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NOTHIN’ FANCY WHERE I CAME FROM Mountain Fever Records MFR161007 Nothin’ Fancy’s second release on Mountain Fever varies a little from what they gave us on their first. Bands that have been around this long (22 years) don’t often leap up in ability from year to year. Nothin’ Fancy is already at a high level…

NORTHERN CONNECTION Patuxent Music CD-291 This recording makes little or no attempt at breaking new ground. If anything, guitarist/vocalist Frankie Short, Jr., mandolinist/vocalist Mark Seitz, fiddler Steve Streett, banjoist Bobby Lundy and bassist/vocalist Brian Eldreth are holding the ground of a style (the Baltimore sound) they grew up amidst, one they believe still has relevance…

STEADY DRIVE UNTUCKED No Label No Number Formed some time in late 2014 or early 2015, Steady Drive is from eastern North Carolina. Joe Pessolano is on mandolin and lead and harmony singing. Kevin Lamm plays bass, sings lead, and harmony. Wayne Melvin is on the guitar and lead and harmony vocals. Lee Flood is…

JEAN RITCHIE’S KENTUCKY MOTHER GOOSE: SONGS AND STORIES FROM MY CHILDHOOD BY JEAN RITCHIE WITH SUSAN BRUMFIELD Hal Leonard 9781495007880. Hardback, 103 pages, b&w and colored pictures and photos, CD included, $19.99. Jean Ritchie—singer, songwriter and dulcimer player—is perhaps best known in the bluegrass world for her songs “Blue Diamond Mines,” “Black Waters,” and “The…

THE LONELY HEARTSTRING BAND DEEP WATERS Rounder Records 11661-39695-02 This is the debut release from the 2015 IBMA winners of the Momentum Award. Four of the five members of the band—Charles Clements (bass & vocals), his twin brother George Clements (guitar & lead vocals), Gabe Hirshfeld (banjo), Patrick M’Gonigle (fiddle, vocals), and Matt Witler (mandolin)—met…

MICHAEL CLEVELAND FIDDLER’S DREAM Compass Records 4674    Since bursting onto the scene as one of IBMA’s Kids On Bluegrass, Michael Cleveland has become perhaps the most honored bluegrass fiddler of his generation. Blessed with astonishing gifts in overall musicianship and in his utter command of every style and nuance known to the fiddle world, Cleveland…