Bluegrass Jam Along

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass.

Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode

News and announcements - Church Street News 

• IBMA Industry Awards
• My recent interview with Jim Mills

Releases (The Grass is New)

• The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist

Other bits

• Sign up for emails https://bluegrassjamalong.com/contact/
• The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist
• Full list of interviews
• Peghead Nation
  • Use the code ‘jamalong’ for a free month of any course

Happy picking.

Matt

Support the show

===

Thanks to Bryan Sutton for his wonderful theme tune to Bluegrass Jam Along (and to Justin Moses for playing the fiddle!)

Bluegrass Jam Along is proud to be sponsored by Collings Guitars and Mandolins and Token premium guitar picks

- Sign up to get updates on new episodes

- Free fiddle tune chord sheets

- Here's a list of all the Bluegrass Jam Along interviews

- Follow Bluegrass Jam Along for regular updates:

• Instagram
• Facebook

- Review us on Apple Podcasts

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass.

Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode

News and announcements - Church Street News 

• Church Street Blues reissue
• Church Street Blues 40th Anniversary Episode part 1
• Church Street Blues 40th Anniversary Episode part 2

Releases (The Grass is New)

• The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist

Scroll on Buddy

• Toy Heart Alison Krauss episode

Other bits

• Sign up for emails https://bluegrassjamalong.com/contact/
• The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist
• Full list of interviews
• Peghead Nation
  • Use the code ‘jamalong’ for a free month of any course

Happy picking.

Matt

Support the show

===

Thanks to Bryan Sutton for his wonderful theme tune to Bluegrass Jam Along (and to Justin Moses for playing the fiddle!)

Bluegrass Jam Along is proud to be sponsored by Collings Guitars and Mandolins and Token premium guitar picks

- Sign up to get updates on new episodes

- Free fiddle tune chord sheets

- Here's a list of all the Bluegrass Jam Along interviews

- Follow Bluegrass Jam Along for regular updates:

• Instagram
• Facebook

- Review us on Apple Podcasts

My guest this week is Stephen Mougin, guitarist in The Sam Bush Band and founder of Dark Shadow Recording.

In this episode we talk about Stephen's work as a band coach. We chat about his training as a vocal teacher, what bands should be working on, including how they should be rehearsing, why preparing for the studio isn't really all that different from preparing to play live and how to listen to music in order to learn from it.

There are so many fascinating insights that will be invaluable to bands and individual musicians, as well as to music fans who just want to understand more about the music they listen to.

To find out more about Stephen's band coaching, check out the band coaching video on his website or visit www.stephenmougin.com

There's also plenty of info on Stephen's studio and record label at
www.darkshadowrecording.com

Happy picking!
Matt

Support the show

===

Thanks to Bryan Sutton for his wonderful theme tune to Bluegrass Jam Along (and to Justin Moses for playing the fiddle!)

Bluegrass Jam Along is proud to be sponsored by Collings Guitars and Mandolins and Token premium guitar picks

- Sign up to get updates on new episodes

- Free fiddle tune chord sheets

- Here's a list of all the Bluegrass Jam Along interviews

- Follow Bluegrass Jam Along for regular updates:

• Instagram
• Facebook

- Review us on Apple Podcasts

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass.

Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode.

News and announcements - Church Street News 

• Library of Congress list

Releases (The Grass is New)

• The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist

Scroll on Buddy

• Billy Strings a capella quertet
• Jacob Jolliff Vera performance

Other bits

• Sign up for emails https://bluegrassjamalong.com/contact/
• The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist
• Full list of interviews
• Peghead Nation
  • Use the code ‘jamalong’ for a free month of any course

Happy picking.

Matt

Support the show

===

Thanks to Bryan Sutton for his wonderful theme tune to Bluegrass Jam Along (and to Justin Moses for playing the fiddle!)

Bluegrass Jam Along is proud to be sponsored by Collings Guitars and Mandolins and Token premium guitar picks

- Sign up to get updates on new episodes

- Free fiddle tune chord sheets

- Here's a list of all the Bluegrass Jam Along interviews

- Follow Bluegrass Jam Along for regular updates:

• Instagram
• Facebook

- Review us on Apple Podcasts

Kristina R. Gaddy joins me again to celebrate the paperback release of her fascinating  book “Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo's Hidden History”.

We chat about the reception to the book's publication in hardback, what information has come to light since publication, Kristina's hopes that her book will inspire others to pick up where she left off and dig deeper, plus how Beyonce's 'Cowboy Carter', featuring Rhiannon Giddens (who wrote the foreword to Kristina's book)  increased the attention on the themes the the book deals with.

It was a treat getting to chat to Kristina again. If you missed the original episode,  I've reposted it as the episode before this (#380) so you can listen again.

To buy the book, follow these links:

US:

https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393866803

UK/Europe:

https://wwnorton.co.uk/books/9780393866803-well-of-souls

To find our more, visit Kristina’s website and Instagram

The film mentioned at the end is The Librarian and the Banjo 

Happy picking!
Matt

Support the show

===

Thanks to Bryan Sutton for his wonderful theme tune to Bluegrass Jam Along (and to Justin Moses for playing the fiddle!)

Bluegrass Jam Along is proud to be sponsored by Collings Guitars and Mandolins and Token premium guitar picks

- Sign up to get updates on new episodes

- Free fiddle tune chord sheets

- Here's a list of all the Bluegrass Jam Along interviews

- Follow Bluegrass Jam Along for regular updates:

• Instagram
• Facebook

- Review us on Apple Podcasts

**This interview was originally posted in September 2022**

My guest this week is Kristina R. Gaddy, who joins us to discuss her fascinating  book “Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo's Hidden History”.

