Music Reviews

The term “traditional bluegrass” can mean many different things these days. For some groups, it means they play rough and raw and record live around one microphone; for others, it means they dress in suits and ties and try to

Yee-haw! The Steep Canyon Rangers are riding again! This time, they are out in the open, the great wide open! Thank goodness, because nothing about their new album, Out in the Open, should be concealed in any way. Like the

When new music arrives from Joe Mullins and The Radio Ramblers, you can pretty much guarantee hearing traditional bluegrass songs about love, regret and hope, with a bit of Gospel added for good measure. You’ll hear tight harmonies and clean

It’s time for my annual compilation of favorite recordings of 2017. It is decidedly subjective, not necessarily the best overall, but what caught my ear and imagination. There’s just one caveat: I don’t include recordings that include songs or liner notes

Just shy of celebrating thirty years as a band, bluegrass Gospel stalwarts The Churchmen continue to sound energetic and fresh on God Holds Tomorrow, their latest album for Mountain Fever Records. The album’s twelve all-new songs include four originals from

Most of today’s bands whose music falls into the “modern traditional” category can trace their sound back to a handful of groups from the 1970s and 1980s – most often J.D. Crowe & the New South and the Bluegrass Album

The latest Mountain Home Music CD from Donna Ulisse is one of those “on the one hand, on the other hand” propositions. On the one hand, Ulisse’s Breakin’ Easy is a textbook example of top-notch traditional bluegrass songwriting. Every listen unveils

Over the years, bluegrass fans have developed expectations of what to expect from a banjo album, and likewise with a singer/songwriter project. The one is likely filled with rip-roaring instrumentals, and the other a collection of songs from a single,

You’ve heard of Lester Flatt, of course, and up-and-comers Flatt Lonesome, but what about No Time Flatt? The west Tennessee-based band recently released their debut album, a self-titled effort filled with a number of classics and more recent bluegrass favorites. The

I read a shocking statistic the other day: 56 percent of Americans have started their Christmas shopping. Shocking because I hadn’t even ordered a Thanksgiving turkey yet, let alone given a single thought to Dec. 25. Well, I still haven’t ordered