Reviews

VARIOUS ARTISTS GONNA SING GONNA SHOUT Billy Blue Records BBR-0824 What do you get when you cross one of the most prolific writers in bluegrass and gospel with one of the best-known producers, songwriters, and artists, along with an all-star cast of musicians? A stick of dynamite. It’s hard to describe Gonna Sing, Gonna Shout: From…

MIKE MITCHELL SMALL TOWN FMS Records FMS 004 Floyd, Virginia (population about 430), certainly qualifies as a small town. But it has a city-sized place in bluegrass and old-time music history, as exemplified by the Pix Theater building on West Main Street. Bill and Charlie Monroe performed there, it once housed County Sales and its…

JUSTIN HILTNER & JON WEISBERGER WATCH IT BURN Robust Records RBST015    Justin Hiltner makes his recording debut under his own name and in partnership with longtime co-writer Jon Weisberger onWatch It Burn, an album that’s more warm, inviting, and charming than burning. Hiltner shows off all three of his strengths as a songwriter, vocalist, and…

VARIOUS ARTISTS SHE’S NOT HERE (SONGS WRITTEN BY DALE McKINNEY) 9 Lives Records No Number This ten-song collection, all written by Dale McKinney and performed by various artists, is tricky to catalog. It’s been released to support the initial single “She’s Not Here,” performed by CJ the DJ & Kentucky Rain, but it isn’t branded…

JAM SONGBOOK BY PETE WERNICK AND LIAM PURCELL. 9780578212333. 46 pp. (www.drbanjo.com) It’s rare to find a songbook that combines an easy-to-follow format with a lot of good, helpful information. This one ticks all the boxes for becoming the go-to jam songbook. Developed by Pete Wernick (who should be well known to readers of this…

BIG COUNTRY BLUEGRASS MOUNTAINS, MAMAS AND MEMORIES Rebel Records REB-CD-1872 Big Country Bluegrass is known as a band that performs no-nonsense straight-ahead bluegrass, and with 32 years and over a dozen recordings behind them, they have not wavered. Mountains, Mamas And Memoriesis very much in that tradition, with 12 cuts of prime traditional bluegrass featuring polished…