Bluegrass Unlimited Podcast with Rick Faris

This week we are talking with banjo player and record label owner Alison Brown.  We talk with Alison about her career in music, starting with how she became interested in the banjo and her early days in southern California up to her recent recordings with Steve Martin.  We will also discuss her thirty years as a record label owner and talk about what is new in bluegrass from Compass Records.

This week we feature banjo player Grace van't Hof.  Our May 2024 issue features Chris Jones on the cover and Grace currently plays banjo with Chris Jones and the Night Drivers.  We talk with Grace about learning to play the banjo, her professional bluegrass journey, her love of old country music and the other unique instrument that she plays with the band, which is not quite a baritone uke and not quite a tenor guitar.

This week we feature Rick Faris.  In addition to being a great singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Rick is also a talented guitar builder and has recently moved to Owensboro, Kentucky to build guitars at the Kentucky Guitar Works.  We talk with Rick about growing up in a family bluegrass band, his years with Special Consensus, going out with is own band and building guitars.

This week we feature bass player March Schatz.  For anyone who has been around bluegrass music for a while, Mark is no stranger.  Throughout his career he has played with many of the top bluegrass artists.  He started with bands like Tasty Licks and Spectrum and also spent time with Tony Rice, Tim O'Brien, Nickel Creek and Claire Lynch.  Most recently he has been out on the road with Bela Fleck as part of the My Bluegrass Heart tour.  

This week we feature banjo player BB Bowness.  Originally from New Zealand, BB is a founding member of the band Mile 12.  Among other things, we'll talk with BB about how she became interested in the banjo, how she learned how to play and her approach to teaching students.  

This week we feature mandolin player David Benedict.  David is known for his work with the band Mile 12 and is currently recording and performing with his wife Tabitha in The Foreign Landers.  He is also known in the mandolin world for his long running weekly YouTube series Mandolin Mondays.

This week we feature fiddle player Bronwyn Keith-Hynes.  Currently Bronwyn plays the fiddle for Molly Tuttle's band Golden Highway.  We talk with Bronwyn about the band's great success over the past few years, their 2024 Grammy win and Bronwyn's new solo album.

     This week's podcast features banjo legend Larry McNeely.  McNeely famously played with Roy Acuff for many years on the Grand Ole Opry and is also well known for performing with Glen Campbell.  Larry shares the details of his long career as a bluegrass banjo player in this week's podcast.

This week we feature Travis Book, the bass player for the Infamous Stringdusters.  Jerry Garcia is on the cover of our March 2024 issue and many of today's bluegrass musicians have been influenced by the music of The Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia.  Travis Book is one of them.  We talk about Travis' bluegrass journey and the Garcia influence.

This week we are talking with guitar player Eric Thompson.  Jerry Garcia is on the cover of the March 2024 issue of Bluegrass Unlimited and Eric performed in a band with Jerry prior to Garcia forming The Grateful Dead.  We talk with Eric about his long career in music and his days performing with Garcia.