The Bluegrass Review

Series produced by Philip Nusbaum

Series image
Image by: Shutterstock 

Bluegrass music's authoritative radio home.

The Bluegrass Review is a weekly 1-hour show which presents bluegrass music in a lively and informative format. Produced in two segments approximately 30 minutes apiece, each complete show is programmed in thematic bursts. For example the sample show #321 includes songs about hard work, guitarists who emphasize the bass end of the guitar's range in their soloing, and an interview with nationally-recognized autoharp player, Karen Mueller. The program includes frequent interviews and produced segments on topics that parallel concerns and interests of Bluegrass musicians and fans.

(PRX Feature Series image from Shutterstock.)


Additional Files

361 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Caption: Phil Nusbaum w/2013 Zeitfunk, Credit: Karen Van Norman
The Broadcast begins with recent bluegrass. Then, the Gem of Bluegrass focuses on how playing the melody serves to ground performance. Later we tal...

Bought by RadioFreePalmer, KIOS-FM Omaha Public Radio, and WTIP


  • Added: Sep 03, 2017
  • Length: 58:00
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: Phil Nusbaum w/2013 Zeitfunk, Credit: Karen Van Norman
After a new piece of bluegrass, we play a couple of nostalgia songs; both bittersweet because while the places in memory are still around, the peop...

Bought by RadioFreePalmer, WTIP, and KIOS-FM Omaha Public Radio


  • Added: Aug 29, 2017
  • Length: 58:00
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: Phil Nusbaum w/2013 Zeitfunk, Credit: Karen Van Norman
The broadcast opens up with a couple of pieces that depict or embody the musical values of old-time fiddle players. Then comes an instrumental by t...

Bought by RadioFreePalmer, KIOS-FM Omaha Public Radio, Prairie Public, and WTIP


  • Added: Aug 05, 2017
  • Length: 58:00
  • Purchases: 4
Caption: Phil Nusbaum w/2013 Zeitfunk, Credit: Karen Van Norman
We open with a piece of new bluegrass. Them we present contrasting songs that feature memories. There are a lot of songs that depict memories of a ...

Bought by RadioFreePalmer, KIOS-FM Omaha Public Radio, Prairie Public, and WTIP


  • Added: Aug 02, 2017
  • Length: 58:00
  • Purchases: 4
Caption: Phil Nusbaum w/2013 Zeitfunk, Credit: Karen Van Norman
After a new and dreamy song by Dale Ann Bradley, we get a good, bluegrass-style dose of reality, with a couple of recent songs about the bad influe...

Bought by RadioFreePalmer, WTIP, KIOS-FM Omaha Public Radio, and Prairie Public


  • Added: Jul 28, 2017
  • Length: 58:00
  • Purchases: 4
Caption: Phil Nusbaum w/2013 Zeitfunk, Credit: Karen Van Norman
The show opens by playing important new releases. Then, the Gem of Bluegrass tells of the evolution of the song Little Maggie. She was a hard drink...

Bought by RadioFreePalmer, KIOS-FM Omaha Public Radio, Prairie Public, and WTIP


  • Added: Jul 24, 2017
  • Length: 58:00
  • Purchases: 4
Caption: Phil Nusbaum w/2013 Zeitfunk, Credit: Karen Van Norman
A couple of songs about small towns and small town people opens our broadcast. Eddie Adcock served for well over a decade as the banjoist for the C...

Bought by RadioFreePalmer, KVNF, WTIP, Prairie Public, and KIOS-FM Omaha Public Radio


  • Added: Jul 24, 2017
  • Length: 58:00
  • Purchases: 5
Caption: Phil Nusbaum w/2013 Zeitfunk, Credit: Karen Van Norman
The show opens with a couple of songs about mountain men. The second one is also a song of separation, which slides into another separation song. O...

Bought by KVNF, RadioFreePalmer, KIOS-FM Omaha Public Radio, Prairie Public, and WTIP


  • Added: Jun 26, 2017
  • Length: 58:00
  • Purchases: 5
Caption: Phil Nusbaum w/2013 Zeitfunk, Credit: Karen Van Norman
Most bluegrass songs relating to separation have it as a result of a breakup. But that isn’t true in this show’s opening group of songs. In these s...

