BU: half a century of building bluegrass

With the current issue, Bluegrass Unlimited magazine celebrates fifty years of continuous publication. In the lead feature, Derek Halsey compiles the responses of twenty-six leading figures in bluegrass (including Tony Rice, Sam Bush, Del McCoury, Doyle Lawson, and Rhonda Vincent), all explaining how important BU has been to the music and to them personally.

Other features include a detailed look back at the very first issue; the no. 1 hit songs that BU has listed every month since the beginning of 1990; and an account by Richard D. Smith (biographer of Bill Monroe) of why the first album from the rock supergroup Cream did a great deal to put BU on a firm foundation.

And of course there's a message from the Father of the Mother of Bluegrass Magazines, Pete Kuykendall himself. Not to mention the CD reviews, nine of which can be read on the website.