LISTEN: The Infamous Stringdusters, “I’d Rather Be Alone”

Artist: The Infamous Stringdusters
Song: “I’d Rather Be Alone”
Album: A Tribute to Flatt & Scruggs
Release Date: April 21, 2023
Label: Americana Vibes

In Their Words: “The concept of paying tribute to the grandfathers or originators of bluegrass is one we bounced around for a while and after Bill Monroe, the most logical, I think any bluegrass musician would agree, is Flatt & Scruggs. They’re legendary and without Earl’s banjo, bluegrass just doesn’t exist the way we know it today. For the album, each of us brought a song to the table that we wanted to sing and that had meaning to us. I reached out to my friend Jon Weisberger and asked him if he’d suggest a song that he thought hadn’t been overdone and would suit my voice. I was thrilled when he suggested ‘I’d Rather Be Alone’ because I was familiar with it but hadn’t really played it much or learned the lyrics and it was a perfect fit. It’s a lament and it’s a sad song but it’s so beautiful. The way the melody hangs the line out there — ‘You say you’re sorry that you went awaaaaay’ — it’s just classic Flatt & Scruggs!” — Travis Book, The Infamous Stringdusters


Photo Credit: Greg Grogan

Béla Fleck Talks Banjo, Bluegrass Gatekeepers on ‘WTF With Marc Maron’

Since the 1970s, Béla Fleck has put his own mark on nearly every kind of music, from bluegrass and classical, to jazz and Latin, not to mention the exceptional albums with Indian and African roots. That can make him a hard guy to interview because there’s just so much to cover. Fortunately, accomplished podcast host Marc Maron is up for the task.

In this wide-ranging interview that lasts roughly an hour, Fleck talks about growing up in New York City, and meeting his birth father much later in life. Leaning heavily on Fleck’s origin story, the conversation explores the musician’s earliest experiences with the banjo, and as the visit continues, it’s clear that he is a lifelong advocate for the instrument, insisting since he was a child that people should take the banjo seriously. The conversation also touches on the important musicians that inspired him along the way, such as Earl Scruggs, Tony Trischka and Tony Rice. (Fleck describes playing on Rice’s album Cold on the Shoulder as “one of the greatest experiences ever.”)

In the fast-moving conversation, one fleeting moment gives further insight into Fleck’s approach to music. About halfway into their visit, Fleck addresses Maron’s self-confessed limitations on guitar. “Fast fingers is not necessarily the only goal,” Fleck responds. “It’s supposed to be an expression of you, and who you are. That’s what music is.”

Near the end, Fleck admits that he avoided bluegrass for a long time as his career progressed, reveals a couple of his upcoming projects, and talks about his family life with wife Abigail Washburn and their two kids. Whether you’re a lifelong fan or new to bluegrass, you’ll want to hear the full conversation between Béla Fleck and Marc Maron below.

Béla will be on the road throughout 2023, including a duo run in the northeast with Abigail Washburn October 14–30, and co-bills with his My Bluegrass Heart band and Punch Brothers. Dates and tickets can be found here.


Photo Credit: Amy Reitnouer Jacobs

Photos: Sam Bush, Béla Fleck, and More Perform at Earl Scruggs Music Festival

Banjo hero Earl Scruggs received a rousing tribute near his North Carolina hometown over Labor Day weekend, bringing together bluegrass stars like Sam Bush, Béla Fleck, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, and many others. The inaugural event took place Sept. 4 to 6 in Tryon, about 30 miles from the Earl Scruggs Center in Shelby. Scruggs, who died in 2012, was raised in the small Flint Hill community nearby, and remains one of the most pivotal figures in bluegrass.

Enjoy photos from the inaugural Earl Scruggs Music Festival below. (Photos by Eli Johnson unless otherwise noted.)

Darin & Brooke Aldridge


Alison Brown


Becky Buller


Chatham County Line


The Earls of Leicester


Fireside Collective
Photo by Tori Marion


Béla Fleck with Mark Schatz


Andy Thorn of Leftover Salmon


Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway


Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Photo by Ron Pankey


Rissi Palmer


Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley
Photo by Ron Pankey


Jon Stickley


Town Mountain


Unspoken Tradition


Fireside Collective hosts a collaborative performance of the 1972 album Earl Scruggs Revue: Live at Kansas State played in its entirety, sponsored by The Bluegrass Situation
Photo by Toni Marion


Earl Scruggs Music Festival to Pay Tribute to Iconic ‘Live at Kansas State’ Album

September can’t come soon enough, as we’re eagerly anticipating the long-awaited inaugural Earl Scruggs Music Festival in Mill Spring, North Carolina, to be held September 2-4, 2022!

