Art Menius

Not since the breakup of Touchstone more than 15 years ago has the Triangle produced a Celtic ensemble as powerful as Cucanandy. Since forming in 1998, the group has performed at the Kennedy Center and Spoleto, while touring such Celtic music hotbeds as Scotland, the Shetland Islands, and the Atlantic coast of Canada. Contented Minds […]

Following Nickel Creek’s remarkable national breakthrough, Chris Thile has released Not All Who Wander Are Lost, the third solo outing for the 20-year-old phenom. The new record, an all-instrumental affair that takes off from the sound of Nickel Creek, reminds us of two facts: First, that Thile remains the most exploratory and creative mandolin player […]

Between the Civil War and World War II, both blacks and whites in central North Carolina played fiddle and banjo music. Three decades ago, Durham and Chapel Hill musicians helped spawn the old-time music revival, and, ever since, the area has attracted the best young players of this genre–a musical style that hasn’t enjoyed commercial […]

The myth of Gram Parsons as father of country rock (and thus mainstream country music of the mid-1980s and Americana today) stretches the truth so far that it obscures the contributions of myriad folks. These range from his partner, Chris Hillman, to The Downliners Sect, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Poco, Earl Scruggs, Linda Ronstadt and […]

Long before there was “Riverdance,” there was Cherish the Ladies, the first all-female Irish music ensemble, a concept far more radical some 15 years ago, when the band emerged from a series of concerts of women Celtic musicians. From the start, Cherish the Ladies masterfully combined the excitement of blending traditional Irish music and dance. […]

On their new Copper Creek CD South of Nowhere, Bill and Libby Hicks find some delightful places among the wealth of styles available to Americana musicians. Besides the traditional fiddle tunes and ballads that form the bedrock of old-time music, with which they are so closely associated, the Hickses venture into songwriting with a handful […]

As a member of two of bluegrass music’s most significant ensembles of the past dozen years–first the Lonesome River Band and currently Alison Krauss and Union Station–Dan Tyminski’s voice, and his mandolin and guitar playing have naturally gained more notice than his name. The Coen brothers’ film O Brother, Where Art Thou?–which saw its soundtrack […]