Reviews

VARIOUS ARTISTS THE 1861 PROJECT, VOLUME 2: FROM THE FAMINE TO THE FRONT Cohesion Arts No Number Irish songwriter Thomm Jutz, who transplanted himself to Nashville and became immersed in stories of the American Civil War, has released a second album in his epic series. Tracing the roles of Irish immigrants in this defining and…

HARD RYDE COMPOSED Hapidawg 2072012 This group based in Ontario, Canada, consists of Doug deBoer (guitar), Rich Koop (bass), Will Meadows (mandolin, guitar), Luke Puckrin (banjo), Marc Roy (guitar), and Shawn Kellett (fiddle). The band pretty much swept the Central Canadian Bluegrass Awards this past year, winning for Will Meadows the Mandolin Player Of The…

NU-BLU NAIL BY NAIL Pinecastle Records PRC-1181 The music business is constantly changing in both delivery, format, packaging, presentation, and expectations. Bluegrass is no exception. With fans able to go to iTunes and Amazon and cherry-pick favorite songs by artists, it is becoming more and more the norm that there is no set number of…

DARIN AND BROOKE ALDRIDGE LIVE AT RED, WHITE AND BLUEGRASS Mountain Home Music MH14522 For their third release on Mountain Home, Darin and Brooke Aldridge take us to the stage of the Red, White and Bluegrass Festival in Morgantown, N.C. During what sounds like a complete set featuring 12 songs (plus a bit too much…

NIALL TONER ONWARDS & UPWARDS Pinecastle Records PRC 1182 This is the American debut on Pinecastle for one of music’s great stories. Niall Toner is an excellent, 68-year-old American country and bluegrass composer and singer who happens to be Irish. His fourth CD, Onwards & Upwards is Toner’s first recorded in the U.S. On Airplay…

TIM O’BRIEN & DARRELL SCOTT WE’RE USUALLY A LOT BETTER THAN THIS (LIVE) Full Light Records 478923 Well, if these two popular and talented bluegrass-country-folk singer/songwriters are ever better than this, I doubt if we could much stand it. Tim O’Brien and Darrell Scott previously teamed up in 2000 for the Grammy-nominated studio album Real…