Reviews

Published by The University of North Carolina Press Alice Gerrard is an iconic figure in American roots music.  Although she may be best known for her recordings and performances with Hazel Dickens, she is a talented multi-instrumentalist and singer in many genres of roots music as well as a writer, publisher, activist, photographer, historian, and…

My Brother’s Keeper is truly a “band of brothers.” The brothers are Titus Luckhaupt, Benjamin Luckhaupt, and Joshua Luckhaupt. Titus plays mandolin, Benjamin is on guitar, and Joshua plays fiddle, harmonica, piano, and organ. All three cover the vocals, and they are joined on this project by Wyatt “Sawmill” Murray (bass, vocals) and Adam Moehlman…

In my opinion, John Reischman does everything that relates to playing the mandolin extremely well.  His tone, timing, dynamics, phrasing…you name it, he does it at the level of mastery.  A few other things that he can do extremely well—which proves to me that he is not only a phenomenal mandolin player, but also an…

The Horsenecks hail from the western Oregon area of Astoria. They are the duo of Gabrielle Macrae (fiddle, bass, banjo, harmonium, guitar, vocals) and Barry Southern (guitar, banjo, resonator guitar, vocals). This new project, their fourth, is a mix of mostly original tunes from Macrea along with a few from Southern. They are joined by…

[Editor’s Note: We ran this review in the September 2025, however, there were some inaccuracies in that review.  Because of those inaccuracies, I decided to run the review again with corrections included.  Our apologies to Volume Five for the previous inaccurate review.] Mississippi fiddle player Glen Harrell founded Volume Five in 2008, originally as a…

Ever since Earl Scruggs stepped on stage with Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys in December of 1945, banjo players have been interested in learning how to play the five-string banjo like Earl.  Early banjo players slowed down recordings and went to watch Earl play in order to figure out how he was executing those…