Reviews
Up the Hill and Through the Fog
It’s no surprise that this youthful, effervescent Toronto-based trio (joined on this outing by bass player and vocalist Charles James) won IBMA’s 2020 “Momentum Band of the Year” trophy. These twelve original songs bristle with intelligence, immediacy and innovation in the form of captivating lyrics, compelling melodies and nonpareil vocal and instrumental arrangements that feature…
River Wild
This exquisitely conceived and rendered third solo project by Jeremy Garrett, best known for his membership in the award-winning band The Infamous Stringdusters, is chock-full of finely textured and nuanced arrangements and original songs informed with sometimes urgent emotional intensity. Garrett, who wrote or cowrote all but one of these twelve cuts, of course serves…
Fresh Pickles
Best known for his songwriting of jam band style music for his St. Paul, Minnesota-based group Big Wu, Chris Castino took advantage of the COVID isolation over the past two years to rework and rearrange some of his catalog into bluegrass tunes. For this new project he has gathered together his friends in the Chicken…
Hobe
“This album is for me an extension of my grandfather’s front porch,” writes Matthew Stallard, a retired English professor, gifted musician and formidable researcher of both traditional music and his own family’s storied history. “It’s a piece of him that I can carry with me that no one can take away from me.” Stallard calls…
Goin’ Home Comin On’
This young, award-winning fiddler and long-time bandmate of Darin and Brooke Aldridge makes a confident and impressive solo debut with this fine outing. Arrowhead, who was once a featured musician in the IBMA’s annual Kids on Bluegrass program, also proves to be an accomplished singer and songwriter with wisdom and artistry beyond her years. You…
The Scrapbook
Australia’s New South Wales is a long, long way from the hills and hollows of Virginia and Kentucky. Yet after listening to this delightful album from Australian wunderkind Angus Gill, it sure doesn’t sound that far away at all. The collaborators who’ve pitched in with Gill as cowriters and studio collaborators—Jerry Salley and Jim Lauderdale among them—are…