A New Song: Interview with Jesse McReynolds

A few years ago, I had the honor of spending the afternoon with the legendary Jesse McReynolds for a cover feature in Virginia Living Magazine.

In a wide-ranging interview, conducted at his event space, the Pick Inn, outside of Nashville, the matchless mandolin virtuoso talked with me about how he and his brother Jim McReynolds formed Jim and Jesse, one of the greatest bluegrass acts in history, and how he became the longest-running regular on the Grand Ole Opry, among many other topics (including his relationships with the likes of Bill Monroe and the Louvin Brothers, and his work with -- yes -- The Doors).

Jesse is still going strong, performing on the Opry (at age 90), and remains one of the nicest guys in the music business. Thanks Jesse.

Read "A New Song" by going right here.

And for more on Jesse McReynolds and Jim and Jesse, get to steppin' here.

Old-Time Man: Interview with Ralph Stanley

Thanks to Ken Burns, I can shamelessly plug some of my previously-published features on the history of country and bluegrass music -- like my Virginia Living Magazine cover feature on the legendary Ralph Stanley, who passed away in 2016.

Eight years earlier, I got to spend the day with Dr. Ralph at his Ralph Stanley Museum in Clintwood and talk with him at length about his incredible career, including his relationship with brother Carter, his discovery of Ricky Skaggs and Keith Whitley, the career resurgence that followed his work in "O Brother, Where Art Thou," and his unlikely one-off collaboration with the great James Brown.

Read "Old-Time Man" by going right here.

And remember: You CAN get tired of chocolate pie!

(Photo by the mighty Robb Scharetg)

Raw Enough: The Candy Snatchers Return

Formed in 1992, the Virginia Beach-based Candy Snatchers made quite a first impression—their unpredictable, often unhinged, stage performances frequently included pyrotechnics and blood-letting—when they played legendary Virginia clubs such as Norfolk’s Kings Head Inn and Richmond’s Twisters, and later toured the U.S. and Canada.

After 16 years, three albums, and more than a dozen singles, the Snatchers dissolved following the 2008 death of guitarist Matthew Odietus.

But a decade after disbanding,  the Snatchers have never been hotter. "Moronic Pleasures," a new release on Berlin, Germany’s Hound Gawd label featuring lost sessions from 1997, is earning raves and garnering new fans. The current interest has spurred the gang to start it all up again.

Read "Raw Enough," my Virginia Living Magazine piece on the Candy Snatchers and their unlikely resurrection, by going here.

And for more on the Candy Snatchers, go here.

(Photo by the mighty Lori Golding)

Frank Guida and "High School U.S.A."

Frank Guida liked to think big.

The Virginia music producer, who scored national hits with Gary “U.S. Bonds” and Jimmy Soul in the early 1960s, is known as the spark plug behind the Norfolk Sound—the rambunctious party music that influenced generations of rockers.

Old Dominion University’s Perry Library recently unveiled its new Frank and Carmela Guida Collection of rare papers, recordings, and personal items from the producer’s archives. Donated by Guida’s family, the collection includes handwritten lyrics, contracts, correspondence, photos, tapes, and original recording equipment.

Even with legal papers embargoed until 2029, the collection is filled with historical insight into the recording industry and the Norfolk music scene. One box in particular reveals behind-the-scenes details of the producer’s most audacious recording—a song, or songs, waxed 60 years ago, called “High School U.S.A.”

My look back at this unusual record -- and all of its many regional variations -- is now online at the Virginia Living Magazine website.

You can read "School is In" by going right here.

For more on the archive, read my recent Coastal Virginia Magazine article right here. 

And for more on ODU's Special Collections, click this spot. 

Picker's Supply: Strings Attached

At first glance, Picker’s Supply in Fredericksburg, Virginia seems like an ordinary instrument shop—amplifiers, ukuleles, and bass guitars adorn the front aisles, and classic rock lingers in the air, punctuated by the sound of customers tentatively thumping, strumming, and banging prospective purchases.

Wander a bit and you’ll learn why, to many musicians, this is a sacred space. The affable owner, Bran Dillard, with his sandy beard and encyclopedic knowledge of anything with strings attached, leads a visitor to the back where stacked lines of unique guitars and other musical oddities sit inside glass showcases. “This represents the evolution of Americana music,” he says.

My Virginia Living Magazine article on this unique musical destination is now online. Read "Strings Attached" by going right here.

And for more on Picker's Supply, go here.

(Photo by the mighty Jennifer Chase)

Making the Charts with Trey Pollard

My April Virginia Living Magazine column on musician and producer Trey Pollard is now online

Pollard is best known as the inventive arranger behind the soul and indie-rock performers -- standouts  from Matthew E. White to Natalie Prass -- on Richmond’s distinctive Spacebomb label.

