A native of Arkansas, Camp was playing guitar, fiddle, and mandolin, quite well, mind you, long before he finished school. At 20 years of age, he set out for Nashville where he found work with The Osborne Brothers, and with country artists like Jerry Reed, Alan Jackson, Shelby Lynne, and Trisha Yearwood.

Though he had written songs as a youngster, he now made it a priority, placing his compositions with top bluegrass acts like Lonesome River Band (Tune of a Twenty Dollar Bill) and Del McCoury (My Love Will Not Change), as well as hits for the country scene like Would You Go With Me and Firecracker for Josh Turner, Two Piña Coladas for Garth Brooks, and River of Love for George Strait.

Perhaps his most compelling set of songs were written in collaboration with legendary songwriter Guy Clark, including Sis Draper, recorded by Ricky Skaggs as well as by Guy and Shawn, an absolute gem with lyrics set to the tune of The Arkansas Traveller, about a real-life fiddler named Sis Draper who left a huge impression on young Shawn growing up.

Camp has also had a career as a recording artist and solo performer, releasing a total of seven albums under his name for a variety of labels.

But this honor is all about his songs, which will be conferred later this year at the 56th anniversary Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Gala later this year, an invitation-only event.

Also to be inducted this year are Lyle Lovett, Bruce Channel, Taylor Swift, and Lee Thomas Miller.

Congratulations all, but especially to Shawn Camp who will live in my personal songwriters hall of fame just for Sis Draper, and for Durango, a brilliant song about a bluegrass festival recorded by Guy Clark and by Darren Nicholson.

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Vancouver singer and songwriter Mary Garnett Edwards has released a new single, one she wrote with a dark and foreboding story, perfectly suited for her gritty and soulful voice.

Singing and writing since she was ten, Edwards has left a wide mark on the Canadian music scene, working both the bluegrass and country music sides of the street.

Boneyard is her latest effort, a haunting tale of poverty, desperation, and betrayal, which ends in tragedy. No smiles in this one.

Mary is supported here by Andreas Schuld on guitars and guitalele, Chas Williams on reso-guitar, Stu MacDonald on bass, and Gord Maxwell on harmony vocals, Canadians all.

She sounds as though she is living every word as it is sung. Have a listen.

Look for Boneyard now from popular download and streaming services online. Radio programmers are invited to contact Mary’s publicist Eric Alper for an airplay copy.

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G. Nicholas Hancock was on hand Saturday, the final day of the 90^th Old Fiddlers’ Convention at Galax, VA, and photographed people, bands, and some behind-the-scenes activities at the event.

He wanted to share them with you here.

The post More photos from the 2026 Old Fiddlers’ Convention in Galax  appeared first on Bluegrass Today.

The opening track Dancin’ Girl, by Jamie Johnson and Darren Nicholson, is destined to be a staple in the Grascals’ catalogue. Not only does it have a catchy melody, but the lyrics themselves tell a captivating story. Along with Johnson on lead vocals, John Bryan on harmony vocals, Jamie Harper on fiddle, harmony vocals, and guitar, Danny Roberts on mandolin, and Kristin Scott Benson on banjo, this album marks the first recording for new member Kyle Perkins on bass.

Memories I Ain’t Missing by Johnson, Jim McBride, and Jerry Salley leans very much towards reflection and sentimentality with its lyrics about the priority of being a father, while I Can’t Stand Me features Jamie Harper on a fun take of a song that Merle Haggard wrote and recorded in 1966.

Little Sugar Creek written by Danny Roberts is the album’s sole instrumental. Not only does it showcase Roberts’ commanding presence on the mandolin, but it also does a marvelous job spotlighting the instrumentalism of Kristin Scott Benson and Jamie Harper.

The highlights of this album are the guest appearances. On Farmer’s Blues, the Grascals are joined by Marty Stuart on mandolin and harmony vocals, who penned the song with his wife, country music legend Connie Smith. The closing track, Broken Angels, is a beautiful piece written by Dolly Parton and Jamie Johnson about recovering from a hard fought battle with addiction. Along with Dolly and Jamie trading lead and harmony vocal lines throughout, the group is also reunited with original Grascal, Jimmy Mattingly, who provides the string section, and Kent Wells on guitar, Parton’s longtime musical director and producer.

While Not That Gone is named after a great song on the album written by Mark Brinkman and Mike Richards, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that the title is symbolic of the place that the Grascals have secured for themselves in the bluegrass and country world. They are not gone and very much here to stay.

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There was something about these headlines that had me picturing them as taglines for 1950s pulp fiction titles. Mind you, those taglines tended to me more dramatic and sometimes lurid than the one about the guy building the round barn, but who’s to say his grandfather didn’t return later as a ghost and haunt the barn?

