Reviews
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.”…
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…
How I Hear It
Fans of the band High Fidelity won’t be surprised to hear that frontman Jeremy Stephens credits older generations for most of the influence on his music. With a new solo project titled How I Hear It, Stephens has produced an album with a bounce and vocals that hark back to an earlier time. Stephens called…
All Out Front
Rising mandolin star Scott Napier’s career and life are on an upward trajectory. He’s just joined Wildfire as their new mandolinist, and he’s married to the stellar Lauren Price Napier of the Price Sisters, one of the top players and teachers of the pure Monroe-style bluegrass mandolin embodied by the likes of Mike Compton and…
Why Not
Paolo Ercoli is a resonator guitarist from Brianza, Italy who has performed with many artists such as Eric Anderson, Malcolm Holcombe, Steve Forbert, and Kevin Welch, to name a few. Ercoli also plays mandolin, guitar and pedal steel, but he is best known as a square neck resonator guitarist, having been influenced by the playing…