Act Naturally

Nedski and Mojo are banjo player Ned Luberecki (“Nedski”) and guitarist Stephen “Mojo” Mougin, who sing together and play banjo–guitar and mandolin–guitar duets. Each has a steady job elsewhere. Luberecki plays banjo in the Becky Buller Band, was the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Banjo Player of the Year in 2018, and has been on the air on SiriusXM’s Bluegrass Junction for more than twenty years. Mougin is the guitarist in the Sam Bush Band and owns Dark Shadow Recording, where he records and produces other artists.

Their album, Nothing More, was recorded at Dark Shadow Recording in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, and issued on the studio’s own label on 17 September 2010. It has eleven songs, among them “Another Way to Get to You,” “Ginny Danced” and “Nyquil Blues,” and the two produced it themselves. Between them they play guitar, mandolin, banjo and dobro on it, and four guest singers join them on “Nyquil Blues.”

Since then the duo have put out digital singles. “A River to Cross” came out on 10 February 2022, and “Act Naturally” followed on 9 August 2024. They recorded “Act Naturally” for what would have been Buck Owens’s 95th birthday. Johnny Russell wrote the song, and Owens and the Buckaroos first recorded it; their version reached number one on the Billboard country chart in 1963, his first chart-topper. The Beatles covered it in 1965, with Ringo Starr singing.

Session details drawn in part from the Bluegrass Discography.