BGS is thrilled to be partnering with the festival to present a tribute to one of the most iconic Earl Scruggs Revue albums, Live at Kansas State. The host band, bluegrass quintet Fireside Collective, will lead an all-star outfit in a revival of the 1972 recording with special guests Jerry Douglas, Darin & Brooke Aldridge, Balsam Range, Acoustic Syndicate, Bella White, and more to be announced – plus a slew of surprise cameos. This will all go down on Saturday afternoon (September 3) on the Foggy Mountain Stage. We can’t wait to join with these incredible artists to pay tribute to this landmark album!

In addition to the folks on this special tribute (who will be performing sets of their own throughout the weekend) the festival will feature the likes of the Earls of Leicester, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Béla Fleck’s My Bluegrass Heart, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, and so many more. Take a look at the full lineup below.

Purchase tickets and discover more about the Earl Scruggs Music Festival at earlscruggsmusicfestival.com

Carolina Calling, Shelby: Local Legends Breathe New Life Into Small Town

The image of bluegrass is mountain music played and heard at high altitudes and towns like Deep Gap and remote mountain hollers across the Appalachians. But the earliest form of the music originated at lower elevations, in textile towns across the North Carolina Piedmont. As far back as the 1920s, old-time string bands like Charlie Poole’s North Carolina Ramblers were playing an early form of the music in textile towns, like Gastonia, Spray, and Shelby – in Cleveland County west of Charlotte.

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In this second episode of Carolina Calling, a podcast exploring the history of North Carolina through its music and the musicians who made it, we visit the small town of Shelby: a seemingly quiet place, like most small Southern towns one might pass by in their travels. Until you see the signs for the likes of the Don Gibson Theatre and the Earl Scruggs Center, you wouldn’t guess that it was the town that raised two of the most influential musicians and songwriters in bluegrass and country music: Earl Scruggs, one of the most important musicians in the birth of bluegrass, whose banjo playing was so innovative that it still bears his name, “Scruggs style,” and Don Gibson, one of the greatest songwriters in the pop & country pantheon, who wrote “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” “Sweet Dreams,” and other songs you know by heart. For both Don Gibson and Earl Scruggs, Shelby is where it all began.

Subscribe to Carolina Calling on any and all podcast platforms to follow along as we journey across the Old North State, visiting towns like Greensboro, Durham, Wilmington, Asheville, and more.


Music featured in this episode:

Charlie Poole & The North Carolina Ramblers – “Take a Drink On Me”
Flatt & Scruggs – “Ground Speed”
Don Gibson – “I Can’t Stop Loving You”
Andrew Marlin – “Erie Fiddler” (Carolina Calling Theme)
Hedy West – “Cotton Mill Girl”
Blind Boy Fuller – “Rag Mama, Rag”
Don Gibson – “Sea Of Heartbreak”
Patsy Cline – “Sweet Dreams ”
Ray Charles – “I Can’t Stop Loving You”
Ronnie Milsap – “(I’d Be) A Legend In My Time”
Elvis Presley – “Crying In The Chapel”
Hank Snow – “Oh Lonesome Me”
Don Gibson – “Sweet Dreams”
Don Gibson – “Oh Lonesome Me”
Chet Atkins – “Oh Lonesome Me”
Johnny Cash – “Oh, Lonesome Me”
The Everly Brothers – “Oh Lonesome Me”
Neil Young – “Oh Lonesome Me”
Flatt & Scruggs – “Foggy Mountain Breakdown”
Bill Preston – “Holy, Holy, Holy”
Flat & Scruggs – “We’ll Meet Again Sweetheart”
Snuffy Jenkins – “Careless Love”
Bill Monroe – “Uncle Pen”
Bill Monroe – “It’s Mighty Dark To Travel”
The Earl Scruggs Revue – “I Shall Be Released”
The Band – “I Shall Be Released”
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – “Will The Circle Be Unbroken”
The Country Gentlemen – “Fox On The Run”
Sonny Terry – “Whoopin’ The Blues”
Sonny Terry & Brownie McGee – “Born With The Blues (Live)”
Nina Simone – “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free”


BGS is proud to produce Carolina Calling in partnership with Come Hear NC, a campaign from the North Carolina Department of Natural & Cultural Resources designed to celebrate North Carolinians’ contribution to the canon of American music.

BGS & Come Hear NC Explore the Musical History of North Carolina in New Podcast ‘Carolina Calling’

The Bluegrass Situation is excited to announce a partnership with Come Hear North Carolina, and the latest addition to the BGS Podcast Network, in Carolina Calling: a podcast exploring the history of North Carolina through its music and the musicians who made it. The state’s rich musical history has influenced the musical styles of the U.S. and beyond, and Carolina Calling aims to connect the roots of these progressions and uncover the spark in these artistic communities. From Asheville to Wilmington, we’ll be diving into the cities and regions that have cultivated decades of talent as diverse as Blind Boy Fuller to the Steep Canyon Rangers, from Robert Moog to James Taylor and Rhiannon Giddens.

