Reviews

Life’s Work: A Retrospective creates an audio documentary of Doc Watson’s musical career from his early days to the end of his career. Over 101 tracks presented on four CDs and extensive liner notes, Life’s Work shows the astounding musical range and guitar innovative that made Arthel “Doc” Watson an international star in folk music…

For his newest release, John Lowell—the 2021 Winner of the Hazel Dickens Songwriting Contest—brings us a collection of songs with a Western theme.  Lowell—a longtime Montana resident—is a veteran performer, guitar player, and songwriter with over thirty-five years of experience.  He will be best known to bluegrass fans for his work with the bands Loose…

Chicgoland’s Eric Lambert has distinguished himself over his career as one of the top flatpickers in the Midwest. A devotee of Clarence White and Tony Rice, Lambert creates bold, clear-voiced guitar solos that capture the spirit of his heroes without parroting them. On his new CD, Beating The Odds, Lambert recruited some of the area’s…

If you’re one of the many who have stayed close to home during the COVID pandemic of 2020-21, here’s your chance to live vicariously through the adventures of Australian bluegrass radio broadcaster Jan Dale as she chronicles her American journey that took place over a period of six years in the 1990s. Her goal was…

If it wasn’t for the Birchmere, I probably would not have had a career in bluegrass music.  I grew up in Springfield, Virginia and my childhood home was exactly ten miles door-to-door from the second Birchmere, located on Mt. Vernon Avenue in Alexandria.  I then went to college at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis,…

Don Schlitz (guitar) is an award-winning songwriter who has garnered two Grammys as well as being inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame. These are just few of his awards as he has written songs for such as Kenny Rogers, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Randy Travis, Keith Whitley, The…