We chat about how she came to write the book and some of the key discoveries she made along the way, in particular the banjo’s unknown history as an instrument of ritual and rebellion.

Kristina’s research in diaries, letters, archives, and art, traces the banjo’s beginnings from the seventeenth century, when enslaved people of African descent created and carried this unique instrument as they were transported and sold by slaveowners throughout the Americas, to Suriname, the Caribbean, and the colonies that became U.S. states.

It’s a fascinating book and, I hope you’ll agree, makes for a fascinating conversation.

To buy the book, follow these links:

US:

https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393866803

UK/Europe:

https://wwnorton.co.uk/books/9780393866803-well-of-souls

To find our more, visit Kristina’s website and Instagram

The film mentioned at the end is The Librarian and the Banjo 

Happy picking!
Matt

Support the show

===

Thanks to Bryan Sutton for his wonderful theme tune to Bluegrass Jam Along (and to Justin Moses for playing the fiddle!)

Bluegrass Jam Along is proud to be sponsored by Collings Guitars and Mandolins and Token premium guitar picks

- Sign up to get updates on new episodes

- Free fiddle tune chord sheets

- Here's a list of all the Bluegrass Jam Along interviews

- Follow Bluegrass Jam Along for regular updates:

• Instagram
• Facebook

- Review us on Apple Podcasts

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass.

Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode.

News and announcements - Church Street News 

• Church Street Blues reissue

Releases (The Grass is New)

• The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist

Other bits

• Sign up for emails https://bluegrassjamalong.com/contact/
• The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist
• Full list of interviews
• Peghead Nation
  • Use the code ‘jamalong’ for a free month of any course

Happy picking.

Matt

Support the show

===

Thanks to Bryan Sutton for his wonderful theme tune to Bluegrass Jam Along (and to Justin Moses for playing the fiddle!)

Bluegrass Jam Along is proud to be sponsored by Collings Guitars and Mandolins and Token premium guitar picks

- Sign up to get updates on new episodes

- Free fiddle tune chord sheets

- Here's a list of all the Bluegrass Jam Along interviews

- Follow Bluegrass Jam Along for regular updates:

• Instagram
• Facebook

- Review us on Apple Podcasts

My guest this week is Matt Glaser, Artistic Director of Berklee's Center for American Roots Music.

Matt joins me to celebrate 15 years of the program, but also to delve into some of the themes of his superb Keynote  Speech at IBMA 2023. In the speech, Matt sets out the idea that American music can be seen as one thing, rather than simply a series of genres,  and goes on to give countless examples of early musical connections between styles.

We chat about his approach, how music education differs in the UK and US and why being curious is more important than being right.

There's a link to his IMBA speech below and I strongly recommend you go and check it out if you haven't seen it. It's wonderful.

I loved this conversation and hope you do too.

You can find out more about Berklee and the Roots Music Program  at https://college.berklee.edu/focused/roots

Here's Matt's 2023 IBMA keynote speech

Happy picking!
Matt

Support the show

===

Thanks to Bryan Sutton for his wonderful theme tune to Bluegrass Jam Along (and to Justin Moses for playing the fiddle!)

Bluegrass Jam Along is proud to be sponsored by Collings Guitars and Mandolins and Token premium guitar picks

- Sign up to get updates on new episodes

- Free fiddle tune chord sheets

- Here's a list of all the Bluegrass Jam Along interviews

- Follow Bluegrass Jam Along for regular updates:

• Instagram
• Facebook

- Review us on Apple Podcasts

Welcome to this week’s Bluegrass Briefing, a weekly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass.

Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode.

News and announcements - Church Street News 

• Fretboard Summit
• Rhiannon Giddens on collaborating with Beyoncé on 'Cowboy Carter'

Releases (The Grass is New)

• The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist

Scroll on Buddy

• David Benedict ‘How I Transcribe’ 
• Hillary Klug Kickstarter

Other bits

• Sign up for emails https://bluegrassjamalong.com/contact/
• The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist
• Full list of interviews
• Peghead Nation
  • Use the code ‘jamalong’ for a free month of any course

Happy picking.

Matt

Support the show

===

Thanks to Bryan Sutton for his wonderful theme tune to Bluegrass Jam Along (and to Justin Moses for playing the fiddle!)

Bluegrass Jam Along is proud to be sponsored by Collings Guitars and Mandolins and Token premium guitar picks

- Sign up to get updates on new episodes

- Free fiddle tune chord sheets

- Here's a list of all the Bluegrass Jam Along interviews

- Follow Bluegrass Jam Along for regular updates:

• Instagram
• Facebook

- Review us on Apple Podcasts

This  week we're jamming along to the classic tune Temperance Reel. This is a performance track, rather than a backing track. It's me playing both tune and backup so you've got a reference to listen to if you're new to the tune, or just want to be able to listen a few times to the whole thing.

Don't forget to check out the other three episodes when you're done and jam along!

If you want a chord chart (or just want to find out more or get in touch),  head to bluegrassjamalong.com

Support the show

===

Thanks to Bryan Sutton for his wonderful theme tune to Bluegrass Jam Along (and to Justin Moses for playing the fiddle!)

Bluegrass Jam Along is proud to be sponsored by Collings Guitars and Mandolins and Token premium guitar picks

- Sign up to get updates on new episodes

- Free fiddle tune chord sheets

- Here's a list of all the Bluegrass Jam Along interviews

- Follow Bluegrass Jam Along for regular updates:

• Instagram
• Facebook

- Review us on Apple Podcasts