Mike Jackson

Jam Etiquette, Leadership, and the Reality of Big Jams If you’ve spent any time around bluegrass jams lately, you’ve probably noticed the circles are getting bigger. What used to be a handful of players gathered around a picnic table can now turn into twenty or more musicians packed into a corner of a brewery or festival campground. Fiddles double, guitars stack up, banjos multiply, and suddenly it’s hard to hear where the beat is, let alone know who’s taking the next break. When that...

Because Gabe Hirshfeld showed up for people everywhere. Not in a vague, inspirational way, but in the most practical, human sense possible – his presence. He answered messages. He took calls. He showed up. He cared deeply about people, about music, and especially about the banjo. He cared about how your banjo sounded and how it felt in your hands, even if you’d never met and might never cross paths in person. When news of Gabe’s passing spread, the response was immediate and overwhelming. It...

Tucked into the juniper-filled rolling hills of Castle Rock, Colorado, an intimate bluegrass festival has quietly grown into one of the...