Reviews

CIRCA BLUE FOOTPRINTS IN A SONG Bell Buckle Records No Number This West Virginia band presents a powerful program with tight arrangements and some hot guests that provide some great music. Steve Harris (guitar), Ryan Mullins (mandolin), Matt Hickman (banjo), and Jacob Bly (bass) form the nucleus of the band. They received help most notably…

FRANCOIS VOLA BACK TO BLUEGRASS No Label No Number Thirty years ago, the idea of a French (or any European) bluegrass guitarist recording and performing as an equal with established stars like Darol Anger and David Grisman would have seemed as out of place as watching a Saudi Arabian player scoring a hat-trick in the…

ALLISON DE GROOT AND TATIANA HARGREAVES Free Dirt Records CD-0092 Duet albums are great litmus tests. There are no other musicians to hide behind or lean upon, and the ability of the two players to mesh, intertwine, and musically complement each other is on full display. In the case of this pairing of banjoist Allison…

JOHN McCUTCHEON TO EVERYONE IN ALL THE WORLD: A CELEBRATION OF PETE SEEGER Appalsongs 2019 This recorded tribute to Pete Seeger is neither old-time nor bluegrass, but it does have a few names you should recognize, aside from John McCutcheon. Hot Rize backs up the first cut, “Well May The World Go,” with John on…

GEORGE JACKSON TIME AND PLACE No Label No Number    This is an outstanding baker’s dozen of fiddle tunes, all of them originals and all of them with a firm grasp of the tradition. What is even more remarkable is that the writer of these tunes is originally from New Zealand. Jackson moved to Nashville after…

RAFE STEFANINI & DAVID BRAGGER HOLY SMOKE! Old-Time Tiki Parlour TIKI-014-CD    Rafe and David have teamed up for 17 wonderful old-time fiddle and banjo duets. They open with their powerful rendition of “Forty Weight Of Gingerbread” from Florida fiddler Arthur “Cush” Holston and conclude with John Morgan Salyer’s “Irish Boy.” In between, they nail one…