Reviews

MIKE BENTLEY ALL I’VE GOT Union House Records UHR-0003 Mike Bentley is from eastern Kentucky, Pike County to be specific, a region that has produced some of the best bluegrass and country musicians of the last century. Bentley has played bluegrass music since he was a teenager, in bands including Ernie Thacker & Route 23,…

ERIC STRICKLAND BLACK AND WHITE AND BLUE No Label No Number This new album from Eric Strickland is an acoustic departure from his previous releases, which were pretty much hard country. Strickland began playing guitar at an early age and started writing songs in his late teens. He cites his influences growing up were Jimmy…

OLD GROWTH QUARTET RIGHT SMACK IN THE MIDDLE OF TOWN No Label No Number Tasteful is the first word that Old Growth Quartet’s Right Smack In The Middle Of Town brings to mind. This group knows what it can do and what it shouldn’t do. That knowledge can take an ensemble a long way. For…

CZECH BLUEGRASS: NOTES FROM THE HEART OF EUROPE BY LEE BIDGOOD Univ. of Ill. Press 9780252083006. Foreword by Tony Trischka, paperback, b&w photos, 192 pp., $24.95. (Univ. of Ill. Press, 11030 S. Langley Ave., Chicago, IL 60628, press.uillinois.edu.) If you’re reading this in America, you certainly know about the great bluegrass that’s sprouted up around…

BRAD HUDSON NEXT NEW HEARTBREAK Pinecastle Records PRC 1212 Brad Hudson’s Next New Heartbreak is his first solo release, and the results here would indicate that this debut is not any too soon. Hudson sings lead and harmony on all but one vocal cut and plays resonator guitar, and he does an excellent job on…

KRISTY COX RICOCHET Mountain Fever MFR1801119 We truly may be living in a new Golden Age for bluegrass female vocalists. The reach of the music has extended clean across the world to Australia. Kristy Cox, a relative newcomer to the U.S. music scene, has made quite a splash since she hit the country. Her new…