“In a very real sense not one of us is qualified, but it seems that God continually chooses the most unqualified to do his work, to bear his glory. If we are qualified, we tend to think that we have done the job ourselves. if we are forced to accept our evident lack of qualification, [...]

I recorded the first guitar tracks today for a new recording (Black Lion converters truly excel). The recording will be mostly original secular songs, some bluegrass, some acoustic whatever-it-is, with a couple gospel songs, all co-written with Rebecca Reynolds, writer of the beautifully poetic lyrics on topics various and sundry. There will be at least one [...]

Ron Block interview on The Rabbit Room.

Alison Krauss & Union Station’s new recording Paper Airplane will be released April 12. Stay tuned to Alison’s website for tour dates. The official Alison Krauss YouTube channel features “Behind the Scenes” videos of the making of Paper Airplane.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]An instrumental version with my 1938 Martin D28 Herringbone through a Neumann U87 and KM54. The older I get the more I realize the truth of this song. This is the Friend that will never leave or forsake you.

What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs [...]

I love the butt-kickin’ sound of bluegrass banjo – Scruggs, Crowe, the other Jimmy Martin banjoists. When we have that sound as a base, when we have studied and embodied the passion inherent in it, we then have the tools to go on and play other forms of music using that passion, tone, dynamics, and [...]

In the Shadow of Your Wings
I wrote this song one morning in the early nineties after I woke up with the melody in my head. This is from a cd by The Forbes Family which I produced back in the mid-1990s, with Lisa Forbes singing lead. Barry Bales (bass), Dan Tyminski (rhythm guitar), Adam Steffey [...]

Searching
In 1999 my friend Luke Bulla told me, “You have to see this movie.” I met him at the theater to see The Matrix, and it really blew me away. I saw a story that was essentially my story – a man awakening, coming to know who he really is, and learning to operate in [...]

God created us for union with himself; the Bible is full of depictions of God as a lover. Earthly marriage is a shadow cast by this eternal truth. I wrote this as a picture of God’s love for us – His desire that we should wholly trust and give our hearts over to Him in [...]

A Bluegrass introduction I wrote over on The Rabbit Room:
Bluegrass: A Peek In the You’unsTube Window