Reviews

A crusty old banjo player once quipped that twin fiddles are like cilantro; a little bit goes a long way. But longtime friends Jason Carter and Michael Cleveland and their roster of all-star players annihilate that snarky, uninformed comment in a single album. You will want to keep their new project, Cleveland & Carter, on…

Tony Kamel, former frontman and principal songwriter with the band Wood & Wire, is a talented present-day practitioner in the Guy Clark-Townes Van Zandt Texas singer-songwriter tradition. Many of Kamel’s songs are topical – vivid character sketches, reflections on fatherhood, etc. – and are shot through with homespun philosophy. He’s a gifted lyricist, has an…

The Henhouse Prowlers are international bluegrass troubadours in the truest sense of the word.  Over the past two decades, they’ve performed and held workshops in nearly 30 countries (from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to Uganda and Kyrgyzstan)  on five continents, often under the auspices of the U.S. State Department. Yet there are no signs of…

Pitney Meyer is the Nashville-based duo of singer-songwriters Mo Pitney and John Meyer, from, respectively, Illinois and Missouri. Both came out of family bluegrass backgrounds.  The two first crossed paths at an IBMA convention in Nashville a decade and a half ago. Since then, their friendship and musical association have flourished. Along the way, they’ve…

John Hartford’s legacy, at the time of his death, would have been cemented in music history if he had written only “Gentle on My Mind,” but he made a huge mark playing fiddle and banjo, his tapping feet always moving. Hartford’s songwriting, singing, and playing, even his fascination with steamboats influenced scores of musicians and…

Clayton McMichen was a renowned fiddle player who was noted for his ability to perform in a variety of styles including traditional, bluegrass, pop, jazz, and country. Born in Georgia in 1900, he was from a musical family and began learning the fiddle at a young age. From 1922 until his passing in 1970, McMichen…