Bluegrass Jam Along

My guest this week is Bertolf Lentink, better know as simply Bertolf.
Bertolf grew up listening to bluegrass at home in the Netherlands with his parents and learned to play guitar with his father. Then he discovered other bands, including the Beatles and Radiohead, and began writing songs of his own. After several albums in a pop/rock, singer-songwriter vein, he was drawn back to his initial love of bluegrass and decided he wanted to make a bluegrass record.
Bluefinger was recorded in Nashville with string band legends including Jerry Douglas and Stuart Duncan, and featured a selection of Bertolf's existing songs, alongside some newly written instrumentals. When Bertolf returned to the Netherlands and began touring the music with a local band, he decided he wanted to follow it up with Bluefinger 2, this time featuring all new songs and his touring band.
We chat about how Bertolf came to love bluegrass, what music was playing in his house as he grew up and what ultimately drew him back to the music after building a successful career. He talks about the conversation that planted the seed of an idea for Bluefinger, how the record came together and how it felt coming back to the music he loved as a child.
This was a fascinating conversation and I'd urge you to go and check out both records, as well as Bertolf's other work.
You'll find more info at https://bertolf.nl and you can follow Bertolf on Instagram for more regular updates.

Support the show
===

Thanks to Bryan Sutton for his wonderful theme tune to Bluegrass Jam Along (and to Justin Moses for playing the fiddle!)

Bluegrass Jam Along is proud to be sponsored by Collings Guitars and Mandolins and Token premium guitar picks

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- Free fiddle tune chord sheets

- Here's a list of all the Bluegrass Jam Along interviews

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My guest this week is Julian Lage and we're talking about his extraordinary solo guitar album 'World's Fair'.
Julian will be known to many of you as a jazz player but is also widely known in the bluegrass and string band world through his wonderful duet records with Chris Eldridge of Punch Brothers and Mighty Poplar. In fact, Julian's first recording was an acoustic duet with David Grisman as part of the 'Dawg Duos' album.
Julian talks about the challenges and opportunities of playing solo, how he approached making this particular record, why he threw away his first attempt and what he learned about his own playing from making 'World's Fair'.
We also discuss the role acoustic music has played in his career, why being able to interpret song and tunes is so important and how playing music socially in New York with singer songwriters gave him the seed for what turned into 'World's Fair'.

This was a fascinating conversation about a superb album, but also about some of the deeper questions about what it means to make music, both alone and with others.
You can buy the 10th anniversary vinyl and CD reissues of 'World's Fair' and the accompanying songbook via Julian's store.
Follow Julian on Instagram for regular updates and news.

Support the show
===

Thanks to Bryan Sutton for his wonderful theme tune to Bluegrass Jam Along (and to Justin Moses for playing the fiddle!)

Bluegrass Jam Along is proud to be sponsored by Collings Guitars and Mandolins and Token premium guitar picks

- Sign up to get updates on new episodes

- Free fiddle tune chord sheets

- Here's a list of all the Bluegrass Jam Along interviews

- Follow Bluegrass Jam Along for regular updates:
Instagram
Facebook
- Review us on Apple Podcasts

Welcome to this month’s Bluegrass Briefing, a monthly series of episodes taking a look at what’s going on in the world of bluegrass.
Here are the links to stuff mentioned in this episode.
Pod news

Sean Sullivan interview
Lindsay Lou’s Bluegrass Women interview
Julian Lage Australian tour dates

News and announcements - church street news 

Bela Fleck pre-order

Releases (The Grass is New)

Billy Strings - So Much For Goodbyes
Lindsay Lou - Bluegrass Women
Bryan Sutton - From Roots to BranchesBryan interview

Mr Sun - The Idea Guys

Other bits

Full list of interviews
Collings Guitars

Happy picking.
Matt

Support the show
===

Thanks to Bryan Sutton for his wonderful theme tune to Bluegrass Jam Along (and to Justin Moses for playing the fiddle!)

Bluegrass Jam Along is proud to be sponsored by Collings Guitars and Mandolins and Token premium guitar picks

- Sign up to get updates on new episodes

- Free fiddle tune chord sheets

- Here's a list of all the Bluegrass Jam Along interviews

- Follow Bluegrass Jam Along for regular updates:
Instagram
Facebook
- Review us on Apple Podcasts

My guest this week is 5 time Grammy award winning engineer, mixer and producer Sean Sullivan.
Sean has worked with dozens of artists, including Sturgill Simpson, Tyler Childers, The Steeldrivers, The Del McCoury Band, Michael Cleveland, Andrew Marlin, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway and Mighty Poplar.
We chat about his route into recording and how he only came to love string band music when he started working on it. Sean also talks about what he learned in his time at The Butcher Shoppe Studio, owned by John Prine and producer David Ferguson, and his current studio, The Tractor Shed.
We also talk about what's really important in music, Sean's approach to working with artists and why, sometimes, the best sounding records just aren't the best records.
Follow Sean on Instagram or check out www.seansullivanaudio.com to keep up to date with what he's working on. You can find out more about The Tractor Shed at www.tractorshedstudio.com

Support the show
===

Thanks to Bryan Sutton for his wonderful theme tune to Bluegrass Jam Along (and to Justin Moses for playing the fiddle!)

Bluegrass Jam Along is proud to be sponsored by Collings Guitars and Mandolins and Token premium guitar picks

- Sign up to get updates on new episodes

- Free fiddle tune chord sheets

- Here's a list of all the Bluegrass Jam Along interviews

- Follow Bluegrass Jam Along for regular updates:
Instagram
Facebook
- Review us on Apple Podcasts

My guest this week is Lindsay Lou.
I chatted with Lindsay a while back, about her record Queen of Time. This time we're talking about her brand new record Bluegrass Women. Lindsay reveals how the project came about and why she wanted to make a record celebrating the contributions of women to bluegrass. We talk about the musicians on the record - including Sarah Jarosz, Sierra Hull, Molly Tuttle, Laurie Lewis and Alison Brown - and why mentorship and multi-generational music making are so important.

Lindsay also discusses the origin of some of the songs on the record, many of which will be familiar to regular listeners to bluegrass, but not everyone will realise they were written by women (I certainly didn't).
We also chat about the importance of vocal harmony and how Bluegrass Women was a natural progression from Queen of Time and its predecessor Southland.
Here's some info on where to buy or stream Bluegrass Women
You can check out the harmony singing lessons mentioned on Lindsay's Patreon page.
Support the show
===

Thanks to Bryan Sutton for his wonderful theme tune to Bluegrass Jam Along (and to Justin Moses for playing the fiddle!)

Bluegrass Jam Along is proud to be sponsored by Collings Guitars and Mandolins and Token premium guitar picks

- Sign up to get updates on new episodes

- Free fiddle tune chord sheets

- Here's a list of all the Bluegrass Jam Along interviews

- Follow Bluegrass Jam Along for regular updates:
Instagram
Facebook
- Review us on Apple Podcasts