Articles

ILYA TOSHINSKIY RED GRASS Hadley Music Group HMG1017 Ilya Toshinskiy is a banjo player from Russia and a founding member of the band Bering Strait. Learning to play banjo in Russia for a young lad was a difficult endeavor requiring a serious commitment and perseverance. He was training as a classical guitarist, but when he…

THE EARLS OF LEICESTER| RATTLE AND ROAR Rounder Records 1166100001    It’s ironic that the man who stole the spotlight from Buck Graves as the most influential resonator guitar player produces recordings today that pay tribute to Graves and the band that brought him the most fame. He does this while forgoing his own style, emulating…

SPECIAL CONSENSUS LONG I RIDE Compass Records 4668 If you want to know how Special Consensus has managed to stay in business for 40 years, all you have to do is pick up a copy of Long I Ride. Many bands in many genres offer up all kinds of commemoratives and anthologies upon reaching a…

DAVID HOLT & JOSH GOFORTH GOOD MEDICINE High Windy HW1293 Partially filling the void left by the passing of Doc Watson, this duo explores the riches of old-time and country music to uncover all too rare gems. That’s a tall order, but these gentlemen are up to the task. Singing with a smile, playing myriad…

MOUNTAIN HEART BLUE SKIES Compass Records 74662 2 Mountain Heart returns with its first music recording in five years that the band calls the “most emotional performance of the best batch of songs of our careers.” The latest line-up includes Molly Cherryholmes (fiddle and vocals), guitar prodigy Seth Taylor, multi-instrumentalists Jeff Partin (bass, reso-guitar, and…

O’CONNOR BAND WITH MARK O’CONNOR COMING HOME Rounder Records 1166100003    I would never have predicted the one-time fiddle wunderkind Mark O’Connor would be leading a family bluegrass band. The O’Connor Band, however, has produced a truly striking album of singular beauty entitled Coming Home. Despite an almost no banjo album, Coming Home is irrefutably bluegrass…