Reviews

DONNIE SCOTT DONNIE DOBRO’S RIDE Patuxent Music CD-322 This is real country music. Yes, it has a banjo, but the resonator guitar is the sound of front-porch country. You don’t need an amp, that’s the reason for it in the first place. Mary Dunlap and Elizabeth Baker deliver “End Of Memory Lane.” This is followed…

CLAYBANK ROAD SIGNS & HIGHWAYS Mountain Fever MFR190800 This relatively new band (2016) has completed it’s third recording and the second for Mountain Fever Records. The band originated in the mountains of western North Carolina and was originally comprised of a couple of teenagers and two other veteran players. As with many new bands, personnel…

THE HOT FLASHES LIVE Happy Appy Records HAR-11 The Hot Flashes is an enchanting vocal trio that includes Amy Gallatin, Peggy Ann Harvey, and Gail Wade. Gallatin is an internationally-known artist who plays guitar, banjolele, and percussion and fronts her own band Stillwaters. Harvey plays fiddle, viola, harmonica, and soprano saxophone. She was a founding…

THE BLUEGRASS VIOLIN: EL VIOLÍN en el BLUEGRASS By Oriol Saña and Lluís Gómez Mel Bay MB30619M. $14.99. (Mel Bay, 1734 Gilsinn Ln., Fenton, MO 63026, www.melbay.com.) This is a very good introduction to bluegrass fiddle written by highly accomplished and renown musicians from Spain. This is not a primer on the violin, but it’s…

DULCIMER DANCE AT CHRISTMAS TIME Kayfaith Records 2017 The hammered dulcimer was developed in the Middle Ages and over time came to be used extensively throughout Europe and the Middle East. The instrument was subsequently brought to America by immigrants and became popular within the folk, Celtic, and old-time music circles. At Christmas Time is wonderful…

AMANDA ANNE PLATT & THE HONEYCUTTERS LIVE AT THE GREY EAGLE Organic Records OR18242    This is the fifth CD from Platt and The Honeycutters. This is grassroots country—the kind you don’t hear much on commercial radio, but the kind most of us would rather hear. Platt’s songwriting pulls from personal experience. She sings, plays guitar,…