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IssueM Articles
Stories and Memories
From time to time a reviewer runs across an album that is a good listen, but in the big tent that is today’s bluegrass world, is hard to identify for the listener. Fortunately, Mohavisoul offered extensive notes for their latest album, Stories and Memories. They refer to their sound as “California Bluegrass.” Cool. Wait,…
Hurrican Clarice
The playing and singing on this duo’s second album make the listener feel like this is a collaboration that was almost meant to happen. On many of these tracks the relentless rhythm of De Groot’s banjo and Hargreaves’ fiddle is like a high-velocity metronome churning out eerie and old-timey tonalities. Yet at the same time…
Up the Hill and Through the Fog
It’s no surprise that this youthful, effervescent Toronto-based trio (joined on this outing by bass player and vocalist Charles James) won IBMA’s 2020 “Momentum Band of the Year” trophy. These twelve original songs bristle with intelligence, immediacy and innovation in the form of captivating lyrics, compelling melodies and nonpareil vocal and instrumental arrangements that feature…
River Wild
This exquisitely conceived and rendered third solo project by Jeremy Garrett, best known for his membership in the award-winning band The Infamous Stringdusters, is chock-full of finely textured and nuanced arrangements and original songs informed with sometimes urgent emotional intensity. Garrett, who wrote or cowrote all but one of these twelve cuts, of course serves…
When Heroes Become Friends
Bob Minner Pays Tribute to Norman and Nancy Blake Although Bob Minner has spent the majority of his musical life over the past thirty years performing as a member of country star Tim McGraw’s band, he is still a bluegrass flatpicker at heart. By the time he was twelve, Bob was studying the guitar playing…
Dobro Joe’s Dobro School
If you’ve ever searched “Dobro Lessons” on YouTube, you’ve probably come across the lessons posted by “Dobro Joe” Wilson. You can also find a couple of lessons from Joe on the lessons page of the Bluegrass Unlimited website. While it is generally harder to find Dobro lessons than lessons for guitar, mandolin, banjo, or fiddle,…