Welcome to South’s first Music Blog! Allow me to introduce myself: Music has always been a big part of my life. I was classically trained to sing as a kid, and used that talent to sing along to riot grrrl CDs at the top of my lungs as a teenager, and in the shower as an adult. I got my first guitar at age 12, and have only improved slightly since then. I’m even worse on the banjo, but it doesn’t stop me from loving the feel of it in my hands. I guess I am more of an observer than a participant, but I am one hundred percent a music lover.

The Jimmy Wolling Band keeps it real in Savannah’s bluegrass scene.

Jimmy Wolling hates computer boys.

You know, he says, the solo acts that push a button and suddenly transform what would otherwise be a simple acoustic guitar and vocals into some sort of canned approximation of an entire band—or orchestra. That trend rubs Wolling the wrong way, although he’s quick to say that perhaps hate is too strong a word for those who’d rather program a robotic musical “servant” than get living, breathing humans to flesh out a stage show.

“It’s more of a sense of frustration,” the lanky banjoist with long, blonde curls says in a deep Georgia drawl that betrays his Savannah roots—and that has become something of a trademark. “I’ve spent years mastering my instrument, and I

The mounting success of Georgia’s own Lovell sisters is a story of near global proportions.

When the Lovell Sisters Band returns to Savannah in March, they will be fresh off their third European tour. Norway, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland—the sultry tunes of their unique brand of homegrown bluegrass has taken these Southern girls far and wide. Yet, it wasn’t long ago that the Calhoun, Georgia, natives were simply sisters and far fro the tremendous trio they would one day become.

Classical piano and violin lessons learned in childhood took on new meaning for Jessica, Megan and Rebecca when, several years ago, a friend took them to the Mountain Opry in Signal Mountain, Tennessee, and they were exposed to the intoxicatingly country sounds of bluegrass. “[The music] acted as a social glue,” Jessica recalled of her first experience with mountain music.

Caroline Herring is no liar. She won’t pretend that she grew up singing on a dusty front porch, playing second fiddle to the sounds of crickets chirping and mosquitoes humming. She will, however, passionately discuss how her quiet childhood in small-town Canton, Mississippi, forged her path to becoming the so-called next big thing in folk music. To say that Herring never imagined that path would lead her to the stage and a roster of critical acclaim as long as her guitar strings is certainly an understatement.

Now in her mid-30’s, the Atlanta-based wife and mother of two still vividly recalls when her father first introduced her to the powerful sway of music when he gave her a ukulele and played records by the Kingston Trio, one of the most influential folk music groups of all time. Yet, despite this unique form of home schooling, Herring’s real love for folk music didn’t begin in the family living room; it all started at Ole Miss when she began performing with The Sincere Ramblers, a local country-bluegrass group. In 1999, when she moved to Austin, Texas, to study folklore in the prestigious American Studies doctoral program at the University of Texas, Herring’s spark of interest became a flame of enthusiasm. Being absorbed by the art of story telling in a city known for its thriving music culture was enough to propel Herring into a fruitful career of beautiful music-making that would later have her setting up camp in the Peach State.