Reviews

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…

This veteran New Mexico-based trio brings a captivating Southwestern perspective to its bluegrass and fleshes it out with some sophisticated songwriting and spirited picking and singing. The southwestern flavor shines through vividly on cuts like the nostalgic story-song “Weary Cowboy,” a rollicking cover of Guy Clark’s and Verlon Thompson’s “Hurricane Time In Texas” and “Adobe…

Howdy Skies Records One of the many thoughts that came into my head as I isolated myself in the western North Carolina Mountains during the pandemic was a hope that musicians would step up and document these crazy times of half a million Covid-19 deaths, social unrest and the higher priority put on technology during…

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…