For his own first solo album, he took a detour from his usual string and horn sweetenings. Antiphone is a beautifully realized classical chamber music disc, mostly four-string quintet, a moody mélange of cello and violin that simmers and stimulates. “I don’t see it as a record like any other Spacebomb has done,” the 35-year-old Chesapeake native says. “It’s all about making a statement, and trying not to lose too much money.”

Find out more about Trey Pollard and his arresting new record by clicking here.

And for more on Spacebomb Records, go here.

Photo by the mighty Sarah Walor!

Growing Down with Illiterate Light

“The limitations of our set-up give us a certain edge,” says Jake Cochran, the drummer and one half of Illiterate Light, a Harrisonburg duo that is taking its high-energy two-man live show and hummable tunes beyond regional acclaim. “I think people can feel it.”

Produced at Montrose Studios in Richmond with engineer Adrian Olsen and The Head and The Heart’s Charlie Glenn, Illiterate Light’s striking new album is filled with sugary, Classic rock-influenced gems. And it’s getting notice. National Public Radio named the Light’s anthemic “Better Than I Used To,” which was released as an advance single, as one of its “Ten Hot Summer Songs” for 2018.

Find out more about illiterate Light. Read the December 2018 installment of my Virginia Living Magazine music column by taking yourself right over here.

And for more on Illiterate Light -- yes, they were named after the Wilco lyric -- you can two-step it here.

(Photo by the mighty Joey Wharton)

Interview with Daniel Bachman

“I’ve always been into traditional American music as well as contemporary experimental music,” says Daniel Bachman, whose finger-picked acoustic guitar and banjo instrumentals—traversing between classic Piedmont blues covers, ruminative Americana, and atmospheric soundscapes—have won rave reviews from the likes of Rolling Stone, The Guardian, and National Public Radio.

Atmospheric tunes like “New Moon” and old-timey workouts, such as “Wide Oak,” even prompted NPR to enthuse that Bachman isn’t just playing guitar, “He’s sculpting sound.”

As his career unfolds, the 29-year-old Bachman prompts continuous comparisons to the late John Fahey, the guiding light of the American Primitive style of folk guitar. “I became aware of John Fahey right after I had this epiphany that you could tune the guitar like a banjo,” he says with a laugh. “And then it was, ‘Oh wait, someone’s already been doing that for forever.’”

My interview with the Fredericksburg, Virginia sonic sculptor is now online at the Virginia Living Magazine website. Read "Orange Country Serenader" by clicking here.

(Photo by the mighty Jen Fariello!)

Bee Happy: Saving the Honeybee

My long, loving look at the Virginia honeybee has been posted online. I hope it starts a buzz.

The Virginia Living Magazine article, titled "Bee Happy," follows  Virginia backyard beekeepers who are helping pollen-loving Anthophila—and in particular the much-needed honeybee—to survive in an ever-changing, tumultuous climate.

“The numbers of bees have been going down dramatically since the 1970s,” Keith Tignor, Virginia’s state apiarist, tells me in the piece. “We estimate that we have had as many as 85,000 to 90,000 beehives across the state, and now we’re looking at 35,000, maybe at best 40,000, hives.” The die-off is part of a nationwide trend known as colony collapse disorder, he adds, and this past season was Virginia’s worst in a long time. “We lost 60 percent of our managed colonies this past winter.”

But with recent rains, things may be looking up for the bees. Find out by reading "Bee Happy" right here.

And more on the products of Virginia beekeepers, go here.

(Photo by the mighty Kate Thompson!)

The Old Dominion Barn Dance

It was Virginia’s biggest hoedown. First airing in 1946, the Old Dominion Barn Dance was broadcast on Richmond’s WRVA radio as the city’s version of Nashville’s Grand Ol’ Opry. Hosted by pioneering femcee Mary “Sunshine Sue” Workman, the country music variety show lasted a little more than a decade, but its steel guitar-sweetened echoes still resonate.

“The Barn Dance had great entertainers, musicians, and vocalists,” remembers Cal Newman, 86, a fiddler who grew up listening to, and later performing as a backup musician on, the Saturday night performance. “A lot of legends used it as a stepping stone to greater things, like Chet Atkins, Mac Wiseman, Reno and Smiley ... for some, it became a jumping off place to Nashville and stardom.”

With its blend of rustic, sometimes sentimental songs (“You Are My Sunshine” was Sue’s signature sign-off), folksy product placement, and cornball humor, the Barn Dance became wildly popular, and not just in Virginia—WRVA’s 50,000 watts could span several states, and portions were heard across the world on Armed Forces Radio. Sue and her cast even made it to Broadway in 1954 to perform in a country musical called Hayride.