In the paperback edition of Dashiell Hammett’s 1930 novel, The Maltese Falcon, the tagline read, “Sam Spade searched each article of the girl’s clothing.” When you think about it, that was also a DIY project, though probably not to honor his grandfather.

Going back to the start of the James Bond series, the first American paperback edition of Ian Fleming’s debut novel, Casino Royale, was given the alternate title, You Asked For It, and had this tagline: “She Played a Man’s Game With a Woman’s Weapons.” Other 1940s and ’50s paperback fiction taglines attempted to draw the reader in with lines like, “She had the face of a madonna and a heart made of dollar bills!” (Black Wings Has My Angel), or from the western Whip Hand by Joseph Chadwick: “He risked his own life recklessly for a girl who wasn’t worth it.”

Some of these were a little on the long side, and I question how many people were enticed to lay down their 25 cents for the book based on this wordy tagline from Paul Crane’s scary Killer Shark!: “Its grim savagery is horrifying but you will be compelled to remember the dreaded scavenger, hungry for human flesh . . .”

As I had suggested in an earlier column about movie taglines, these would be a great way to generate new interest in some of our bluegrass standards. Unlike movie taglines, which are primarily used on the movie poster, pulp fiction taglines appear right on the product itself, which if applied to physical music product, might even do something to spur in-person sales. 

If a paperback-style tagline were added to a digital single cover, perhaps the song would be more likely to be added to some important Spotify playlist and eventually generate 18 cents in revenue.

Here are a few suggestions:

For Knoxville Girl, Banks of the Ohio, Down in the Willow Garden, and a handful of others: “She wouldn’t marry him . . . he tossed her into the river!”

For Windy Mountain: “He had only one request: to be buried on a mountain, but only if it’s windy!”

For Julie Ann: “He was willing to sacrifice his pride so she could dance all night in honky tonks and still come home!”

For Bringing Mary Home: “She seemed like just another child hitchhiker until she disappeared from the backseat!”

For Pig in a Pen: “He had it all: the pig, the pen, the corn. All he needed was a girl. That’s where SHE came in!”

For Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms: “Against the will of her parents, they lived a steamy life of hedonism while waiting for the mail train.”

For Long Black Veil: “She dressed in black and hung around his grave. How did he know that?”

For Down the Road: “He built an interconnected barn and hog lot to honor his grandfather. But the real money was still in mail delivery!”

The post From The Side of the Road… ’50s tag lines applied to bluegrass standards appeared first on Bluegrass Today.

This report is a contribution from Japanese bluegrass artist Kazuhiro Inaba about his recent tour of his homeland with American mandolinist Christopher Henry.

The Blue Grass Story Tour 2026 with Christopher Henry was a pleasant and impressive tour for me. Christopher and I talked about many bluegrass stories and shared some of them at our shows. When I do shows, I like to share the background of the songs we play and sing, and some untold unique characters of the artists we have loved. I believe some of those stories would add some flavor to the music.

Here are the list of the dates/gigs and the names of the musicians we had during the tour. 

June 19 – Rocky Top – TOKYO

Our first gig of the Blue Grass Story Tour 2026 was held at Rocky Top, one of the oldest bluegrass clubs in Japan. We had a full house show with some special guests, Akio Okayama (guitar), Shinichi Murai (banjo), Nash Grier (8-year-old fiddler from Nashville), Yoshihiro Arita (banjo), my daughter, Alisa Inaba, and her singing partner, Miu Shiina (vocals). Tomohiro Kondo accompanied on the bass.

June 20 – Armadillo – NAGOYA

Finally, Christopher and his wife, Brooke, got to see their son, Gryphon, who attends Nagoya University, at the venue.

The Inaba Brothers sang some duets on the second set. Masatoshi Inaba and Takayuki Nakamura sat in with their mandolins, and Hiroyuki Momiyama (fiddle) and Cain (banjo), an exchange student from South Carolina, joined us at the end of the set. Hiroshi Yasuda and Tokuharu Nonoyama of All That Grass joined us singing harmony on White Dove as the encore.

June 21 – moss ARIMATSU – NAGOYA

Masatoshi Inaba coordinated the mandolin workshop by Christopher Henry.

The attendees enthusiastically listened and tried the lesson patterns Christopher showed them.

June 23 – 5^th Street – OSAKA

Yuji Ishihira played the bass with us.

One of Christopher’s old Japanese friends, Shin Akimoto, joined us with his mandolin for a couple of songs, Can’t You Hear Me Callin’, Jerudalem Ridge, and Cry Cry Darling on the second set.

