Reviews

Patuxent CD-360 Eddie Ray is a fiery, young, sixteen-year-old banjo player from North Carolina who grew up influenced by such bluegrass artists as Flatt & Scruggs and Reno & Smiley as well as Country, Latin, Jazz and more contemporary music. He is accompanied on this project by Danny Nicely (mandolin, guitar), Marshall Wilborn (bass), Patrick…

Molly Tuttle’s band is called Golden Highway and her new album is City of Gold and the first song is called “El Dorado.” The emerging theme here is something rare of high value and this CD fits the bill. Few acts have had the sustained heat of Tuttle and her supporting cast over the last…

This is the second album from one of the most exciting new ensembles on the scene.  For starters, the members are all highly accomplished instrumentalists and nearly all have served as sidemen for some of the biggest names in the business.  On top of that, they are nearly all singers, which brings an impressive variety…

It would be hard to over-state what an impressive outing Rick Faris’s sophomore album is. Faris, IBMA’s 2022 “New Artist of the Year,” who spent 11 years as the guitarist/mandolin player/singer with the band Special Consensus, has all the right tools in his tool kit. The Wichita, Kansas-based artist, who grew up in a family…

PATUXENT CDD-361 McGeehan is best known as the bassist for the south-central Pennsylvania band “Serene Green.” Now stepping out on his own, McGeehan (bass & vocals) has gathered together an impressive group of musicians for this new project. They include Chris Luquette (guitar), Ellery Marshall (banjo), Brett Kretzer (mandolin), Alex Hargreaves (fiddle), Jack Devereux (fiddle),…

Hachette Books, 2023 Most avid bluegrass music fans are familiar with the similar trajectories of the careers of Ricky Skaggs and Marty Stuart.  Both Skaggs and Stuart started performing at a young age with first generation bluegrass legends—Skaggs with Ralph Stanley, Stuart with Lester Flatt.  They then both entered the journeyman phase of their careers…