Bluegrass Unlimited Podcast with Christian Ward

This week we feature fiddler Christian Ward.  As many bluegrass fans know, Christian joined both the Del McCoury band and the Travelin’ McCourys after Jason Carter left those bands.  We talk with Christian about his early bluegrass years in California, his songwriting and joining with the McCourys.

This week we feature Dobro player Andy Hall of the Infamous Stringdusters.  We talk with Andy about his growing up as a rock and metal guitar player and then transitioning into playing the Dobro during his college years at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, his move to Nashville shortly after college and the bands he performed and recorded with there before becoming a founding member of the Infamous Stringdusters 20 years ago.

This week we feature guitar player Zeb Snyder.  Zeb started out his career performing with his family band and is now the guitar player for the Appalachian Road Show.  He also has recently released a new solo album.  I’ll talk with Zeb about his career in bluegrass, his studio work, the lessons he teaches, bands he performs with and the new recording.

This week we feature mandolin player Casey Campbell.  Casey grew up in bluegrass music, literally taking his first steps in Bill Monroe’s dressing room at the Grand Ole Opry.  He has performed with many bluegrass bands in Nashville over the years.  We caught up with Casey at the ROMP festival where he was performing with Vickie Vaughn. We’ll talk with Casey about growing up in a musical family, his influences on mandolin and his mandolin duo album.

This week we feature banjo and guitar player Jason Burleson and talk with him about his career in bluegrass, his thirty years with Blue Highway and a new single that he and his wife have recently released that will lead to his first solo album.  You'll also hear that single on the podcast.

This week we feature multi-instrumentalist and singer Sandy Rothman.  Sandy has a long history in bluegrass music in California, but also performed with Bill Monroe and spent time performing with bands in Ohio.  Back in the mid-1980’s Sandy was in a band called the The Bay Ramblers and has just released a two-CD set of the band’s music in order to honor the memory of the band’s singer and guitar player Alan Senauke who passed away last year.  We will talk with Sandy about the CDs and play a few cuts during the show.  If you are interested in ordering the CD-set, contact Sandy at: [email protected]

This week we feature guitar player and singer Randy Waller.  Randy is the son of the legendary Charlie Waller of the Country Gentlemen.  After his father passed, Randy kept the band going and a new recording of one of their live shows in Holland from 2006 has just been released.  We talk with Randy about growing up with the Country Gentlemen, his career in music and the new recording.

This week we feature sixteen year old mandolin player Wyatt Ellis.  Wyatt has gained the attention of the bluegrass and mandolin worlds and he did so starting at a very young age.  He is now is touring with his own band and working on a new album.  Several singles from that project have been released and you will have the chance to hear three of those singles here on this podcast.

This week we feature bass player Ronnie Simpkins.  Ronnie has had a long career in bluegrass starting with his family’s band and moving on to bands like the Bluegrass Cardinals, the Virginia Squires, the Tony Rice Unit and now he has been a member of the Seldom Scene for 30 years.

This week we feature banjo player Carolyne Van Lierop Boone.  Carolyne is the banjo player with Amanda Cook’s band.  Amanda is on the cover of our August 2025 issue and so we thought it would be a good to time talk with Carolyne about her background in bluegrass, working with Amanda Cook and banjo pickin'.