Reviews

JOHNNY STAATS AND THE DELIVERY BOYS TIME MOVES ON No Label No Number For anyone who may have forgotten the amazing dexterity and talent Johnny Staats brings to the mandolin, let this be a reminder. It may not be apparent in the first track “Never Mind The Mule,” a bluesy medium-tempo stomp about driving his…

CHARLES BUTLER & ASSOCIATES SUDDEN SENSE OF NOW Very Entertaining Records No Number It’s hard to play banjo and blaze new trails these days. Whether you’ve been raised on Earl Scruggs or Béla Fleck, unless you can corner a market like Pat Cloud did with bebop or Mark Johnson with clawgrass, comparisons will abound when…

JUSSI SYREN AND THE GROUNDBREAKERS THE OLD HOME PLACE AIN’T THE SAME ANYMORE Snowflake Records JSGC22102    That true traditional sound, the one that probably drew the vast majority of us to bluegrass, that’s the core and the beauty of the eighth album from the Finnish group Jussi Syren and the Groundbreakers. Few bands of the…

JESSE GREGORY FAULTLINE No Label No Number There is always a new batch of singers coming onto the bluegrass scene every few years or so. What’s cool about the bluegrass genre is that you usually hear about them when they’re young, most likely when they’re playing in family bands. When they grow up, they either…

MIKE MITCHELL DEAD CENTER No Label No Number This is fine debut release by the Floyd, Va., fiddler Mitchell. He has lined up some very good support from the likes of Sammy Shelor on banjo and Wyatt Rice on guitar, who’s guitar playing is tastefully just right throughout. Jacob Eller lays down solid bass and…

TRIMOUNTAIN SESSIONS SLOTH, INDOLENCE & TORPIDITY No Label No Number This EP consists of six cuts that sound like the final examination for a Berklee College bluegrass class. The playing is topnotch, smooth as silk, and layered like a triple-decker chocolate fudge cake. It is well recorded and is wonderfully rich. The ensemble playing is…