Reviews
Come Home
Bent Mountain is a gathering of like-minded musicians organized and produced by Dr. Quigg Lawrence, the Bishop of The Church of the Holy Spirit in Roanoke, Virginia. Some of the musicians on the project incudes Lawrence himself along with Annie Lawrence, Eric Imhof, Julie Wright, Ayden Young, and Blane Young. Augmenting this lineup are a…
Larry Stephenson Band
This new release from Larry Stephenson and the Band is a retrospective of live performances featuring some of the band’s configurations from over the years. While culling through these recordings, Stephenson felt this collection covered the folks he was lucky enough to have performed with. The songs were selected from shows at seven different venues…
Art Of Acoustics
The New Acoustic Collective is a young string band based in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. Led by band leader and composer Jason Keiser (guitar), the group includes co-leader Alonso Sanchez (double bass), David Boyden (fiddle), Rodrigo Ruiz (double bass), and Nathaniel Grohmann (cello). The group cites their influences to include David Grisman’s…
Radio Days
It’s rare for bands to stay together for long in any genre or to keep a franchise going through multiple generations of listeners. However, the Chuck Wagon Gang has defied that pattern. The group has been around for 80 years, obviously with many, many band changes. It started during the golden age of radio and…
Somewhere Beyond The Blue
This powerhouse, multi-IBMA Award-winning band bounds out full-tilt on this soulful 11-song bluegrass gospel collection. Aside from the Ramblers’ commanding gospel quartet vocal arrangements and top-notch picking, Beyond the Blue is informed with an inspired balance of traditional material and newer compositions by some of the music’s most celebrated composers. The rousing opening track, “Hear…
I’ll Come Back
Maybe it’s a double-edged sword to call someone a prodigy, so I won’t use the word here. Even so, 23-year-old AJ Lee, singer/songwriter/mandolin player/bandleader extraordinaire is something special. For starters, she launched her bluegrass career at age 7, along with her guitarist Sullivan Tuttle, who was then 9. They started out as members of The…