We found a number of feature pieces on bluegrass/acoustic artists in various print publications this past few days.

Friday’s Knoxville News Sentinel ran an interview with Abby Washburn of Uncle Earl. She talked about their upcoming CD, Waterloo, Tennessee, and having it produced by John Paul Jones, former bass player with Led Zeppelin. The discussion also turned to the notion of performing with an all-female string band.

“Everybody has a different perception of what it means to be an all-female band,” says Washburn. “Sometimes it works in our favor. And sometimes bluegrass festivals will hire us, it seems like, as a way to fill a quota.”

However, Washburn says that women, especially, seem to appreciate the group.

“I think we make it more accessible to them ‚Äî especially since we haven’t all been playing this music since we were 4 years old,” she says.

Read the whole piece on the News Sentinel site.

Sunday’s edition of The Tennessean, Nashville’s hometown paper, had a piece on The Grascals’ recent appearance with Dierks Bentley on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Staff writer Peter Cooper accompanied the band to Los Angeles for the show, and recounts their day at the CBS studio. He also spoke with Ferguson about his appreciation for American country music, and his desire to include it in The Late Late Show programming.

“I got here at this show two years ago and said, ‘We need to send a message to the country community that this is a country-friendly show,’” he said. “When I was a kid in Scotland, we heard a lot of country music. It was Johnny Cash ‚Äî forever ‚Äî and then there was Hank Williams. The first Hank Williams. Country music is popular in Glasgow, Scotland. These are working-class, drinking people.”

You can read the lengthy piece online at The Tennessean site.

This morning’s edition of the Fredericksburg, VA Free Lance-Star has a feature on tomorrow’s release of Slidin’ Home by John Starling & Carolina Star. Since Fredericksburg can lay claim to Starling as a former resident, the article focuses on the fact that Starling left bluegrass to dedicate himself to medical practice, but is now back after his retirement.

Thirty years ago, the Seldom Scene bluegrass band founding member quit the cult-favorite-group-to-be to focus on ears, noses and throats in a Fredericksburg medical practice.

Now he’s retired from medicine–concentrating exclusively on ears.

Read this one online as well.