Reviews

Jesse Brock, winner of the 2009 and 2015 IBMA “Mandolin Performer of the Year” awards, burst on to the scene while he was still just a kid.  Since then, he has performed with numerous bands, including the CW Brock Family, the Lynn Morris Band, Chris Jones and the Night Drivers, Audie Blaylock and Redline and…

Georgia-based John White is an accomplished banjo player as well as a student of the instrument’s history. In the past, he’s recorded with gourd banjos, fretless banjos and Victorian banjos. On this solid collection of original songs, White has teamed up with some front-line pickers: Tim Crouch on fiddle, Tony Wray on guitar, Randy Kohrs…

Patuxent Music The McPeak Brothers, out of Wytheville, VA, had a significant impact on bluegrass music during their run from the early 1960s right through to the 1990s, mainly due to their fine vocal arrangements and distinct songwriting.  Along the way, they recorded for Rebel Records, County Records and RCA/Nashville. They were also featured on…

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…