My photo feature on the Old Dominion Barn Dance is now up at the Virginia Living Magazine website. Lasso it right here. Find out about the amazing legends who passed through the program, as well as the contemporary reboot of the big show that happens at Hopewell's Beacon Theatre.

(Photos courtesy of the Library of Virginia)

Tricked-Out Whiskeys

There are currently more whiskey distilleries in Virginia—55 and counting—than in Kentucky or Tennessee, and many operations, established and new, are helping to push the palate on how whiskey can taste.

Using unique smoking and aging methods, bold flavor infusions, and even ingredients that are way out of the norm, Virginia is at the vanguard of tricked-out whiskeys. My feature on steeping and infusing is now online at the Virginia Living Magazine website. You can read it right here.

In this piece, I profile the pioneering whiskey flavorists at Belmont Farms Distillery, Copper Fox Distillery, Virginia Distillery Co., Belle Isle Craft Spirits, MurLarkey's, among others.

(Photo of Chuck Miller of Belmont Farms Distillery courtesy of Belmont Farms)

Sarah White: High Flyer

“When you’re around for 20 years,” singer-songwriter Sarah White says, humbled, “I guess you do have some fans out there.”

White successfully crowd funded her new album, High Flyer, through Kickstarter. It came with some trepidation. "All my life, I’ve never liked asking for help. I like for people to think I’ve got my [act] together all the time. I don’t, of course, but I didn’t want to beg.”

The resulting 11-song disc, praised by Rolling Stone. and featuring an appearance by Dave Matthews, is a landscape of both familiar and uncharted territory for the soulful performer, a Central Virginia mainstay who has leapfrogged from folk to lo-fi pop to indie-rock to country in her troubadour’s journey.

Read my profile of Sarah White by going to the Virginia Living Magazine website.

And for more on Sarah White and High Flyer, go here.

(Photo courtesy Sarah White)

King Vinyl: Record Stores in Virginia

With more new vinyl being manufactured—and available in chain outlets Barnes & Noble, Urban Outfitters and others—sales of record albums keep climbing. Nielsen Soundscan reports that 2017 marked the 12th straight year of growth for the once-abandoned LP format.

“People like the ritual of putting on an album, looking at the cover, the aroma of it,” says Ian Little, co-owner of Roanoke's Vintage Vault. “Vinyl just has more personality to it. The gatefold covers, the inserts, they are sort of like art objects.”

Virginia Living Magazine has posted my October music column about the resurgence of vinyl and the growing number of independent record retailers. There are nearly three dozen brick-and-mortar album outlets currently making noise across Virginia, including longtime fixtures like Richmond's Plan 9 and Birdland in Virginia Beach,. but also newer spots like Vintage Vault, Richmond's Steady Sounds, and Sound Idea, which is located on the Eastern Shore.  In Virginia, it seems, albums never went away and are as hot as ever.

To read "King Vinyl," go here.

Do you want to take an Old Dominion Record Store Tour? Here's a list of selected vinyl shops across Virginia. 

(Photo of Steady Sounds Records by the mighty Markus Schmidt)

The Ancient Art of Bowhunting

Here's a past epic just making its way online -- my Virginia Living Magazine feature on the ancient art of Bowhunting.

As with my stories on quilts, hot rods, candy making, and moonshine cooking,  I started off not knowing one whit about archery or hunting wild game with a bow, and ended up fairly fascinated with not only the difficult mechanics of the sport, but also the respectful code of conduct that the hunters shared. These are hardly Ted Nugent-like yahoos just out to kill stuff.

In the end, I'm proud of the results, titled "Me and My Arrow." Read it here at the Virginia Living Magazine website. The article ran in the mag's October 2015 issue, so note that the stats, fees and such were correct up to that time (I never know when they are going to put these up, folks).


The photos are by the mighty Adam Ewing! I mean it, Adam. You scored a bullseye here.Thanks!

On The House: North Shore Point

Jim Morrison, a veteran journalist from Hampton Roads, has been putting on concerts at his Norfolk, Virginia home for years. His backyard has grown to become the area's often sold-out venue of choice for national singer-songwriters and unplugged rockers.

Morrison’s North Shore Point   House Concerts convinces  Grammy-winning troubadours and acclaimed up-and-comers to perform on his lawn, and they always come back. The likes of Steve Forbert, Garland Jeffreys, Chris Smither, Kelly Willis,  Todd Snider, Della Mae, Marshall Crenshaw, Chuck Prophet, Lloyd Cole, Alejandro Escobedo, Peter Case, the Blasters’ Dave Alvin, and many more.

Read my Virginia Living Magazine story on Morrison's promotions, and how North Shore Point is now partnering with the Virginia Arts Festival to bring even more live music to Tidewater.

Read "On the House" at this location.

For more on North Shore Point House Concerts, go here.

