Reviews

 Tim O’Brien has been a fixture in contemporary bluegrass ever since fronting the band Hot Rize starting back in the late 1970s. Along the way, he’s collaborated with everyone from fellow West Virginian Kath Mattea to Steve Martin and Alison Brown. He’s also penned songs for a number of Nashville’s leading lights. For the last…

Kentucky-born, Wyoming-raised Shelby Means has been around the music biz for a while. She’s a former member of the acclaimed band Della Mae and more recently has served as the bass player with Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway. Thus, it’s no surprise that her debut album is such an accomplished and assured outing. Means has…

As the title suggests, this is the 4th album release from Kane and Gellert, two artists with long careers in Americana-Roots music. The music is spontaneous and often sparse, guitar and fiddle or two guitars with light percussion supporting the vocals. Originals flow easily into traditional tunes, due perhaps, to their ability to write such…

San Diego-based MohaviSoul offers this seventh project which features not only some original tunes but also includes a few covers that they have regularly performed live. While their music shows their Eastern roots of folk, country, and bluegrass, they also display the influence gained from their time spent in the more contemporary California roots music…

Much of the old-timey charm of Big Country Bluegrass is their flair for dusting off and re-enlivening some largely forgotten gems of yesteryear. The title track of the band’s sixth album for Rebel Records (and first in six years) was first written and recorded by Dave Evans back in the 1970s. “Midnight Storm” is an…

The Wilder Flower was formed in 2021, and is based in the rural areas of North and South Carolina. They are Danielle Yother on guitar, Molly Johnson on banjo, and Madeline Dierauf on fiddle. Their Appalachian old-time and bluegrass roots are featured well on this project with their focus on material that includes pleasant lead…