“Banjo” and “Bronx” are two words that rarely find themselves in the same sentence, and yet Hurray for the Riff Raff have made it their business to not only smush ’em together side by side, but have ...

As with any other hobby or skill, every guitarist has to start somewhere. For most of us, it all started by playing air guitar along with some of our favorite songs and wishing we could play like our ...

Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn met at a square dance in Nashville. She was dancing. He was playing. Fifteen years later, they’ve built entwining careers — as well as a family — upon that initial ...

The banjo is typically reserved for folksy country songs, but the instrument can be pretty versatile (even if it still totally sounds like it should be on a folk song). These 11 bands channeled their ...

Country giant Brad Paisley’s new record is called “Love and War.” It starts out with a banjo riff and slides into the trebly twang of a Telecaster. The first track is an ode to slow Southern living ...

Carrie Underwood was nominated for three awards at Wednesday night’s CMT Music Awards, and won two — one for Performance of the Year; the other for Female Video of the Year — but her most impressive ...

Falling in love with Mutual Benefit’s debut full-length, Love’s Crushing Diamond, isn’t easy. Opener “Strong River” only unfolds after two minutes of meandering guitar, clinking wind chimes and ...

At Bele Chere this year, local electroacoustic newgrass band Brushfire Stankgrass released its latest album, One For The Salamanders. Tracks from the disc are culled largely from 2008 performances at ...

Abigail Washburn and Bela Fleck know that, figuratively speaking, one plus one doesn't always equal two. The couple, both among the world’s most skilled banjo players, have created two children, but ...

Watching Steve Martin riff on stage at the Denver Botanic Gardens’ Chatfield, it was easy to see how he sold out stadiums with his stand-up comedy in the ’70s. Martin came prepared with an arsenal of ...

Punctuated by three-part vocal harmonies and banjo riffs that could hold their own next to the most technical of trash-metal guitar riffs, Austin’s Wood & Wire are arguably one of our region’s best ...

Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/460323238/460323284" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player ...