Reviews

NORMAN BLAKE WOOD, WIRE & WORDS  Plectrafone Records 824761-144762    This album is truly an event. Norman Blake established himself in the late 1960s as a impeccably talented Nashville guitarist/mandolinist session player, recording or touring with performers as varied as June Carter, Kris Kristofferson, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Hylo Brown. Blake further emerged in the…

THE FARM HANDS BETTER THAN I DESERVE Pinecastle Records PRC1195 This is a fun recording with lots of good songs. Tim Graves’ hubcap guitar predominates, as does Bennie Boling’s banjo. The songs tend to have a patriotic and sacred point of view. They sing of old values and old times and intertwine the sacred with…

RUSS CARSON AVENUE OF THE GIANTS Patuxent Music CD-256 One thing is for sure, Russ Carson and his guests—bassist Jason Moore, guitarist Kenny Smith, and his former Redline bandmates Audie Blaylock, Jesse Brock, and Patrick McAvinue—really have that chugging, popping, uptempo groove down cold. They let you know it by using it, essentially, on the…

NICK DISEBASTIAN WINDOW VIEW FGM Records No Number    According to Nick DiSebastian’s online biography, he has a varied musical background that has carried him from Big Band Swing to bluegrass to Berklee and has landed him in Asheville, N.C., where he holds down the bass chair in the up-and-coming group Town Mountain. Given his…

JOHNNY JACKSON & JAMES STILTNER TRIBUTE TO BILL NAPIER No Label No Number It’s good to see somebody saluting Bill Napier. This writer saw him several times in the late 1950s when he was playing mandolin with the Stanley Brothers. He also supplied typical country comedy as “Pap,” a garrulous old man who wore a…

ROB ICKES AND TREY HENSLEY BEFORE THE SUN GOES DOWN Compass Records 7 4639 2 Rob Ickes is the sideman par excellence, well-known for his vibrant resonator guitar work and, here, offers a glimpse at his considerable lap steel skills. Trey Hensley is a guitarist and vocalist with a world of talent. As is often…