Resources ・゚✧

Research and Info

  • Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum Oral History Project: A breathtaking number of long video interviews of bluegrass's greatest figures (performers, managers, and more!) - most of these interviews available for unrestricted public viewing. Interviewees include Kenny Baker, J. D. Crowe, Hazel Dickens, Josh Graves, Carlton Haney, George Shuffler, Earl Scruggs, Curly Seckler, Bill Keith, Lance LeRoy, Jimmy Martin, Del McCoury, James Monroe, Jesse McReynolds, Bobby Osborne, Sonny Osborne, Pete Seeger, Ralph Stanley, Roland White, Mac Wiseman.........
  • Clinch Mountain Echo: PDF files and information on Ralph Stanley and Stanley Brothers songbooks.
  • Hillbilly-Music dawt com: Biographical and discographical information on lesser-known early hillbilly artists.

Traditional Tunes

Record Collecting

  • Discogs: Hobbyist collecting website for recorded materials. Offers both a market to sell and purchase records, and user-inputted documentation of record specifics. For those who like to document and show off your collection, discogs allows users to save data on their collection, too.
  • Gripsweat: A searchable archive of past (completed) rare record sales and auctions. Though it states it documents vinyl sales, the truth is it captures all record sales, including shellac 78s. Great way to learn how rare or expensive something is.

Discographies

Live Recordings

  • Bluegrass Archive: Thousands of legal live bluegrass recordings.
  • Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum Digital Archive: Some documents are restricted. However, tons of photographs, posters, interviews, and audio recordings are viewable from home. Of particular entertainment to me are the vintage Grand Ole Opry radio shows available for listening.
  • Fred Robbins' Picking Page: Large compilation of live bluegrass recordings from performances, radio, and jams, 1950s onward with a substantial representation of the Folk Revival era. Includes Buzz Busby, Al Jones, Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, the Stanley Brothers, the Country Gentlemen, Jimmy Martin, and endlessly more.
  • SugarMegs: Not bluegrass or country specific, but has many obscure recordings in the genre. Type in the band you wanna hear and away you go.
  • Take's Live Bluegrass Channel: Takehiko Saiki compiles audio for educational purposes, preserving traditional Americana music (particularly bluegrass). See also Take's Bluegrass Channel and Take's Bluegrass Album Channel.

Magazines and Articles

  • Banjo Newsletter: Sadly recently defunct :(( banjo newspaper which ran 1973-2021. Many articles available electronically on site. Except for one (1) specific interview with David Hoffman from 2004. Not like I'm salty or anything. Not like I've been hunting down a physical copy of this issue or anything.
  • Bluegrass Unlimited: The most prominent bluegrass magazine, 1969-present, currently run by the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Many articles restricted to subscribers, but back issue articles regularly pop up on the site and are a FANTASTIC resource.
  • Bluegrass Today: News for the everyday contemporary bluegrass happenings. Online only.