Reviews

CRAIG MORRIS TWIX ’N TWEEN No Label No Number This is Morris’ follow-up to his Banjology CD from 2011. We are treated to well-done versions of bluegrass classics along with a few old-time fiddle tunes and “Little Sadie,” largely associated with the late Doc Watson. Kicking off the project with Earl Scruggs’ “Foggy Mountain Chimes,”…

VARIOUS ARTISTS MUSIC FROM THE SOUTH Vestapol 13131 Mining a deep catalog is a win-win for the company and for collectors of older music and videos. Some of these old clips were released on scattered disc before. The music collected here gives the viewer a chance to see a wide range of American indigenous music…

CHARLSEY ETHERIDGE MEMORIES OF MINE No Label No Number Etheridge is a Georgia native who relocated to Nashville, where she soon found herself working with Steve Wariner and the late Harley Allen and opened for such acts as Little Big Town. This CD is her first solo project and includes co-producers Randy Kohrs (resonator guitar),…

GROWLING OLD MEN CHICKEN FEED & BALING TWINE Snake River SRR-125    It’s funny—in a very good way—that this amiable duo should call themselves Growling Old Men. But that’s the name Ben Winship and John Lowell have taken. It’s certainly a nod to the beloved old-time tune “Growling Old Man, Grumbling Old Woman,” and it’s wonderfully…

JAKE LANDERS & HERSCHEL SIZEMORE FOR OLD TIMES SAKE B Sharp Records 2013-1 For Old Times Sake brings together Jake Landers and Herschel Sizemore, childhood friends and former Dixie Gentlemen bandmates. Each has established sterling careers in bluegrass music as sidemen for the first generation greats and/or composers of some of the genre’s more memorable…

RALPH STANLEY & RALPH STANLEY II SIDE BY SIDE Rebel Records CD-1850 It’s somewhat surprising to learn from the accompanying press material that this is the first time Ralph Stanley and his son and former bandmate in the Clinch Mountain Boys, Ralph Stanley II, have ever shared equal billing on an album-length project. That said,…