass virtuosos from Nickel Creek went their separate ways, and Sara Watkins, former fiddle player and vocalist for the group, is finally releasing her solo debut. Band members Watkins, her brother Sean and Chris Thile split up in 2007 after 18 years of performing together, each going on to explore separate projects. While all three were child prodigies, mandolinist Thile always overshadowed the talented brother-sister duo with his lightning-fast fingers and rock star stage attitude. But now, with a new band, Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones as producer and her...

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass returns to San Francisco's Golden Gate Park October 3-5 for its eighth free year with a lineup that kicks off with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss featuring T Bone Burnett and ends with perennial closer Emmylou Harris. In between are nearly 70 acts on five stages spread across Speedway, Marx and Lindley meadows that range from local favorites like The Wronglers, fronted by festival bankroller Warren Hellman, to international stars including Elvis Costello. Reflecting the "hardly strictly" theme, M.C. Hammer will perform during the early children's program affiliated with the Daniel Pearl Music Foundation opening day. In...

STATEMENT BY THE IBMA BOARD OF DIRECTORS In recent weeks, the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) has been embroiled in a controversy concerning its annual Awards Show and the resignation of Board of Directors Chairperson/President David Crow after the US Navy's bluegrass band, Country Current, performed on the Show a medley of US military service branch anthems the group had previously agreed to omit at the request of the Board's Executive Committee. Following these events, the Committee conducted interviews with relevant parties in order to better understand how and why these events occurred, and to consider the issues raised by...

Excerpt - (AP) A tour bus carrying bluegrass artist Ricky Skaggs from a performance at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival struck and killed a man Friday night, authorities said. The bus was traveling south on Interstate 24 about a mile from the exit for the festival when the man stepped onto the highway, said Melissa McDonald, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Safety. His identity was not released, pending notification of his family. ~ snip ~

Dan Betzer and Louie - "Tell The Bible Classics Volume 3"

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) - Louise Scruggs, the wife and manager of legendary banjo player Earl Scruggs who helped expand the audience for bluegrass music, has died. She was 78. Mrs. Scruggs died Thursday, her family said. She had been treated for respiratory disease. The couple married in 1948, two years after they met while he was performing at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville with bluegrass founder Bill Monroe and she was a member of the audience. After Scruggs left the Monroe band to form Flatt & Scruggs with guitarist and singer Lester Flatt, Mrs. Scruggs took over managing their...

WASHINGTON -- Consider the evolution of the humble banjo. It morphed from a hollow gourd, strummed by African slaves, into an elegant toy for Victorian society ladies. Later, it grew into one of the mainstays of bluegrass music. This story is told in a new exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. "Picturing the Banjo" brings together 72 works of art with a sampling of actual instruments. Among the artists are Mary Cassatt, Thomas Eakins, Thomas Hart Benton and William Wegman. Some of the instruments are themselves elaborate works of art, adorned with inlaid designs and carvings of gargoyles, Masonic...

LEXINGTON, Ky. Some University of Kentucky students are planning to start a Muslim sorority that will stress sisterhood and community service among its members.

Fiddler Virtuoso Vassar Clements Dies By JOHN GEROME Associated Press Writer August 16, 2005, 2:21 PM EDT NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Vassar Clements, a fiddle virtuoso and A-list studio musician who played with Paul McCartney and an array of others, died at his home Tuesday after a battle with lung cancer, his daughter said. Clements, 77, was hospitalized for 18 days earlier this year, receiving chemotherapy and other treatment. Copyright 2005 Newsday Inc.

“It’s a mighty thin line between certain kinds of country and classic rhythm and blues. Look at John Hiatt. Or Bonnie Raitt. Or Chris Webster. The singer/songwriter from Davis, California (known to many as one of the dynamic singers in the NorCal eclectic septet Mumbo Gumbo) blends the two styles in a way that has distanced her from the country mainstream but endeared her to fans of soulful singing. Webster’s is an authoritative voice that manages to make existential angst, romantic confusion and spiritual longing sound uncommonly appealing. Each note she sings conveys a probing, acute sensitivity to the little...

Sample music cuts here: http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/listenwatch/0,,2844717,00.html#artist_name Label here: http://stores.musictoday.com/store/product.asp?dept_id=1316&pf_id=FDCD54&band_id=482&sfid=2

FRANKFORT - Attorney general's investigators, armed with search warrants, confiscated boxes of documents from the Capitol offices of two key aides to Gov. Ernie Fletcher yesterday as part of a widening investigation of Transportation Cabinet hiring practices. The team of investigators targeted Richard Murgatroyd, Fletcher's deputy chief of staff who last year served as second in command of the Transportation Cabinet, and Dave Disponett, the governor's unpaid political adviser and treasurer of the state Republican Party.

LOS ANGELES - "Jerry Scoggins, who sang "The Ballad of Jed Clampett" that introduced the comical Clampett clan on "The Beverly Hillbillies," has died. He was 93.   Scoggins, the lead singer of the Cass County Boys, died Tuesday of natural causes at his home in Westlake Village. In 1962, the country and western singer was working as a stockbroker and singing on weekends when he was asked to record a theme song for the pilot of the television series starring Buddy Ebsen (news). Bluegrass stars Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs played guitar and banjo on "The Ballad of...

Semper Fidelis

MOBILE, Ala. (BP)--With eight Grammy Awards to his credit, Ricky Skaggs can perform anywhere he wants. "You can't be the salt if you don't go to places where they need salt," Skaggs said of why his venues have included casinos, clubs and bars. "You've got to get the salt out of the shaker," the recording artist told a crowd of more than 3,300 gathered on the campus of the University of Mobile April 22. Skaggs, along with Christian recording artist Alicia and former UM student Jason Guy of CBS' "Big Brother 3" reality show, headlined the university's first "StarLight at...

What are your most perfect albums? By perfect albums, I mean albums where you don't have to skip over a weak track. Collections and Best of packages do not count. Some of mine: (in no particular order) 1. The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds 2. The Beatles - Revolver 3. Miles Davis - On the Corner 4. The Clash - London Calling 5. Willie Dixon - I Am the Blues 6. Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison 7. Black Flag - Damaged 8. John Coltrane - Love Supreme 9. The Who - The Who Sell Out 10. Duke Ellington &...