Led by Kentuckian and former Long Ryder Sid Griffin, The Coal Porters, are a stunningly unconventional five-piece bluegrass band from London. While they perform originals and traditional material alongside songs from Bob Dylan and Gram Parsons, their new release Durango defies the traditional boundaries of bluegrass music which is why they proudly call themselves “the world’s first Alt-Bluegrass band.”…

On November 16th, multiple-Grammy-winning composer and violinist Mark O’Connor will realize a long-held dream: Books I and II of the O’Connor Violin Method will be published. While touring the United States and composing orchestral and chamber music, O’Connor has educated thousands of young musicians at his summer string camps and at such notable institutions as UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music, Curtis Institute of Music and Harvard, always focusing on what he calls “America’s classical music.”

The excitement (and hype) is building over the special events planned for next year at the Graves Mountain Festival of Music in Syria, Va.

The festival will host “Rural Rhythm’s 55-Year Celebration” with a commemorative live recording taking place on Friday, June 4, 2010, during the festival….

To say that Lou Reid and Carolina’s new CD is doing well might be an understatement. Entitled My Own Set of Rules and released on the Rural Rhythm label, the CD has reached the top of Bluegrass Music Profiles’ list of Top 10 Bluegrass albums.

It’s also sitting at No. 5 of Cashbox Magazine’s Top 25 Albums, No. 11 on Bluegrass Unlimited’s…