Reviews

GEORGE McCLURE FREEDOM TRAIN JIP Records JIP-5327 George McClure is back on track with Freedom Train, a nine-song collection of some of his favorite bluegrass songs from his road warrior days in the ’90s. “As a prolific writer, I have literally hundreds of bluegrass songs and instrumentals,” McClure said. “I had some of the more popular…

HOT RIZE 40th ANNIVERSARY BASH: AN ALL-STAR BLUEGRASS CELEBRATION Ten in Hand Records THR-9002-3 Hot Rize is a band we keep coming back to and with much success. Over 40 years ago, Tim O’Brien, Pete Wernick, Nick Forster, and Charles Sawtelle came from parts East to the beautiful Rocky Mountains in Colorado, found each other,…

BOBBY BRITT ALAYA No Label No Number If you’ve ever heard Town Mountain play live in recent years, then you’ll know they’re on fire and that their fiddler Bobby Britt is one of the best in the business. From Chapel Hill, N.C., and an alumnus of the Berklee College of Music, Britt can take a…

THE JAKOB’S FERRY STRAGGLERS POISON RIVER No Label No Number When The Jakob’s Ferry Stragglers first appeared on my radar, the western Pennsylvania band had just released their debut CD The Lane Change, which straddled the line between bluegrass and old-time with a strong emphasis on original material. Two albums later, PoisonRiverstill has dual lead singers Gary…

WINDY HILL LIVE FROM THE RATZ NEST No label No Number Windy Hill is a traditional bluegrass group from California with three prior releases to their credit. Live From The Ratz Nestwas recorded using just two microphones (“one for the bass, and one for everything else”) straight to tape, in one weekend in the living room…

VARIOUS ARTISTS SONGS FROM LYON COUNTY: DENNIS K. DUFF Gracey Holler Music No Number If you are one of the many of us who’ve watched the landscape we grew up in, a landscape inseparable from our sense of ourselves, gradually change to the point of unrecognizable, you will relate wholeheartedly to this powerful song collection…