A few of Blake's instruments that may soon be for sale include two pre-war Martins, a Gilchrist F-4 mandolin, and two 1915 Vega Cylinderbacks.

When folk legend Judy Collins met luminary poet Leonard Cohen in 1966, he sang her “Suzanne” and “Dress Rehearsal Rag” — and altered the course of both their careers. That same year, Collins recorded those two songs on her 1966 album In My Life, which went gold in 1967. Cohen…

By Greg Cahill Talk about topical folk music. “Indian Givers,” the debut single from Neil Young’s upcoming mostly-acoustic CD, lends moral support to the battle at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, where Native Americans, veterans, and other environmentalists are fighting construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline…

Take a six-minute escape from your workday woes and enjoy this pared-down, winsome Lou Reed cover of “Perfect Day” by Andrew Bird and The National’s Matt Berninger. Recorded live in late August in Bird’s living room, the cover is part of Bird’s ongoing “Live From the Great Room” series, in which he hosts musician…

Calling all Western Swing fans: Check out this video lesson, featuring Ranger Doug (Riders in the Sky, The Time Jumpers), from the Jazz Academy at Lincoln Center. Watch Ranger Doug explain where he gets his rhythm guitar aesthetic from, citing the influence of Count Basie’s guitarist Freddie Green, and then…

Back in May of this year, Smithsonian Folkways, the nonprofit label of the Smithsonian Institution, acquired Arhoolie Records, and today Folkways is making 300 albums (more than 5,500 tracks) from the beloved label available again. Arhoolie is best known for its “down home” blues, jazz, country, gospel, Cajun, zydeco, Mexican-American, and…

Earls of Leicester took home the top prize—Entertainer of the Year—at the 27th Annual International Bluegrass Music Association Awards, held in Raleigh, North Carolina on September 29. It was the second consecutive Entertainer of the Year win for the bluegrass supergroup featuring Jerry Douglas, Barry Bales, Shawn Camp, Charlie Cushman,…

By Greg Cahill The Del McCoury Band today released the digital track “I Fell in Love,” originally co-written and recorded by Carlene Carter (daughter of June Carter Cash and Carl Smith) in 1990. The new version offers a more stripped-down interpretation of the hit song, complete with ferocious banjo picking…

At a wildlife summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, delegates representing 181 countries agreed to get serious about the illegal rosewood trade.

by Anna Pulley A Prairie Home Companion’s new host — mandolinist, singer, and songwriter Chris Thile (pronounced thee-lee), of Nickel Creek and Punch Brothers acclaim — has announced his house band, which includes Acoustic Guitar favorites Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan, Chris Eldridge (his bandmate in Punch Brothers). Punch Brothers’ bassist Paul…

L.A.-based guitarist Ben Woods calls his style Flametal — blending flamenco flavor with heavy metal — and it’s perfectly demonstrated in this clip from his recent Classical Guitar Session. Watch above as Woods performs a creative cover of the Foo Fighters’ hit, Grammy-nominated song “The Pretender,” from the group’s 2007…

With more than 12 million views, stop us if you’ve seen this clip before, but it’s well worth a repeat watch. The young and immensely talented Swedish-born fingerstyle guitarist Gabriella Quevedo tackles Tomi Paldanius’ arrangement of the Eagles’ “Hotel California,” which incorporates every part of the 1977 hit from vocal…

[Disclaimer: The following is not an actual instructional piece. We’re so sorry. It’s Friday and we just want you to have a good laugh.] By Mark Kemp THE PROBLEM: You pick up your guitar and turn to your favorite songbook with a title like One Billion Pop Songs to Play on Acoustic…

By Mark Kemp Brazilian samba revivalist Seu Jorge will kick off a brief David Bowie tribute tour on Nov. 4 in Miami, Florida. The singer and guitarist, best known in the U.S. for his Bowie covers in the 2004 Wes Anderson film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, released an album of those songs, The Life Aquatic…

The wait is almost over: The comprehensive Everly Brothers’ BBC documentary, Harmonies From Heaven, will be released in the States on double-disc DVD/Blu-ray and digital formats on September 9. The film was broadcast on BBC4 in April. The doc focuses on the duo in the 50s and 60s and features…

Love & Hate, British folksinger Michael Kiwanuka‘s sophomore album, released July 15, has entered Billboard‘s Americana/Folk chart at No. 3. The singer-songwriter’s debut album of 2012, Home Again, was a set of mostly acoustic folk songs. Love & Hate finds Kiwanuka exploring more of an electric vibe, although the title track has him back to…

The Easy Leaves—guitarist and vocalist Sage Fifield and bassist and vocalist Kevin Carducci—are returning to the Pickathon music fest in Portland, Oregon, on August 4 and 5. The Northern California honky-tonk duo recently released their third album, the five-song EP Fresno, and will be touring the Pacific Northwest and Los…

In 2005, Larry Campbell, a producer and former guitarist with Bob Dylan, teamed up with Band member Levon Helm in a converted barn on the singer and drummer’s upstate New York farm to direct a series of famous Americana showcases known as the Midnight Ramble. Campbell, who produced and recorded…

By Mark Kemp When former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl announced two decades ago that he would be coming back with a new band after his brief but meteoric run with that iconic ’90s band, music industry insiders were not just a little skeptical. After all, the drummer had also revealed he would be the…

The Northwest String Summit kicks off today and runs July 14-17 in North Plains, Oregon with Yonder Mountain String Band performing all three nights. Above, watch the Colorado-based band at the 2015 festival playing “All The Time” — off its latest album Black Sheep — and below, watch its cover…

From the August 2016 issue of Acoustic Guitar | BY GREG CAHILL Dillon Hodges is a popular electro-pop artist whose recent self-titled album firekid (Atlantic) is the vanguard of a stealth campaign to bring bluegrass music to the masses. The soft-spoken native of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, recently stopped by the AG…

By Bob Doerschuk Judging from what some critics said, one might have a better time stuck in an elevator than in a theater watching I Saw The Light, available now on Blu-ray/digital on demand. Various reviews describe the Hank Williams biopic as “a two-hour shrug” (Kyle Smith, New York Post),…