Reviews

If you loved the New Acoustic music catapulted into the stratosphere by David Grisman, Tony Rice, John Reischman and others exploding out of the Bay Area in the 1970s and early ’80s, you know the legacy of the Gasoline Brothers. At small concerts and close-quarter gigs around the Bay Area and beyond, the interaction between…

Dark Shadow DSR 202101 The is Rick Faris’ newest release on which he is joined as the core group by Laura Orshaw (fiddle), Russ Carson (banjo), and Zak McLamb (bass). While Faris plays guitar and sings lead, he is also joined on various cuts by Sam Bush (mandolin, vocal), Ronnie McCoury (mandolin, vocal), Jason Carter…

Coming off winning a Grammy for his stunning 2019 release Home, plus an IBMA “Entertainer of the Year” award in Raleigh last October, Billy Strings, in many ways, defines bluegrass music in the 21st Century for a multitude of fans. The subject of an in-depth portrait in The New York Times that plumbed the depths…

This new release from Larry Stephenson and the Band is a retrospective of live performances featuring some of the band’s configurations from over the years. While culling through these recordings, Stephenson felt this collection covered the folks he was lucky enough to have performed with. The songs were selected from shows at seven different venues…

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…

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…