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Finding Inspiration in Creation, Ellie Holcomb Moves Forward in LoveAs a consequence of growing up in the music industry and singing background vocals on albums since she was 8, Ellie Holcomb opted not to seek a future as a professional singer. “I actually decided that I didn't want to be a part of it at an early age, which…
Drew Holcomb, Bandleader and Bourbon Collector, Taps Into a New Golden AgeDrew Holcomb writes and sings often about the comforts of home and family life, but don’t assume he’s setting his family and himself as role models. The leader of roots-rockers Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors, Drew (who is the BGS Artist of the Month for January along with wife Ellie…
Artist of the Month: Drew & Ellie HolcombDrew & Ellie Holcomb are about to hit the highways to promote Coming Home: A Collection of Songs, a new compilation album that represents their life together as a couple. Alongside a batch of familiar songs from their catalog that reflect their life as a couple, the Holcombs also put…
On 'O Come All Ye Faithful,' Hiss Golden Messenger's M.C. Taylor Sees the LightWhen M.C. Taylor presented his idea of a Hiss Golden Messenger holiday record last fall, the label team at Merge Records began scratching their heads. Anyone familiar with the singer-songwriter would agree he just doesn’t seem like the type. But this juxtaposition is at the heart of Taylor's intentions to…
Artist of the MonthOct 1, 2021
Billy Strings takes things up a notch for Renewal, a long-awaited collection of original songs produced by Jonathan Wilson. But is it bluegrass? Or is it rock 'n' roll? Perhaps more on the psychedelic side? Truly there's no right (or wrong) answer to these questions. As Strings himself puts it, “I’ve learned, you've just got…
Artist of the MonthSep 17, 2021
Béla Fleck came to the banjo in quite possibly the oddest way imaginable -- via The Beverly Hillbillies when he was a kid. Hearing Scruggs-style banjo on “The Ballad of Jed Clampett” while watching television, he was instantly smitten and fell in love with the sound. But he chose not to tell anyone. “It would…
Artist of the MonthSep 16, 2021
Novelist Thomas Wolfe famously declared that you can’t go home again. But then again, Wolfe is not remembered as a musician who played bluegrass, a style that’s all about going home again. So it is that Béla Fleck’s new album is a homecoming, and an ambitious one at that. A third installment in Fleck’s long-running…
Artist of the MonthSep 1, 2021
Banjo maestro Béla Fleck has always followed his muse, jamming with collaborators and crisscrossing continents for decades now. His newest album leads him back to familiar terrain, as My Bluegrass Heart is his first bluegrass record in 20 years. "They nearly always come back," says Fleck, who composed and produced the album (set for a…
Artist of the MonthAug 25, 2021
When Amythyst Kiah was a teenager in the suburbs of Chattanooga, Tennessee, she wanted to be “the guitar-playing version of Tori Amos.” Locked away in her room with her headphones pulled over her ears, poring over liner notes and listening intently for every nuance in her favorite records, she found solace in the way Amos…