The series’ first episode, focusing on the creative spirit of retreat in Asheville, premieres Monday, January 31 and features the likes of Pokey LaFarge, Woody Platt of the Steep Canyon Rangers, Gar Ragland of Citizen Vinyl, and more. Subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts, and be on the lookout for brand new episodes coming soon.

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From Death Metal to a Fishing Boat, How Billy Strings Finds Renewal (Part 2 of 2)

Billy Strings has had his foot on the gas since he was a teenager, bringing his prolific picking to hundreds of shows around the country each year and winning over a throng of devoted fans in the process. His bluegrass bona fides may be obvious from the outset — he’s quick to cite such greats as Bill Monroe, Doc Watson, and the Stanley Brothers as some of his first musical influences, and no honest spectator could deny his talent on the guitar and mandolin — but astute listeners will also note elements of rock, jam bands, and even heavy metal in his performances, especially as Strings bounds around the stage.

The Nashville-based, Michigan-raised musician’s latest album, Renewal, comes on the heels of an exceptional year: His Rounder Records debut, Home, won the 2020 Grammy award for Best Bluegrass Album. And even as much of the music industry was grounded from touring, his innovative approach to livestreams and digital performances moved the Pollstar Awards to dub him the Breakthrough Artist of the Pandemic. But that breakthrough was more than a decade in the making, and the forces that shaped Strings as a prodigious young picker are still at work today, pushing him creatively in the studio and on stage as well as calming him at home between gigs. Here, in the second half of our BGS Artist of the Month interview, Strings tells us about his upbringing, his latest influences, and the way he unwinds between shows.

Editor’s Note: Read the first part of our interview with Billy Strings.

BGS: Tell me about where you grew up. How do you see its impact on your work today?

Billy Strings: I was born in Lansing, Michigan on October 3, which is my grandpa’s birthday. My mother, who lived in Kentucky at the time, had gone up to Lansing to visit her dad on his birthday, and that’s when I decided to show up. [Laughs] So that’s why I was named Billy as well, because that was my grandpa’s name — I was his little birthday gift.

We lived in Morehead, Kentucky, for a couple of years before coming back home to Michigan, where I really grew up. I grew up in a little town called Muir, population 600. My dad is an incredible guitar player, so he taught me how to play. He was always showing me music when I was a little kid: Doc Watson, Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, Jimmy Martin, Larry Sparks, and stuff like that — a lot of good bluegrass. We’d hang out at this little campground and play music next to the river by the fire. That was my childhood, man, just sitting there picking by the river.

It was real good until I got to be a teenager and started to turn sour. I had to run off and figure out a new life. I took what my dad taught me when I was a little kid, and all of a sudden I realized that bluegrass is actually pretty sweet and people love this shit — that maybe I could do something with this; that it’s not just something that I do with my dad that I should be halfway embarrassed about.

Who are the artists that you feel really inspired by right now? And are those different than the ones that you feel like you were listening to a lot when you were a kid?

For the most part, it’s still Doc Watson — he’s the main nerve — and Bill Monroe, and Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, Ralph Stanley and Carter Stanley, the Stanley Brothers. But I listen to a lot of different shit. I listen to death metal, and lately, I’ve been getting into this music from Mali that Béla Fleck was showing me — some really amazing stuff. And Memphis trap: I’ve been listening to Young Dolph a bunch. There’s just an energy to it. I grew up around crack houses. I’ve seen that shit that they’re rapping about. It just gets me hyped: He’s talking about coming out of nothing and becoming a self-made millionaire. I listen to it before the shows sometimes to get myself hyped up.

You played in rock bands in high school — groups with music that might not sound a lot like what you’re doing today. Is there any lesson or anything from that time that you feel like you still turn to or still apply to the music that you make?

Yeah, performing live. I never learned how to perform in a bluegrass band. I learned how to perform in a metal band. I learned music by playing bluegrass when I was a little kid, but by the time I was doing it on stage it was in a metal band — we were headbanging and running all over the place — and I still can’t help but get into the music like that. I can’t just stand there and play.

You have been in Nashville now for a little while. Has anything that has surprised you about it, good or bad?

I really love Nashville. A lot of your favorite musicians, that’s where they live. You’ll see your favorite singer in the grocery store. I get calls for sessions, and it’s from people who I grew up listening to and who I’ve idolized for my whole life. Like Béla Fleck’s record just came out, and I played a handful of songs on that. I was so honored to play with David Grisman, and Chris Thile, Sam Bush, Stuart Duncan, and Edgar Meyer — all these cats that are just… well, I don’t feel like I’m really in that league. It really was an honor. And there’ve been several things like that! I went from listening to these cats on a record to being on a first-name basis with them… texting and being friends. It’s a trip.

