Reviews

Donna Ulisse is a superb, celebrated and oft-covered singer-songwriter whose ears and heart are finely attuned to the bluegrass mainstream.  On her twelfth album her magic touch with lyrics and melody continues to impress.  Ulisse wrote or cowrote eight of these 11 songs, and their power lies in the way she cuts straight to the…

The Flowers brothers, Doug and Dwayne, live in the small town of Hephzibah, Georgia, not far from Augusta. The town’s original name was Brothersville, hence the name of this new project from Doug and his band. Band members include Doug Flowers (mandolin, vocals), Dwayne Flowers (bass, vocals), Edward Dalton (guitar, vocals), Aaron Lamb (banjo, vocals),…

Many bluegrass musicians love to “geek-out” about their instruments.  They talk about the make, the model, the builder, the year it was built, the woods used, the dimensions, the strings, the bridges, the tuners, the nuts and saddles…it is not uncommon for anything and everything about the instruments to be studied, analyzed and discussed.  Since…

If you are a bluegrass banjo player, you are probably already searching the internet for a place to buy this book simply by reading the title (if you don’t have it already).  I’m not sure that I could say anything in this review to change your mind.  So, my job in writing this review is…

Writing about Balsam Range is like trying to write about George Washington or Robert E. Lee or Abraham Lincoln—it takes a minute to find something to say that hasn’t already been said.  After all, they’ve turned out nine albums over the last 14 years and have won so many group and individual awards that’s so…

This North Carolina-based powerhouse band, which marks its 20th anniversary with this impressive album, has just about everything going for it, including four talented lead singers, robust harmonies and a strong in-house supply of original material.  Deeper Shade of Blue also represents a delightful and valuable throwback to the formative mainstream bluegrass styles of the…