Music Reviews

Young musicians are on the rise in bluegrass these days. Of course, there have always been exceptional teens making their mark on the genre – J.D. Crowe with Jimmy Martin, Ricky Skaggs and Keith Whitley joining the Clinch Mountain Boys,

Like the United States, England has experienced several folk revivals over the past century, leading to a renewed interest in traditional and acoustic music, and even the establishment of an annual folk awards show by one of the United Kingdom’s

Blue Mafia is a relatively new young band based in Muncie, IN, whose distinctive modern sound is centered around the muscular guitar playing of Tony Wray, and the strong songwriting of his wife, Dara. The Wrays have assembled a crack

Mountain Fever has another new CD out today, Blue Side Of Me, from Jeff Brown and Still Lonesome. Brown is a powerful vocalist, with a sound reminiscent of Larry Sparks, with whom he once worked, and the great Ralph Stanley, who

Over the past several months, we’ve written several times about the Generation Bluegrass films, which feature a number of young, up-and-coming bluegrass musicians, including several family bands which have seen their music reach a wider audience since the premiere of

With their past two releases, as well as their appearances on such TV shows as Country’s Family Reunion and Song of the Mountains, The Roys have become known for their light, often uplifting, country-style bluegrass. With their new album, Gypsy

While many new bluegrass bands try to stretch the genre’s lines as far as they can, there are also quite a few which stick just as hard to the classic sounds which first-generation groups such as Flatt and Scruggs made

Not many people can claim to be multi-IBMA award winners; even fewer have nine Mandolin Player of the Year trophies sitting at home. Adam Steffey, currently of the Boxcars and formerly of Alison Krauss and Union Station, as well as

There are certain instruments you can always expect to see listed in the credits of a bluegrass album. Banjo, guitar, fiddle, mandolin, and bass are all usuals, along with the occasional dobro, and even drums in more progressive groups. However,

It's always difficult to know what to expect when you hear that a bluegrass band is made up of people who have no background in bluegrass music. Will the album simply be covers of old classics? Pop music with banjo? Or,