387 episodes
Bluegrass Jam Along Bluegrass Jam Along
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- Music
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5.0 • 60 Ratings
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The podcast for anyone and everyone who plays bluegrass. Free fiddle tune backing tracks and interviews with people from the world of bluegrass. For every tune we give you four brand new tracks: - Backup 4 times through (you play the tune or improvise breaks)- Tune 4 times through (you play backup)- ‘Jam Along’ (4 complete run throughs, alternating backup and tune)- Full performanceThey work with any instrument - guitar, mandolin, fiddle, dobro, bass, banjo…even if you’re a bluegrass cellist (I have actually met one!). For more info and chord charts, visit https://bluegrassjamalong.com. Hope you find these tracks useful (and thanks for listening!) - Matt
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Bluegrass Briefing - April 29th 2024
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
Church Street Blues reissueChurch Street Blues 40th Anniversary Episode part 1Church Street Blues 40th Anniversary Episode part 2
Releases (The Grass is New)
The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlistScroll on Buddy
Toy Heart Alison Krauss episode
Other bits
Sign up for emails https://bluegrassjamalong.com/contact/The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlistFull list of interviewsPeghead NationUse the code ‘jamalong’ for a free month of any course
Happy picking.
Matt
Support the Show.
===
- 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 -
How to Coach a Band with Stephen Mougin (Sam Bush Band/Dark Shadow Recording)
My guest this week is Stephen Mougin, guitarist in The Sam Bush Band and founder of Dark Shadow Recording.
In this episode we talk about Stephen's work as a band coach. We chat about his training as a vocal teacher, what bands should be working on, including how they should be rehearsing, why preparing for the studio isn't really all that different from preparing to play live and how to listen to music in order to learn from it.
There are so many fascinating insights that will be invaluable to bands and individual musicians, as well as to music fans who just want to understand more about the music they listen to.
To find out more about Stephen's band coaching, check out the band coaching video on his website or visit www.stephenmougin.com
There's also plenty of info on Stephen's studio and record label at
www.darkshadowrecording.com
Happy picking!
Matt
Support the Show.
===
- 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 -
Bluegrass Briefing - April 22nd 2024
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
Library of Congress listReleases (The Grass is New)
The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlistScroll on Buddy
Billy Strings a capella quertetJacob Jolliff Vera performanceOther bits
Sign up for emails https://bluegrassjamalong.com/contact/The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlistFull list of interviewsPeghead NationUse the code ‘jamalong’ for a free month of any course
Happy picking.
Matt
Support the Show.
===
- 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 -
Kristina R Gaddy on the Banjo’s Hidden History (part 2 - new interview)
Kristina R. Gaddy joins me again to celebrate the paperback release of her fascinating book “Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo's Hidden History”.
We chat about the reception to the book's publication in hardback, what information has come to light since publication, Kristina's hopes that her book will inspire others to pick up where she left off and dig deeper, plus how Beyonce's 'Cowboy Carter', featuring Rhiannon Giddens (who wrote the foreword to Kristina's book) increased the attention on the themes the the book deals with.
It was a treat getting to chat to Kristina again. If you missed the original episode, I've reposted it as the episode before this (#380) so you can listen again.
To buy the book, follow these links:
US:
https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393866803
UK/Europe:
https://wwnorton.co.uk/books/9780393866803-well-of-souls
To find our more, visit Kristina’s website and Instagram
The film mentioned at the end is The Librarian and the Banjo
Happy picking!
Matt
Support the Show.
===
- 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 -
Kristina R Gaddy on the Banjo’s Hidden History (part 1 - original interview re-post)
**This interview was originally posted in September 2022**
My guest this week is Kristina R. Gaddy, who joins us to discuss her fascinating book “Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo's Hidden History”.
We chat about how she came to write the book and some of the key discoveries she made along the way, in particular the banjo’s unknown history as an instrument of ritual and rebellion.
Kristina’s research in diaries, letters, archives, and art, traces the banjo’s beginnings from the seventeenth century, when enslaved people of African descent created and carried this unique instrument as they were transported and sold by slaveowners throughout the Americas, to Suriname, the Caribbean, and the colonies that became U.S. states.
It’s a fascinating book and, I hope you’ll agree, makes for a fascinating conversation.
To buy the book, follow these links:
US:
https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393866803
UK/Europe:
https://wwnorton.co.uk/books/9780393866803-well-of-souls
To find our more, visit Kristina’s website and Instagram
The film mentioned at the end is The Librarian and the Banjo
Happy picking!
Matt
Support the Show.
===
- 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 -
Bluegrass Briefing - April 15th 2024 (Church Street Blues re-issue, John McEuen, Jake Eddy)
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
Church Street Blues reissueReleases (The Grass is New)
The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlist
Other bits
Sign up for emails https://bluegrassjamalong.com/contact/The Grass is (mostly) New 2024 playlistFull list of interviewsPeghead NationUse the code ‘jamalong’ for a free month of any course
Happy picking.
Matt
Support the Show.
===
- 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
Customer Reviews
Wow!
I can’t believe I’m just finding this. What an awesome, professional, quality, entertaining podcast. This is filling a void in my world of bluegrass
An Outstanding Find
I’m new to guitar and bluegrass and recently joined a weekly hour-and-a-half jam session, which always goes by way too fast and ends way too soon, it’s so much fun.
This podcast — designed so well with three versions and two tempos for each tune — is a fantastic way to not only prepare myself to play better for the next session, but also to satisfy my hunger for playing with other musicians between my local jam sessions.
I greatly appreciate Matt’s creativity, generosity, and friendliness in putting this podcast together and making it available free of charge.
I've just shared it with all my new bluegrass friends and set up a monthly donation on Patreon, with hopes it enables Matt to add more songs.
Thank you, Matt — you personify the friendly and welcoming community I’m so happy to have become a part of, and you have provided a way for me to develop my skill for playing along to it!
Great way to get involved.
I’ve just started with Bryan Sutton, and come from playing bass in a blues/rock background. (I’ve played in dozens of bands, since 1964). Therefore, I’m not very familiar with the bluegrass tunes; and can’t thank you enough for starting this podcast, which presents those songs for us to familiarize ourselves with.