A super group of sorts, Flashback is essentially an offshoot of the revered bluegrass band, J.D. Crowe And The New South, absent its leader. The group’s current roster includes Don Rigsby (mandolin, vocals), Stuart Wyrick (banjo, vocals), Richard Bennett (guitar,
Author: Lee Zimmerman
-
-
Tim Carter: A Son of the South Stays True to His Roots
Tim Carter adapted to music almost like osmosis. He grew up in Jamestown, North Carolina, the son of a well known radio DJ. He gained his appreciation of music from listening to the sounds played on his father’s show, everything
-
Soul Searching – Mountain Heart
Mountain Heart has undergone considerable changes throughout their 20 year history, transitioning from a traditional bluegrass band to one whose broad sweep now includes not only bluegrass, but a hybrid grassicana sound that incorporates the wider berth of Americana as
-
Bluegrass Beyond Borders – Iain Matthews revisits Matthews Southern Comfort
Iain Matthews may have been born in Britain, but for much of his career, he’s pursued a solidly American folk/grassicana template. Although he first came to fame via a stint in the band that pioneered the folk rock form in the
-
Dreams – Twisted Pine
Whenever a band releases a covers collection, it’s usually an indication that they needed a stopgap of some sort, a momentary respite prior to the planning of their next proper LP. Indeed, given the fact that Dreams is only the
-
Bluegrass Beyond Borders – Pine Hill Strives for a Higher Peak
Many people think of Norway has a cold and foreboding place, a land intersected by fjords and lit by the rays of a midnight sun. Hardly a place where grassicana might find a proper home. So credit the quartet that
-
Heart Wide Open – Kristi Stanley
It’s not often that a stomach virus can help inspire a song. In Kristi Stanley’s case, it was a bug that forced her to take to her bed while offering the opportunity to meditate on her mother’s memory. She drifted
-
Sam Bush on Why He’s So Fanatical About Festivals
You could call Sam Bush a musical multi-tasker. A festival fanatic perhaps. A man who never lacks a muse or inspiration. Or, to put it more succinctly, someone who simply loves what he does. How else to explain his constant desire
-
Didn’t He Ramble: Songs of Charlie Poole – David Davis
It’s a credit to the genre and its ability to evolve and find a fit with contemporary audiences that bluegrass — or grassicana as its current incarnation is often referred to — is open to so many methods of interpretation.
-
Bluegrass Beyond Borders: Adrian Farmer Ploughs the Fields of Grassicana
Consider Adrian Farmer a musical multi-tasker. All the evidence needed can be found on his new independently released solo album Blue Eyes, an adroit blend of bluegrass, balladry and Celtic inflection. In a sense, it's the perfect mix — vintage