Reviews
Passages
California-based guitarist Ethan Sherman has long been a leading light on the new acoustic scene and, as this all-original, all-instrumental collection attests, he’s well-versed in the progressive bluegrass idiom. The melodies and the picking here are exquisite and largely based on improvisation. As Sherman explains in the liner notes:“I don’t view Passages as a showcase…
High Cold Wind
Randy Steele is a career fire fighter from Chattanooga, Tennessee, who took up the banjo to help relieve some of the stress of his job. He also began songwriting to fill up some of his down time. As a result, he became quite well-known in the area, winning awards for his playing and for his…
Far Afield
Miles Zurawell hails from British Columbia, Canada, and learned piano and guitar in his younger years. While in college he was introduced to the music of Bill Monroe and discovered the banjo and resonator guitar. Studying that instrument with such players as Ian Rosenberg and Mike Witcher, he soon developed his own style and presentation. …
If It Wasn’t For Longing
This is a five-piece band from Pennsylvania that features Katelynn Casper (fiddle), Quentin Fisher (mandolin), Michael Johnson (guitar), Steve Leonard (banjo) and Shane McGeehan (bass). Keeping to their love for the pioneers of bluegrass music, the group has produced a mix of original tunes with a cross section of other sources for this really nice…
Off The Shelf
The ‘collective’ was formed by John Gray (banjo, guitar, mandolin) and Bailey Warren (fiddle), who are both alumni of Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. After performing by themselves for a while, they decided to expand the band and were joined by some other alumni of Belmont, including Ali Vance (vocal), Jonny Therrien (guitar, resonator guitar),…
The Truffle Valley Boys Sing And Play Authentic Bluegrass
The members of this Italian band are devoted scholars of bluegrass music’s way-back, deep-catalog pages, and they do an excellent job of bringing some largely forgotten tunes back to the forefront while remaining faithful to the music’s raw and unadorned immediacy. The Truffle Valley Boys prefer to record much in the same way that most…