Reviews

MOUNTAIN HEART BLUE SKIES Compass Records 74662 2 Mountain Heart returns with its first music recording in five years that the band calls the “most emotional performance of the best batch of songs of our careers.” The latest line-up includes Molly Cherryholmes (fiddle and vocals), guitar prodigy Seth Taylor, multi-instrumentalists Jeff Partin (bass, reso-guitar, and…

O’CONNOR BAND WITH MARK O’CONNOR COMING HOME Rounder Records 1166100003    I would never have predicted the one-time fiddle wunderkind Mark O’Connor would be leading a family bluegrass band. The O’Connor Band, however, has produced a truly striking album of singular beauty entitled Coming Home. Despite an almost no banjo album, Coming Home is irrefutably bluegrass…

ERYNN MARSHALL GREASY CREEK Dittyville Records 007    Fiddler Erynn Marshall, born in British Columbia, nurtured in Toronto, West Virginia, and Kentucky, and now living in Galax, Va., has contributed original old-time tunes before. Her “Springfield” is played in jams in many places. Her new CD features 13 original tunes. Some of them were commissioned, and…

RODGER KING & CASEY PENN KINGPENN Infrared Records No Number One of the greatest joys in reviewing CDs is the discovery of new music, especially when it’s the quality of Rodger King and Casey Penn. The Arkansas duo won a state-wide performing/songwriting competition hosted by Infrared Studio and, as a result, released Kingpenn. The 10-cut…

THE HIGH BAR GANG SOMEDAY THE HEART WILL TROUBLE THE MIND True North Records TND622 The debut recording from the Vancouver-based High Bar Gang drew from gospel. As their liner notes state, this new recording takes you “down a dark road” focusing on “heartache and the mournfulness of regret.” There are 13 tracks, all of…

VARIOUS ARTISTS THE COOPER SESSIONS No Label No Number The premise of this recording is to put together Maine melodic banjoist Ron Cody with fiddlers from a variety of genres (Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, Mike Barnett, Darol Anger, Alex Hargreaves, Brittany Haas, Matt Glaser, Bruce Molsky, Tashina and Tristan Clarridge, and Jonathan Cooper) playing fiddles made by…