When it comes to bluegrass banjo, you’d be hard-pressed to find as vivacious and voracious a picker-n-grinner than Kyle Tuttle. 

On his latest single, “Broke Down Engine,” singer-songwriter Woody Platt teamed up with bluegrass icon Del McCoury.

Editor’s Note: Since first rolling into Haywood County in August 2012 to start work as the arts and entertainment editor for The Smoky Mountain News, Garret K. Woodward has been extensively documenting banjo players around our backyard.

In the mid-1960s, when Bill Allsbrook was a med school student at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, he decided to pick up the banjo. 

A beloved long-time Western North Carolina tradition, the 49th annual Mountain Heritage Day will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 30, on the campus of Western Carolina University in Cullowhee.

Americana/bluegrass artist Darren Nicholson will hit the stage at 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23, at the gazebo in downtown Franklin.

The alarm on my smart phone echoed throughout the small cabin. It was 7:30 a.m. Saturday and I had to be somewhere in an hour — hopping onto a saddle for an early morning horse ride. 

Late last month, I was lucky enough to catch a special musical performance in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

This past spring, guitarist Seth Taylor and his band, longtime bluegrass staple Mountain Heart, once again took the stage under the bright lights at the legendary Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. 

Since its inception in 2000, Greensky Bluegrass has grown from a scrappy string ensemble to one of the premier live stage acts currently touring the country.