Reviews
Chasing Music: My Crazy Campervan Adventures in America
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…
All Roads Lead To The Birchmere—America’s Legendary Music Hall
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,…
Mountaintop
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…
Desert Heart Mountain Soul
New Englander Chris Brashear is a performer, teacher, and recording artist who plays guitar, fiddle, mandolin, and bass. While living in Arizona he met Peter McLaughlin with whom he has collaborated on a few projects including this one. McLaughlin is also a performer, recording artist, and instructor. He plays guitar and mandolin. Both sing and…
Sidetrack My Engine
The word authenticity hangs, like a heavy tree limb, over every conversation about roots music. As the umbrella of acoustic music has expanded to cover music that resembles bluegrass and folk in instrumental texture alone, many traditionalists have expressed concern over a divorce from its aural history. They posit that to pick up a banjo…
Small Town Dreamer
Daryl Mosley’s bluegrass credentials are impeccable. He did a long stretch as lead singer and bassist in The New Tradition and another stint with The Osborne Brothers. As a songwriter, he’s won a slew of awards, penned at least a half-dozen number ones and had his originals covered by everyone from The Grascals and Bobby…