Beer, bluegrass, occasional other stuff
It’s fall. The chilly temperature and the cool breeze rolling down the hillside at B Chord Brewing Sunday night made that abundantly clear. Fall, of course, is time for baseball metaphors. Time to write clever headlines like “B Chord knocked it out of the park again,” or “B Chord hits a grand slam,” or “B Chord keeps hitting streak alive.” Any of which, cliche aside, would work to describe the weekend’s festivities in Round Hill,[…]
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You hear people talk about the healing power of music. About 500 people experienced it Friday night in Round Hill, Va., when the Sam Bush Band stepped onto the newly built stage behind BChord Brewing and launched into a jammy, almost three minute intro to an explosive, emotional “Play By Your Own Rules.” Bush’s usual Cheshire cat grin was even wider than usual as he delivered his trademark “Good evening music lovers” greeting. “I’m happy[…]
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When Mile Twelve fiddler Bronwyn Keith-Hynes moved to Nashville two years ago, she rented a room from one of her former instructors at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, banjo picker Wes Corbett. During her time as Corbett’s tenant, the two got into a routine when Keith-Hynes was not on the road with her band. Each morning they’d get up, eat breakfast, then jam for an hour or so on old banjo-fiddle tunes. Now that collaboration[…]
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A child prodigy, Bronwyn Keith-Hynes picked up a fiddle at the age of 3 and by the time she turned 16 she was off to Boston, having won a scholarship to attend the American Roots Music Program at Berklee College of Music. It was in Boston, in 2014, that she and her bandmates formed Mile Twelve. In 2018 she won an International Bluegrass Music Association Momentum Award for her fiddle playing. This year she is[…]
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When Charles Humphrey II left Steep Canyon Rangers and took up with his buddies in Songs From the Road Band, some folks speculated he had grown weary of SCR’s heavy touring schedule. Suffice to say nothing could be further from the truth. If anything, Humphrey went from the frying pan into the fire when it comes to touring. After starting as a side project with a rotating cast of whatever Asheville musicians were in town[…]
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We first met Chris Luquette at a house show in Virginia’s horse country. We immediately became a fan. We were blown away by this picker’s chops. The kid can play guitar with the best of them. Our DelFest wish list is for a Billy Strings-Luquette pairing. Doesn’t matter who sits in with whose band. Just be sure it is somewhere with nothing flammable nearby. Anyhow, after that show, we sat and talked a bit over[…]
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Review by Chris A. Courogen The Central Pennsylvania bluegrass band Colebrook Road’s name references a two-lane country road that winds through the countryside sort of in between the cities of Harrisburg and Lancaster. It’s a fitting moniker in a number of ways. For starters, it sort of represents the connection between the bands’ five members, some of whom live near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania’s state capital, and some of whom live close to Lancaster, about an hour[…]
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Our Smoked Country Jam experience was a little different in a number of ways this year. Last year, our first visit to Ron Kodish’s sweet little hootenanny in the hills, we just made a day trip out of it. We decided before we even started our drive home that night that this year’s stay would be longer. Our plan was to go for all three days of the event. Outside factors, like the need to[…]
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You know you are headed the right way for good bluegrass music when you pass a sign like we did a few miles from the site of the NEPA Bluegrass Festival. The sign was an advertisement for the local volunteer fire company’s big summer fundraising event. Some fire companies hold a carnival. Not these folks. The sign advertised their upcoming “Rattlesnake Roundup.” You see a sign like that, you know you are in the mountains.[…]
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The emcee was on his way. He was doing double duty, covering two stages, so he may have been tied up over at the Potomac when Serene Green was ready to hit the stage in the Music Hall next door. Or maybe his watch was slow, or whomever’s Serene was going by was fast. For sure they were not in sync. We didn’t bother to check to see what time it was when the boys[…]
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