Reviews
Drivin’ The Blue
While the band is based in the Washington, DC area, the members are from Northern Virginia, Rhode Island, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. They include Wally Hughes (guitar, fiddle, resonator guitar, vocals), Lisa Kay Howard Hughes (mandolin, vocals), James Field (guitar, vocals). Joe Hannabach (bass), and Ed Lick (banjo, steel, mandolin). Individually they have performed with…
That Old Mountain
Songwriter Byron Hill is originally from the Winston-Salem area of North Carolina but settled in Nashville in 1978 where he had been pitching his songs since 1976. Since then, his songs have been picked up and recorded by a long list of both bluegrass and country artists to include Special Consensus, Lonesome River Band, Seldom…
Something He Can Handle
Kentuckian Michael Prewitt (mandolin, guitar) is a former member of Special Consensus and has toured with them both nationally and internationally. He also has been nominated a couple of times for IBMA’s Momentum Instrumentalist Of The Year. On this, his second album, Prewitt features not only his instrumental prowess, and his clean baritone vocals, but…
Unfinished Bridges
This top-notch quintet out of southern New England has been around since 2013, and on their third album (produced by Scott Vestal) they are in top form with stalwart lead vocals and harmonies, fine picking and provocative songwriting. The band, which was the official IBMA Showcase Band in 2021, consists of: Billy Thibodeau on mandolin,…
Compton and Newberry
Listening to the new duo CD from Mike Compton and Joe Newberry feels like reading the manuscript of a lost Faulkner novella discovered at a flea market in Mike Compton’s native Lauderdale County, Mississippi. The stories are real and raw, but disclosed in measured doses, through voices at times tortured and others reverent. It’s music…
Bluegrass Tracks
Andy Statman grew up in Queens on rock and roll music, took mandolin lessons from David Grisman, wanted his Jewish heritage to be a part of his art and his work is described on his website as “spontaneous American-roots music and personal, prayerful hasidic music, by way of avant-garde jazz.” So naturally, listeners would expect…