What’s one thing that’s brought you joy recently?

Fishing. I love bass fishing. I grew up doing that with my dad as well, but I didn’t do it for a long time because I was so busy. When the pandemic hit, I started fishing again. I go out there in rain or shine. I just like it for the solitude. Last night, I was in front of thousands of people, and to come home and go out on my boat and be alone in nature — to check out the blue herons and the fucking ospreys, eagles, fish, everything doing its thing — it’s brought me a lot of joy, brought me down to Earth. I put my boat in at 5 o’clock in the morning when the sun is just coming up. I like being out there alone at that time of day. It’s just good for my mind.

And yet it’s so clear from your performances that interacting with listeners gives you a certain joy, too. What are the forms of feedback that you value most from your audience when you’re playing live?

Sometimes when we finish a solo, everybody starts cheering real loud, the whole place gets real loud. That feels good. But sometimes I look out there and I look around and I see individual people and I literally play to them. Last night, we played in Montana and I was looking around and there was this one dude just standing there with his beer just completely still. I didn’t even know if he was enjoying it or not. So I just walked up to the front of the stage and stared directly at him and I just started playing right to him. [Laughs] So he started laughing, and then he took a drink of his beer and started bobbing his head a little bit. I think he just started getting into it by the end of the show.

I’ll look for things like that. The audience is really in control of how I’m feeling up there. Sometimes, when they’re just on fire, I can’t help but have a good time. They feed us the energy, and we give it back to them. It’s reciprocal.


Photo credit: Jesse Faatz

WATCH: The Royal Hounds, “Pickin’ in the Graveyard”

Artist name: The Royal Hounds
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Pickin’ in the Graveyard”
Album: Whole Lot of Nothin’
Release Date: October 15, 2021

In Their Words: “When I was learning to play bass, I used to go to a bluegrass festival called Old Timer’s Day. It was next to a graveyard. There were so many pickers that many groups would spill over into the graveyard and have pickin’ circles out there. I always loved the idea for a song called ‘Pickin’ in the Graveyard.’ Up the street from where I live is Spring Hill Cemetery. Lots of notables are buried there: Roy Acuff, Earl Scruggs, Jimmy Martin, Floyd Cramer, Kitty Wells, Hank Snow, and my favorite, John Hartford. I just love the notion that the ghosts of the musicians in this graveyard come out at night and have a grand pickin’ party. The final verse is kind of an homage to John Hartford. In the song, I say, ‘Lower me down in a Batman cloak/ we’ll all ride to heaven in a river boat.’ This is a reference to the fact that Hartford was accidentally buried in a Batman cloak and he had a lifelong fascination with river boats. He even had a license to sail them.” — Scott Hinds, The Royal Hounds


Photo credit: Bill Foster

WATCH: Bobby & Teddi Cyrus and Billy Ray Cyrus, “Roll That Rock”

Artists: Bobby & Teddi Cyrus and Billy Ray Cyrus
Hometowns: Louisa, Drift, and Flatwoods, Kentucky
Song: “Roll That Rock”
Release Date: August 13, 2021
Label: Pinecastle Records

In Their Words: “‘Roll That Rock’ started as a collaboration between Billy Ray and I as writers. Then it became a collaboration of my wife Teddi Cyrus’ powerful vocals, Billy Ray’s undeniable sound, and me.” — Bobby Cyrus

“‘Roll That Rock’ is an inspiring and beautifully written song about the sacrifices Jesus made for us to have eternal life. This song is powerful and will move your soul. I pray that it blesses all listeners as much as it has me.” — Teddi Cyrus

“I always prayed for purpose through the music. Started a band for that reason. When I started singing ‘Roll That Rock’ my inner spirit said Bobby Cyrus will know exactly what to do with this. He did. He wrote the Gospel truth and then sang the daylights out of it with Teddi and a killer bluegrass band reminiscent of Earl Scruggs and Bill Monroe.” — Billy Ray Cyrus


Photo credit: Christopher Michael Images

The BGS Radio Hour – Bluegrass Duets, New & Old

Every week for the past few years, we’ve brought you a radio show, and now podcast, revisiting all the great music recently featured on the pages of BGS. This week, we bring you a special episode for our Duos of Summer series — a musical recap of our 2019 collection of the 22 Best Bluegrass Duos.

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We’re listening to some of these classic duos, and exploring bluegrass’ longstanding and continuing tradition of wonderful duet harmony, be it sibling or otherwise. And while most fans of the genre may recognize names like Flatt & Scruggs or the Monroe Brothers, here you’ll also find newer acts that are following the path laid by those hall-of-famers.

Head to the original story to explore the full list while you listen!