Reviews

Equinox Publishing While Rounder Records has released more than bluegrass music over its 50-plus years in the business, the amount of essential bluegrass music found on the label is undeniable. Created a half century and change ago by Bill Nowlin, Ken Irwin and Marian Leighton Levy, the record label has gone from a small imprint…

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,…

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…

Englehardt Music Group One thing is for sure — Eddie Sanders didn’t sit idly by during the pandemic last year.  He’s followed up 2020’s all gospel album with a new bluegrass release, That Kind of Lonesome.  Sanders co-wrote all 12 tracks on the album, sharing credits with Glen Duncan, Adam Englehardt, Jon Weisberger and Shawn…

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…

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…