Junior Sisk is not known as the most talkative artist in bluegrass music, but he did record a podcast interview last week for Roanoke.com, the online home of my hometown newspaper, The Roanoke Times.

Junior had a show nearby and spoke at some length with music reporter Tad Dickens about his latest CD, Blue Side Of The Blue Ridge, and the 2009 IBMA Awards, where Junior had several nominations.

You can hear the entire 20 minute interview at Roanoke.com.

Sunday’s edition of The Boston Globe carried a feature on now hometown girl, Sarah Jarosz, who moved from her native home in Texas to Beantown to study at The New England Conservatory of Music.

Entitled The freshman, the general tenor of the piece by Joan Anderman is the contrast between Sarah’s path and that of the average 18 year old artist with a recording contract.

Now, just when most rising stars would be leaping headlong into the beckoning arms of agents and promoters, Jarosz is putting her career on the back burner to study at the New England Conservatory. She admits that enrolling in the school of life was a tempting choice; plenty of musicians do it, and many believe that hitting the road is the only legitimate path for a player.

“I talked to a lot of musicians that I respect and got a lot of different opinions,’’ Jarosz says over coffee at a cafe near campus. “And I definitely did ponder the idea of just going straight into the music career. But there’s always more to learn, and I also didn’t want to miss out on the college experience. My roommate is a classical vocal performance major; she does a lot of opera singing, which is something I’ve never really been around before. I’ve been listening to a ton of Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan. I’m in a world music and a Jewish music ensemble. I’m getting out of my comfort zone.’’

You can read the whole article online.

There are a number of great opportunities today/tomorrow to check out live music and interviews via online radio.

This morning (11/13), Buddy Woodward of Dixie Bee-Liners will be with Carol Beaugard on WFDU. They will talk about the new Bee-Liners CD, Susanville, and The American Revival Tour they are currently working along with Sierra Hull and Uncle Earl.

WFDU broadcasts at 89.1 FM in NYC, and online via live streaming at www.wfdu.fm. The show, Lonesome Pine RFD, airs from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon (EST), and Buddy’s interview will air at 11:00. If you miss it live, look in the audio archives where it will reside for the next two weeks.

Carol also mentioned a show she did yesterday with Ned Luberecki, who broadcasts for Bluegrass Junction, the all-bluegrass channel for Sirius-XM. It can also be accessed in the archives.

“We spoke of his early work with the Paul Adkins Band. He updated us on Paul – who apparently worked for a while as a golf pro and then designing kitchens. Ned emailed him very recently and learned that Paul is back to playing music with a few gigs around the Maryland area and we both commented how wonderful it would be to see Paul back in performance.

Ned spoke at length about his work as a broadcaster on Sirius and credited his bandleader, Chris Jones for first recommending him to Sirius launching a new career so ‘he could support his banjo habit.’  We also played a couple of tracks that Ned co-wrote on the new album for Chris Jones and the Nightdrivers’ Cloud of Dust.

We also discussed his work producing the IBMA Awards show with Cindy Baucom at the Ryman Auditorium, as well as what an honor it was to broadcast the Awards Show this past year, in the same booth where Eddie Stubbs and other broadcast legends have stood.”

At noon, April Verch and her band will perform live on Blue Plate Special, broadcast on WDVX from Knoxville. We reviewed her terrfic new CD, Steal The Blue, earlier this year.

You can catch the show over the air at 102.9 in and around Knoxville, or online at WDVX.com.

Later this evening, you can hear Ricky Skaggs, The Whites and Mike Snider on The Grand Ole Opry. Of course, The Opry is carried live on WSM from Nashville, which is also simulcast live online. The show airs from 8:00-10:00 p.m. on Friday nights.

Then after Saturday’s (11/14) Opry (where The Whites and Jesse McReynolds will perform), bluegrass legend Curly Seckler will make a rare live appearance on The Ernest Tubb Midnite Jamboree from The Texas Troubadour Theater in Nashville, also broadcast on WSM.

Jesse McReynolds will host the Tubb show, and Curly is expected to sing a couple of songs with The Virginia Boys, and probably at least one with Jesse.

It is always a treat to hear Curly sing, who did as much as anyone to define bluegrass tenor singing during his tenure with both Flatt & Scruggs and Lester Flatt & The Nashville Grass.

We posted several times last year about the demise of Bluegrass Now, which had published continuously for 18 years. Stung by the widespread downturn in print periodicals, publishers Wayne and Deb Bledsoe closed the magazine down after the December 2008 issue.

Bluegrass Now tried going all-digital in March 2008, hoping that eliminating the print and mailing costs would allow them to survive with an online subscription model, but unfortunately for the entire bluegrass community, it was not to be.

The Bledsoes spelled it out in in their farewell message…

Although Bluegrass Now has avoided the magnitude of problems afflicting the major publishers, the economic downturn has impacted us in a variety of ways. After prolonged deliberations, we have decided that rather than compromise the integrity and quality of the magazine, which we have sought to maintain since its inception in 1990, we will cease publication at the end of this year.

One thing left unresolved was the status of the existing online subscribers when the magazine closed up shop. That issue has finally been resolved, and all current subscribers as of 12/08 will be offered an online subscription to Flatpicking Digital, the online home of Flatpicking Guitar magazine.

FGM publisher Dan Miller explains how the switch-off will work.

“Before they went out of business they were only offering a digital version of the magazine, so I’m allowing all of those people who still had issues remaining on their subscription to Bluegrass Now to have a one year digital subscription to Flatpicking Guitar Magazine – both our digital magazine and the audio files.”

Former BN subscribers can contact FGM for more details if they have not yet been contacted about this offer.