Tact Yamada (fiddle) and Johnny Saito (guitar) sat in as well and played St. Anne’s Reel, Kentucky Waltz, and Wheel Hoss.

June 24 – Sakura FM – NISHINOMIYA

Christopher joined the live radio show, Kazuhiro Inaba’s Music Journey, and we both enjoyed playing guitars.

June 25 – FortwortH – NISHINOMIYA

A couple of guests joined my ‘solo’ gig, Lassie (a husband and wife duo), Junzo Tanimura (mandolin), Takeshi Sugata (vocal) and Christopher on guitar and mandolin.

June 25 – Shukugawa Public Hall – NISHINOMIYA

Junzo Tanimura of Mando Gym coordinated the mandolin workshop by Christopher Henry.

The attendees enjoyed the workshop, and one said, “I feel like I’m a better player already!”

June 26 – Asakura Public Hall – IMABARI

We hit the road from Osaka in the morning for Imabari City on the Shikoku Island. I worried about the approach of a typhoon, but the concert went well and was successful without any problem.

Junichi Iwasaki and folks at Asakura Bluegrass Club made all the arrangement and made it happen, and we enjoyed our friendship and jam session until 2 o’clock in the morning.

June 27 – Guitar Trailer – KURASHIKI

Driving two hours back to the mainland in Okyayama, Scott Chadwick, the owner of Guitar Trailer and a mandolin and guitar player, joined us as a guest. Motohiko Ikeda sat in and played the hot mandolin as well. We really fell in love with the old historical town of Kurashiki while we were walking around. 

June 28 – Honky Tonk – KYOTO

Our final gig of the Blue Grass Story Tour 2026 was wrapped up at Honky Tonk in Kyoto, one of the oldest country music clubs in Japan.

Minoru Tanaka sat in with his guitar and we played triple guitars on a few songs.

Yuji Ishihira played the bass once again.

Christopher Henry Japan Trip Recap

Kazuhiro Inaba & Christopher Henry – The First Whippoorwill

Kazuhiro Inaba & Christopher Henry with Yuji Ishihira – West Dakota Rose

Kazuhiro Inaba & Christopher Henry – What A Friend We Have In Jesus

Kazuhiro Inaba & Christopher Henry – True Life Blues

The post The Blue Grass Story Tour in Japan: Christopher Henry and Kaz Inaba appeared first on Bluegrass Today.

The band was an unusual full-bluegrass outing for Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia, teamed up with fiddle legend Vassar Clements and two rising future stars, Peter Rowan on guitar and David Grisman on mandolin. John Kahn completed the group on bass.

Their availability when formed in 1973 was limited by the active touring schedule of the Dead, but they managed to play between 47 to 50 shows before breaking up in the spring of ’74. A single album, recorded live in October of 1973, was released, though board tapes and bootleg recordings exist for many of their performances.

Grisman’s Acoustic Disc label released a download-only version of one of the band’s final performances as Live at Sonoma State – 11/4/73, which also made its way to CD, with a limited vinyl pressing issued for Record Store Day in 2025.

Now, the folks with Evergreen Vinyl are preparing another pressing on a pair of cream-colored vinyl discs, set for an August 21 release.

Included is the full show from Sonoma State University on November 4, 1973:

Disc 1

1. Going to the Races
2. Catfish John
3. Eating Out of Your Hand
4. Lonesome Fiddle Blues
5. Land of the Navajo
6. Old & in the Way Breakdown
7. Panama Red
8. Pig in a Pen
9. Fanny Hill
10. The Hobo Song

Disc 2

1. Wild Horses
2. White Dove
3. Drifting Too Far from the Shore
4. Uncle Pen
5. That High Lonesome Sound
6. Tramp on a Street
7. Waiting on a Train
8. Midnight Moonlight
9. Orange Blossom Special

Stories about the reason for the breakup of Old & In The Way are rife, especially among their most rabid fans. Some say that Garcia was unhappy with the level of his banjo playing, and his inability to spend much time on the instrument with the Dead’s schedule keeping him on guitar. Other rumors suggest that Rowan and Grisman couldn’t get along.

Whatever the truth may be, the band shone brightly for a short time, and was gone, leaving a number of now newgrass standards in their wake.

If you missed the Record Store Day vinyl pressing last year, pre-orders are being accepted now online from Evergreen Vinyl.

The post Old & In the Way – Live at Sonoma State coming back to vinyl appeared first on Bluegrass Today.

This past Saturday the Southeast Michigan Bluegrass Music Association inducted three people into their Hall of Honor, Ron Benton, Jeremie Cole, and Mark Gaynier.

