Reviews

DAILEY & VINCENT PATRIOTS & POETS Dreamlined Entertainment Group BFDO87 Dailey & Vincent’s new 15-song album has a pièce de résistance feel to it. It’s ambitious, soulful, muscular, and infused with melodic and vocal brilliance, along with a delightful stylistic diversity. On Patriots & Poets, this illustrious duo, besides producing, has also taken on a…

BILL CLIFTON: AMERICA’S BLUEGRASS AMBASSADOR TO THE WORLD—BY BILL C. MALONE—Univ. of Illinois Press 9780252082009. Paperback, 184 pp., b&w photos, discography, $19.95. (Univ. of Illinois Press, 1325 S. Oak St., Champaign, IL 61820, press.uillinois.edu.) Bill Clifton’s influence on folk, country, bluegrass, and old-time music is immeasurable. In this new biography, author Bill Malone takes the…

TERRY BAUCOM’S DUKES OF DRIVE 4TH & GOAL John Boy & Billy JBB0517 The night this review CD arrived, Terry Baucom’s Dukes of Drive appeared on the TV show Song Of The Mountains. The contrast was striking. While the performance of Baucom, mandolinist/vocalist Joey Lemons, guitarist/vocalist Will Jones, and bassist Joe Hannabach exhibited a strong…

BILL GRAHAM AND FRIENDS WEST MISSOURI RAMBLE No Label No Number West Missouri Ramble appears to be a labor of love by Missourian Bill Graham. This is primarily a singer-songwriter CD, featuring Graham and his guitar with occasional bluegrass or old-time backing on a few cuts. Songs here typically reminisce on family members, friends, and…

BLUE & LONESOME CRUZIN’ WITH BLUE & LONESOME No Label No Number The lead vocals on this third CD from Northern California’s Blue & Lonesome alternate between the clearer, more polished style of guitarist Mike Wilhoyte and the rowdier, rougher hewn style of mandolinist Ed Neff (medium range) and banjoist Larry Cohea (higher range). There…

BIG COUNTRY BLUEGRASS LET THEM KNOW I’M FROM  VIRGINIA: 30 YEARS WITH BIG COUNTRY BLUEGRASS Rebel Records REB-CD-1862 Thirty years of Big Country Bluegrass? No way! I’d be more than sixty years old. Oh…I am, and the veteran band is celebrating the anniversary with a career best album, Let Them Know I’m From  Virginia. Traditional…