With their white-felt hats, suits and skinny ties, the members of Open Road are dressed to put Traditional Country back into Bluegrass—which they...
Open Road…In the Life
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Art, Guns and Culture
Old Friends
Firefighter Anthony Michael James strikes his own match to the flames reaffirming what Country music should be. The CD and title song “Old Friends”...
A Tribute to Jimmy Martin “The King of Bluegrass”
The “Good ’N Country” style of Jimmy Martin and the Sunny Mountain Boys entertained and inspired several generations since the 1950s. Jimmy’s climb...
A Ballad of the West: Songs From the Epic Trilogy
Bobby Bridger is a modern epic poet or bard, once referred to as the “Shakespeare of the American West.” Bridger’s rich musical trilogy spans the...
In Her Daddy’s Footsteps
Alecia was nominated for Emerging Artist of the Year in 2004 by the International Bluegrass Musicians Association, but that doesn’t mean she...
Saddling Up in Style
Jerry Croft can be a stubborn cuss. Growing up in Michigan, he decided he was going to be a cowboy. There was just one problem. Everybody told him...
A True Country Brew
Barbequed with a hint of barley smoke could describe Sony Music’s new Western tunesmith and vocalist Trent Willmon. But whatever you do, don’t call...
Del McCoury’s High Lonesome Sound
When you think Bluegrass, you are thinking Flatt & Scruggs and Bill Monroe. When you hear Bluegrass, you are probably hearing the “high...
True West’s Best of the West 2005 Winners
Celebrating our 51st continual year of publication, True West again brings you our hoarded nuggets, our favorite out-of-the-way secrets: the best...
Paying the Rent
R549 is a country band that re-invented itself nearly three years ago by going back to its roots—those being Lower Broadway in Nashville, the...
Duct Taping the West
Richard Goff knows two things well: rawhide braiding and horses. Horses came first. “I grew up in the Southeast, the Carolinas, and got my first...
The Russians are Coming
“It’s strange that a little town like Taos, New Mexico, would get two artists from Russia,” said Frank Waters, an author who lived in Taos and knew...