Reviews

IBMA 2022 Momentum Instrumentalist of the Year Nominee Anthony Howell from Mississippi is one of those versatile artists who can fulfill a variety of roles in a bluegrass setting.  He released an independent recording in March 2023, which contains fourteen tracks.  He plays all the instruments and wrote three instrumentals.  If that isn’t enough,  he…

Published by MOC Press Mark O’Connor has written an emotional detailed account of his experience as a child musician. He first started on guitar as a six year old and began learning fiddle at age eleven.  He was a quick learner and at age twelve he won first place in the Junior Division at The…

Not much time passes before there’s a fresh musical salute to one or another of bluegrass’s founding figures. These tributes not only strengthen and reaffirm bluegrass’s crucial links to its past, they also seem to provide a subtle moral compass in terms of reinforcing the music’s integrity with each new generation of musicians. Along those…

East Kentucky-born Carl Bentley grew up singing in church in and around his hometown of McDowell. At age 10, he was given a Ralph Stanley album featuring Keith Whitley by his father, who was also a musician.  That was all it took. To this day, Bentley still wears the Stanley-Whitley influence, and wears it well….

Seven-time national fiddle champion, Grammy nominated recording artist, teacher, singer, touring musician, and flatfooter, Megan Lynch Chowning, hasn’t forgotten the challenges facing a newcomer and transitioning fiddle student. This teacher has true talent in recalling the apprehension and desire newer fiddlers have on where to start, how to learn particular songs and practical ideas on…

Originally from New York, Alex Graf picked up the guitar at the age of twelve and over the following years had immersed himself studying jazz by such greats as John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, and Charlie Parker. Moving to Colorado in 2017, he discovered there was also a home for him in bluegrass music, becoming influenced…