Reviews

The Alex Leach Band Esteemed singer/songwriter producer Jim Lauderdale, who has collaborated with everyone from Ralph Stanley to Roland White, produced this album. In the liner notes, Lauderdale calls Leach, a former member of Ralph Stanley II’s band, “one of the most talented musicians I’ve ever met.” I’d be willing to take Lauderdale’s word on…

Garrison, Gordy, Hargreaves, And Walsh This new project is a collaboration of four musical friends who are long-time veterans of the music industry. Greg Garrison is the bassist and has played with such artists as the Punch Brothers, Lyle Lovett, and Leftover Salmon. Grant Gordy is the guitarist and is a veteran of David Grisman’s…

The Kody Norris Show For a minute or five, a listener might think they’ve pulled the latest Kody Norris Show CD from the vintage bin, not from the new releases pile of 2021. Don’t let the young face fool you—the sound is deeply traditional on All Suited Up. None other than bluegrass veteran Greg Cahill…

Pine Castle Records Bradley, a five-time IBMA “Female Vocalist of the Year” award winner, former member of the Coon Creek Girls and Sister Sadie and one of the best singers around, recently noted that, “bluegrass can go anywhere, do anything, rip your heart out and make you laugh.” Most of these 10 songs will do…

Abigail Washburn and Bela Fleck bring the kind of missionary zeal and unshakeable confidence to double-banjo albums that Sam I Am brought to his evangelizing for green eggs and ham. The duo’s second full-length recording, Echo In The Valley (2017), is instrumentally sparce— two banjos at any one time, two voices, a pair of dancing…

OMAC Records Mark O’Connor’s original flatpicking guitar album Markology, recorded after winning Winfield twice as a teenager, inspired countless bluegrass guitarists. Backed by Tony Rice, Dan Crary and Sam Bush on a couple of tracks, O’Connor simply leapt off the recording into every flatpicker’s consciousness, eventually landing the role of filling Tony Rice’s guitar chair…