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Jim Mills
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine April 1990, Volume 24, Number 10 It was a weekday night in late September of 1988, that Doyle Lawson called. Jim Mills remembers it well. “He said, ‘Would you be interested in playing banjo for me?’ I said, ‘I sure would.’ Jim thought to himself: This is it!” Ten days…
This Issue
the artists
The Primitive Quartet Takes Its Final Bow
After half a century, legendary bluegrass gospel group, The Primitive Quartet, has taken its final bow. The foursome wrapped up fifty years of performing May 20th in White Pine, Tennessee, at the Lakeway Performing Arts Center. Over the course of their remarkable career, The Primitive Quartet recorded more than 500 songs on at least 50…
Read MoreBecky Buller
Shares Her Own Story in Song Cycle “Jubilee” Fans of the Becky Buller Band are accustomed to story songs—“John D. Champion,” “Calamity Jane” or “The Barber’s Fiddle.” In her latest album project Jubilee, this time the story is her own. She first pitched the idea for the title song to co-writer Aoife O’Donovan when they…
Read MoreCharles Humphrey III
Writing Songs One Idea at a Time Charles Humphrey III is equally adept playing bass guitar as he is casting a trout fly toward a school of rainbows on a winding mountain stream. But one could argue his true calling is writing songs for Songs from the Road Band (SFTRB), the Asheville-based bluegrass/jamgrass quintet he founded…
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from the archives
Frank Wakefield
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine July 1983, Volume 18, Number 1 In the often imitative annals of bluegrass music, Frank Wakefield is an original. He is a living legend among mandolin players for his technical virtuosity. He is well known to bluegrass aficionados as the composer or co- composer of such songs as “Leave Well…
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