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The International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) announces the appointment of board members, who include Ben Wright (banjo-player of the Henhouse Prowlers) newly elected as a Member at Large, and Joe Newberry, re-elected to represent Artists, Composers, and Music Publishers. More details are on the IBMA press release.

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Nick Dumas, who toured Ireland twice as mandolinist with the Special Consensus, has had his second single, 'Riding the Boston and Maine', released last Friday (17 June) by Skyline Records. The song was written by Tim Stafford and Rick Lang - for Lang, writing it was (as with Niall Toner's 'Railroad dreams') informed by his childhood fascination with railway trains. 'Riding the Boston and Maine' can be heard on Bluegrass Today.

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People sometimes speak of Earl Scruggs as if he alone brought three-finger banjo picking to a world where only clawhammer style existed. Comments on the BIB post of 14-18 Aug. 2020 mentioned two articles by Bob Carlin which showed deep and extensive research on the musical environment in which Scruggs's style emerged.

Now Richard Thompson reports on Bluegrass Today that Carlin's researches have culminated in his What Earl Scruggs heard: String music along the North Carolina–South Carolina border, published by McFarland Press as a 212-page book with 97 photos, appendix, bibliography, and index, at $35.00. Bob Carlin's publications - reviews, liner notes, articles, instruction books, and monographs on banjo history and wider musical history - already form an impressive list, to which this is a very welcome addition.

© Richard Hawkins