bluegrass

Producer Lloyd Maines recalls hearing The Stairwell Sisters for the first time: “I happened upon this tribe of women musicians, playing old-time string music, with the power and excitement of a great rock band.” Tribe of women indeed. Evie Ladin explains what holds sway with the sisters, themes similarly found in one of their early influences, Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard: “not exactly the sweet and tender ladies, but the stand up for yourself and face the world kind of women.”

Russ Barenberg (b. Oct. 8, 1950) is a Grammy-nominated American bluegrass musician. Barenberg began playing guitar at age 13, taking lessons from Alan Miller, whose brother John Miller Barenberg would later play with. His style was heavily influenced by the flatpicking technique of Clarence White. He attended Cornell University and met Pete Wernick there in 1968. Together they joined to form Country Cooking, who released two albums of bluegrass before breaking up in 1975.

Alan Jackson (born October 17, 1958) is an American country singer-songwriter who has sold over 50 million records. He was influenced by the new traditional country of the 1980s, and he was one of the most popular country singers of the 1990s, blending both honky tonk and mainstream country sounds and penning many of his own hits. His success continued into the 2000s and his music became increasingly counterposed with that of more mainstream country acts that were moving toward a more pop music sound.