Reviews

It’s hard to say anything about Mark O’Connor that hasn’t been said before. An award winning multi-instrumentalist, he’s been on the receiving end of countless kudos ever since he proved himself a teen prodigy in his adolescent years. For the

North Carolina banjo picker, Danny Bowers, has released a solo project entitled Late Night. Bowers, who is banjoist with Travis Frye and Blue Mountain, started playing music at age 10. According to Bowers, he is a pure-blooded banjo nerd. For

It goes without saying that the Steep Canyon Rangers are in the forefront of those artists who have helped in the transition from bluegrass to grassicana, sharing their reverence for their roots while establishing their own contemporary credence. There’s no

This review of the 2019 Al Ras Bluegrass & Old Time Festival in Barcelona is a contribution from Michael Luchtan, an American living and studying bluegrass in Spain. In Catalan, the regional language of Catalunya, Al Ras means “in the open

Formed in 2013, Beg, Steal or Borrow received substantial acclaim well before the release of this, their debut album, Old Mountain Time. This publication in particular proclaimed them to be a “Triple Crown Bluegrass Band” by virtue of the fact

There’s a clear distinction between confidence and cockiness. The former is a reflection of effort, ability and familiarity with a genre. The latter is indicative of the desire simply to grandstand and tout one’s image, often to the detriment of

There’s no doubt, even from the opening notes of I’d Like to be Your Neighbor, the initial song on this, their 10th album, that The Churchmen live up to their name. Likewise, it’s especially evident that the title of their new

Assembled banjo pickers at the 2019 North Carolina BanjoFest - photo by Gary Hatley The show must go on and it did, despite a two hour power outage during a rainstorm, at the North Carolina Banjofest this past weekend in Clemmons,

There may be no more successful song incubator than the Lil House songwriting workshops conducted by Donna Ulisse, Jerry Salley, and Rick Stanley at Donna and Rick’s farm in Lebanon, Tennessee. The Family Sowell, Ulisse, and a handful of others have

Jeff Austin, mandolinist, singer, songwriter and founding member of The Jeff Austin Band and Yonder Mountain String Band, passed away back in June, and the world of progressive bluegrass might never be the same. A sudden and tragic passing, he left