Reviews

As the press material accompanying Mile Twelve’s third album explains, and as most listeners will agree, their music on their third album explodes and smolders with the urgency of trying to make up for lost time. The songs of this Boston-based “acoustic string band” (to use the band’s own description) makes no direct reference to…

Kathy Kallick’s newest release is all about connections: between Kathy and her mom; between Kathy and her daughters; between older and younger musical generations; and between folk, old-time, and bluegrass musical styles. It is a double-CD set with the first disc featuring Kathy and friends on new studio recordings and the second featuring her mom…

“Shiny Side Up,” the first song on the Dirty Grass Players new album of the same name, is less an opening track than it is a grand statement of purpose.  With its David Grisman-esque feel, the 10-minute exploration boldly announces the arrival of the Dirty Grass Players latest album, Shiny Side Up, with an energetic-explosion…

The bluegrass arena has no shortage of brilliant fiddlers and Michael Cleveland is front and center among them.  This fiddling phenomenon has won no fewer than 12 IBMA “Fiddle Player of the Year” Awards as well as six annual IBMA “Instrumental Performer of the Year” Awards.   Along the way, he’s also picked up a…

West Virginia native Greg Blake has the kind of earnest and persuasive voice that you could listen to all day. It’s a voice capable of conveying nuanced layers of intimacy and empathy.   When you listen to Blake, you might feel as if he’s sitting in your living room relating some of these intensely emotional…

This impressive young band from Owensboro, Kentucky, home of the Bluegrass Hall of Fame and Museum, is starting to get some well-deserved attention beyond the banks of the Ohio River. Kentucky Shine’s members—JB Miller on guitar, Steven Stewart on fiddle, Ross Clark on bass and Jordan Riehm on banjo—are just as at home playing traditional bluegrass as they…