On their last album, Gypsy Runaway Train, The Roys enlisted the help of two different bands. One half of the album featured seasoned bluegrass pros backing up the siblings on a set of originals, while the other included Lee and
Music Reviews
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Traditional Duets – Lynda Dawson & Pattie Hopkins
Though Lynda Dawson and Pattie Hopkins are best known in the bluegrass world for the often inventive contemporary grass they create with Raleigh-based group Kickin’ Grass, the pair heads down a more traditional path with their first release as a
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Mountain Songs – Shawn Lane
The Blue Highway guys have been busy over the past year. In addition to releasing The Game, an excellent album which garnered them multiple IBMA award nominations for 2014, three of its members have recorded their own albums. Tim Stafford
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The Earls of Leicester, New Bluegrass Royalty
If you stumbled here through a Google search for information about British bluebloods, you landed in the wrong place. But if you’re looking for bluegrass royalty, here it is. Musically, the Earls of Leicester, some of the best pickers of this
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Three Bells – Auldridge, Douglas, Ickes
Three Bells is an absolute rarity in the world of recorded music. It's quite seldom that a new project conveys so much joy, so much love among the musicians, and for the instrument they share in common. Conceived as a chance for dobro buddies
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Sake Of The Sound – Front Country
Do yourself a favor. No matter what you think of jam bands, Americana and other genres that reside at the edges of traditional bluegrass or beyond, swallow your preconceptions and listen to four songs from Sake of the Sound, the
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Gary Reid is Carter Stanley
Gary Reid has long had a reputation as a serious student of The Stanley Brothers. Having written the liner notes for several CD editions of Stanley music, both Carter and Ralph's and Ralph's alone, his name is closely associated with theirs. He's also
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Brokeland Bullets – Heartbroke
This review marks the first installment from a new contributor, Stu Vincent. Stu will help us stay abreast of the European bluegrass scene, and we thank him for his efforts to do so. Let me start with a very simple statement –
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One Song Romance – Michael Barnett
Modern American string music, in the folk rather than classical tradition, has a number of hot spots around the country. The lure of commercial work brings a good many talented young practitioners to Nashville, where they often band together or
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Crowe, Lawson, & Williams are still Standing Tall and Tough
Standing tall. A classic idiom we have all heard and probably used. By definition, the phrase means "being proud of yourself and confident in your abilities." Different from boasting, standing tall exudes self-assurance, often in the face of adversity. When discussing the