Reviews
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…
Play And Sing Bluegrass
In the liner notes to their sophomore album, this Vancouver-based quartet states its musical mission. The bandmembers describe their delightfully retro approach (recording around one microphone) and image (dressing in matching, ties, vests and white shirts) as, “our way of paying tribute to those who have been playing (bluegrass) a lot longer than we have.”…
Béla Fleck
Decades from now, don’t be surprised if Béla Fleck’s superb My Bluegrass Heart project has influenced today＊s rising tide of young bluegrassers as the David Grisman Quintet, Fly Through The Country, and Rounder 0044 records were to the prior generation. Populated with heroes from every part of Fleck’s musical journey, from David Grisman and the…
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…