This week's episodes were supposed to be a set of backing tracks for Big Sandy River. I recorded them and started editing and they just sounded a bit….well…bad! So rather than put them out, or make up an excuse, I thought I'd share that in the hope it helps a few other people go a…

Hi. I've got a Food For Thought episode for you this week. It's been a while since we did one of these, but something that happened last weekend that made me think – so I thought I'd share it. Have a listen and see what my take is. Then head over to Bluegrass Jamalong's Instagram…

Hi everyone. I've got another quick Food for Thought episode for you, inspired by my recent interview with Tim Stafford. Tim told me nobody could tune a guitar like Tony Rice and that he thought that was a big part of his sound.  He said we've all lost the ability to tune because we rely…

I interviewed Tim Stafford for the podcast this week, which was an absolute treat. We talked about all sorts, from Blue Highway to Tony Rice, Billy Strings and Tim's songwriting. Tim also talked about David Grier's take on what matters when it comes to guitars, strings and picks, which is great. Tim also does a…

Hi everyone. I've had a couple of weeks off the podcast to have a holiday, but I've been mulling over something Dan Tyminski said in the interview I did with him a couple of weeks ago and wanted to share it. It's about the idea of reacting in music, rather than just playing. Dan talked…

Hi everyone. This is another Food For Thought episode and it centres around the idea of perfection.  Chris Eldridge said something recently that made me think about letting go of the idea of playing perfectly – I had an experience at a jam this week that really made me understand what he meant. Have a…

Hi. We haven't had a Food For Thought episode for a while, but I've had something in my head all week based on a few Facebook posts I saw. The general theme was whether something can be called bluegrass if it has a  non-traditionally bluegrass instrument in it (e.g. pedal steel or accordion). In the…

Happy Friday. This week's Food For Thought is inspired by Dr. Josh Turknett's book on how to learn the banjo (it's great for any instrument – not just banjo). If you haven't read it I highly recommend it. To give you an idea of how good this book is, Bryan Sutton recommended it to all…

Hi everyone. It's Friday, which means another Food For Thought episode. This week I've been listening to the excellent The String podcast, in particular the recent episode with Bela Fleck talking about his new album My Bluegrass Heart. In it, host Craig Havighurst says: “I really hope folks will sit with the booklet so they'll…

Hi everyone. Very quick Food For Thought episode this week! I spoke to Tristan Scroggins earlier this week (see episode #121 to check out the great interview he gave). He told me his dad used to practice banjo along to Tony Rice's Manzanita album because there was no banjo on it. I also read something…