Reviews

SKAGGS FAMILY A SKAGGS FAMILY CHRISTMAS, VOLUME TWO Skaggs Family Records SFC10122 This delightful two-disc collection from the Skaggs Family is just in time for the holiday season and is sure to be a welcome addition to anyone’s Christmas music library. While the first disc is a music CD, the second disc is a DVD…

ALL4HYM FAITH & FAMILY Rural Rhythm Records RCH 2008 This is All4Hym’s eighth recording overall and their first for Rural Rhythm. There are 12 songs, the majority of them from the pens of Dee Gaskins and Marshall Brickman. Each of them wrote four. While the music presented here is encompassed beneath the larger gospel tent,…

AUDIE BLAYLOCK AND REDLINE I’M GOING BACK TO OLD KENTUCKY (A BILL MONROE CELEBRATION) Rural Rhythm RUR 1081 Audie Blaylock and Redline, along with some high-octane guests, have put together as fine a tribute collection of Bill Monroe classics as you will find anywhere. In addition to Redline regulars Russ Carson (banjo), Reed Jones (bass),…

CEDAR HILL I’VE GOT A THING ABOUT DOORS Blue Circle Records BCR 026 I’ve Got A Thing About Doors proves that, in 2011, a band can still record a pretty traditional bluegrass album using all new songs. On this enjoyable album, Cedar Hill even manages the honor of debuting a recording of the last song…

DICK KIMMEL & CO. DREAMIN’ DKC Records 2011-1 Veteran artist Dick Kimmel is joined here by regular bandmates Jerilynn Kjellberg (vocals and guitar), Lee Folta (bass), Tim O’Connor (banjo and vocals), and Bruce Bernhart (mandolin), with guests Becky Buller on fiddle and Kimmel’s son, Ian, on guitar. The group has a traditional bluegrass sound while…

FAREWELL DRIFTERS ECHO BOOM Heart Squeeze Records HS2K111 The Farewell Drifters find themselves in the revived argument over the definition of bluegrass. The younger generation of performers whom are currently taking the music in a different direction are dealing with the same thing that my age group, the newgrass generation, dealt with forty years ago….