Bill Emerson after the US Navy, and more, from BU

The 63rd weekly newsletter issued by Bluegrass Unlimited magazine (BU) includes (among other good things) a podcast interview with Daryl Mosley about his time with the Osborne Brothers, his songwriting, and his solo album; a video lesson by Dan Miller on basic dobro backup playing, plus an article from BU archives on Speedy Krise, one of the earliest dobro players in bluegrass; and the tenth article in the special series on Bill Emerson, dealing with the period from his retirement from the US Navy in 1993 to his forming his band Sweet Dixie in 2006. His friendship with Tony Rice, his collaboration with Wayne Taylor (who brought his own band Appaloosa to Ireland in the autumn of 2019), and his relations with Geoff Stelling's banjo company, receive special attention.

The newsletter also includes a Spotify playlist of twenty-seven of the over fifty original banjo tunes that Emerson composed. Readers should note that the YouTube playlist 'Bill Emerson collected albums', with fifty tunes from four of his albums, does not include all his own compositions.

© Richard Hawkins