Reviews

Amanda Cook’s latest album combines her distinctive voice, tight picking from her band and solid songwriting from some of bluegrass’s best pens to create a winner. Changes is Cook’s fourth full length studio album with Mountain Fever records. It follows Narrowing the Gap, which was released in 2021.  The new album has already been well…

The most memorable musical moments are those when virtuosity is transcended into the realms of wizardry and magic, and this remarkable album is full of such moments. Leftwich has been accurately described as “one of the most recorded fiddle players of the 21st century.” Aside from a 16-year stint in Ricky Skaggs’ Kentucky Thunder, he’s…

Rhythm guitar is often an  overlooked part of the skill set of the modern bluegrass guitar player.  Many amateur guitar players today spend the majority of their practice time learning and polishing up their solos, often to the detriment of their rhythm playing.  Some even view rhythm as “that thing that you have to do…

Since his start as an original columnist for Flatpicking Guitar Magazine in 1996, Adam Granger has produced an enormous and exceptional body of work for bluegrass guitarists. His book and CD set, Granger’s Fiddle Tunes for Guitar, is claimed to be the largest collection of fiddle tunes in guitar tablature in the world, with more than 500 fiddle…

There aren’t a lot of brother-sister duos in any genre of music, so when one comes along and has the harmonies of Theo and Brenna MacMillan, music fans should pay attention.  The siblings, who call themselves Theo & Brenna, have released their first full length album on Mountain Fever Records, Dreams For Sale. It has…

Cassell was originally from Virginia but now lives in Nashville, Tennessee. He is an excellent mandolinist having won championships at places like FrestGrass, Rockygrass, and others. He is also the 2020 IBMA’s “Momentum Instrumentalist of the Year.” He is a founding member of the Circus No. 9 contemporary bluegrass group, and has performed and collaborated…