On tap for today: an archive interview with bluegrass musician and composer Peter Rowan.

Hurricane Sandy is bearing down upon us now, so the Tumblr and Twitter will be dark today. Stay safe and dry out there!

On today’s Fresh Air: remembering Doc Watson. You can download his interviews on Fresh Air in 1988 and 1989 right here.

It’s a little misleading to say three fingers. It’s actually two fingers, middle and index finger, and your thumb, and it’s kind of — some of the rolls will go, if you number your thumb one, the index two and your middle finger three, it’s like a one-two-three roll, over and over. But to do a tune, it’s like trying to say every word with the exact same amount of syllables in the word. You’ve got to alternate the rolls some to make the tune flow.

— Banjo player Earl Scruggs talked to Terry Gross about his signature picking method.

italiandrifter:

RIP Earl Scruggs, a true Country and Bluegrass music legend

Earl Scruggs on Fresh Air in 2003

Tomorrow: Remembering Earl Scruggs with excerpts from a 2003 interview

Fresh Air remembers bluegrass singer Hazel Dickens, who died on Friday, with excerpts from a 1987 interview: “There did seem to be a large space there that women like me and other women that were coming along could fill. And that was to give other women that didn’t want to sing the old traditional songs — to give them something that they could identify with and something that they could sing. I’ve had many women tell me that I was the only woman who came along that was writing songs that they could sing within the tradition.”

Three exclusive new tracks from ‘Heirloom Music,’ the forthcoming album by Jimmie Dale Gilmore and The Wronglers. They’ll be performing at SXSW next week. Enjoy! [Complete interview here]

Audio for the in-studio Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band performance is now up! Enjoy and safe travels, Tumblr People!

Bluegrass musician Peter Rowan, on playing with the father of bluegrass, Bill Monroe: “I went to Nashville and started hanging out and started the long process of being assimilated into the band. And people began writing in the week after I sang my first solo on the Grand Ole Opry. Bill Monroe took me aside and said, ‘You know, Pete, we’ve had a lot of phone calls and a lot of letters. And people, they like the way you sing. And that’s a good thing. And then he said, ‘And they say you sound like me. And that’s not a good thing.’ “

Tomorrow: an in-studio performance by guitarist and singer Peter Rowan and his band. He started performing with the father of bluegrass, Bill Monroe.