Reviews

RAFE & CLELIA STEFANINI LADY ON THE GREEN, OLD TIME TUNES & SONGS Old Willow Tree 001 The Stefanini family has a long tradition in fiddling. Rafe’s father taught violin in Italy; Rafe’s brother Bruno is a renowned violin maker, and now Rafe, who has become one of the pillars of the old-time community in…

REDWINE RED No Label, RW 007 International bluegrass has been thriving since the 1970s when the first overseas bands began appearing at American festivals. Italy’s Red Wine has been one of the best. Their latest album confirms that. The band has had some personnel changes since 1978 (most notably co-founding guitarist/vocalist Bebbe Gambetta, who has…

GEOFF UNION COLD AS STEEL Shining Castle Music 1201 It’s a safe bet that in all of bluegrass music there has not been a song that mentions steel corrugators or 26-guage panels. Until now, that is, for singer/guitarist Geoff Union has corrected that omission with “Cold As Steel,” a “true life” tale rich in detail…

WEST END STRING BAND PKB Records 12315 Don’t let the band’s name lead you to think this group plays old-time music. The West End String Band plays bluegrass, both traditional and in the progressive style of the 1970s, and does so quite well and with energy and grit. Fronting the band is singer/guitarist Charlie McDaniel,…

RED JUNE BEAUTY WILL COME Red June Records RJR02 Red June is the latest in the current trend of acoustic bands melding Appalachian music such as bluegrass and old-time with modern sensibilities. Having met at a jam in Asheville, N.C., (which is the beginning sentence of many a group’s biography page), this trio of Will…

MILKDRIVE WAVES No Label No Number To those of us in the newgrass generation that came to age in the early 1970s, progressive approaches to bluegrass music are nothing new. The traditional sounds of the first generation are still the main trunk of the bluegrass tree, even as the genre’s pre-bluegrass roots and post-first generation…