Bluegrass Jam Along – Details, episodes & analysis

Welcome to this month’s Bluegrass Briefing, a monthly 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 

• Old & In the Way Live vinyl release
• Craig Havighurst book
• Blue Ridge Guitar Camp

Releases (The Grass is New)

• Buy the records mentioned
  • Alison Brown & Steve Martin album (Compass Records)
  • Wes Corbett - Drift (Bandcamp)
  • I’m With Her/Iron & Wine (Bandcamp)
  • Caitlin Canty (Bandcamp)
  • Ben Garnett (Bandcamp)
  • Darol Anger (Bandcamp)
• The Grass is (mostly) New 2025 playlist (Spotify)

Scroll on Buddy

• Sierra Hull Gibson signature mandolin
• Chris Thile interview with Rick Beato

Other bits

• The Grass is (mostly) New 2025 playlist
• Full list of interviews
• Collings Guitars

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's Bitesize episode features a conversation I had with Chris Eldridge from Punch Brothers and Mighty Poplar celebrating Tony Rice's classic album Church Street Blues.

Chris talks about Tony's ability to combine big musical gestures with intricate detail, how other musicians played better when they played with Tony and why you should listen to Church Street Blues on vinyl, if you can find a copy (but why that's not necessarily true of other albums).

This extract comes from a two part special I put together celebrating the 40th anniversary of the release of Church Street Blues in 1983, including in-depth interviews with Wyatt Rice, Alison Krauss, Tim Stafford, Bryan Sutton and many more. I've included links below to those.

Tony Rice - Church Street Blues 40th anniversary:

- part 1 (Tim Stafford, Wyatt Rice, Mike Marshall, Alison Krauss, Bryan Sutton, Chris Eldridge & Caroline Wright)

- part 2 (Bob Minner, Jake Eddy, Justin Moses, Marcel Ardans, Scott Nygaard, Jason Keiser & tony_units)

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
• Alison Brown Banjo Basecamp
• Bela Fleck banjo raffle

Releases (The Grass is New)

• Infamous Stringdusters website
• Michael Daves’ Bandcamp
• The Grass is (mostly) New 2025 playlist

Scroll on Buddy

• Donate to the Mandolin Cafe

Other bits

• Sign up for emails https://bluegrassjamalong.com/contact/
• The Grass is (mostly) New 2025 playlist
• Full list of interviews
• Collings Guitars

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 

• Peghead Nation - Weekly Mandolin Workout

Releases (The Grass is New)

• The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist

Scroll on Buddy

• Billy Strings and Bryan Sutton at Blue Ridge Guitar Camp

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

Today - June 8th - is Tony Rice's birthday. To celebrate, I'm reposting the chat I had with Alison Krauss as part of the 'Church Street Blues' 40th anniversary celebrations last year. The final episodes ended up being almost 5 hours long, so I thought it would be fun to re-post this as a standalone episode for those who missed it (or just want to listen again to celebrate Tony's birthday).

In this episode Alison talks about what Tony's music means to her and shares some memories of spending time one on one with Tony.

It was a wonderful conversation to get to have and I hope you enjoy it.

If you missed the Church Street Blues episodes,  featuring Wyatt Rice, Bryan Sutton, Chris Eldridge and many more, you can listen here:

Part 1 
Part 2

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 Jacob Jolliff, who joins me to talk about his wonderful new record Instrumentals 2: Mandolin Mysteries

We talk about the process of writing the record and how many of the tunes began on piano rather than mandolin, plus the great band Jacob assembled to record and tour the album. We also chat about what it was like to sit in with Bela Fleck for part of the My Bluegrass Heart tour and some of the things Jacob leaned from Bela about rehearsing and leading a band in the process.

You can buy Mandolin Mysteries on Bandcamp on vinyl and as a digital download.

For more info, visit jacobjolliff.com or follow Jacob on Instagram or Facebook

You'll also find some cool performances of tracks from the record on Jacob's YouTube channel.

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 

• IBMA international stage
• Fisher Center’s Bluegrass on Hudson 2024 Series

Releases (The Grass is New)

• David Grisman’s Unexpurgated Grass
• The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist

In my ears

• Alan Rusbridger - Play It Again

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 Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, who returns to chat about her great new record 'I Built a World', which comes out on Friday May 24th.

This is Bronwyn's first record as a lead singer and we chat about her song choices, the musicians she chose for the record, the wonderful line up of backing singers she has and how the record came together.

We also talk about the journey Bronwyn's been on over the past couple of years with Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway, including winning a Grammy.

You can pre-save 'I Built a World' on all the usual streaming platforms.

If you missed it first time around, here's my first interview with Bronwyn, chatting about her last record 'Fiddler's Pastime'

For news and updates follow Bronwyn on Instagram

Hope you enjoy this one and 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 

• Blue Ridge Music Center Summer Series
• Blue Highway Fest
• IBMA tickets

Releases (The Grass is New)

• The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist

Scroll on Buddy

• Billy Strings Marc Maron interview

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 Oliver Burkeman, best-selling author of the book 'Four Thousand Weeks - Time Management for Mortals.'

'Four Thousand Weeks' isn't a book about bluegrass, or American acoustic music...or even about music. But, it addresses so many of the the things that can trip us up and stop us from making the space in our lives for the things we love, like music.

I'm not entirely sure this podcast would exist if I hadn't read Oliver's book. The fact that it's lasted long enough for this to be episode #388 is definitely down to me staying on the bus (Oliver will explain what that means in the interview!)

We tend to defer our happiness to some unspecified point in the future, when all our chores are done, or work is finished, or the kids grow up or we retire. But Oliver argues strongly in favour of doing the things that make us happy right now.

I struggle with that, and I presume many of you do as well, so I decided to invite Oliver to come onto the podcast to talk about it and offer some advice.

This was a really fun conversation, full of big, but simple ideas, which I'm sure will resonate with many of you. I got a lot out of this one and I hope you do too.

You'll find more info on Oliver and the book at www.oliverburkeman.com. While you're there, I really recommend signing up to his mailing list, 'The Imperfectionist', for regular smaller doses of inspiration on how to build a meaningful life in an age of bewilderment.

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