Ron has been a stalwart supporter of the area music scene for many years. He has chaired the Hall of Honor committee for the past ten years. He is currently serving as vice president of the association.

Jeremie Cole has played in several bluegrass bands since he was a teenager. He currently fronts Harbourtown. He assumed the role of promoter of the Marshall Bluegrass Festival twelve years ago after the passing of his uncle, Burk Cole.

Mark Gaynier hosted the Milan Bluegrass Festival for twenty-five years at the KC Campground in Milan, Michigan. Mark also served as the promoter of the festival after the passing of Jim Wilder. He is a founding member of the association. He was unable to attend the presentation but was honored.

The Kentuckians of Michigan held their 66^th annual picnic on Sunday. Yours truly was privileged to MC the event. Eight bands played throughout the day. The entertainment ran the gamut from classic country, gospel, country rock, ’50s and ’60s oldies, to bluegrass. It was a day of great music and the renewing of old friendships.

The day kicked off with Southern Express, a classic country band. 

They were followed by the gospel sound of the 541 Tribe w/The Sons of Thunder.

The traditional sound of bluegrass was next with the Band of Brothers. They invited 95-years-young Bobby Hutch to join them for a couple tunes. Just about all the band played in Bobby’s Grand Ol’ Country Band at one time.

Kentuckians vice president, Kevin Trusty fronts another bluegrass band called Toto Road.

Saddle Rock followed with their country rock sound.

Mondo Kane has been together for forty years. Theirs is the oldies from the ’50s and ’60’s. They are a high energy group!

Blueroads is a fairly new bluegrass band put together by Mark Prater. The band is working on securing more gigs. This is a band that is well worth seeing.

The Country Legends closed out the day with classic country music.

The Kentuckians will reopen for the indoor season after Labor Day with the Powdermill Ramblers. 

Support your local music venues.

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It’s one called Firsts and Forevers, written by our very own Terry Herd, which Kristin says nicely conveys the deep bond between a girl and her dad.

“Every parental relationship is special, but I don’t think there’s anything sweeter than a daddy and daughter. The warmth and security that a father provides is unique. I was blessed with a dad who I knew was always on my side, no matter what. When I heard this song, especially knowing that Terry wrote it with his daughter in mind, I knew we had to record it. Heath Williams, as always, sang it to the moon and back.”

Along with Wayne on mandolin, Kristin on banjo, and Heath on lead vocals, we also hear Cody Kilby on guitar and Kevin McKinnon on bass. Zack Arnold adds harmony vocals.

It is indeed a sweet song. Give it a listen.

Firsts and Forevers is available now from popular download and streaming services online, and to radio programmers via AirPlay Direct.

The post Firsts and Forevers drops for Benson appeared first on Bluegrass Today.

This discussion with banjo ace Tony Trischka is a contribution from Boulder writer, journalist, and critic Brad Weisman.

It’s always a good time when Tony Trischka comes to town. 

The 77-year-old master of the bluegrass banjo is one of the many of the genre’s elite who gather in Lyons, Colorado once a year in late July. They do so for a week of teaching music at Planet Bluegrass’ RockyGrass Academy, followed by three days of continuous bluegrass performances at the annual RockyGrass festival. 

A young and enthusiastic attendee at the first Fincastle Bluegrass Festival, the model for the modern bluegrass music festival, in 1965, Trischka moved quickly from group to group as his skill and breadth of knowledge increased. Quickly expert at traditional bluegrass banjo techniques, Trischka was motivated to innovate, and he began to include all sorts of different musics – “jazz, avant-garde, psychedelic, klezmer and various non-Western musical elements” – into his playing. This approach came to be known as “newgrass” or progressive bluegrass, and now, decades later, encompasses the work of numerous prominent individuals and ensembles such as Tony Rice, Leftover Salmon, Hot Rize, and Alison Kraus.

He’s produced nearly two dozen solo albums, made music with Skyline and Psychograss, and has collaborated on a myriad of projects with others. He’s played on Broadway and in film. 

But once a year, Trischka loves RockyGrass. “It’s the greatest,” he says. “I have always taught at the Academy here every year. And it’s just the best. This is my favorite year so far. I’m in here so many times I know everybody, so it’s like you walk three feet, (you meet) 10 people. It’s a great hang, and the students are great. They had me by the river this time. And the setting, and to see all your friends. Play music. So I just . . . it’s fantastic. It’s just a great vibe here.”

