One of my biggest gripes as a lover of bluegrass music is to hear terrific picking and singing on a CD only to hear that the band in question can’t replicate that sound – or even come close – on
Music Reviews
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Times Are Not What They Used To Be – Poor Valley Girls
The Carter Family is almost ubiquitous in every variety of traditional music – and even some more mainstream genres. It’s difficult to find a bluegrass, folk, or old-time musician who hasn’t recorded a song the Carters made famous, and artists
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Fiddlin’ Billy Hurt – all the fiddle you can handle
I suppose I should admit to a bias right up front. Billy Hurt, Jr. is a good friend of mine, and one of my favorite fiddlers in all of bluegrass and old time music. We've played a lot of music
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Introducing Cardboard Fox
Bath, England is the latest foreign locale to contribute a group to the international bluegrass scene. Acoustic quartet Cardboard Fox has recently released its debut, self-titled EP. A collection of four band originals, the EP offers listeners a brief taste
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Live at the Old Feed Store – Chris Jones & the Night Drivers
Live albums usually fall in one of two camps. Sometimes, even with the most talented bands, the songs come off flat and lifeless, perhaps thanks to the musicians taking too much care to sound ‘perfect.’ Other times, the recording perfectly
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The School of Bluegrass is ‘In Session’
Contrary to popular belief, East Tennessee State University and other centers of higher learning which feature academic courses in bluegrass music are not "The School of Bluegrass." That distinction undoubtedly belongs to hall of famer, Doyle Lawson, and his band, Quicksilver.
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Daniel Greeson – 15 Fiddle Tunes
The latest release from Patuxent Records' astounding youth movement is a self-titled fiddle album from Jamestown, NC bowman Daniel Greeson. For a musician not yet 18 years old, Mr. Greeson displays a remarkable command of bluegrass fiddle, and of the
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Grass Roots Project – Eric and Ben Marshall
It’s probably pretty safe to say that many of today’s bluegrass musicians first learned to play, or at least to appreciate, bluegrass music from a family member. Some of the latest evidence of this is the father-son duo of Eric
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Carroll Best and the White Oak String Band
I love discovering new music. The majority of the time, that music is just new to me: an early J.D. Crowe & the New South album I’ve never heard before, a Jimmy Martin concert from the mid-1990s streaming on YouTube,
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Voices – Volume Five
Volume Five is one of those acts that consistently turn out headliner-quality music, but have seemed to be stuck in a second tier status. Their original music is clever and compelling, they can pick with the best of them, and their