Reviews

FEINBERG BROTHERS PARTY FOR ONE Cabinwood Music 0418 The album cover of Party For Onetells all about the Feinberg Brothers. Rourke and Patrick Feinberg are featured with instruments in hand, along with big, bluegrass grins. The cover is a simple, black and white image with black text. The brothers are dressed in suits and ties. The…

HAWKTAIL UNLESS Padiddle Records PDD-CD-001 Hawktail may be a new band name, but it’s certainly not a new band. Fiddler Brittany Haas, bassist Paul Kowert, and guitarist Jordan Tice have been recording and touring together for over four years as Haas-Kowert-Tice. With a desire to expand rhythmic dynamics, the band added mandolinist Dominick Leslie and…

THE TILLERS Sofaburn Records SBR2-034 Two of the principal characteristics that can set apart a bluegrass band from the rest of the pack are the quality of their original material and the power of their instrumental chops. The Tillers, a Cincinnati quartet, have two main singers/songwriters in their lineup—guitarist Sean Geil and banjoist Mike Oberst….

BACKLINE A THOUSAND WISHES Poor Mountain Records No Number This is a nice new release from this group from Spartanburg, N.C. Established in 2016, the band consists of Jason Belue (bass, vocals), Zachary Carter (banjo, vocals), Louis Hughes (mandolin, vocals), Katelyn Mabry Ingardia (guitar, vocals), and Travis Tucker (resonator guitar, vocals). This is their second…

JUNIOR SISK BRAND NEW SHADE OF BLUE Mountain Fever MFR 180608    At the end of 2017, rather than deal with personnel changes and reform his band, 2013 IBMA Male Vocalist Of The Year Junior Sisk decided to use this new album to refocus on the traditional music that first set his musical soul on fire….

FOLK MUSIC IN OVERDRIVE: A PRIMER ON TRADITIONAL COUNTRY AND BLUEGRASS ARTISTS—BY IVAN M. TRIBE—Univ. of Tenn. Press 9781621903970. Charles K. Wolfe Music Series, 392 pp., $29.95. (Univ. of Tenn. Press, 110 Conference Center, 600 Henley St., Knoxville, TN 37996, www.utpress.org.) The phrase “essential reading” might be overused these days, but this book deserves that…