Reviews
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…
Walkin’ The Blues
Lori King and her husband Joe front this rustic and robust veteran band that’s based in Iowa and has been plying its craft on the midwestern bluegrass scene for years. The Kings, veterans of the band Bluegrass Addiction, are both commanding vocalists and they get sure-footed backing from Kevin Amburgey (mandolin and vocals), Mark Hargrove…
Adeline
From the depths of the winter season in Ontario, Canada, and created during the equally-bleak depths of the covid pandemic comes a wonderful album called Adeline. Long story short, this is an all-star collaboration between musicians that normally play for other Canadian bluegrass and old-time bands. To further describe the atmosphere behind this recording, these…
Back Down Home
This debut alum from the lead singer and guitarist of the acclaimed Texas band Wood & Fire is a stylistically varied and winning collection of wise and exquisitely crafted original songs. Back Down Home features gripping arrangements that feature everything from banjos, fiddles and pedal steel to saxes, trumpets and a B3 organ while running…