Reviews

Patuxent Music If you were to listen to this album from Five Mile Mountain Road, you’d find yourself moving, thinking it was different, knowing you like it, but also thinking “Someone should name this style.” They did—it’s called “swingbilly,” a term Charlie Poole’s son James used in the 1930s. Hailing from Franklin County, Virginia—the self-proclaimed…

Published by Alfred Music Self-directed learning can be a challenge, even in a resource-richenvironment. When there’s so much good stuff to study and so many ableteachers willing to provide guidance, questions abound. Where do Istart? What direction should I take? What’s important to learn at whatpoint in the process? How do I recognize landmarks and…

The Bing Brothers are West Virginia legends, a rare band that plays with true drive and power. That is proven yet again by their latest album Just In Time, a rollicking mix of upbeat string band music done in their particular, impressive style.  In the Mountain State the division between old-time music and bluegrass is…

Some years ago, these five talented musicians embarked on a long-term mission: to capture for posterity a particular strain of old-timey string band music that was often played at fiddler’s conventions back in the 1960s and 1970s. It’s a style that the Ramblers themselves have been immersed in for nearly a decade. In the liner…

“Home is where we shelter out the storm, and home is where the fire keeps us warm,” sings Leftover Salmon banjo-picker Andy Thorn on the opening track from his new solo release, Fox Songs and Other Tales from the Pandemic, an album crafted during the dark days of a growing worldwide pandemic and a gentle…

Sometimes a great attribute for an album is to be called “different.” Down in the Deepest Shade of Blue is different and it sounds, well, old.  I don’t know Steve Ludwig or any Casual Hobos, but I think this group would take that as a compliment. It’s their first album and all eight songs were…