Reviews

VARIOUS ARTISTS CLOSE KIN Mountain Roads MMR1012 Close Kin is definitely a concept recording; it even comes with a 15-minute DVD about the project. There are 16 tunes and songs performed by 29 musicians with old-time and bluegrass roots in combinations that mix people with different musical backgrounds. Take Adam and Tina Steffey, Jeanette and…

ACOUSTIC BLUE TIMELESS No Label No Number With each new CD, and this is their fourth, the Massachusetts-based group Acoustic Blue alters its format a bit. Some have more standards. Some have more original material. Number four, Timeless, is mostly either newer compositions from outside the band or lesser-known covers. They include among them, the…

BARCELONA BLUEGRASS BAND OLD TIME BLUES No Label No Number Bluegrass tag teams with blues, jazz, and Celtic music on this all-acoustic CD from the Spanish based band. What a stunning instrumental tour de force from founding musicians Lluis Gomez (five-string banjo) and Joan Pau Cumellas (harmonica), along with additional members, Miguel Talavera (guitar/mandolin/resonator guitar)…

BLUE HIGHWAY SOUNDS OF HOME Rounder Records 11661-9107-2 As a string of successful albums and shelves full of individual and group awards demonstrate, few groups on today’s bluegrass scene are as popular as Blue Highway. And, as their new album Sounds Of Home proves, there are even fewer that can play a variety of music…

BLUETOWN SUMMERS GONE Atlantis Studios AS CDA 0003 Leading off with solid, but unremarkable versions of “My Rose Of Old Kentucky” and “On The Sea Of Life” does little for a band other than prove they are pretty good, yet not Bill Monroe or Doyle Lawson. Many listeners may tune out by then, already confused…

CAROLINA ROAD BACK TO MY ROOTS Rural Rhythm RUR-1088 By the third song of Carolina Road’s vibrant new recording, their point is made. All three songs, “Back To My Roots,” “A Light In The Window,” and “The Hills Of Home,” carry the same message of leaving home, finding life difficult or inhospitable, and then returning…