Reviews
Never Gets Old
After moving to Nashville in 1987, Irwin set to developing his songwriting talents. It took a few years while working as a bartender and collaborating with other writers, that he finally landed some songs that were recorded by folks like Randy Travis, Alan Jackson. Tim McGraw, Blake Shelton, and Jimmy Buffett. It was Alan Jackson’s…
True Tones
On his new CD, mandolinist Mark Stoffel offers up a stylistically diverse outing on mostly original instrumental tunes. The Austrian expat who tours with Chris Jones and the Night Riders, does a deep dive into his own influences and tastes, creating a CD where styles range from modern bluegrass, to refined instrumentals, to the sort…
Drivin’ The Blue
While the band is based in the Washington, DC area, the members are from Northern Virginia, Rhode Island, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. They include Wally Hughes (guitar, fiddle, resonator guitar, vocals), Lisa Kay Howard Hughes (mandolin, vocals), James Field (guitar, vocals). Joe Hannabach (bass), and Ed Lick (banjo, steel, mandolin). Individually they have performed with…
That Old Mountain
Songwriter Byron Hill is originally from the Winston-Salem area of North Carolina but settled in Nashville in 1978 where he had been pitching his songs since 1976. Since then, his songs have been picked up and recorded by a long list of both bluegrass and country artists to include Special Consensus, Lonesome River Band, Seldom…
Something He Can Handle
Kentuckian Michael Prewitt (mandolin, guitar) is a former member of Special Consensus and has toured with them both nationally and internationally. He also has been nominated a couple of times for IBMA’s Momentum Instrumentalist Of The Year. On this, his second album, Prewitt features not only his instrumental prowess, and his clean baritone vocals, but…
Unfinished Bridges
This top-notch quintet out of southern New England has been around since 2013, and on their third album (produced by Scott Vestal) they are in top form with stalwart lead vocals and harmonies, fine picking and provocative songwriting. The band, which was the official IBMA Showcase Band in 2021, consists of: Billy Thibodeau on mandolin,…