“This is one of the coolest, kindest, coziest, and vibey-ist things here at SXSW,” Langhorne Slim announced with a grin, as he kicked off this year’s Brooklyn Country Cantina, energizing the packed crowd that had come to enjoy the annual day-long party. The Cantina has been described by fans and musicians, alike, as a pilgrimage,…

Of the three big roots music conferences -- World of Bluegrass, AmericanaFest, and Folk Alliance International -- Folk Alliance demands the most mental musical bandwidth. More than 1,000 musicians were on hand in Kansas City, Missouri, between February 15 and 19, organizing themselves into more than 3,000 individual showcases, designated either “official” (jury-selected for the…

The election may currently loom large over America like a toupée-shaped storm cloud, but yesterday, there was one rumor floating around that managed to cut through the noise: Beyoncé might perform at the CMA Awards. Speculation swirled around Nashville and online before it was officially announced late Wednesday afternoon that Queen Bey would, in fact,…

Last week, the Bluegrass Situation hopped a flight north to Winnipeg, settling in for a weekend of new sights and good tunes with our kind neighbors up in Canada. The festival, which has been going since its inaugural year in 1974, was kind enough to let us take over a stage and be a part…

Anyone turning to music for solace likely found a welcoming home in That Tent, where John Moreland was getting the BGS Stage started with his gut-wrenching Oklahoma Americana. “Well the older I get, truth gets harder to find. And famous false prophets get by off of robbing good men blind,” he sang on “Blacklist,” one of…