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This was a big thrill for me!! David "Dawg" Grisman just celebrated his 80th birthday, with a musical party in Seattle, with Sam Bush, Billy Strings, Ronnie McCoury, Sam Grisman, Danny Barnes, Alex Hargreaves, Dominick Leslie, Mike Marshall and more.

His musical career has spanned folk, jug band, blues, classic bluegrass, newgrass, swing jazz, Dawg Music, and world music. The David Grisman Quintet, Earth Opera, Old and in The Way. "Manzanita", "The Pizza Tapes". Tony Rice, Jerry Garcia, Peter Rowan, Vassar Clemens, Stephane Grappelli, Andy Statman, Mark O'Connor, Todd Phillips, Darol Anger, and on down the line. He's still a busy guy, with lots of projects in the works, but was kind enough to take some time to chat. Thanks Dawg.

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Banjo master Kyle Tuttle just finished up three years with Molly Tuttle (no relation) and Golden Highway, during which time they played 250 shows, won two Grammys, and many IBMA awards. He previously played in the Jeff Austin band. Jeff was a founder of Yonder Mountain String Band.

Kyle is closely aligned with the so called "Jam Band" style of bluegrass, but also leads his own band, and performs more traditional bluegrass regularly at Dee's in Nashville, with many top players. Sometimes flamboyant on stage, in person he is thoughtful and insightful about bluegrass, then and now. A delightful conversation!

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Chris Eldridge, son of Ben Eldridge of The Seldom Scene, is one of the most renowned guitarists in acoustic music. After getting a Grammy nomination as a member of The Seldom Scene, he co-founded multiple IBMA award winning bluegrass band The Infamous Stringdusters. He then joined Chris Thile and The Punch Brothers, and the rest is history.

He also tours with legendary jazz guitarist Julian Lage, played in the house band on "Live From Here" (formerly Prairie Home Companion), teaches music at his alma mater Oberlin College, and tours with his wife Kristin Andreassen. An eloquent and thoughtful observer of music, with a special connection to his friend and mentor Tony Rice.

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Pete Wernick, fondly known as Dr. Banjo, co-founded Hot Rize in 1987 with Tim O'Brien, Mike Scap, (soon replaced by Nick Forster) and Charles Sawtelle. Originally from NYC, he had a PhD in sociology, taught at Cornell, hosted a bluegrass radio show, and played in the progressive bluegrass band Country Cooking, with Russ Barenberg, Kenny Kosek, Tony Trischka and Andy Statman before moving to Colorado with his wife Joan.

Pete has written numerous highly regarded books on bluegrass banjo and bluegrass jamming, and founded the Wernick Method of bluegrass instruction, which has been used by hundreds of teachers worldwide to teach tens of thousands of students how to play bluegrass. A longtime Colorado resident, Pete is a fascinating guy with lots of great stories!

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Vickie Vaughn plays bass for the multi-awarded bluegrass band Della Mae. They will be touring soon, performing a tribute to Hazel Dickens. Vickie is an in-demand studio musician in Nashville, and fronts The Vickie Vaughn Band. Her second album gets released in November. She was classically trained as a singer, and sings lead in her band. She also toured and sang harmony for years with country music star Patty Loveless.

Vickie is an eloquent voice for women in bluegrass and real country music. She has lots to say about the role of the bass, about her bass hero Missy Raines, her musical friends in Nashville, and her hope to someday get a pet cat. One of the most delightful and funny interviews I've ever done!

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Maddie Denton is a young fiddle player, singer and songwriter based in Nashville. She's been with the hot young band East Nash Grass for 7 years. During that time she taught high school biology, coached their golf team, and also played with the Dan Tyminski band for 4 years. Now she's a full time musician, touring and recording with East Nash Grass.

Lots of stories, from her youth winning Texas fiddle contests, making the somewhat difficult transition to bluegrass (tough playing in B and Bb!), finally being on the same concert bill as her hero Sting, and her lessons learned about improvising and playing relaxed. Enjoy!

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Brenna Macmillan is a young singer, songwriter, banjo player, studio musician and band leader living in Nashville. From Kentucky, her story is fascinating and unusual. Home schooled with 12 siblings, nine of whom were Liberian war orphans adopted by her parents, she and her brother performed as the duo Theo and Brenna for many years, even as she worked full time, went to college, and became a chemist.

Her first album was released to great acclaim last October. She is now devoting her life full time to song writing and plans on touring with her band. Brenna is generous, talented, and determined, while at the same time she's a free spirit, who goes where her dreams and instincts take her. I hope it brings her to Connecticut soon!

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Shelby Means played bass for Della Mae, and currently plays bass and sings with Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway. Her debut, self titled album comes out May 30, 2025. She sings lead, and wrote almost all the songs.

We spoke at length about her bluegrass upbringing, her love of singing and songwriting, how she gets inspiration from Missy Raines, Molly Tuttle and Bronwyn Keith Hynes, and her views on playing the bass. Her bucket list singing partner might have been Billie Holiday. She's excited to tour, leading her own band and doing a lot of original songs. Hopefully we'll get to present her in concert sometime soon!