Reviews

Missy Raines grew up in the northeastern corner of West Virginia near the Pennsylvania and Maryland borders. She came of age listening to and working the festival circuit with other performers from the greater Mid-Atlantic and Washington, D.C. Regions. And she’s included some of them on her latest album. Danny Paisley, for instance, really tears…

Sometimes, an album comes along that is such a mix of genres and influences, it’s hard to find exactly how to describe it. Laurie Lewis’s forthcoming album, Trees, is just such a work that blends influences of bluegrass, country, old time and folk, but with a contemporary voice. Maybe it’s just easier to say this…

California-based guitarist Ethan Sherman has long been a leading light on the new acoustic scene and, as this all-original, all-instrumental collection attests, he’s well-versed in the progressive bluegrass idiom. The melodies and the picking here are exquisite and largely based on improvisation. As Sherman explains in the liner notes:“I don’t view Passages as a showcase…

Randy Steele is a career fire fighter from Chattanooga, Tennessee, who took up the banjo to help relieve some of the stress of his job. He also began songwriting to fill up some of his down time. As a result, he became quite well-known in the area, winning awards for his playing and for his…

Miles Zurawell hails from British Columbia, Canada, and learned piano and guitar in his younger years. While in college he was introduced to the music of Bill Monroe and discovered the banjo and resonator guitar. Studying that instrument with such players as Ian Rosenberg and Mike Witcher, he soon developed his own style and presentation. …

This is a five-piece band from Pennsylvania that features Katelynn Casper (fiddle), Quentin Fisher (mandolin), Michael Johnson (guitar), Steve Leonard (banjo) and Shane McGeehan (bass). Keeping to their love for the pioneers of bluegrass music, the group has produced a mix of original tunes with a cross section of other sources for this really nice…