If, as Shakespeare suggested, life is a play and all men merely players, Kindal Jumper is one of the rare people with a backstage pass.

On May 7, violinist Emily Oing took the stage at Memorial Auditorium for her last concert as a member of the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera Youth Orchestra program.

Although they stumbled upon bluegrass later in life rather than growing up steeped in its traditions, there's something about the genre that agrees with Seven Handle Circus.

Some people take pleasure in the huge crowds, manic energy and sensory overload of the Bonnaroo Music Festival, but it's not everyone's cup of tea.

It's awfully hard to concentrate when you're fixated on hell.

When it comes to running footwear, experts say there's no such thing as the best shoe, just the right one.

Long before she felt at ease with a microphone in her hand crooning to an audience in a gentle, sonorous twang, Abigail Blake was a brutally shy child.

Motor City rock legend Ted Nugent will bring six strings of fury to Track 29 on Aug. 21, the Market Street venue announced Monday.

When Darde Long toured the Warner Park Zoo on her first day in Aug. 21, 1985, she realized she was facing an uphill battle of fulfilling her dream of helping animals.

As amazing -- or frankly, baffling -- as it may seem, Riverbend is just around the corner.

In the message-driven genres of blues and gospel, the bigger the vocals, the better that message is conveyed. When it comes to pipes, Alexis P. Suter's are as big as they come.

Chattanooga Times Free Press entertainment reporter Casey Phillips spoke Algerian-born French guitar guru Pierre Bensusan about how he discovered the DADGAD tuning, what drives his stylistic exploration and taking his audience on a musical journey.

Some people like to treat music like a tacklebox, putting various artists in their designated trays for simplicity’s sake.

Leaning over her pony's short, brown mane as he leaps over a raised bar almost 3 feet off the ground, Hailey Kreek looks more like an extension of her pony than his rider.

Banjo maestro Bela Fleck surprised a few dozen guests at the Folk School of Chattanooga on Friday with an impromptu appearance to perform and answer questions.

This afternoon, banjo maestro Bela Fleck surprised a few dozen guests to the Folk School of Chattanooga with an impromptu appearance to perform and answer questions.

It's a well-known fact that 90 percent of the Internet is made of cats.

When the wind blows, goes the adage, the stubborn oak is the one that falls while the willow survives by bending with the gusts.

To residents of Clayton, Ga., in 1970, playing on the Grand Ole Opry was practically the equivalent of earning a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.

While she said she feels drawn to the energy and freedom of movement in jazz dance, Candace Ricketts has always been head over pointe shoes in love with ballet.

Veteran chess players hope to attract a new generation to the checkered board.

In-Town Gallery reinvents itself every spring and fall.

Ask most people how they feel about Don McLean's sprawling pop epic "American Pie," and you're almost guaranteed to get a lengthy response.

Anglers are notorious for embellishing tales of "the one that got away," but in the case of the Goliath species on display in a new Tennessee Aquarium exhibit, no exaggeration would be necessary.

To some, the banjo is a five-stringed instrumental punchline with little to no relevance or function outside the confines of backwoods picking circles.

Some actors gird themselves in confidence and self-assurance to stave off stage fright. Spencer Morse prefers stainless steel -- about 30 pounds of it.

To truly experience Chattanooga, visitors shouldn't be content with riding the Incline Railway or goggling at the Tennessee Aquarium's undersea menagerie. Restaurateurs and proponents of local agriculture say they need to taste it, too.

Do you want fine china or paper plates? Is a buffet more your style, or would you prefer your guests seated? Are you feeding a handful or hundreds?

When it comes to being a master of the mandolin, few artists could make a better claim to the title than Chris Thile, but he would be the first to argue that the instrument always offers room to grow.

In her 1818 novel "Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus," Gothic author Mary Shelley spins a terrifying tale about a creature created in a horrific experiment combining body parts harvested off corpses.

Considering he co-founded a band that bridges the worlds of bluegrass and rock, it's appropriate that mandolinist Drew Emmitt was born in Nashville but first heard the instrument through Led Zeppelin, not Bill Monroe or David Grisman.

Runners describe the feeling of a second wind as one of increased confidence, improved performance and less-strenuous breathing, often just as they were starting to feel overwhelmed by fatigue.

If listening to Mallory Ledford's voice leaves more than a few eyes in the audience teary, she said that just means a job well done.

Most preteens long for the growth spurt that will make them look as grown up as they're starting to feel. Brett Cooper wishes hers had stopped a little sooner.

At an age when most people's greatest concern is finding time between attending parties and studying for final exams, Victoria Justice is juggling three careers.

Before the product's March 2010 launch, critics of Apple's iPad suggested it was a device without a market -- too big to follow smartphones into pants pockets but without the functionality of full-fledged laptops.

Considering the way their voices intertwine in hauntingly beautiful harmony, it might seem like sisters Paige and Claire Campbell have always been friends.

As I sit here listening to him ripping through his legendary bluegrass instrumental "Foggy Mountain Breakdown," it's hard to imagine how different bluegrass music would have been without Earl Scruggs.

Some artists' songwriting process involves carrying around a notebook and waiting for inspiration to strike. Others devote time every day to studiously honing their craft.

It started with chopsticks. When she was 9 years old, Allison Anderson, now 14, had an itch to create something, so she began attaching painted beads to the wooden utensils to make elaborate hair pins for her grandmother.

With gas prices seemingly forever on the rise, most people would happily avoid having to pull up to the pump. Once every couple of decades, however, the Markert family looks forward to the opportunity.

Since she became the youngest award recipient in the history of the Grammys in 1990, hardly a year has gone by that Alison Krauss hasn't walked away from the ceremony with a golden gramophone.

For Of Montreal lead singer Kevin Barnes, playing songs from the band's latest album, "Paralytic Stalks," for the first time was like poking a needle into the bubble of isolation he surrounded himself with while writing it.

To paraphrase the ending to the pixelated 8-bt classic "Nintendo Pro Wrestling": "Congratulations, Strung Like A Horse, a winner is you."

Like most young musicians, Hannah Claire Davis, 13, and her sister Gracyn, 11, don't like practicing on the piano, but they recognize that it's a necessary evil.

When it comes to social labels, few are as nebulous and polarizing as “hipster.” To some, the term indicates membership in a trendy, intelligent and creative counter-culture that is fascinated with irony, repopularizing outmoded fashions and art outside the mainstream.

On March 20, The Rev. Horton Heat, Larry and His Flask and another band whose name isn't quite fit for print helped Rhythm & Brews celebrate 11 years of serving up great music and fantastic microbrews.

There are few things sadder than a song without a band to sing it.