(PHOTOS: Danny Clinch) Imagine what Bill Monroe might be doing today if he were 30. Just as he did some 70 years ago, he might be revolutionizing the role of the mandolin in modern music, and sometimes singing in a falsetto, while fronting a modern quintet featuring only the best musicians on mandolin, guitar, banjo, [...]

Just when things are lookin’ down/And everybody’s wearing frowns/The king went and misplaced his crown/But it’ll come around, sings Sarah Jarosz on “Come Around,” from her second Sugar Hill album, Follow Me Down. Not yet legally old enough to drink, Jarosz, who is gaining a following in Americana and modern bluegrass circles alike, shows an [...]

Punch Brothers play the Billy Reid Shindig on Wednesday, March 14, 2012, at Swan Dive. Click here to RSVP. Read reviews and get a free download of tracks from each of our Shindig artists, including the Punch Brothers’ “Movement And Location,” by downloading our Sampler. We recently chatted with banjoist Noam Pikelny about the song, [...]

ELLNORA The Guitar Festival returned to the University of Illinois campus at Urbana-Champaign last weekend for its fourth biennial year in what has become one of the most anticipated and celebrated events in the “down-state” community. Named after the wealthy Illinois alumni Herman C. Krannert’s wife Ellnora, the festival takes place in the beautiful performing [...]

Preview: Ellnora – The Guitar Festival Ellnora Krannert was married to the successful businessman Herman C. Krannert who, in the early part of last century, bootstrapped his way through the University of Illinois and eventually become a millionaire and philanthropist — making the world a better place with corrugated fiber boxes. The Krannert Center on [...]

Mandolin wunderkind gets a little help from her friends.

Sierra Hull is a 19-year-old singer-songwriter and mandolin wunderkind, whose new album, Daybreak, was produced by Barry Bales, the bass player in Union Station. Hull made her Grand Ole Opry debut at the age of 11 with Alison Krauss and Union Station. Hull postponed her music career to attend Boston’s Berklee College of Music, where [...]

Chris Thile and “Brothers” Bring Their Chops to Nashville