Reviews

Singer-songwriter Jack McKeon makes a big impression on his debut album. Drawing on influences ranging from John Hartford and John Prine to Guy Clark and Hal Ketchum, McKeon has perfected the gift of finding pathos and drama in everyday occurrences, conversations and meditations. He does it in a style that’s unique and captivating with eminently…

I Built A World seems just about the right title for the second album from Bronwyn Keith-Hynes.  Keith-Hynes is the fiddle player for Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, a little band you may have heard that has started collecting Grammy Awards to go with previously earned IBMA hardware. Keith-Hynes has already won two IBMA Fiddle…

This new release from this East Tennessee band is a follow-up project to their 2022 release Gospel Sessions Vol. 1. The band, formed by three former members of Doyle Lawson’s Quicksilver, is Eli Johnston (banjo), Stephen Burwell (fiddle), Jerry Cole (bass), Jesse Brock (mandolin) and John Meader (guitar). As the band did with their previous…

Red Allen and the Kentuckians is a classic piece of bluegrass memorabilia. It was recorded at the station WKCR in New York with host Pete Wernick in early March, 1966. It features the talents of Red’s guitar and vocals along with a young David Grisman on mandolin, Porter Church on five-string banjo and Bobby Diamond…

This Melbourne, Australia-based outfit has an interesting history. Three of the original members were in a synth-pop band called Schizo Scherzo back in the yesteryear. That band eventually broke up, but about a decade and a half ago they had a chance reunion and instantly re-bonded over their shared passion for the music on the…

Like Bill Monroe and Earl Scruggs, Tony Rice left such an indelible imprint on bluegrass music and his chosen instrument that scholars and bluegrass fans will be seeking out biographic information and anecdotes about the man and the music he created for decades to come. Leveraging his longtime personal and professional association with Rice here,…