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Last I saw Willie Nelson, on the Outlaw Music Festival tour, he gave well-earned solo space to son Lukas Nelson, who just released his first solo album. It’s high time. Dude’s a lifelong utility player — rock solid on guitar and vocals with the family band, while Willie circles the beat, and a team player with frequent Neil Young backing crew Promise of the Real. He’s become a go-to duet partner, notably with fellow next-gen icon Sierra Ferrell. Ferrell’s cameo on ­Nelson’s new American Romance is “Friend in the End,...

Béla Fleck came away the big winner at Thursday night’s 33rd annual International Bluegrass Music Association awards in Raleigh, North Carolina, winning Album of the Year for My Bluegrass Heart. The banjo virtuoso also won Instrumental Group of the Year, Banjo Player of the Year, and Instrumental Recording of the Year.

“Things grow and they change,” Fleck tells Rolling Stone backstage at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Raleigh. “You are just part of an evolution, and you just have to do your best to...

Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, and Dolly Parton were among the names called when the 33rd annual Ibma Bluegrass Music Awards were announced on Tuesday in Nashville. Strings will compete in six categories, Tuttle in five, and Parton in two when the 2022 IBMAs are held Sept. 29 at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Strings and Tuttle compete against each other in four categories: Guitar Player of the Year, Album of the Year, Instrumental Group of the Year, and the top prize of Entertainer of the Year.

Nominations for the 21st Americana Honors and Awards were announced during a special event at the National Museum of African American Music in Nashville on Monday. The annual celebration of roots music will return to the Ryman Auditorium on Sept. 14.

Brandi Carlile, Allison Russell, and Yola all picked up three nominations this time around, thanks to their strong 2021 albums and singles. All three performers are nominated the same categories: Album of the Year, Artist of the Year (which Carlile actually won in 2021), and Song of the Year. Other Artist of...

Stars: Kristen Kaster, Ethan Mitchell, Jeremy Ninaber, Justin Moses, Matt Daciw, Matthew Ninaber | Written and Directed by Matthew Ninaber

I wasn’t sure what to expect going into Death Valley. On the one hand writer/director Matthew Ninaber also wrote and directed the underwhelming Transference and Extraction Day. On the other hand, he was the guy inside the suit of the titular creature in one of my favourite films of the year, Psycho Goreman. So he should know a thing or two about making a practical monster movie, right?

Death Valley opens, not in the California desert as you might expect, somewhere in Eastern Europe as an unknown man flees an underground research facility going into lockdown. This leaves Dr. Chloe (Kristen Kaster) trapped inside. She sends out a distress call and grabs a fire axe to deal with whatever it is that we hear in the darkness.

Answering her...

Béla Fleck, the banjo visionary in groups like New Grass Revival and his own Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, will release his first bluegrass album in more than two decades. My Bluegrass Heart finds Fleck collaborating with a host of fellow pickers, including Molly Tuttle, Sierra Hull, and David Grisman. The musician previews the upcoming LP with “Charm School,” a thrilling eight-minute jam with Billy Strings and Chris Thile.

“’Charm School’ started out with a banjo tune in C, using loads of harmonics. ‘C harm.’ Get it?,” Fleck says in a statement.

Nominations for the 32nd annual Ibma Bluegrass Music Awards were announced on Tuesday, with Balsam Range, Billy Strings, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Del McCoury Band, and the Po’ Ramblin’ Boys all vying for the Entertainer of the Year prize. The honors will be presented in person (after a virtual event in 2020) on September 30th at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Balsam Range, a past Entertainer of the Year winner, scored nominations in several categories, including Vocal Group of the Year and Song of the Year (for “Richest Man”). Strings,...

Stars: Melissa Joy Boerger, Matt Daciw, Eamon Hanson, Jehan Hashim, Ethan Mitchell, Tony Nash, Jeremy Ninaber, Matthew Ninaber, Gary Kirkham, Marlo Milstone, Justin Moses | Written by Jennifer Lloyd, Matthew Ninaber, Aaron Tomlin | Directed by Matthew Ninaber

The enormous rise of superhero movies has meant that even filmmakers with small budget are trying to create something within the genre. Some have worked, some have not but with the restriction of the budget, writers have had to come up with clever ideas.

At first Transference: Dark Mutants has that definite feel of a sci-fi that is leaning towards horror but it slowly evolves into a more X-Men-influenced sci-fi movie. Lead character Emma possesses supernatural abilities and is almost being kept prisoner by her twin brother Joshua. He believes he is keeping her safe from the outside world, the people that will do horrible things to her if they discover what she can do.

Stars: Melissa Joy Boerger, Matt Daciw, Eamon Hanson, Jehan Hashim, Ethan Mitchell, Tony Nash, Jeremy Ninaber, Matthew Ninaber, Gary Kirkham, Marlo Milstone, Justin Moses | Written by Jennifer Lloyd, Matthew Ninaber, Aaron Tomlin | Directed by Matthew Ninaber

The enormous rise of superhero movies has meant that even filmmakers with small budget are trying to create something within the genre. Some have worked, some have not but with the restriction of the budget, writers have had to come up with clever ideas.

At first Transference has that definite feel of a sci-fi that is leaning towards horror but it slowly evolves into a more X-Men-influenced sci-fi movie. Lead character Emma possesses supernatural abilities and is almost being kept prisoner by her twin brother Joshua. He believes he is keeping her safe from the outside world, the people that will do horrible things to her if they discover what she can do.

On Sunday, Brooks & Dunn, Ray Stevens and record executive Jerry Bradley were welcomed as the newest members of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum at the 2019 Medallion Ceremony, held in the museum’s Cma Theater. Reba McEntire was on hand to induct her Las Vegas co-headliners Brooks & Dunn with the Hall’s Modern Era honor. Ricky Skaggs and the McCrary Sisters sang in honor of musician/country comedian Stevens, who received the Hall’s Veteran Era honor. And Bradley, the record executive who signed Alabama and paved the...

Dierks Bentley has frequently spoken of his enduring love for bluegrass and how it shaped his early days in Nashville, even as his fortunes swelled as a mainstream country performer. On Wednesday night, Bentley put his bluegrass appreciation front and center as the host of an all-star tribute to late bluegrass masters Ralph and Carter Stanley, held at the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Cma Theater.

Timed to coincide with the Hall of Fame’s newly opened exhibit Ralph Stanley: Voice From on High, the event traced the...

First-time recipients and repeat winners were honored at the 29th annual International Bluegrass Music Awards in Raleigh, North Carolina, held Thursday night. Balsam Range, a five-piece band from North Carolina’s Haywood County, took the evening’s top prize as Entertainer of the Year, an award they previously won in 2014.

Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, one of the genre’s most enduring acts, earned their eighth Vocal Group of the Year award, while Female Vocalist Brooke Aldridge and Male Vocalist of the Year Buddy Melton, who leads Balsam Range, were repeat winners...