Bought by RadioFreePalmer, KIOS-FM Omaha Public Radio, Prairie Public, and WTIP


  • Added: Jun 18, 2017
  • Length: 58:00
  • Purchases: 4
Caption: Phil Nusbaum w/2013 Zeitfunk, Credit: Karen Van Norman
The show opens with songs about love, and the majority are happy ones. If you know bluegrass, you know that’s not the normal ratio. The Gem of Blue...

Bought by RadioFreePalmer, WTIP, KIOS-FM Omaha Public Radio, and Prairie Public


  • Added: Jun 13, 2017
  • Length: 58:01
  • Purchases: 4
Caption: Phil Nusbaum w/2013 Zeitfunk, Credit: Karen Van Norman
The show opens with new bluegrass from the record labels. Then, our Gem of Bluegrass treats the connections between bluegrass and America. The grea...

Bought by WTIP, KIOS-FM Omaha Public Radio, and Prairie Public


  • Added: Jun 06, 2017
  • Length: 58:00
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: Phil Nusbaum w/2013 Zeitfunk, Credit: Karen Van Norman
Cold. In Bluegrass, the word frequently refers to emotion, not the temperature. We open with a few “cold” songs from different eras of the music. O...

Bought by WTIP, KIOS-FM Omaha Public Radio, and Prairie Public


  • Added: Jun 01, 2017
  • Length: 58:00
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: Phil Nusbaum w/2013 Zeitfunk, Credit: Karen Van Norman
The program opens with a couple of songs where mistaken identity plays. The Gem of Bluegrass adds some ideas to the current ferment about bluegrass...

Bought by WTIP, KIOS-FM Omaha Public Radio, and Prairie Public


  • Added: May 25, 2017
  • Length: 58:00
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: Phil Nusbaum w/2013 Zeitfunk, Credit: Karen Van Norman
A couple of love songs that are a little out of the ordinary begins our broadcast. Then the Gem of Bluegrass considers drums in bluegrass. Because ...

Bought by WTIP, KIOS-FM Omaha Public Radio, and Prairie Public


  • Added: May 23, 2017
  • Length: 58:00
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: Phil Nusbaum w/2013 Zeitfunk, Credit: Karen Van Norman
Bluegrass songwriters have long thought and wrote about old family homes. But it is fare from a complete nostalgia trip, as many of the songs lamen...

Bought by WTIP, KIOS-FM Omaha Public Radio, and Prairie Public


  • Added: May 17, 2017
  • Length: 58:00
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: Phil Nusbaum w/2013 Zeitfunk, Credit: Karen Van Norman
The city is at best a necessary evil when it comes to bluegrass songs, Our show opens with a couple of songs about people who live in northern citi...

Bought by WTIP, KIOS-FM Omaha Public Radio, and Prairie Public


  • Added: May 11, 2017
  • Length: 58:00
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: Phil Nusbaum w/2013 Zeitfunk, Credit: Karen Van Norman
Early on today’s broadcast, we play a couple of recent songs about love. They are not broken-hearted melodies, but romantic songs depicting happy c...

Bought by RadioFreePalmer, WTIP, KIOS-FM Omaha Public Radio, and Prairie Public


  • Added: May 04, 2017
  • Length: 58:00
  • Purchases: 4
Caption: Phil Nusbaum w/2013 Zeitfunk, Credit: Karen Van Norman
Bluegrass music concerns itself with farm work. Many, including those on this show concern themselves with how hard the work is. The Gem of Bluegra...

Bought by RadioFreePalmer, WTIP, and Prairie Public


  • Added: May 03, 2017
  • Length: 59:01
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: Phil Nusbaum w/2013 Zeitfunk, Credit: Karen Van Norman
There is a steady stream of bluegrass treatments of country songs a generation and more old. We play a couple of gems from the current crop of blue...

Bought by WTIP, RadioFreePalmer, KIOS-FM Omaha Public Radio, and Prairie Public


  • Added: Apr 22, 2017
  • Length: 58:01
  • Purchases: 4
Caption: Phil Nusbaum w/2013 Zeitfunk, Credit: Karen Van Norman
In bluegrass songs, bad things seem to happen to marginal people in marginal places. We comment on that characteristic during the Gem of Bluegrass....

Bought by RadioFreePalmer, WTIP, KIOS-FM Omaha Public Radio, and Prairie Public


  • Added: Apr 21, 2017
  • Length: 58:00
  • Purchases: 4