Trischka, surprisingly, received a lot of pushback for his innovations from the traditional bluegrass community. “Yeah, I mean, I was out there in a lot of heavy-duty – I was playing a lot of festivals about that time. In 1973 I was with a group called Breakfast Special in New York City, and we were really weird. We would do Jewish music, Hawaiian music, and Sam Cooke gospel tunes, and some bluegrass. In the evening shows we would have a saxophone and drums and so we’d do a standard bluegrass sort of thing in the afternoon, and then for the motorcycle gangs and the hippies – that was the crowd at least in part in the ‘70s because all the rock festivals had shut down. But yeah, I would definitely get pushback. And I get it! It was weird stuff, I don’t blame them.”

Trischka persisted, releasing the seminal album, Banjoland, in 1976, continuing with recordings such as Robot Plane Flies over Arkansas in 1983 leading to the immortal Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular in 2007. He contributed music to the soundtrack of Driving Miss Daisy, he played the banjo in Broadway’s The Robber Bridegroom. He is now one of the gray eminences of the genre – but he still keeps busy.

Currently, he is promoting his second album of famed banjo player Earl Scruggs’ transcriptions, titled Earl Jam 2. Trischka received a thumb drive containing jams Scruggs did with John Hartford in the 1980s and ’90s. He then painstakingly reconstructed these musical passages, and is playing them for an appreciative audience, as evinced by the enthusiastic response to the initial Earl Jam in 2024.

A lot of the tunes on the Earl Jam albums are simple, traditional tunes, a marked contrast to his usual wide-ranging musical explorations. Was this deliberate, or was it dependent on the source material available?

“It’s both I guess you could say. There were a lot of tunes that were traditional, and there were tunes like Chinese Breakdown that are really obscure. A lot of it had to do with what did Earl play on that jam. Like I did Bill Cheatham because I never knew the right way to play that, and I’ve been playing it for 60 years. I had this real clunky way to play it, and everyone plays it the same way. Then I found out how Earl did it in these jams and I’m like, ‘That’s so cool.’ The main thing is that I want everyone else in the bluegrass world to hear what Earl did. I transcribed everything that I could. That particular tune, Bill Cheatham, when people say, ‘So that’s how you play it!’ That’s the cool thing. So a lot of time they were his solos, but not always, and sometimes you give someone three or four choices of these tunes and they’re going to have cool solos. It varies, Every tune is a little bit different.”

As to future projects – “I’ve been putting music to Emily Dickinson poems. I recorded four tracks already. And this chamber piece — I wanted to have a soprano in there singing an Emily Dickinson poem. So that’s the next main thing I’m going to do. And if the label wants Earl Jam 3, I guess I will do that. Ther are over two hundred tunes. So it would be an inexhaustible supply. And every one of those tunes – I’ve never actually counted, but I’ve estimated. You know, there can be three or four solos in each tune, and you could do a whole album with just three or four solos. It’s infinite.”

Trischka is known as a mentor to younger players, especially to that modern whiz of the banjo, Béla Fleck. He described his relationship with him thusly: “He had it, He already had it. He had taken lessons from two other banjo players before he came to me. And he played some Scruggs things and some fiddle tunes, but he wanted to learn some of my weird stuff. It attracted him for some unknown reason. And so he would show up for a lesson and and he would ask me to play some traditional tunes and just jam out for three minutes; he’d record it and then come back the next week playing every single note perfectly. So it was that sort of thing. So we’d worked together for two months, maybe, it was like let’s just hang out together and pick.”

When asked what his favorite area of endeavor is today, he replies: “Besides live performance? I like to go into the studio. I have a friend in the Czech Republic who wanted me to do an overdub on something he’s recording, a week ago or something like that. And so it was really fun creating this solo with this tune that he’d come up with. So, yeah, there’s new challenges that keep the brain engaged. As you get older, it’s a good thing to have that avenue.”

“I’m not out there every weekend, and I don’t want to be out there every weekend. I play every two weeks, every three weeks. I play enough to keep me really happy. Sometimes I’ll do five dates in a row. So it varies, but I’m not like OK, here’s our solid band.”

And in terms of advice for the up and coming banjo player, Trischka says, “Listen to Earl Scruggs a lot. I always like to suggest that people listen to the early bluegrassers, like the Stanley Brothers, check out Ralph Stanley, Jim & Jesse, Bill Monroe. ‘Cause that’s where it started. And there’s a lot of great bands today, but go to the roots.”

“And listen to all the banjo players that you can. And work on your timing– timing is everything, as John Hartford once said, and I think everyone would agree with that. Work with a metronome, make sure your timing is really good. And have really good separation of notes which is something that J.D. Crowe said, which means every note you play should be really clear. ‘Cause a lot of times people do a banjo roll and the last note will be kind of quiet, then you’ll lose drive and you’ll lose the syncopation. Every note, really clear and strong.”

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