Reviews

The opening track of Junior Sisk's new album, Poor Boy's Pleasure, kicks of with a moonshining song. I know! I'm as shocked as you are. Sisk, the bluegrass pride of Franklin County, VA is among the most renowned vocalists in our

Minnesota’s Sawtooth Brothers aren’t brothers – well, technically. They’re actually two pairs of brothers, Clint and Luke Birtzer and Ethan and Jesse Moravec. They’re also not technically bluegrass. Formerly known as the Sawtooth Bluegrass Band, when their banjo player (an

Felts Park in Galax, VA was the setting for the 2016 HoustonFest, the 5th annual celebration of the life and music of Houston Caldwell, a promising young banjo picker who died tragically in 2010 at 18 years of age. By

The Spinney Brothers have become favorites of the traditional bluegrass crowd thanks to their unflagging love for bluegrass music’s past and a keen ear for what today’s listeners enjoy. Previous hits like I Wish That I Could Have Met Carter,

Take the crisp, clean instrumental licks that are a staple of Joe Mullins and the Radio Ramblers, add in almost heavenly three- and four-part harmonies and – just in case all of that isn’t enough – dashes of Ricky Skaggs,

Seize The Day…. In one way or another, that phrase became the catchphrase for an entire music festival this past Memorial Day Weekend, 2016. Seize The Day… Isn’t that how many of us feel as we arrive FINALLY to what is for most,

How to get a head ache in just 10 minutes. “It doesn’t take that long!”, Bill Nowlin, the author of The Rounder Book of Bluegrass Music Trivia might well respond. The recently published Rounder Book of Bluegrass Music Trivia examines bluegrass

And. Just. Like. That. Summer festival season is upon us. All burdens and worries lay crumpled on the asphalt behind us as cheery festival staff lasso our wrists with those colorful Charm City Bluegrass bracelets. We are in the grass now,

In recent years, country music fans who can’t stand today’s rap-infused “bro-country” sound have found a home in bluegrass. Many modern traditional groups sample from both the songs and sounds of '80s and '90s country, while many male and female

I’ve been grinning like a possum when I hear Stringbean’s Run Little Rabbit Run on Sirius/XM, from Jeff White’s Right Beside You. It’s a blistering traditional bluegrass treatment of one of String’s “big hits”. The CD arrived in the mailbox,