Reviews

I’m not going to lie—when I grabbed the newest CD in the stack for review, I didn’t think much beyond that the woodcut cover art was unique.  When Put All Your Troubles Away by the Foreign Landers started spinning, it only took a few seconds to grab my attention and it never let go. It…

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…

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…

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…

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,…

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…