Reviews

Chris Eaton’s solo release D for Dobro is a collection of nine solo instrumentals in Open D tuning and is a follow-up to the collaborative recording he released last year The UK & Ireland Dobro Celebration.  He stated that, “There’s not very much repertoire for Open D lapsteel, certainly not many solo unaccompanied arrangements.” So,…

This new project is a continuation of the Tribute Band created in 2005 by Bill Yates, former Gentlemen bass player. The band at that time consisted of Yates, Mike Phipps, Darren Beachley and David Propst. This group produced an album in 2006 and toured around the mid-Atlantic area until Yates’s passing in 2015.  Now this…

Willie Carlisle is a troubadour following in the footsteps of folks like Woody Gutherie, John Prine, Rambling Jack Elliot and Utah Phillips. On his latest release he teams up Grammy-nominated musician and producer Darrell Scott for a well-crafted album full of songs about love and redemption. Carlisle explores what it means to be human as…

The story of Tony Trischka’s Earl Scruggs tribute album sounds like the makings of a song itself.  During the pandemic, the banjo virtuoso received a package in the mail that contained a thumb drive. This wasn’t one with old photos or spreadsheets — it was recordings of Scruggs and John Hartford jamming, mostly made at…

Dan Levenson’s name will be well known to anyone who is familiar with old-time music, especially banjo and fiddle players. He is a performer, recording artist and educator. He has published instructional books, produced videos, written magazine articles and taught many workshops. If you are familiar with any of this previous work, you will know…

Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the band members of Pert Near Sandstone are Justin Bruhn (bass), Kevin Kniebel (banjo), J Lenz (guitar) and Nate Sipe (mandolin, steel guitar, fiddle). They are all known as good songwriters and instrumentalists and they support the traditions of American folk and string band music but with a desire for more…