• Frank Solivan On The Edge

    For a couple of years now, Frank Solivan has been like a Triple AAA baseball phenom, extremely talented and just one lucky break away from getting to the major leagues and staying there. Each CD he put out was better than

  • Special Lady, Special Song

    Right after she found out she was dying, Carol Simpson found a way to live forever. She decided to record a bluegrass song. That song, A Part of Me, grew into an album of the same time, recorded with the Canadian band,

  • Frank Solivan Cooks

    First, Frank Solivan cooked a satisfying dinner and his bandmates served it up to about 85 lucky guests. Then the band took the stage and they all cooked. So went Saturday night’s CD release party for Frank Solivan and Dirty Kitchen’s

  • Joe Walsh, Gibson Brothers part ways

    Joe Walsh, whose rock-solid mandolin chop helped give the Gibson Brothers one of the top rhythm sections in bluegrass for the last four and a half years, is moving on. Joe announced the move on his Facebook page, saying he

  • New music from Claire Lynch

    Compass Records is getting ready to deliver a new CD from the Claire Lynch Band, and if a live performance of many of the songs Monday night in Rockville, MD, is any indication, it’s going to be a doozy. Dear Sister

  • Gibson Brothers Flying High

    Late last year, as I chatted with Eric Gibson, I silently doubted him when he said he thought the Gibson Brothers next CD would be their best yet. After Ring the Bell a few years back and album of the

  • Flatt Lonesome’s Strong Start

    Since Flatt Lonesome won the band competition at the 2012 Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America conference, this sextet has been making a lot of noise. A lot of beautiful noise. And that beautiful noise continues with the

  • Bad Girls and Banjos

    Louisa Branscomb didn’t, as Stephen Foster might have put it, come from Alabama with a banjo on her knee. She couldn’t. Girls didn’t play banjo. “I heard that a million times when I was girl,” Louisa told me the other night.