(Photo: Della Mae)

Annabelle's Curse is Lifted

Imagine being the best death metal band in New Orleans. Or an acid jazz combo in Utah. Or an ace Memphis-based polka ensemble. You might feel a little out of place.

Much like Bristol's Annabelle’s Curse, a genre-defying indie-rock outfit that is making some unexpected noise in the mountainous Virginia/Tennessee border town acknowledged worldwide as the birthplace of country music.

Read my Virginia Living Magazine feature on the band right here.

And for more on Annabelle's Curse, go here.

Exebelle and "After All This Time"

As you may know, I write a regular column for Virginia Living Magazine that takes a look at the music of the commonwealth, from new bands to old traditions. I've been doing it, off and on, for more than a decade and it's still the only column of its kind. (Here's a list of some of the topics I've tackled over the years). The only problem is that the Virginia Music column is not always available online -- which should compel you to actually go out and buy the handsome glossy print edition of VL.

Having said that, my April column on the Richmond band Exebelle, and their new, ambitious 2-LP set, "After All This Time," has just been posted, and I'm happy to see it out and about. I've been a big fan of this underrated and under-heard country-rock outfit since they were known as Exebelle and the Rusted Cavalcade. The new release, six years in the making, features a cascade of catchy refrains, sing-along choruses, stacked harmonies and ear-grabbing instrumental hooks.  It's the best record of 2018 you haven't heard..

Read my column on Exebelle right here.

And for more on the band and its music, go here.

Bonus: I taped an interview with Exebelle's Phil Heesen III and Kerry Hutcherson for my Richmond news-talk radio show on WRIR 97.3 FM, Open Source RVA. Listen to it right here.

A History of Jazz in Virginia

Even in unlikely hamlets like Bedford, Suffolk and Lawrenceville (home of legendary saxophonist Sheldon Powell, pictured), Virginia has been one of jazz music’s most fertile growing fields.

My cover feature on Virginia's jazz history is now online at the Virginia Living Magazine website, tricked out with all kinds of rare photos, music clips and supplementary pieces -- like my feature article on Salena Jones, and Markus Schmidt's interview with Richmond jazz keyboardist Lonnie Liston Smith.

Spend some time here and learn about all that jazz.

Funny Business: Interview with Bryan Tucker of SNL

Veteran comedy writer and Virginia native Bryan Tucker celebrates his 13th season with NBC-TV's Saturday Night Live this year. A multiple Emmy nominee and Peabody Award winner, the boyish co-head writer, 45, works at 30 Rock but has some interesting side-gigs too, like his new sports comedy website, The Kicker.

Recently, Tucker took some time to talk to me about, among other things, how SNL has kept its mojo after all these years, writing comedy in the age of Donald Trump, and what in the heck is so funny about Chesterfield County.

Read my Virginia Living Magazine interview with Tucker here. 

(Photo courtesy NBC-TV)

Salena Jones: Virginia's Lost Jazz Diva

For many across the globe, the clearly phrased, softly soulful jazz of singer Salena Jones is shorthand for class, sophistication, romance. The active octogenarian still sells out venues and jazz festivals from Japan to the U.K. But she is virtually unknown in her own country, and her hometown of Newport News, Virginia.

More than a decade ago, Virginia Living Magazine flew me to London to interview Virginia's great lost jazz diva, and to tell her story for the first time. The feature article is now (finally) online, and designed to complement my current Feb. 2018 cover feature in the magazine on the history of Jazz in Virginia.

I'm ecstatic that it is finally online because this  feature profile on Salena Jones is one of my personal favorites, and Ms. Jones was one of the most fascinating people I've ever had the pleasure to profile. You'll understand why when you read the piece.

Saxophone legend Richie Cole has called Salena Jones “one of the greatest singers alive,” and she’s toured and sung with Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Johnny Ray, Tom Jones, Antonio Carlos Jobim; been backed by ace sessioneers such as Steve Gadd, Kenny Burrell; was responsible for giving “King” Curtis—a.k.a. Curtis Ousley—his nickname. Formerly known as Joan Shaw (her given name) she's also a genuine female R&B pioneer—her early recordings on labels like Savoy, Gem and Jaguar, leading revved-up “orchestras” like Paul Williams’, Russ Case’, Luther Henderson’s and Danny Small’s, didn't spawn big hits, but they showed her undeniable vitality as a creative pre-rock innovator.

In the mid '60's, after releasing two major label albums as Joan Shaw, she would boldly change her act, her whole persona, and say goodbye to her country, transforming herself completely into Salena Jones. “Before I went, the march to Washington had just happened," she told me. "Kennedy had just been shot. I looked at myself and said, ‘What am I going to do here—with my career? I’m only one person, what can I do?’ The best thing to do is to go to another world.”

Read my profile of Salena Jones here.

And for more on her music, go here.