Reviews
Waiting Out The Storm
Rbr Productions A Louisiana native, Billy Droze now resides in Nashville where at the age of 35 he has become not only an award-winning songwriter but also an accomplished performer having toured extensively both here in the US and in Europe. His songs have been recorded by such artists as Shenandoah, Junior Sisk, Marty Raybon,…
California Autumn (reissue)
Rebel Records REB-CD-1549 Amidst the torrent of grief and emotion felt by the bluegrass community after the sudden passing of Tony Rice last December, one would expect Tony’s surviving record labels, including Rebel and Rounder, to furiously dig through his masters and studio outtakes to release previously unheard material. This re-release from Rebel of Tony’s…
Songs For The Sparrows
In the course of three albums and seven years, this immensely talented New York-based band has carved out a unique and remarkable niche. Nefesh is led by singer-banjo player Eric Lindberg and his partner, singer Doni Zasloff. Relying on the couple’s exquisite songwriting, Nefesh has refined a stylistic integration of bluegrass, Celtic and Eastern European…
SELF[EN]TITLED
OMNIVORE RECORDS OVCD-423 New York City’s Cole Quest (Rotante) is the grandson of Woody Guthrie and has assembled The City Pickers, who are a group of like-minded friends who also have a love for acoustic and bluegrass music. Quest, who sings lead vocals and plays guitar and resonator guitar, is joined by Larry Cook (bass),…
Tennessee Heart
Patuxent Music Some albums grab a listener’s attention from the get-go and don’t let up. Sometimes, in a first listen of a CD, you just know “this is something special.” Tennessee Heart, the debut from Shannon Bielski & Moonlight Drive checks both of those boxes and then some. Bielski and her band bring some bonafides…
Swingbilly Swagger
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…