Reviews

ToneSlabs Changes  The Flatpick Game

ToneSlabs is the biggest advance in flatpack technology since the launch of BlueChip picks 14 years ago. That’s a bold statement, to be sure, and we don’t make it lightly.      For months, Bluegrass Unlimited has been testing a variety of ToneSlabs picks in various shapes and thicknesses in the field at Winfield and…

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Into The Wild Mystic Mountain

This is Charlie Treat’s first foray into bluegrass, and with its austere, hard-charging guitar-banjo-bass-fiddle arrangements, it’s definitely very on-the-edge, and very compelling. As he explains in the accompanying press material, Treat has been steeped in traditional sounds since he was a kid growing up on a farm in New England, though along the way he’s…

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Bluegrass Ambassador’s 

Sessions, Volume 1 Formed over 16 years ago, this Chicago-based foursome have become true Bluegrass Ambassadors, having toured 25 countries, both on their own efforts and also as cultural representatives working with the US State Department. Tours include the US, Europe, Asia, Africa, Middle East, and others, where the band offers concerts, workshops, and teachings…

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Enjoy the Ride

In a different timeline Vince Herman would have been an outlaw-country songwriter playing pinball with Waylon Jennings and rolling endless doobies with Willie Nelson while writing songs that would have been classics on the fringe of country.  In this timeline Herman has been the leader of the progenitors of slamgrass and jamgrass pioneers Leftover Salmon,…

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The Future Of The Past

The Tennessee Bluegrass Band has one distinction going for it right off: This excellent quintet has two Lincolns: Lincoln Hensley on banjo and occasional guitar and Lincoln Mash on bass and lead vocals. Fortunately, there’s a whole lot more that sets this ensemble apart. Produced by Jerry Salley, The Future of the Past has a…

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Here In The Country

For the better part of five decades banjo master Terry Baucom, a multi-IBMA Award winner, has had a dynamic presence on the bluegrass scene. He was a founding member of Boone Creek, Doyle Lawson’s Original Quicksilver, The New Quicksilver and IIIrd Tyme Out. Along the way, he’s been a member of several other high-profile bands….

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