Reviews

When Balsam Range came onto the scene in 2007, we all knew this Haywood County band would quickly become a major name in our beloved bluegrass world. It wasn’t because they were instrumental and vocal heavyweights—that’s common in our world;

I wasn’t sure what to expect upon encountering a bluegrass album that featured an “intro” and “outro” on the track listing. Would there be spoken word tracks? Some kind of wild and crazy instrumentation? Was this a bluegrass opera and

A Distant Horizon, the new album from southwest Virginia’s Jeff Brown & Still Lonesome, proves at least one thing: the band takes its name to heart. Many of the songs here contemplate loss – of chances, of a home, and

Last night, O'Connor Band performed at Nashville's City Winery, and the stars of Music City's bluegrass scene came out to enjoy the show. Our own Terry Herd was in the audience, and he sent along a few photos and some

With so many subgenres and genre mixes and edge-of-this-or-that’s out there, sometimes it’s nice to just sit back and listen to straight-ahead bluegrass with a prominent five string and songs of heartbreak, hard work, and the mountains. That’s just about

There are plenty of brother acts in bluegrass, but sister groups have been a little harder to come by. Enter The Hinson Girls, four sisters in their late teens and early twenties, from Lancaster, SC. The girls have been performing

Several years ago, a sibling band based out of Florida took the bluegrass world by storm when they won the 2012 SPGBMA Band Competition and set off on a powerful career that recently earned them a number of IBMA Awards,

Rebekah Long has chalked up an impressive bluegrass resume over the past decade despite often staying behind the scenes. Long was one of the first graduates of Glenville State College’s bluegrass program, and spent time playing bass with both

Can any song be turned into a bluegrass number? And furthermore, should it? Those are the questions I found myself asking as I listened to Dwight Yoakam’s new album, with the tongue-in-cheek title, Swimmin’ Pools, Movie Stars.... Yoakam lined up a

When it comes to learning a craft, there are lots of insider tips, tricks, and so called "trade secrets" out there - the stuff that "only the pros know" and everyone else is dying to find out. This can be